Stanislaw Lem

[Richard Roman]

Solaris (1961), by Stanisław Lem (1921–2006), is a Polish science fiction novel about the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species.


In probing and examining the oceanic surface of the world named Solaris from a hovering research station the oblivious human scientists are, in turn, being studied by the sentient planet itself. In due course, Solaris scientifically probes for and examines the secret, guilty thoughts of the human beings who are analyzing it. Solaris has the ability to manifest their secret, guilty concerns in human form, for each scientist to personally confront, while the self-aware planet studies their responses to its psychological experiments.

Solaris is pervaded by a powerful, poetic sense of the physical remoteness of outer space. The sense of loneliness that this engenders is among Lem’s philosophic explorations of man’s anthropomorphic limitations. First published in Warsaw in 1961, the 1970 Polish-to-French-to-English translation of Solaris is the best-known of Lem's English-translated works.


Stanislaw Lem-Official website: http://english.lem.pl/
Stanislaw Lem on Scriptorum: http://themodernword.com/scriptorium/lem.html
Study Guide for Solaris : http://public.wsu.edu/~brians/science_fiction/solaris.html
Lem's bibliography, other books and more links on Lem: http://homepages.rpi.edu/~sofkam/lem/index.html

[Richard Roman]

They made a movie but it was pretty well panned as not getting to the juice of it. But have not seen it.............

The original film was made by Tarkovsky and the remake by soderbergh />

Just read the book!