It's rare that I get enough time to read a lot, but this week had fewer square dance calling gigs than I've had in the four weeks, as well as some passenger time while commuting to/from last weekend's C2 square dance event in York, PA. More evenings free means more reading, and it's a happy indulgence.
I haven't seen either the original film of "Solaris" or the US version so I was strictly going by the (translated) print version. The psychological and philosophical issues were fascinating, but some of the more science-like stuff --page after page of describing 'ocean' formations in great technical detail-- dragged heavily without adding much if anything to the book. I'd have taken an editor's pencil to much of those portions.
I'm still left with a big mystery, however: why were the other two scientists so secretive of their 'guests,' never allowing Kelvin to see or meet any? The psychology of their paranoia was only lightly touched while I thought it material worthy of fairly deep mining.
Overall, "Solaris" holds it own brilliantly against the test of 51 years since its original publication. Sure, the references to print books and paper-printed computer responses are a touch dated, but that's the only minor nit I could come up with which would indicate this book wasn't a recent, more modern release.
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Date: 2012-10-13 09:42 pm (UTC)I haven't seen either the original film of "Solaris" or the US version so I was strictly going by the (translated) print version. The psychological and philosophical issues were fascinating, but some of the more science-like stuff --page after page of describing 'ocean' formations in great technical detail-- dragged heavily without adding much if anything to the book. I'd have taken an editor's pencil to much of those portions.
I'm still left with a big mystery, however: why were the other two scientists so secretive of their 'guests,' never allowing Kelvin to see or meet any? The psychology of their paranoia was only lightly touched while I thought it material worthy of fairly deep mining.
Overall, "Solaris" holds it own brilliantly against the test of 51 years since its original publication. Sure, the references to print books and paper-printed computer responses are a touch dated, but that's the only minor nit I could come up with which would indicate this book wasn't a recent, more modern release.