Reading:
I started this on February 15, 2005. Finished on February 20,
2005.
Specs:
Lem, Stanislaw, Solaris,
published by Harvest Books, New York, in 1970. The original was
written in 1961. Translated from the French by Joanna Kilmartin and
Steve Cox This is from the Central Resource Library.
Overview:
This book was very difficult to read. There were several reasons
for this, the author degenerates into telling long segments of
history that really confuse the story rather than advance it.
Looking at the credits, I think I see the reason, however. This
was originally written in French, then translated into England
English, rather than American English. Therefore, there were words
that, while common in England, are not so common here. (I didn't
know the English refer to a helicopter as a
"flitter.") In addition, the credits talk about "poetic
expression" and "word plays" in a review by Kurt Vonnegut, who
probably read the French. Poetic expressions sometimes translate,
and word plays almost never do, and they would translate differently
into English than American.
The story gives me a lot to think about. On the surface level,
Solaris is a planet orbiting around two stars, one red and one blue,
so the author can talk about a red sunrise, and a blue sunrise,
sometimes one inside the other.
The story is about Kris Kelvin, a Solarist, who goes to Solaris.
A Solarist is a person who studies Solaris, which had been known for
about 150 years before the book starts. It was unique in that it had
an ocean which, as near as people could tell, was alive. That is,
the whole of the ocean was one live being. But it lacked cells, etc.
like Earth creatures. (It might be worthwhile to note that this was
written in 1961, when the Science Fiction fad was that all planets
had life. This is referred to in the book, but not in a big way.)
People have studied Solaris for ages, and still didn't really know
if it was alive. The ocean would form all sorts of huge displays,
like large cities that were created and destroyed in short periods of
time - some a short as 15 minutes. Some structures, however,
existed for much longer, perhaps months or years. People have walked
on the structures, etc. and sent probes to the structures which were
too dangerous to explore in person. (Again, this was written before
probes had even been sent to the moon.)
The protagonist arrives at the station on Solaris, and something
strange is happening. The person he went to see had committed
suicide. As it turns out, there were strange manifestations being
created, obviously, by Solaris. These took the form of memories from
the people, people out of the past. Everyone had one, including the
protagonist's friend. The protagonist gets
one, a memory of his dead wife, who died when she was very young, 19
years old, due to a suicide. Suddenly she is there again. At first
he panics, and sends one of them away. He is not sure if he is sane,
and tries to prove this.
The manifestation is recreated. And she mimics his wife quite
well, except that she cannot stand to be away from him for more than
a few minutes - at first she breaks down a door when she is
separated. However, over time her period of separation increases,
but is still quite limited.
The protagonist is torn between his love for her, yet his
knowledge that she is not real, and his need to study Solaris. The
others on the station (there are only two) want to destroy the
things, but the protagonist is not very cooperative.
In the end, they figure out that the ocean is alive, but is trying
to communicate directly with the human beings. This results in the
manifestations, and weird dreams, dreams of death, and horror. But
really the ocean is just trying to make contact, and is not
dangerous.
Also, the manifestation recognized that it is not real, and wants
to be destroyed because of it. I think she thinks (probably
correctly) that she is holding him back. Finally, she is destroyed,
and the protagonist misses her very much.
He goes out in the last scene to actually touch Solaris ("after
all, how can I be a Solarist on Solaris and not actually touch the
Ocean.") The book hints he might have committed suicide by jumping
into the ocean, but I'm really not sure because of the England
English.
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