SOLARIS

escape in great literature

I don't really know why I spent most of last year's falling-asleep listening to Solaris narrated by Alessandro Juliani. After all his American accent troubles me. Our hero is a Russian astronaut sent by the USSR, not one of those NASA officials who always sound like everything is under control. Nothing is under control in Solaris as it is the story of a planet out of control. You see, Solaris knows how to play the human mind but how and why? Kevin's mission was to find out, only to emotionally succumb to the planetary, plasmatic mermaid at landing.

But when I think about it more deeply, why not an American? Is Solaris not in part, the story of pragmatism's defeat? Human's pragmatism!

I adore seeing the original movie by Tarkovsky and loved reading and having the book read to me. Needless to say, Lem's deeply evocative and poetic writing will blow you away.