In my deliberations, I focus on analysing the purposefulness of an automatic allocation of Stanisław Lem’s works to he genre of science fiction. Upon a closer look on the characteristic forewords to his three novels, the Solaris author’s prose may be included in the current of realistic literature. What is no less important is the issue of modulating social imagination through the novels of the 1960s, and in consequence, how the universe, technological progress of futurology are perceived.