Instead of reviewing the story and then launching into some deeper thinking about what Lem may be telling us I want to just delve into two main themes I found myself thinking about. The first is what most think is Lem’s main message – if we one day make contact with an alien life form will we ever have any hope of actually communicating with it in any meaningful way?

Is the appearance of the visitors a form of communication? I think this question merits attention because on the surface it seems that Solaris is trying to do something but then this activity begs the question – what is it trying to do? Is it trying to communicate? Or is it too performing an experiment?

I was somewhat disappointed by some descriptions I found on the Internet as to the nature of the visitors. The overwhelming view that people seemed to have was that Solaris was intentionally dredging up the worst repressed memories the researchers had. In truth Lem never really reveals to us just what Solaris is doing but I think that underscores his point about communication with alien life forms (that it wouldn’t be comprehensible). Even though the experiences seemed traumatic for the crew members it cannot be said that that was the ocean’s intentions. Snow even suggests at the end of the book that the visitors might have been “presents” of a sort.