City of Lem

In 2021, many events are taking place in Lviv on the occasion of the centenary of Stanisław Lem. Numerous and intensive lectures, podcasts, as well as presentations of translations of the writer's works or books about him, along with murals and performances, help bring Lem back onto the Lviv orbit. Among all the definitions, characteristics and epithets that have been quoted about Lem this year, such as "futurist", "science fiction writer", "philosopher", "thinker", "feuilletonist", "essayist", "Polish", "Jewish", "belonging to the world" and "universal", "the most translated", "having the highest print runs" etc., a definition of Lem which is important — perhaps the most important — for our city is his "Lvivness."

The city where he was born, where he was formed as a person, is trying to "warm up" in the rays of Lem's glory, to "cuddle up" to his universal popularity and to remind the citizens that we have someone to be proud of.

However, our pride for Lem as a fellow Lvivite requires our efforts to find answers to some questions. The most important of them is as follows: why, despite all the opportunities and invitations, both in the Soviet period and in the times of open borders, did Lem bodily never come back to Lviv? The answer is far from obvious for everyone.

One of Stanisław Lem's most famous books is Return from the Stars (pol. Powrót z gwiazd). The protagonist of this novel, Hal Bregg, returns to Earth after a ten-year space journey. At home, however, on our planet, 127 years have passed since his departure and society has changed a lot. He finds betrized inhabitants here, that is, people devoid of fear, aggression and all kinds of "bad" instincts; earthlings have left only "good" and positive emotions for themselves. This detachment from what is terrible and concentration on what is good is very reminiscent of the memory of Lem typical of Lviv. 

We readily accept the writer’s worldwide fame, but so far we start talking about his experience in Lviv rarely and in a too low voice. After all, this experience is a hushed up, erased and not fully researched biography of Stanisław Lem, which reflects all the cataclysms of the 20th century and comes into conflict with the city’s collective memory.

This walk is called A City of Trauma and is an attempt to outline the contours of Lviv's unspoken history. A history that prevented Lem from returning due to his memories. His painful memories that kept him awake. Lem's wounds are the city's wounds. Outlining and talking about such traumas can be the beginning of a long way of getting to know ourselves as Lviv citizens, the city’s spaces and its role in the difficult history of the 20th century. Indeed, the question "Why didn't Lem come back?" is a good starting point for such a journey.

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2. Agnieszka Gajewska, Zagłada i gwiazdy. Przeszłość w prozie Stanisława Lema (Wydawnictwo Naukowe UAM, 2016), 242.
3. Войчех Орлінський, Лем. Життя не з цієї землі (Львів: "Човен", 2021), 496.
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5. Станіслав Лем, Високий замок. Шпиталь преображення. Людина з Марса. Ранні відповідання. Юнацькі вірші (Тернопіль: "Богдан", 2017), 720.
6. Stanislaw Lem, Tomasz Fiałkowski, Świat na krawędzi. Ze Stanisławem Lemem rozmawia Tomasz Fiałkowski (Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2000), 272.
7. Лемові леми: Колотнечі з приводу всесвітнього тяжіння/Так сказав Лем: Зі Станіславом Лемом розмовляє Станіслав Бересь (Тернопіль: "Богдан", 2017), 736.
8. Струве К. ОУН(б), німці та антиєврейське насильство в Галичині влітку 1941 року / авторизований пер. з нім. Роксоляни Свято // Україна Модерна. — 2017. — № 24. — С. 216—237.
9. Струве К.  Масові вбивства в’язнів львівських тюрем: що відомо про місця та кількість жертв?  пер. з німецької Ольга Сидор
10. " Складні сторінки спільної історії: розповідаючи про Другу світову війну у Львові ", Інтерактивний Львів, 2019.