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Abstract: Stanislaw Lem betrayed his fascination with Joseph Conrad's writing relatively early. The first references to Lord Jim can be found in his first novel, entitled Szpital Przemienienia (Hospital of the Transfiguration). However, the nature and the extent of this Conradian inspiration was based on Lem's reading of Jan Józef Szczepanski's well known study entitled W sluzbie Wielkiego Armatora (In the Service of the Great Shipowner) and his much less well known List do Juliana Stryjkowskiego (A Letter to Julian Stryjkowski), in which he presents his understanding of the Conradian principle of "meting out (not 'doing') justice to the visible world". Indeed, it would seem that Lem follows Szczepanski in adopting the Conradian principle of axiological absolutism. Unlike Szczepanski, however, Lem sees this principle not as the result of a broadly understood rational procedure, but instead detracts from its rationality by bringing within its scope the problem of the so-called randomness of supra-universal and supra-global cosmic reason. For Szczepanski, the most important phase of his own approach to reading Conrad was undoubtedly Lord Jim. Although Lem betrays a partiality for Conrad's short (and longer short) stories, he does not single out one particular story. In the present article, I venture to suggest that given Lem's belief in "radical solitude in the cosmos", the story whose import would best correspond to this conviction is The Shadow Line.
Keywords: Stanislaw Lem, Joseph Conrad, Jan Józef Szczepanski, "bring the visible world to justice", "mete out justice to the visible world", the ontology of a seaman, the ontology of an astronaut, axiological absolutism, rationalism, irrationalism, The Inn of the Two Witches, The Shadow Line
I imagine the future to be something like this: there'll be some sort of catacombs where advocates of Conrad and Shakespeare will gather to read their works in whispers. It won't even be particularly frowned on by the authorities.
S. Lem, Literatura nowego tysiqclecia (The literature of the new millennium)1
Although Polish Conrad studies have included comprehensive and significant research on the reception of Conrad's works in Poland - much of it carried out by Stefan Zabierowski2 - we still have a long way to go when it comes to providing a satisfactory answer to the question as to the exact nature of the...