There's a few themes here that are interesting. Firstly, it's Lem's early recognition of Dick as a genius. I'd like to think that one of the things that Lem had in common with Dick was that they were both mentally traumatized (Lem, barely surviving Nazi-occupied Poland, and Dick, suffering from intense depression and psychoses). They both wove stories around the mind dealing with situations that were pervasive and inescapable. Lem went on to translate Ubik into Polish. Dick responded by accusing him of being a Communist party stooge/pseudonym, and held Lem personally responsible for financial shortfalls from the publisher. So much for kindred spirits!
Neither one of them wrote "entertaining" stories, at least not according to popular trends. The main thrust of the article is how to consider literary greatness in the midst of contemporary entertainment. But, the striking thing to me is that Dick's works are entertainment now. It's one thing for genius to be recognized after the author has passed, but why are Hollywood and Netflix churning out Phillip Dick (and related) stories decades later? Most ideas about future technology from that period are laughably wrong or outdated.
After the events of the past few years or so, I have to wonder if people feel the same sense of paranoia and dissociation echoed in the stories. It's pretty clear modern society is unraveling, and we're heading towards some awful disaster, whether it's ecological, technological, or political. Dick's stories follow those mental patterns and somehow feel familiar.
Finally, I am grateful for taking Istvan Csicsery-Ronay's Science Fiction class at Depauw all those years ago. He maintains this page and the rest of the archives : https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/index.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Kandel
>Kandel is perhaps best known for his translations of the works of Stanisław Lem from Polish to English. Recently he has also been translating works of other Polish science fiction authors, such as Jacek Dukaj, Marek Huberath and Andrzej Sapkowski. The quality of his translations is considered to be excellent; his skill is especially notable in the case of Lem's writing, which makes heavy use of wordplay and other difficult-to-translate devices.
http://www.art.net/Studios/Hackers/Hopkins/Don/lem/HorribleP...
Oft, in that wickless chalet all begorn,
Where whilom soughed the mossy sappertort
And you were wont to bong --
A love poem, lyrical, pastoral, and expressed in the language of pure mathematics. Tensor algebra mainly, with a little topology and higher calculus, if need be. But with feeling, you understand, and in the cybernetic spirit.
Come, let us hasten to a higher plane,
Where dyads tread the fairy fields of Venn,
Their indices bedecked from one to n,
Commingled in an endless Markov chain!
[...]
>[...] Includes autolips, aphrodisial philanderoids, and satyriacal panderynes as standard accessories.