Last term BookSoc read Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. It's a philosophical and dense sci-fi novel set on the planet Solaris, spanned by a great ocean that defies mankind’s inquiry and its understanding of physics. It's ostensibly about Kelvin, a scientist of the (fictional) field of solaristics, who arrives at the planet Solaris and must contend with a facsimile of his dead wife conjured up by Solaris. It involves Kelvin and other character's struggles with fear, death, and love-born myopia. But in this book, you shouldn't have your attention dominated by the human characters.
The personal trials of Kelvin are not the main focus of Solaris nor its main charm. The focus of the book is the study of Solaris (solaristics). The planet Solaris or rather the ocean which spans its surface is an archapelic impenetrable thing. A significant part of the book is dedicated not to the events of Kelvins time but the history of solaristics and the phenomena of Solaris, which might be described in a manner that makes for difficult reading. We read of formations/processes of Solaris which are of geologic magnitude and which may in their individual complexity dwarf the entirety of humanity's progress in mathematics. We read of how science was brought to bear against Solaris, of observations made, data gathered, and lives lost in the process; we read of developments of solaristics as a field, changes in the nature of efforts and human character, as well as the progression and profusion of theories and their universal inability to penetrate the mysteries of the great and holistic Solaris. Such description is for good reason unusual, however it greatly enrichens our appreciation of Solaris and Solaristics, without such detail the field and its struggles would be insubstantial. Nevertheless, those unready to make the effort might stall in these sections.
Some might compare Solaris to H.P. Lovecraft's gods on account of its otherness and magnitude. But Solaris eclipses them, Lovecraftian horror is egocentric, focused on what the horrors mean to us and what they might do to us. Solaris is an object of study; its incomprehensibility is the point. You cannot escape from Solaris, you cannot take comfort in the eons which must past before the stars are right. The aim of Solaristics has been the understanding of and contact with Solaris an aim which runs directly aground on Solaris's nature.
Solaris’s content and its focus on man’s relation with the ocean doesn't make for easy nor broadly appealing reading. But those which stay with it will find it an rewarding and satisfying read. Oftentimes literature remains on familiar ground, with the same concerns and the same features, there’s much sense in this but the repetition can dilute the value and build up boredom. Solaris on the other hand is a rare sight in media and even science fiction, Solaris’s alienness, man’s reckoning with it, and the difficulty of its academic sections, make it one of those uncommonly valuable books which challenges us, and why to this day it remains a classic.
Writer's Bio: Thomas is a student studying science at UNSW. He is an avid reader, who reads widely but favours science fiction. He is rather critical, and lavishes himself with his judgement. Thomas is the President of UNSW's Bookworm Society.
