I'm almost done with Solaris (Russian translation). I decided to re-read it because of the debate over sci-fi vs. literature. After re-reading, I remain convinced that the book is fundamentally about human nature. The extended explanation of the ocean of Solaris is a big sci-fi geeky sort of thing, but I still think the more important and interesting points are the psychological points about people. Do we love people, or our idea of those people? Is space exploration and the hope of finding intelligent life not a disguised vanity, where we hope to see the better aspects of our nature in the "mirror", and not the worse aspects? Why do we assume we will find a mirror of ourselves in the first place? What is reality? How can someone determine whether or not they are "real"? Is the Buddhist concept of a lack of inherent existence not equally true about people and constructs that are based on people (whether as computers, robots, or the sort of ersatz people produced by Solaris) ? What is sentience, ultimately?