Solaris eBook Stanislaw Lem Bill Johnston
Download As PDF : Solaris eBook Stanislaw Lem Bill Johnston 
Despite two films made with panache „Solaris” remains a book constantly rediscovered by new generations of readers. The moving story of contact with alien intelligence serves as a canvas for discussion of our mind’s limitations and the nature of human cognition. A love story for some readers, a philosophical treatise for others; Lem’s inspiring masterpiece defies unambiguous interpretations.
"A brilliant mind with a hearty appetite for science, philosophy and literature."
("The New York Times Book Review")
The novel has been translated into over forty languages and sold several million copies. This is the first English translation directly from the original.
Solaris eBook Stanislaw Lem Bill Johnston
Read this book if you're patient and you like asking questions more than getting answers. It's a book where, about two-thirds of the time, nothing happens.Here's why you should read the book:
1. Mood. Bleak. So bleak. The longest Sunday afternoon in the universe.
2. Structure. Defiantly weird. Page after page of digressions. A spectacular, brilliantly imagined sci-fi universe described via summaries of summaries of scientific texts. A first-person narrator who frequently specifies that nothing interesting happened.
3. Ideas. Mostly in the form of intriguing questions about what it means to be human, what it means to be alien, and what makes humans want to understand the alien.
4. Writing. This new, 2011 translation directly from the Polish is quite readable and sometimes rapturously beautiful. The descriptions go over better than the dialog, which can be pretty dense, but if you pay close attention, you won't get totally lost. It's very sophisticated writing, with metaphors and allusions that make the story even more intriguing.
5. It's unfilmable. I admit I haven't actually watched the movie adaptations all the way through, but I checked out some clips on YouTube and that's all I needed to see. So the book is the deal.
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Solaris eBook Stanislaw Lem Bill Johnston Reviews
The theme pervading many of Lem's works, inability of us humans to comprehend and communicate with 'The Other' (or sometimes, for that matter, ourselves), be it a message from space (His Master's Voice), a planetary civilization (Eden ,Fiasco) or "necrosphere", a machine ecosystem (The Invincible) is also present here. In this case the 'other' is a planetary-size intelligent organism.
Lem, of course, uses "the other" to reflect on ourselves, here perhaps even more explicitly than in other of his works. In 'Solaris' the humans Lem examines are much more individualized, not merely examples of our species; their demons are very personal, and as different as we are. The huge intellect beyond the station portholes here serves primarily as a mirror in which to see parts of ourselves we try to keep forgotten.
BTW, two very different movies inspired by this work, while both recommended, don't quite do the justice to the novel.
from "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction," May, 1971, $0.60, pages 42-43
"Stanislaw Lem SOLARIS. After-word by Darko Suvin, Walker, 1970, 216 pp., boards, $4.95" by James Blish
"As reported in my previous column, the five Lem stories included in Prof. Suvin's anthology OTHER WORLDS, OTHER SEAS seemed strangely thin for a writer with so enormous an international reputation. The present book suggests a possible reason Lem may be much more at home in the novel.
"This one, which dates back to 1961, is his sixth, and it is strikingly original and rewarding on virtually every level. Its central phenomenon is a planet-wide 'ocean' which is actually a living creature of unguessably (sic) high intelligence; among other things, it has mastered gravitation and uses the knowledge to control the flight of its world around a double star in an orbit which otherwise would be unstable. It also constantly throws up immense temporary structures of various kinds, which though easily classifiable into types, completely defy comprehension. Lem does not just say this, he shows it his hero describes almost all of the types, clearly and in detail, so that the reader has a vivid picture of exactly what each is like- and is as far as ever from comprehending what possible purpose it could serve. Solaris (the name of the planet) makes most other descriptions of 'alien' worlds you have read seem positively homelike.
"All human attempts to communicate with this creature have failed, sometimes with great loss of life. The deaths were due to its apparent indifference to human beings, for it is not hostile. Yet, in a way, it is in touch with them, for from the recess of each man's brain it recreates, in solid, living and sentient form, the one person to whom that man had done the most injury. Nobody ever finds out why it does this, either, or even whether it is aware of doing so; but the resulting emotional tensions are what make the novel go. They are handled with such tenderness and depth of insight as to make me wonder if the author of those short stories is some other Lem entirely.
"A part of the other activities of the 'ocean' is also mimetic; in effect, it mirrors what goes on in its vicinity. In the same way, each man's inner nature is mirrored by his inescapable Phi-creature (not Psi, as the flap copy has it; they are completely real, they bleed and they suffer, though apparently they cannot be killed); and in the elaboration and evolution of Solaristic studies, Lem mirrors society, its institutions, and man's place in the universe. He is completely non-dogmatic about it; if he has anything to preach, it is that knowledge does not dispel mystery, but increases it.
"Lem knows the sciences intimately; there is not a word of double-talk in the novel, although some kind of faster-than-light drive is assumed in order to be able to reach Solaris at all. The story is slow-moving in spots, but this is not a defect in a philosophical novel; when Lem slows down, he wants the reader to slow down too and 'think.'
"Stylistically it also reads well, and my guess- based rather insecurely on its excellences in other departments- is that the style was distinguished in the original. What we have here is a British translation of a French translation from the original Polish. Prof. Suvin, who has more languages than he has fingers, doesn't mention the translation at all in his fine analytical Afterword, which may also indicate that it could have been better, but just as English it is better than most of what passes for the language in out field.
"Buy the hard-cover book by all means, for you will want a copy that will stand up under many re-readings. This is going to become a classic; it is inherently one already."
-James Blish
This is the first work I have read by Lem and I was thoroughly impressed by the story. I am glad I purchased the version since Lem claims to have been satisfied with the translation and felt it captured and portrayed the original work (unlike the movie which was horrible).
The book affected and challenged me because of the unique perspective Lem presents concerning alien life. In Solaris the alien is the planet itself and its communications, it displays, it messages, are so beyond the expectations of the researchers that even after decade of attempts they are confounded and still trying to understand.
The relationship that Kelvin develops with the simulacron is haunting and frustrating and is metaphorical of all difficult human relationships. Do we want those with whom we intimate to be themselves or to be our mental construct? Is the pain of reality too much to bear? I find it interesting that Kelvin develops a genuine care (is it love?) for simulacron Harey that is similar to but distinct from dead Harey of memory. In particular, I like the way Lem hides the relationship aspects of the other crew members and leaves that unresolved throughout the novel adding to its overall mystery.
The descriptions of the planet and its spasms are incredible and yet one wonders if they are nothing more banal than muscle twitches just reinterpreted in human terms?
I read the book in less than 3 days - it was that compelling. I highly recommend it.
Read this book if you're patient and you like asking questions more than getting answers. It's a book where, about two-thirds of the time, nothing happens.
Here's why you should read the book
1. Mood. Bleak. So bleak. The longest Sunday afternoon in the universe.
2. Structure. Defiantly weird. Page after page of digressions. A spectacular, brilliantly imagined sci-fi universe described via summaries of summaries of scientific texts. A first-person narrator who frequently specifies that nothing interesting happened.
3. Ideas. Mostly in the form of intriguing questions about what it means to be human, what it means to be alien, and what makes humans want to understand the alien.
4. Writing. This new, 2011 translation directly from the Polish is quite readable and sometimes rapturously beautiful. The descriptions go over better than the dialog, which can be pretty dense, but if you pay close attention, you won't get totally lost. It's very sophisticated writing, with metaphors and allusions that make the story even more intriguing.
5. It's unfilmable. I admit I haven't actually watched the movie adaptations all the way through, but I checked out some clips on YouTube and that's all I needed to see. So the book is the deal.
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