Philip K. Dick: Stanisław Lem Is a Communist Committee (2015)

PKD’s Paranoia and the FBI Letter

• Commenters see Dick’s denunciation of Lem as both darkly funny and sad, noting how closely it mirrors the paranoid delusions in his own fiction.
• Several tie this to his later VALIS-era mindset and drug use; some wonder if the FBI report was itself an ironic performance, but others think he was simply unwell.
• One thread notes the enduring relevance of the subtext: fear that “dangerous ideas” in art must be suppressed, comparing it to contemporary “thought crime” anxieties.
• Others suggest more mundane motives: jealousy over royalties blocked by Polish economic controls, resentment at Lem’s harsh criticism of American SF.

Lem’s Work, Themes, and Reputation

• Strong praise for Lem’s breadth: not just Solaris, but The Cyberiad, Star Diaries, Futurological Congress, His Master’s Voice, Fiasco, Eden, The Invincible, Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Hospital of Transfiguration.
• Multiple people highlight his “truly alien” aliens and the futility of mutual understanding; others emphasize his humor and wordplay, especially in The Cyberiad and Ijon Tichy stories.
• Some disliked his “robot fables” when forced to read them in school, but later came to love his other, more complex works.
• Lem’s dismissive view of most US SF is discussed, with emphasis that Dick was the major exception: Lem saw him as a “visionary among charlatans.”

Solaris and Adaptations (Tarkovsky, The Congress, etc.)

• Tarkovsky’s Solaris is widely admired as a masterpiece, but several note it is a loose, religiously inflected adaptation that Lem strongly disliked.
• Discussion that Tarkovsky routinely used source texts mainly as a pretext, frustrating both Lem (Solaris) and the Strugatskys (Stalker).
• Some prefer other Lem novels to Solaris; others suggest trying newer translations.
• The film The Congress, loosely inspired by The Futurological Congress, sharply divides opinions: some find it brilliant and psychedelic, others see it as incoherent and un-Lem-like.

Eastern Bloc Context and Attitudes to Western SF

• One line of discussion challenges the idea that Lem “was not allowed” to like US work: Poland is described as the relatively “merriest barrack,” with significant Western cultural inflow.
• Still, writers did face censorship and often used allegory; praising the West too openly could be risky, especially earlier on.
• Lem’s contempt for formulaic, Campbell-style US pulp (square-jawed heroes, manifest destiny in space) is contrasted with his admiration for Dick’s more skeptical, mind-bending approach.

PKD’s Writing, Titles, and Film Adaptations

• Debate over whether Dick was a “mediocre writer with great ideas” or a skilled stylist using deliberate irony and kitsch; some compare him to Kafka or postmodernists.
• Long subthread on his titles: many find them memorable; others call them clunky and note that editors often renamed his books (including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?).
• Blade Runner vs. the novel sparks extensive comparison: film praised for aesthetics and ambiguity, but criticized for dropping Mercerism, animal obsession, and much of the philosophical depth.
• A Scanner Darkly and VALIS are repeatedly cited as quintessential late-PKD—deep but also difficult, rooted in his mental health struggles and drug culture.

Translation, “Committee Style,” and the Lem Accusation

• Several argue Dick’s “committee” theory likely came from misunderstanding translation: different translators, markets, and heavy wordplay can easily produce style shifts.
• Lem is described as notoriously hard to translate because of neologisms and linguistic jokes.
• Commenters note that any translator from a communist country would, technically, be a “communist,” which may have fed Dick’s suspicions.

Meta-Reflections on Authors and Legacy

• Some stress separating art from artist; both men’s private flaws are acknowledged alongside deep respect for their work.
• A few imagine Dick in today’s world: likely extremely online, possibly banned or marginalized, with a fervent conspiracy-prone fanbase.
• Others note the irony: a writer as brilliant as Lem being suspected of being a dull committee, and two authors who admired each other (asymmetrically) never resolving their misunderstanding.