From: m (mt_2@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Oct 29 2000 - 21:16:05 MST
--- Technotranscendence <neptune@mars.superlink.net> wrote:
> I just would like to know if there are any Stanislaw Lem
> fans on this list.
> If so, what are your favorite works by him?
I've read one or two works by him, of which I must say
Solaris is my favourite.
This story is about a team of scientists studying an
ocean-planet where the entire ocean is one huge, apparently
sentient organism.
I think Lem does a great job of portraying his main
character Kelvin, and illustrating the human response to a
genuine (unfathomable!) mystery. The ocean is constantly
evoked; Lem's descriptions of its formations are fantastic.
Only towards the end do the scientists begin to make a step
towards understanding, after the ocean "communicates" in a
very personal way. Even then they are not sure of the
ocean's purpose, or even if it has a purpose. Solaris is a
bit of a meditation on the problem of detecting
consciousness.
It's a bit of a change from the Star Trek "We can solve an
entire civilisation's problems in 40 minutes with our
computer and whizzbang force fields" approach (not that I'm
against a bit of positivity !).
The Russian director Tarkovsky made a pretty good film of
it about 15 years ago, though he would have benefitted from
today's computer graphics to render the ocean.
Mike
> Cheers!
>
> Daniel Ust
> http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
>
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