What is it about?
In the former east bloc, science fiction could sometimes be seen as a form of dissidence, as an oblique way of considering important social and political themes, of side-stepping the censor in the never-ending battle to get un-policed ideas out of the writer's head and into the heads of a reading public.
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Why is it important?
Post-war writers of east central Europe have been fascinated by the way their societies have created and maintained themselves as closed information systems which control ideas. However, in so far as this idea and theme reveals ways in which eastern-bloc societies worked, writers were rarely allowed to discuss it openly.
Perspectives
Lem repeatedly presents human society as a complex mechanism for transmitting information and for furthering a common sense of identity through particular kinds of language, ideas, plots and characters. Lem's writings are the product of the specific political and social tensions that developed after the 'thaw' of 1956 and the collapse of Party efforts to promote socrealizm.
Prof Carl Tighe
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This page is a summary of: Stanislaw Lem: Socio-Political Sci-Fi, The Modern Language Review, July 1999, JSTOR,
DOI: 10.2307/3737000.
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