To Read & To Write

For words, we have extensive etymologies, for literature we have comprehensive exegeses, for life we have philosophy, for history we have critical theories, for art we have historical analyses, and the same goes for science. The whole of Stanislaw Lem's  Solaris  (from French and published in 1961) is a beautiful study in  bodies of work such as those, and how, as time passes and consciousness changes, all these criticisms, theories, and conclusions merge and die, sometimes becoming irrelevant or outright wrong, or else become case studies in hysteria or some other psychological manifestation, all the while developing a chronological set of *facts*. The subject in Lem's elegantly written novel is the planet Solaris, a planet that has been under the observation and scrutiny of scientists for thousands of years. The protagonist of this story is Kris Kelvin, a psychiatrist who became fascinated with the planet as a child and consequently dedicated his entire life to it,...