History Literature / Solaris

** [[invoked]] The visitors definitely count, such as the protagonist's girlfriend's dress having buttons but lacking any seams or even a way for it to be put on or removed. There are also biological formations out in the ocean, made out of a calcified substance, that mimic the appearance of any number of things from human-looking buildings and trees to people and dogs. They don't last long and are eventually reabsorbed into the "water."

* MinimalistCast: The only characters in the novel are Kelvin, Snow, Sartorius and Rheya... and she isn't a real person. Though she appears twice; does that count as two characters? Kelvin also briefly sees Gibarian's visitor, a large black woman.

* PinchMe: When Kelvin first sees Rheya, he thinks he's dreaming. When he wants it to end, he stabs his leg with a spindle. But it's not a dream.

The novel was adapted to film thrice, the two most well-known being by Creator/AndreiTarkovsky in [[Film/Solaris1972 1972]] and by Creator/StevenSoderbergh in [[Film/Solaris2002 2002]]. The 1972 film is considered a classic. Lem [[DisownedAdaptation disliked both versions]], claiming that they focus on the humans too much, and miss the actual theme of his novel.
There also exists a 1968 TV film by Boris Nirenburg. Despite lacking a huge part of the final chapter (which was back then cut out of all Russian translations) it still manages to be, arguably, more faithful than the 1972 and the 2002 movies. However, it is not well known and Lem apparently never saw it.

* HopeSpringsEternal: The ending. [[spoiler:Kelvin knows that Rheya will never come back, but still, there's some short of hope beyond hope in him. "I hoped for nothing. And yet I lived in expectation. Since she had gone, that was all that remained."]]

* CosmicHorrorStory: Downplayed. Humanity is doing fine and expanding pretty well without going mad, thanks, but the sea of Solaris itself is a truly alien and godlike entity that is obviously alive and at least does a very good imitation of sentience, one no human can comprehend as it drives the crew studying it mad out of what is ''at worst'' curiosity about the strange entity that entered the planet's orbit or by accidental side effects of being so close to it.

The novel was adapted to film twice, by Creator/AndreiTarkovsky in [[Film/{{Solaris 1972}} 1972]], and by Creator/StevenSoderbergh in [[Film/{{Solaris 2002}} 2002]]. The first film is considered a classic. Lem [[DisownedAdaptation disliked both versions]], claiming that they focus on the humans too much, and miss the actual theme of his novel.
There also exists a 1968 TV film by Boris Nirenburg. It never left Russia, its home country. Despite lacking a huge part of the final chapter (which was back then cut out of all Russian translations) it still manages to be, arguably, more faithful than the 1972 and the 2002 movies. However, it is not well known and Lem has apparently never seen it.

* SlapYourselfAwake: When Kelvin first sees Rheya, he thinks he's dreaming. When he wants it to end, he stabs his leg with a spindle. But it's not a dream.

* PinchMe: When Kelvin first sees Rheya, he thinks he's dreaming. When he wants it to end, he stabs his leg with a spindle. But it's not a dream.

Not to be confused with various characters named Solaris, such as the villain from ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'' and the original form of the villain from the infamous ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', or TheEmpire from ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}'', or the UsefulNotes/Atari2600 game ''Solaris'', or the UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} variant created by Sun Microsystems, now Oracle.

Not to be confused with various characters named Solaris, such as the villain from ''ComicBook/AllStarSuperman'' and the original form of the villain from the infamous ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', or TheEmpire from ''VideoGame/{{Xenogears}}''.

[[quoteright:275:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/solariscover.jpg]]

[[quoteright:308:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hbsolaris_4888.jpg]]

''Solaris'' is an 1961 ScienceFiction novel by Polish author, Creator/StanislawLem. The main theme is whether humans are able to communicate with a truly alien (but benign) intelligence, or would it prove too much for the fragile human psyche.

!! ''Solaris'' contains examples of the following tropes:

* AlienGeometries: The symmetrids, and asymmetrids, are giant formations consisting of a bizarre keratin-like substance. They appear from the black ocean, exist for a period of time, and then collapse back into the sea. Symmetrids are perfectly symmetrical down to the molecule, and asymmetrids are chaotic, unstable and only exist for a fraction of the time of the former. They're described as performing some sort of computer-like calculation process within their own machine-like bio-structure, but towards no understandable or observable purpose.

* EldritchAbomination: One possible interpretation of the planet. In a true Lovecraftian fashion, we can't know if it is malicious or [[BlueAndOrangeMorality simply so alien in its workings that it becomes terrifying]]. It's sentient, but its thoughts and motives are beyond comprehension, as are its physics: somehow, it can affect the workings of the universe on an astronomical scale, but no one knows how. At the time of the novel, humanity has been studying Solaris for a century with barely any progress, and many attempts to communicate directly with Solaris have... [[DrivenToMadness unpleasant results]].

* EldritchAbomination: One possible interpretation of the planet, though it's important to note that we can't know if it is malicious or simply so alien in its workings that it becomes terrifying. It's sentient, but its thoughts and motives are beyond comprehension, as are its physics: somehow, it can affect the workings of the universe on an astronomical scale, but no one knows how. At the time of the novel, humanity has been studying Solaris for a century with barely any progress, and many attempts to communicate directly with Solaris have... [[DrivenToMadness unpleasant results]].

* JerkAss: Sartorius.

''Solaris'' is an 1961 ScienceFiction novel by Polish author, Creator/StanislawLem. The main theme is the impossibility of communication between humans and a truly alien intelligence.

* RiddleForTheAges: Why did the ocean sent the visitors? And why did it stop? Was it a test? Was it torture? Was it a misguided attempt of a good deed? The point of the novel is that we can never know.

* Riddle for the Ages: Why did the ocean sent the visitors? And why did it stop? Was it a test? Was it torture? Was it a misguided attempt of a good deed? The point of the novel is that we can never know.

** Not to mention the description of the giant baby which does not act in any way baby-like, but instead systematically tests out its body, to the horror of the witness.
* WritingByTheSeatOfYourPants: When Lem started the book, describing Kelvin arriving at the station, he had no idea what it was going to be about.

* RiddleForTheAges: Why did the ocean sent the visitors? And why did it stop? Was it a test? Was it torture? Was it a misguided attempt of a good deed? The point of the novel is that we can never know.
** It's strongly hinted that it has something to do with one of the strange formations seen on the surface (the "symmetriad")--that the ocean was trying to understand humans in terms of one, and the "ghosts" were the ocean trying to generate the individual humans' "missing" counterparts.
** Also, what visitors did Snow and Sartorius get? They're probably manifestations of sexual fantasies, but it's never made clear.
*** Not necessarily. Rheya is Kris's MyGreatestFailure in addition to being his TheLostLenore. So it might be [[ILetGwenStacyDie regrets]] (Uptight Sartorius gets a mischevous kid in a straw hat - do you see this as a sexual fantasy? Also Snow seems, after a while, to be at peace with his visitor - maybe he's worked through the problem) or shadow archetypes (again - Sartorius's is very different from himself), or maybe something entirely random from their memories or subconciousness.