# Google celebrates Stanislaw Lem **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 23, 2011, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856 "2011-11-23T06:46:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/1 "2011-11-23T06:46:18Z")
An animation of a robot, leading to several mini games. Is this the most complex Google logo ever? I’ve not read much of his work, can someone explain the references? I presume there’s more to it than the assumption that science fiction = robots. ---
**Author:** ![blue\_infinity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blue_infinity/32/2817_2.png) [@blue\_infinity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_infinity)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/2 "2011-11-23T07:09:53Z")
The [Cyberiad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cyberiad), which deals primarily with robots is one of his more notable works. ---
**Author:** ![shantih](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@shantih](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shantih)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/3 "2011-11-23T08:09:44Z")
Great heavens, that is just extraordinarily cool. I love how Google plays with its usual minimalist interface. I wonder how long it takes them to work on something like this. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/4 "2011-11-23T08:46:19Z")
I’m just getting a turkey thing with color-changing feathers. No robots or games. ---
**Author:** ![orcenio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/orcenio/32/1036_2.png) [@orcenio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orcenio)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/5 "2011-11-23T09:40:13Z")
[google.co.uk](http://www.google.co.uk/) and list of all [google doodles](http://www.google.com/logos/index.html). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/6 "2011-11-23T12:55:42Z")
Weird guy, Lem. He deplored the American way of science fiction, which lead to a much-celebrated row with the SFWA. I’m not a big fan of his books, yet he was an early influence on me because two of his stories were made into movies that I saw as a kid (_First Spaceship on Venus_ and _Voyage to the End of the Universe_. They were European productions, which I saw undoubtedly because our local theatere could rent them cheap). He’s most famous for the films based on his novel _Solaris_, but the first film isn’t completelt faithful to it, and the second (produced by James Cameron and starring George Clooney) is really based on the first film, and has even less of Lem’s book in it. The book, for what it’s worth, only exists in English in an incomplete translation of Lem’s book into French. I thus always feel as if Lem’s mostly been kept at a distance from me – my experience with his stuff has mainly been at second or third hand. When I get really close – a direct English translation from the Polish – I haven’t found it compelling, I’m afraid. I ran a panel on him the year after his death at a science fiction convention. I think that he would have condemned the undertaking (not only the panel, but the convention as well), which I thought was amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/7 "2011-11-23T14:27:35Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > An animation of a robot, leading to several mini games. Is this the most complex Google logo ever? > > I’ve not read much of his work, can someone explain the references? I presume there’s more to it than the assumption that science fiction = robots. Doesn’t the word “robot” come from his play “R.U.R.”? ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/8 "2011-11-23T14:28:12Z")
Huh. I got a turkey Doodle. The link sends me to a search on Thanksgiving. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/9 "2011-11-23T14:29:49Z")
That’s Carl Kapec. He was Czech and much earlier. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/10 "2011-11-23T14:33:31Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > [google.co.uk](http://www.google.co.uk/) and list of all [google doodles](http://www.google.com/logos/index.html). > [@Jenaroph](#): > > Huh. I got a turkey Doodle. The link sends me to a search on Thanksgiving. Go to the Google UK link. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/11 "2011-11-23T14:42:34Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/12 "2011-11-23T14:53:47Z")
Pretty darn cool. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/13 "2011-11-23T14:55:18Z")
> [@Larry\_Mudd](#): > > That’s Carl Kapec. He was Czech and much earlier. :smack: I knew that. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/14 "2011-11-23T14:56:54Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Doesn’t the word “robot” come from his play “R.U.R.”? R.U.R. was written by Karel Capek, but the word is attributed to that play, and springs from the slavic root word “rabot” = “to work.” Capek was Czech. Lem was Polish. _Elipse of Bliss, converge, O lips divine the product of our scalars is defined!_ -Stanislaw Lem, “Love & Tensor Algebra” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/15 "2011-11-23T14:59:14Z")
Karel Capek. **R.U.R.** isn’t too good, but his **War with the Newts** is a classic. I could never warm to Lem, but I think that’s because he had shitty translaters. The prose is very clunky, and I doubt it’s that bad in the original Polish. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/16 "2011-11-23T15:42:22Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > … He’s most famous for the films based on his novel _Solaris_, but the first film isn’t completelt faithful to it, and the second (produced by James Cameron and starring George Clooney) is really based on the first film, and has even less of Lem’s book in it. The book, for what it’s worth, only exists in English in an incomplete translation of Lem’s book into French… I am not quite sure what you are saying here. I read _Solaris_ in English translation years ago. (I loved it, it was much better than the film - the original, critically lauded Russian film, that is, I haven’t seen the George Clooney version - which, as you say was considerably different from the book both in plot details and, I thought, in overall feel.) Are you saying that the version I read was a translation from an earlier French translation? It did not seem to be “incomplete” in any obvious way. I read quite a bit of Lem’s other stuff too, back in the day, including The _Cyberiad_. I thought it was terrific, though _Solaris_ was the best of it. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/17 "2011-11-23T15:49:53Z")
My favorite Lem is _The Cyberiad_ and _The Futurological Congress_, both of which are brilliant. I like _Solaris_ but not as much. The version of The Cyberiad I thought was very well-served by translators - considering one of the stories involved a poetry-writing computer (complete with poems), I really wondered how they did it! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/18 "2011-11-23T16:06:17Z")
Damn that was some piece of work! > [@blue\_infinity](#): > > The [Cyberiad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cyberiad), which deals primarily with robots is one of his more notable works. Right. It’s various vignettes from the Cyberiad or based thereon. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/19 "2011-11-23T16:22:29Z")
[quote] I am not quite sure what you are saying here. I read _Solaris_ in English translation years ago. (I loved it, it was much better than the film - the original, critically lauded Russian film, that is, I haven’t seen the George Clooney version - which, as you say was considerably different from the book both in plot details and, I thought, in overall feel.) Are you saying that the version I read was a translation from an earlier French translation? It did not seem to be “incomplete” in any obvious way. [\quote] Yup. An abridged novel often doesn’t seem abridged if you don’t know what the original had. My understanding is that the incomplete translation into english via the French is the only one we have for _Solaris_. Other Lem novels have been translsated direct from Polish. Some more than once. And if you compare the novel _Solaris_ to both film versions it’s clear that they are very different things. This is, sadly, the state of affairs for a lot of foreign SF. The only work of any length translated into English from Kurd Lasswitz is an incomplete translation of _Zwei Planete_. Willy Ley, who was inspireed by them (as were a lot of those at Peenemunde) translsated two short stories into English in the 1950s. I saw a third translation of a short story a couple of years ago in an anthology of German SF. But that’s all there is for an influential German pioneer of SF who was a contemporary of Jules Verne, and as important in his native Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2011, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856/20 "2011-11-23T16:27:36Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > [google.co.uk](http://www.google.co.uk/) and list of all [google doodles](http://www.google.com/logos/index.html). Thanks so much for posting this! We’ve got a Thanksgiving turkey one, which is cute, but nothing like the epic Lem doodle. That thing is awesome, and the ending is hilarious. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-celebrates-stanislaw-lem/603856.md?page=2)