Death of a space traveller
Very sad to hear that Stanislaw Lem, one of my favourite writers, has died. I say ‘favourite’ but to be honest that might be a bit of nostalgia for my teenage years because I don’t think I’ve read anything by him since then. But on the other hand if a writer’s works and ideas can stay so firmly fixed in your mind as his have done, then perhaps favourite is not such a bad word. I think, if I remember correctly, I was introduced to his books by finding an old copy of Memoirs of a Space Traveller in the Sci-Fi section of my local library (where I probably spent too much time as a 13-year-old). It was full of excellent, mind-bending speculative fiction of a similar sort to Borges, Ballard and Priest. I remember [or probably misremember] one story in particular about a man who invents a time machine and transports himself into the future. Nothing is heard of him until years later when his dead, old body turns up in the room from which he transported himself.
Funnily enough I’ve never seen either of the film versions of Solaris.
