Goethe a Lem

In this article ‘Lem and Goethe’, the author compares the figure of Stanislaw Lem to J.W. Goethe, whereas Lem’s oeuvre to ‘Faust’. There are two reasons for such a comparison. First, the scope of subjects raised by the Polish writer is perhaps even wider than the German one’s. The second thing is their great insight into these subjects. When Lem and Goethe are compared, it should be noticed that both their personalities (certain openness to the world and environment, participation in discussions, vast correspondence) and artistic and scientific interests (distinct exceeding limits by both of them) are similar. The author of the article takes notice of the fact that there is a tremendous difference between Lem’s works and ‘Faust’, because Lem’s are structurally and formally scattered. While there is no doubt that ‘Lem is also a philosopher writing great novels, not a novelist that possesses his own philosophy, like many others’ and that such output is ‘cognitively homogenous’, such state of affairs significantly hinders reception and interpretation of his oeuvre. The author of the text observes that by contrast with ‘Faust’, the character of Lem’s works is scattered not only in terms of content but also formally. That is because the author of ‘Summa Technologiae’ continually adopted new means of expression for his thoughts.