This is another book by Stanislaw Lem my favorite sci-fi author and philosopher. Solaris was filmed twice, by the Russian director Tarkovsky in 1972 and also had its American remake in 2002 where the main character was played by George Clooney. As in most of the Lem’s novels this story makes the reader ponder how our human biased ideas about the purpose of other intelligent life may be totally wrong. Also I think that Lem is using the sci-fi story just as a tool to show that it is actually us humans who have the long way to understand our own purpose of life. The scientific space station orbits the distant planet that is all covered by some kind of ocean. It shows signs of intelligence by creating mysterious symmetric formations on its surface and it seems to try to communicate. Lem is really good in describing the planet, its alienness, and creating a feeling of loneliness and mystery at the same time. Scientists think that they are exploring the planet but later they discover that it may be actually the opposite and they are the ones who are being observed and studied. The ocean can read the scientists minds during their sleep and then it materializes their dreams into the physical replications of humans or maybe even something else depending on the dreamer’s experiences. Some of these replications are not even revealed by the scientists since this is a very private matter and are only hinted in the story. Since the main character a psychologist Chris Kelvin is just recovering from the loss of his beloved wife Rheya it is actually her who suddenly appears on the space station. To make things more psychological these replications are indistinguishable from humans, they behave and talk like them and they even realize that they may be a tool or a creation of the ocean and they dislike this idea. Scientists may later discover what physical forces the ocean is using to create these replications but still they are totally lost when trying to communicate with the ocean or get some information about it.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Solaris
This is another book by Stanislaw Lem my favorite sci-fi author and philosopher. Solaris was filmed twice, by the Russian director Tarkovsky in 1972 and also had its American remake in 2002 where the main character was played by George Clooney. As in most of the Lem’s novels this story makes the reader ponder how our human biased ideas about the purpose of other intelligent life may be totally wrong. Also I think that Lem is using the sci-fi story just as a tool to show that it is actually us humans who have the long way to understand our own purpose of life. The scientific space station orbits the distant planet that is all covered by some kind of ocean. It shows signs of intelligence by creating mysterious symmetric formations on its surface and it seems to try to communicate. Lem is really good in describing the planet, its alienness, and creating a feeling of loneliness and mystery at the same time. Scientists think that they are exploring the planet but later they discover that it may be actually the opposite and they are the ones who are being observed and studied. The ocean can read the scientists minds during their sleep and then it materializes their dreams into the physical replications of humans or maybe even something else depending on the dreamer’s experiences. Some of these replications are not even revealed by the scientists since this is a very private matter and are only hinted in the story. Since the main character a psychologist Chris Kelvin is just recovering from the loss of his beloved wife Rheya it is actually her who suddenly appears on the space station. To make things more psychological these replications are indistinguishable from humans, they behave and talk like them and they even realize that they may be a tool or a creation of the ocean and they dislike this idea. Scientists may later discover what physical forces the ocean is using to create these replications but still they are totally lost when trying to communicate with the ocean or get some information about it.
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Intriguing summaries. As you continue to blog, it may be interesting to hear your opinion/comparison of some books to their corresponding movies, if you've seen some of them.
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