Solaris Versions of Reality Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph) Note that chapters aren't numbered, so need to be numbered manually, 1 to 14.

Quote #7

The name he gave them indicates their most astonishing characteristic, the imitation of objects, near or far, external to the ocean itself. (8.55)

Kelvin is talking about mimoids, or structures the ocean builds based on real things. The mimoids are similar to novels in this way: Lem, for instance, writes about people (like Kelvin) who are imitations of real people. And in this case Lem is writing about a mimoid that imitates literature; it's like a mimoid of a mimoid of a mimoid, and so on forever.

Quote #8

"Leave me alone. They aren't real tears." (9.65)

Can a fake person have real emotions? Or to put it another way, are Rheya's emotions real even though she's just a character in a book?

Quote #9

I am the prisoner of an alien matter and my body is clothed in a dead, formless substance—or rather, I have no body, I am that alien matter. (12.10)

Kelvin is imagining himself essentially in Rheya's position; a consciousness in a non-human body, or a consciousness that is a non-human body. You could say that he's experiencing her feelings of artificiality. Or you could say that she represents or embodies his feelings of artificiality. Alienation is a real feeling; maybe Rheya shows how we are all really aliens to ourselves.