Stanislaw Lem (Lviv, 1921 – Krakow, 2006) became famous for his science fiction novels, such as Solaris (1961), which transcend genre, as Ursula K. Le Guin or George Orwell transcend it; hence they entail a deep political and philosophical overlay. A prolific writer, he also cultivated stories and essays. Their interests were vast, but they shared a critical outlook that warned of the abuse of power; an attitude of suspicion that is perfectly understood when you know his biography.
As a young Jew, the occupation of Poland pushed him to hide under another identity for years, in addition to interrupting his medical studies – which he later resumed, without finishing them – it is said that he even dyed his hair blonde.
His first novels were inspired by these experiences, quite different from those that made him famous: the trilogy Time not wastedthree volumes written between 1948 and 1950 that were published in 1955, of which Impedimenta has recovered, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the invasion, the first two and has the third in preparation. They are set in the real world, although they belong more to the realm of the novel of ideas than to realism.
A “magic mountain” in times of war
Each novel develops its own universe and is read independently, although the second takes up the protagonist of the previous one. Without being strictly autobiographical, it is based on events that he and his family experienced, hidden, of course, by the powerful mask of fiction. The first, The Transfiguration Hospital (trans. Joanna Bardzińska), follows the adventures of Stefan Trzyniecki, his alter egoa young doctor who during the first months of the invasion finds work in a psychiatric hospital located in a remote forest.
This framework already invites us to remember another eminent sanatorium, that of The magic mountain (1924). Without reaching its complexity, it does not detract from the comparison: the innocence of the protagonist, discreet, calm and observant, is corrupted by witnessing some treatments and the delusional nature, not only of the patients, but of some colleagues. Deep down, and Thomas Mann did not have this, there is fear, the awareness that at any moment the Nazi forces can burst in and break the order, an order that is precarious and questionable from an ethical point of view, but his order, after all. The sick are potential victims; The duty of doctors is to protect them and even the most peculiar ones have unsuspected attempts at humanity.
Meanwhile, in the time suspended from the center’s routine, life goes on: friendships, attraction, disturbance, confrontation. With Stefan at its core, each episode focuses on one or several different characters. There are some luxurious secondary characters: the eccentric Dr. Sekulowski, a poet-philosopher who baffles and fascinates him with his transcendental conversations (it is impossible not to remember Mann’s Settembrini); Dr. Nosilewska, who fascinates young doctors; the intrepid surgeon Kauters; the upright director; the tenants of the women’s pavilion; or the electrician foreman at the end, humble but with the key to illuminate everything.
Like Hans Castorp, the protagonist is a young man who opens himself to life, receptive to stimuli, still a bit of a sponge for what is happening around him, for the (brilliant) dialogues. Sane, healthy, in principle; because if he discovers anything, it is that the border between reason and madness is tenuous, especially in environments such as the sanatorium or during war. Just look at the language of the German officers: vulgar, threatening, derogatory; Those who were ordinary citizens are empowered into thugs who believe they have the world in their hands (yes, it is very reminiscent of the discourse that the extreme right has recovered).
The destiny of a prodigious mind
The second part, among the dead (trans. Abel Murcia and Katarzyna Moloniewicz), is even more raw; Lem masked reality less, which is why he ended up denying this one (and the next one); It’s not that it was forbidden to talk about the past, society was aware of the Holocaust, but what it portrays is so hard that, with the wounds still unhealed, it could hurt. In the time frame, it takes place after the end of the previous one, but changes the setting to the urban area and distributes the spotlight between Stefan, at his uncle’s house, and Karol Wilk, a self-taught mathematics genius.
Orphaned and poor, but with a prodigious mind, Wilk reveals himself to be an extraordinary character, too taciturn to be a Dickensian hero. After the loss of his parents, during his formative years he experienced two turning points: the discovery of numbers, on the wrapping of a package; and the message from a stranger who tells him about his father, communism and prison, ideas that awaken many questions in him, about who he is, what his roots are, what he will do from then on. Curious and with a great capacity for learning, he takes advantage of the few opportunities that are presented to him; Even so, when he was denied the scholarship, he was forced to enter a workshop where Jews worked.
The company, despite the humiliation to which it subjects its subordinates (and even among bosses), is a kind of cover. Wilk, diligent and simple, integrates there as Stefan entered the hospital: unprejudiced, forging his identity through encounters in the day-to-day life of the factory. It is the darkest period of the occupation; Despair is in the air. The moral conflict instilled in him by his father’s friend is rekindled: in times of war, the individual must choose between taking sides (his father’s legacy), with the risks that entails; or focus on your personal development, the gift with which you can enhance humanity.
Stefan, for his part, reunites with the family – in the first there was already a scene, at the beginning and towards the end, closing the circle, in a climate of uncertainty in which he is no longer the boy who left to study –. While looking for a job by pulling contacts (more superb characters), he perceives suspicious glances (he is not Jewish, but physically he responds to the prototype; there is a scene in the barbershop inspired by Lem’s experience). The persecution of Jews, the transfer to concentration camps, are part of the routine. Your dilemma will be to decide whose side you are on, and act accordingly. Furthermore, he meets someone who connects him to the sanatorium.
You can’t escape the horror
The trilogy is more choral than it seems: there are a large number of characters, representing different strata of society: rich and poor, Jews and Aryans, educated and illiterate, devout and unbelievers, healthy and sick, bosses and employees, all political types, from a wide range of ages. They share the fact of being lost. And none of them is a candid soul, they cannot be; If anything, the protagonists are due to inexperience; They retain the ability to pay attention, an open-mindedness and a lack of anchorage that leads them to move and discover the world (even if it is the world of their Poland), an essential requirement to truly know the other.
The contrasts also occur in the spaces: the city, the sanatorium, the workshop, the concentration camp (one of the crudest, almost documentary episodes). They are not decorations, but are linked to the characters, to the lives they nest. For example, one chapter describes a building: no protagonist lives there, only secondary characters, but their stories end up coming together. Lem paints a fresco of the neighborhood that is an x-ray of the time. His entire narrative has a patina of genius, also in the way he describes each character. A display of wit, metaphors and powerful images that combine the ridiculousness of the character with the turbidity of the spirit.
Both novels end when the protagonist looks over the precipice. Wojciech Orliński, author of the prologue to the second part, says that it may disappoint by not picking up the action at the exact point where it left off in the first; However, it is understandable that Stefan chose another path and faced another journey. If any criticism can be made, at most it is that it is somewhat disjointed, for compressing a microcosm in each episode, to the detriment of the continued narrative tension. Even so, each page is such a marvel of prose, dialogue, psychological characterization, erudition and at the same time amenity, that it is read with absolute delight.
Lem avoided the concentration camp, but not all of his loved ones suffered the same fate. Be that as it may, those years took their toll on him. Over time, completely dedicated to literary creation, he found in the invention of other galaxies a channel to express, under multiple guises, what the Holocaust meant. However, even in these first-time novels recovered now, which have nothing of a youthful attempt, he was already a great writer, with that reflective and overwhelming background that permeates his great works. We just have to hope that the third part doesn’t take long to wait.
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