Is Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris a “scientific” novel?

Abstract

The given article deals with one of the most well-known Polish writers Stanislaw Lem and his novel Solaris. It is a rather controversial work which aroused a lot of discussions and disagreements. The investigation tries to prove that Solaris is not a typical classical sci-fi novel and there are several things giving evidence to the fact. One of the most fundamental dividing lines in science is that of “the observer/the observed” and this binary opposition is violated as the scientists on the planet do not do any research. The observer and the observed are polarized, with the observer inevitably claiming the dominant role, the ocean in question was never really “studied” properly because it does not let itself be studied. What is more, scientists on board the ship almost do not perform any complicated technical experiments. The things Lem describes are partly just regular ones, of everyday use, and partly related to space exploration. But the fact that they are seen in such a mundane environment, in disorder, is already indicating that something is wrong with the potential “scientific” life on the station. Solaris (ocean) itself can be read (among other things) as a metaphor of death. The ocean, obviously, possesses some information about the people who come within its reach. It is unpredictable even in terms of its external appearance. The ocean reproduces some of the objects/images it finds in human minds, and then tries to master it. The ocean obviously triggers something in humans and makes them face certain phenomena or feelings, often, as it seems, quite traumatic. So, the ocean is a kind of a container of information, a large organ that preserves and transforms it. Lem’s Solaris makes us face a number of important questions. It posits itself, seemingly, as a sci-fi novel that invests in describing the scientific process of research and discovery. However, it soon becomes clear that Lem is doing all he can to question the idea of “science” as it exists in the modern mind, emphasizing the idea of the unity of the universe.