The Polish writer Stanislaw Lem is both a polymath and a virtuoso storyteller and stylist. Put them together and they add up to a genius... He has been steadily producing fiction that follows the arcs and depths of his learning and a bewildering labyrinth of moods and attitudes. Like his protagonists, loners virtually to a man, his fiction seems at a distance from the daily cares and passions, and conveys the sense of a mind hovering above the boundaries of the human condition: now mordant, now droll, now arcane, now folksy, now skeptical, now haunted and always paradoxical. Yet his imagination is so powerful and pure that no matter what world he creates it is immediately convincing because of its concreteness and plentitude, the intimacy and authority with which it is occupied... read Lem for yourself. He is a major writer, and one of the deep spirits of our age.

The New York Times Review of Books

Questions to consider while reading Solaris:

Where are there failures to understand or breakdowns in communication? This is a central theme of the novel.

How does Lem use irony in the novel?

How does Lem convey his idea that we can never completely understand what is truly Other?

Which scenes contribute to Lem's theme that exploration is not primarily about discovery but a narcissistic search for mirrors of ourselves?

What is the significance of the scribbled word "Man!" in chapter 2 of the novel?

How does the ending of the chapter begins to resemble the mood of a ghost or horror story or monster movie? Reminiscent of Frankenstein?

What is the relationship between Kelvin and Snow? How does Kelvin try to get information from Snow?

How do we slowly come to realize that Sartorius' secrecy is motivated not so much by fear as by shame?

What does this mean: "I was not mad. The last ray of hope was extinguished"?

In what ways is Rheya like a traditional ghost? How is she different?

What does the hypodermic needle scar suggest, and how is it connected to what Kelvin "had said to her five days earlier"?

Snow's long speech on space exploration in the paragraph which begins "It's almost as if you're purposely refusing to understand" is one of the best-known and most often-quoted in the book. What are its main themes and how do they relate to traditional science fiction?

To understand Berton's theory of how the ocean operates, one must understand something of Freud's theory of the unconscious (not to be confused with the "subconscious"). The unconscious consists of feelings and memories which have been suppressed from the conscious mind by "contrary feelings" mostly having to do with shame and guilt. Although they are not accessible directly, their presence is revealed in a distorted form in dreams and as a powerful distorting force which can cause involuntary mistakes in speech ("Freudian slips"), and neurotic obsessions and illnesses of various kinds. How do Solaris' activities seem to relate to the unconscious?

By Chapter 8, how has Kelvin's attitude towards Rheya changed? In Chapter 9?

In Chapter 10, in the paragraph beginning "I'll give you an answer" Snow keenly analyzes Kelvin's motives. What are his main points? Why is Kelvin afraid to carry out the proposed experiment?

What do you think Kelvin's dreams in ch. 12 mean?

The title of ch. 13 is "Victory." What does this title mean? Why can't Rheya and Kelvin "live happily ever after?" How does Kelvin's last dream affect the emotional impact of the immediately following scene? Why does Kelvin want to destroy Solaris at first?

In the last chapter, how has Kelvin been changed by his relationship with Rheya? What does the growth of the flower in his hand suggest? What does the last line of the novel mean?

Some questions adapted from: Study Guide for Solaris by Paul Brians

What are some themes or concerns that are common to all of the literary works we have explored?

Put the works in a chronological order. What developments can you see? How has the portrayal of Nature, and specifically human nature changed? Technology?

Where does each work draw the line between human and machine, reality and simulation, natural and artificial? How do the protagonists cross that boundary? To what purpose or success?

In any of the works, can the Other truly be known? Think of the idoru, "weather" in Rich's poem, Frankenstein's creature, the robot in Metropolis, Babette or Wilder in White Noise, and Solaris.

Official Stanislaw Lem site

Upcoming film of Solaris directed by Steven Soderbergh

Lem page on Scriptorium, a site about literature and the modern world