Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Think about this -- most science fiction, both written and filmed, portrays aliens as more or less humanoid in shape, with two arms and two legs and so forth, and with more or less human emotions and motivations. While they may not be exactly like us, they are close enough for humans to understand them eventually, if not immediately. Polish science fiction author Stanislaw Lem believed the opposite. He imagined that non-Earthlings would be non-human in appearance and that it would be impossible for humans to communicate with them or understand their actions.

The novel Solaris takes place on a planet almost completely covered by an ocean which is apparently sentient, one massive brain or entity. However, decades of observation and research have brought human explorers and scientists no closer to communication with or understanding of this alien intelligence. Interest in the planet has thus waned when young scientist Kris Kelvin arrives on the space station orbiting the planet, only to find that one of the three men stationed there has committed suicide and that the remaining two seem to be verging on insanity. Almost immediately he begins to understand their distress, when he is visited by a woman who is a physical twin of his long dead love, as he remembers her. The eventual conclusion he reaches is that the "ocean" has, for whatever reason, read the subconscious minds of the men and has brought to life duplicates from their repressed memories.

While I have not seen the big budget movie adapted from this novel starring George Clooney, it reportedly focused on the love story of Kris Kelvin and his resurrected love. Lem was highly critical of this, saying that his book was "not dedicated to erotic problems of people in outer space." Instead, he said he "...wanted to create a vision of a human encounter with something that...cannot be reduced to human concepts, ideas, or images."

Solaris is considered a science faction classic, but I don't believe every SF fan will appreciate it. It is more philosophical than plot driven, and contains page after page of scientific and pseudo-scientific jargon concerning the various theories about the planet. As for myself, I find it intriguing to think about alien life in a different way, and think that it is very likely that Lem is correct in his assessment.

This next paragraph has nothing to do with the novel, but it's interesting (and kind of funny) background information I ran across. Lem was very vocal in his criticism of American science fiction, so much so that the Science Fiction Writers of America rescinded his honorary membership in the organization. He is reported as saying that US science fiction was "a domain of herd creativity." In a 1975 essay in the journal Science Fiction Studies he praised only one American SF author, Philip K. Dick, saying that he was "a visionary among charlatans." However, in 1974 the ever-paranoid Dick had written a letter to the FBI, saying that Lem was a false name used by a composite committee operating on orders of the Communist party, to gain control over public opinion. Presumably, Lem did not know of Dick's letter when he wrote his praise of him.