Book of the Day: "Solaris" — The Novel That No One Can Properly Adapt to Film | Interesting facts

What if humanity actually encounters extraterrestrial intelligence one day — and can't ask it a single question? Not because there are no words, but because words simply don't work.

This isn't just science fiction—it's a philosophical meditation on the limits of human understanding. "Solaris" (1961) by Stanisław Lem is one of those books that leaves you sitting quietly with the closed cover in your hands long after you've finished.

What the novel is about

Scientists work on an orbital station orbiting the planet Solaris, trying to establish contact with the mysterious Ocean—a vast substance covering the planet's entire surface.

The Ocean seems alive. But instead of the expected "contact," it responds by materializing suppressed memories.

Writer Stanisław Lem in a beret and glasses, next to a book cover with a yellow-white spot on it — Stanisław Lem and the cover of the novel "Solaris"

Psychologist Kris Kelvin arrives at the orbital station and immediately realizes something's gone wrong. One scientist is dead, another's on the verge of madness. And wandering the corridors is a woman who looks exactly like his deceased lover. Only she can't be real. Or can she?

What makes it fascinating

"Solaris" isn't about lasers, alien battles, or even technology. This is a novel about a human confronting something so incomprehensibly "other" that it shatters not only scientific theories but his own psyche.

Actor Donatas Banionis's face in blue light, with him holding a girl in his arms beside him — Poster for Andrei Tarkovsky's film "Solaris"

Lem deliberately avoids anthropomorphism: the Ocean isn't a creature, god, or monster. It's a life form you can't communicate with using familiar language. And that's the most terrifying part. We're not the center of the universe. We can't even always grasp how little we understand.

Film adaptations

The theme of "Solaris" has repeatedly attracted filmmakers. In 1972, Andrei Tarkovsky made a philosophical drama that won the Grand Prix at Cannes. His "Solaris" speaks of love, pain, and memory—and about Earth even more than about space.

In 2002, an American version by Steven Soderbergh starring George Clooney was released—dark and aesthetic, but according to Lem himself, too "humanized."

No adaptation, the writer said, ever captured the main thing—the "otherness" of Solaris.

Poster showing actor George Clooney kissing actress Natascha McElhone, poster showing the actor standing in a spaceship corridor — Posters for Steven Soderbergh's film "Solaris"

As the author [of the novel] I shall allow myself to repeat that I only wanted to create a vision of a human encounter with something that certainly exists, in a mighty manner perhaps, but cannot be reduced to human concepts, ideas or images. This is why the book was entitled "Solaris" and not "Love in Outer Space", the author commented on Soderbergh's adaptation.

I agree—this book isn't about love in zero gravity, but about the limits of humanity. The promise of contact that will never be mutual. And maybe that's the most honest science fiction of all. Earlier on zoomboola.com, we covered "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"—even David Fincher couldn't resist that one.