''Science Fiction and Futurology'' ( pl, Fantastyka i futurologia) is a monograph of Stanisław Lem about science fiction and futurology, first printed by Wydawnictwo Literackie in 1970. The official Lem website describes the book as a triple feature: an attempt to create a theory of the genre, a self-interpretation of Lem's own works, and a review of the world's science fiction, "a yet another Lem's

General Theory of Everything The General Theory of Everything ( pl, Ogólna Teoria Wszystkiego) is a sarcastic coinage of Stanisław Lem introduced in 1966. The biographical sketch of Ijon Tichy in "The Twenty-eighth Voyage" of Tychy's ''Star Diaries'' says that a grandfather ...

- everything related to science fiction and its role in human knowledge acquisition"."Fantastyka i futurologia"
at Lem's official website In the book, Lem reviews and classifies works of over 400 science fiction writers. The book was acutely critical of Western science fiction. As Lem wrote, "SF became a vulgar mythology of a technological civilization.... This monograph is an expression of my personal utopia, my longing for better SF, the one that should be." In the 1972 edition the criticism was somewhat softened, in particular, in the judgement of the works of

Philip K. Dick Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...

. Lem confessed that his opinion about Philip K. Dick was based on limited knowledge of his works, not the best ones.

(Omitting forewords and afterwords)

Volume 1. Structures

:I. The language of a literary work :II. The world of a literary work (chapter changed since the second edition of 1972) :III. Structures of literary creation :IV. From

structuralism In sociology, anthropology, archaeology, history, philosophy, and linguistics, structuralism is a general theory of culture and methodology that implies that elements of human culture must be understood by way of their relationship to a broader ...

to traditional criticism :V. Sociology of science fiction

Volume 2. Problem Fields of Science Fiction

:I. Catastrophe :II. Robots and people :III. Outer space and science fiction :IV. Metaphysics of science fiction and futurology of faith :V. Erotics and sex :VI. Man and superman :VII. Remanent ::Lem writes that before starting with the two last huge subjects of the book, he would like to briefly dwell upon a large number of topics not covered in the book. Some of them, such as

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...

in science fiction and

space opera Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, with use of melodramatic, risk-taking space adventures, relationships, and chivalric romance. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it features technological and soci ...

, are only mentioned in passing. The section analyzes some motives of "biological" science fiction, the ones, in Lem's opinion, having gnoseological value, only briefly reviewing the subject of fictional mutants of various types, ranging from post-apocalyptic to experiments of mad scientists.''Fantastyka i futurologia'' :VIII. Experiment in science fiction. From Bradbury to " New Wave" :IX. Utopia and futurology

Contents

Volume 1. Structures

Volume 2. Problem Fields of Science Fiction

References

Further reading