| Solaris | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Stanisław Lem |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| In-universe information | |
| Type | Living planet |
Solaris is a fictional living planet depicted in the 1961 science fiction novel Solaris by Polish writer Stanisław Lem and subsequent adaptations into numerous other forms of media. An extraterrestrial life form consisting of a vast, seven hundred billion ton "colloidal envelope" stretching across the entire planet, it regularly forms numerous transient structures on its surface, such as continent-wide crystalline "symmetriads" that dissipate just as quickly as they form, which have been cataloged by scientists on the orbiting Prometheus. Coming to believe it is sentient, they have attempted to study it for over 100 years, creating the scientific discipline of Solaristics. However, their attempts to establish first contact are met with nothing, and the scientists, assuming that it surely would want to communicate with them if it was able to, begin to claim the planet is unintelligent and dying in response to its lack of interest in their advances. Solaris begins creating duplicates of people from the crew's memories known as Phi-creatures in response to an X-ray bombardment, forcing them to reckon with their psychological trauma, though whether Solaris itself understands the import of these beings is uncertain. The protagonist, Dr. Kris Kelvin, eventually sheds his anthropocentric values and visits the planet's surface to establish true contact, realizing Solaris' nature and deciding to remain on the planet to continue studying it.[1]
The planet Solaris was depicted in differing ways in the novel's film adaptations. While appearing as a mysterious, unexplained spatial phenomenon in the 2002 film adaptation, Lem clarified that the original Solaris was intended as a physical form of extraterrestrial life. Despite often being referred to as an ocean, including within the novel itself, Solaris is not aquatic in nature and is more akin to a chemical soup. The depiction of Solaris was praised by critics as a rare example of non-anthropomorphic alien contact in fiction - a creature that does not act, or even think in a way that humans can understand.[1]