<<< Mar 02, 2003 >>>

"The unfathomable futility of life under the sway of mass murder cannot be conveyed by literary techniques in which individuals or small groups of persons form the core of the narrative. It is perhaps as if somebody tried, by providing the exact description of the molecules that compose Marilyn Monroe's body, to convey a full impression of her. That would be impossible. I do not know, of course, whether this sort of narrative inadequacy was the reason that I started writing science fiction, but I suppose — and this is a somewhat daring statement — that I began writing science fiction because it deals with human beings as a species (or, rather, with all possible species of intelligent beings, one of which happens to be the human species). At least, it should deal with the whole species, and not just with specific individuals, be they saints or monsters." — Stanislaw Lem, Reflections on My Life, 1984.

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