Stanislaw Lem - Eden

Stanislaw Lem - Eden

(1959, ro, 229pg)

Lem’s Eden, written in 1958, but only translated to English in 1989, is the first of Lems mature works. In this piece, as in other works by Lem, an exploration of an alien species and it’s world is hampered by failure to communicate, or even understand what is found there.

The story begins with the crash landing of a craft on a planet of which little is known. The occupants of the craft are referred to only by their professions…“the doctor”, “the captain”, “the cyberneticist” etc.. etc. After their crash landing, and eventually managing to extricate themselves from their space craft, they proceed to explore the planet. First on foot, and later with the aid of a jeep, and even eventually a tank, they discover that there is an advanced civilization on the planet. Unfortunately is it precisely because of this level of advancement that nothing can be fathomed of it at all.

Their travels reveal fantastic structures…..huge animal/plants which resemble trees but move like animals, giant towers filled with glass eggs, each containing a bizarre skeleton…gigantic factories which seem to produce objects which resemble living tissue, only then to reabsorb and recycle them again. Try as they might, even after making direct contact with the symbiotes who seem to run everything, they cannot understand the whys and wherefores of Eden. Why is the planet littered with seemingly useless factories and images of death? What purpose is served by such things? These and other questions await revelation in the pages of “Eden”