Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 14, No. 342.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 21:05:18 +0100
From: "P. T. Rourke" <ptrourke@mediaone.net>
Subject: Re: 14.0334 sci-fi and science
> For pure enlightenment, not amusement in scifi-fiction, the great European
> Humanist Engineer, Stanislaw Lem, is the one to read. Americans have not
> sense of the great tragic human, or true comedy. I recommend for starters
> (and perhaps finishers, too) Lem's masterpiece, FIASCO
Though Fiasco is my favorite of Lem's work, I have sometimes thought that
the Golem story (in Imaginary Magnitudes) is his masterpiece. The other
"stories" (introductions to books to be written at some point in the future)
in Imaginary Magnitudes might also be of interest to readers on
"Humanities."
On the subject of this thread, though, Lem's criticism of science fiction
(especially his readings of Phillip K. Dick, one of the least "scientific"
of science fiction writers) would be especially of interest.
By the way, I apologize for referring to Clarke's story as "The Lion of
Commagene" - it is more like "Commarre."
Patrick Rourke
ptrourke@mediaone.net
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