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A review by fipah
Solaris by Stanisław Lem
1.0
No.
If the author thinks that this is what the future looks like – a future without any women scientists – then he is very narrow-minded and unable to envision a future in the first place. Yawn. Like the setting of this story is literally when humans colonise space and every character still is a male. Our protagonist goes to a library several times during the book and he reads varied scientific theories done by varied researchers of varied fields and disciplines. Throughout the book, there are in total like 25+ names of scientists he studies dropped (and their research is thoroughly explored) – and it is comical how every single one of them is male. Every time I was like "Mkays, let's look who these next four scientists are... and...aww.. yep. Men. Again." The only woman we have in this book is the protagonist's love interest. That's it. How surprising is that? Women being the sexual and romantic vessels for men in literature.
Apart from this, I could not find the depth others rave about. To me, this is one of those classics that people swear by, but it just does not have much to offer. Everything that happened was hazy, unexplained and frankly lazy in my opinion. The ending is not really explained either – when more empathy and explanation are needed to justify the actions of the female character Harey. Also, the relationships are very archetypal, at first Harey is rejected by the protagonist. Days go by and he just suddenly shows the reader he is actually in love with her and a primary conflict of the book arises. But this love is not and has never been explored. How come he suddenly is in love with her when he totally wanted to get rid of her very recently? In general, I am bothered when relationships and communication between characters lack any realness. Like this is not how people talk or how they coexist in an enclosed space together – literally, we have 3 characters living in a space ship that just ignore each other, despite the fact our protagonist has just arrived to live on the ship. Like what? Is that what everyone would do? Just live a secluded life in the cabin and let the days go by?
Not recommended.
If the author thinks that this is what the future looks like – a future without any women scientists – then he is very narrow-minded and unable to envision a future in the first place. Yawn. Like the setting of this story is literally when humans colonise space and every character still is a male. Our protagonist goes to a library several times during the book and he reads varied scientific theories done by varied researchers of varied fields and disciplines. Throughout the book, there are in total like 25+ names of scientists he studies dropped (and their research is thoroughly explored) – and it is comical how every single one of them is male. Every time I was like "Mkays, let's look who these next four scientists are... and...aww.. yep. Men. Again." The only woman we have in this book is the protagonist's love interest. That's it. How surprising is that? Women being the sexual and romantic vessels for men in literature.
Apart from this, I could not find the depth others rave about. To me, this is one of those classics that people swear by, but it just does not have much to offer. Everything that happened was hazy, unexplained and frankly lazy in my opinion. The ending is not really explained either – when more empathy and explanation are needed to justify the actions of the female character Harey. Also, the relationships are very archetypal, at first Harey is rejected by the protagonist. Days go by and he just suddenly shows the reader he is actually in love with her and a primary conflict of the book arises. But this love is not and has never been explored. How come he suddenly is in love with her when he totally wanted to get rid of her very recently? In general, I am bothered when relationships and communication between characters lack any realness. Like this is not how people talk or how they coexist in an enclosed space together – literally, we have 3 characters living in a space ship that just ignore each other, despite the fact our protagonist has just arrived to live on the ship. Like what? Is that what everyone would do? Just live a secluded life in the cabin and let the days go by?
Not recommended.