The video image of Mr Lem

[Taria6]

I found the video image of  Mr Lem.
I want to know the contents of the interview.
Aren't there anyone who can translate Polish into English?

http://wrocenter.pl/biennale/wro2k/html/slem_pl.html

[Metalist]

My Polish is very rusty, but the third interview is about the emergence of the internet in Poland and I believe that Lem calls it "our weakness in the need for statistics"... But then my translation of his quote might be wrong...  :-/

[Terminus]

I guess I'll do it. They are short. No problem.

[Taria6]

I greatly appreciate your kindness.
After reading his obituary, I want to know more about his later years.
Probably, his memorial special editions are performed by various medias in Poland.
Though regrettable, it is not known which [ of them ] is translated into foreign languages.
I hope that the TV programs and many books of his memorial special edition will be translated.

[Terminus]

Movie 1

Lem: Every way to distigush oneself from the crowd is good. Lately I've seen a picture in the 'NewYorker', showing a massive crowd, and one man jumping up, saying "God! I am Here!"

Movie 2

Lem: A thought cannot be efectively translated into image. And if it ever happens, it's a rarity.

Movie 3

Lem: There's a graph (I like those, because of my unhealthy sympathy for statistics) which shows that nowadays the largest number of servers - which is somehow the determinant of 'internetization' of a given State - is of course highest in the US, later come the western European countries and Poland is left behind - but in Poland this number grows stormingly.

Movie 4

Lem: There are many processes ongoing nowadays, which I find not delightful. For example, among the new electronic gadgets there are books [comment: He is talking about things like Sony E-reader, note that this was taken in 2000.] into which one can load any book from any library (like Amazon) and read without paper, printing and so on. Such gadgets I do not enjoy, because the mean not only the invasion of the data transfers growth, but also the invasion of the images.

Movie 5
Lem: This altogether creates a kind of informational flood, in which it is hard to perform any reasonable selection; and simultaneously continue the processes which are derivates of the mass culture. This results in tha flattening of culture, the specific 'de-elliterisation', the loss of authorities and emergence of self-appointed artificial authorities; we've had such situation in futurology - which [futurology]is now half-dead & gone; one cannot get the futurologist' diploma from any existing university, thus anyone can claim to be a futurologist - all you need to start telling the future is to find a sponsor and a good medium.

---

(Rest of the movies will come soon I am kinda tired )

[Terminus]

(Ok I've had some rest. )

Movie 6

Lem: I try (unfortunately) to be well informed, therefore I hold on  to the respected journals, such as American (...?...) [I can't recognize what Lem says here, sounds like 'Foreign affairs']; these papaers are in a way dangerous: the strongly controversial conceptions of the world's future are featured therein, meanwhile the redaction notes always say that the journal is perfectly neutral - everybody can say anything and they won't interfere - for example we have (? Again, I have problems recognizing, sounds like 'Francesco Cuyama'), whom I'd put in a soundproof case long ago, he still writes there, defending his end of history by finding lots of more or less twisted arguments that the history won't end.

[Metalist]

Sorry for my lack of Polish skills. Thanks Terminus. I guess not speaking a language for seventeen years, as it is so in my case,  has it's toll. I was also anxious to see your translation since we don't really get any of Lem's interviews here in the US.

[Terminus]

Well there are a few more movies left. I'll finish it as soon as possible.

[Taria6]

Thank you for doing difficult work. It is regrettable that the sound of videos is not clear.
Reading your translation, I remembered the part which Michael Crichton was telling about the Internet in "the lost world." .

[comment: He is talking about things like Sony E-reader, note that this was taken in 2000.]

It seems that Sony E-reader has not spread even in Japan which invented it. It is in fashion to read a novel on the screen of a cellular phone.

[Terminus]

Well, I would definitely prefer the reader from the cellphone As far as I know, Sony intends to 'strike again' in europe, using lower prices and enabling the reader to play mp3-s, so to make people want it more

I love paperbooks and this won't change; however I would enjoy having such a contraption, which would give me a possibility to read the tons of  e-books that I own here and there, and don't want to read them bacause the lousy lcd/crt screens burn my eyes

[miazo]

[...] for example we have (? Again, I have problems recognizing, sounds like 'Francesco Cuyama'), whom I'd put in a soundproof case long ago, he still writes there, defending his end of history by finding lots of more or less twisted arguments that the history won't end.

I guess it's Francis Fukuyama, the author of "The End of History and the Last Man", with whose hypothesis Lem disagrees.

[Terminus]

Yes, this fits perfectly.

[tomsak]

There's a paragraph in Fiasco in which Lem defends the printed books. Alas, I can't quote it as I have Serbian 1989 translation of the novel. It is the midst of 3rd chapter (Resurrection) when the man who will soon took the name of Mark Tempe (spelling?) starts to read the novel about ants in Africa.

"He was reading the book for some time, understanding nothing at all - so full of force was the impression of plain, printed font in front of him. The shape of the letters, half-white, fragile pages, notable sewing [?] on boards, shelf of the boards alongside the chine, all that seemed to him familiar in unbelievable way, unique, as if it was something lost long ago and now suddenly found again. Although - to tell the truth - he never was very passionate reader. But now, holding the book in his hand, he felt some kind of solemn excitement, as if, sometime long ago, long dead writer gave him a promise, and now - after many obstacles have been fighted against - he was fullfilling it.

He had one unusual habit: to open the book at random place, on some vague page, and to start reading from that point. Writers, of course, wouldn't like this. Why he was doing so? Well, maybe he didn't want to enter the unreal world of the books step by step, through the gate which was prepared for him, but at once, in the midst."

My lousy translation ex abrupto. Speaking of Latin terms, the last words I'd translate as "... at once, in medias res..." :-)

[daffodil2006]

 :DThanks you. This information is very interesting for me.

[Ritch]

Thank you very much, Terminus. I really appreciate your work.