Currently Entering Shiri’s Eyeholes
Going retro at the moment. This is a big step for me as, has been previously mentioned on the pod, I’m not a big one for “canon” or “classics” as regards genre fiction. Partially because turn offs include: misogyny, long passages of exposition in fiction, being beaten about the head and shoulders with the “message” of a novel, a high proportion of tell to show, and movie adaptations starring George Clooney in a “dramatic” role (I’ll Oh, Brother until the cows come home but there’s a limit. And no, I haven’t actually seen either film version Solaris, yes, I am speculating, but odds are in my favor neither is as good as the book). Partially because I prefer urban fantasy to hard sci-fi when devouring words for pleasure vis a vis storyline, likelihood of at least one decently written female/POC/non white-bread character that is > token, and because that’s what floats my nucleus accumbens.
I’m making a concerted attempt, however, to regrow some old branches, thanks to my love Andy Weir’s The Martian; I caught a passing mention of Solaris somewhere (and I honestly can’t remember where at the moment) and figured, “What the hell?” Science fiction from other parts of the world, especially the former Soviet Bloc, always has a little something you’re not expecting, a different angle, even some cultural/philosophical/historical shading to contextualize the years before the internet made the world so much smaller and cozier (if not at all friendlier).
Thus far I am… intrigued. I can’t tell whether I’m full on “enjoying” yet, but I have no plan of laying Solaris by the wayside before completion (then again, it’s only 200 pages). Lew’s most famous novel is definitely an arm’s length between MC and reader sort of a book and Kelvin, though rightfully terrified from go, is very much a douche-bag (though that may be, in part, translation. Yeah, add Polish to that list of languages I don’t speak/read). Solaris contains some outdated vocabulary that, while not strictly “racist” is, by modern standards cringe-worthy; keep in mind the book was originally published in 1961 and first translated for American readers (Polish to French to English, or so claims the almighty elder god Wikipedia) in 1970 (long, long ago in a galaxy far far away. The one with giant puffy hair and junk-constricting pants).
I’ll keep you posted.
Feel free to read along with me and post comments here or with the eventual review I have every intention of writing I swear…
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