Solaris by Stanislaw Lem
*Note: This was my term paper for a class. Decided to post it here because I have no idea what my grade was for this paper. Introduction Solaris is considered a philosophical science fiction novel by some readers because it explores the dilemmas following a contact with an alien life-form that does not conform to our idea of a sentient being. Some of its themes are ideas of identity and otherness, human memory and the reality of our experiences. Stanislaw Lem Stanislaw Lem was born in Ukraine and died in Poland. He grew up in a Jewish family to well-to-do parents. Later in life, he said he was a Roman Catholic but he became an agnostic and then an atheist at some point. His family survived the Nazi occupation through false documents. He worked as a welder and mechanic. He even helped the Polish resistance by stealing munitions for them. After his family moved to Krakow, he took up medicine but did not become a full-fledged doctor. He was controversial at one point in his ...