The Solarists
- Kelvin leaves Snow and goes into the corridor; he wanders about nervously, before going to the locker to change his space suit.
- Still changing into his spacesuit… and still changing. This, Shmoop readers, is action-packed space adventure, Lazy-Boy style.
- He takes a shower, and finds a tool box with tools melted. He can't figure out how they were melted (more on this over in the "Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory" section).
- Dressed, Kelvin's still out of sorts, so decides to settle himself by reading a handy book about the history of Solaris. Exposition ensues.
- We go into the history of Solaris. It was discovered a century before Kelvin was born (whenever that was), and it orbits two suns, which means its orbit should be too unstable to allow for life.
- But somehow the orbit isn't as unstable as all that, and scientists eventually figure out that the ocean is some sort of massive biological form.
- Kelvin natters on and on about the hypotheses and counter-hypotheses. Apparently the ocean controls the orbit of the planet somehow, which has caused much consternation among scientists.
- More theories and counter-theories. It's all gobbledy-gook (which is sort of the point—check out the "Symbolism" section to dig into why).
- Finally Kelvin puts the darn book back… but if you thought we'd get plot, you are mistaken.
- Instead Kelvin goes back to talking about how nobody knows anything about Solaris.
- All they know is negative: The Ocean doesn't have a nervous system and they can't figure out really even if or how it's alive.
- Kelvin says that trying to figure out the ocean made people try to figure out issues of mind and consciousness. And guess what? They didn't succeed. It's kind of how things go in this book.
- Now Kelvin gets out a map and looks at it. Contemplating Solaris, he feels like he's being watched. But he isn't. Or is he? (Is it the ocean? Or is it you, dear reader, looking over his shoulder?)
- Kelvin realizes it's time to go back to see Snow again.
- He goes into Gibarian's room, which is a mess.
- He finds some notes that say that Gibarian was bombarding the ocean with intensive X-rays.
- Kelvin hears someone at the door, walks over, and without thinking about it, holds the handle to prevent the person from coming in. Eventually they go away.
- Who was on the other side of the door? Will we ever know? (Spoiler alert: Yes; just hold on.)