Signification: The Naming of Characters in Solaris by Guy Dugdale

Where do the characters in Solaris get their names? This brief study suggests that Stanislaw Lem, a cultured Middle European intellectual, is using them, playfully, to point back to specific historical individuals, and, in this way, to the nature and origins of the characteristic concerns of all his work.

Solaris follows the convention, found in other Soviet science fiction, of a world apparently, though not explicitly, unified on the model of the Soviet Union (and, in the film, speaking Russian). Black and Asian faces are seen, and names are often not Russian, as here. Apart from anything else, this ‘internationalism’ doubtless flattered Soviet authority on whom these artists depended.

There is more to these names. With one exception, each of Stanislav Lem’s characters appears to allude to a specific historical individual. Learning something of these namesakes supplies the means of guessing at the author’s thoughts about his own creations, or his novel more generally. ‘Guessing’, because the intention is often clearly playful or ironic. The final effect of these shared names is that the characters in Solaris are themselves something almost like ‘Visitors’ - fantastical re-imaginings from the recorded fragments of long-dead actual personalities.

Fanciful explanations for the origin of words or phrases are called ‘folklore etymology’ by linguists. It is a very human tendency to supply them. Likewise, some of the connections set out below are purely speculative. Some may be the sort of after-the-fact rationalisation which arises from thinking too much about another’s work, and of which film analysis is certainly not free. However, that is the game Lem has set us. In none of the available comments by the author, all dating long after the book was published, does he add greatly to our understanding of Solaris. Research into primary Polish-language materials might reveal more about its origins and realization, and thus these names.

Tarkovsky was evidently happy to go along with all this. The third person who had a part in translating these character names from novel to film, probably in some degree of co-operation with Lem, was the screenplay’s co-writer, Friedrich Gorenstein. Gorenstein led an eventful life, touched by hardship and tragedy. The film presumably contains traces of his (as distinct from Lem’s or Tarkovsky’s) thinking, but Gorenstein would seem to be a subject for future ‘Solaristics’.

The names

Fechner  - The lost scientist for whom Berton searches on Solaris. Gustav Fechner was a 19thc German philosopher, psychologist and mystic. He proposed a (logarithmic) relation between the physical intensity of stimulus and the resulting psychological sensation. He was also a vivid animist, imagining man halfway between the souls of plants and of stars, which he thought were angels. God, he felt, must have an existence analogous to human beings.

Henri Berton  - In the novel called ‘Andre Berton’, a play on the French surrealist Andre Breton. Richard Burton was a hugely intelligent 19thc explorer and cultural interpreter, bringing ‘The Arabian Nights’ and ‘Kama Sutra’ to Britain. His unorthodox and dissenting character brought him considerable trouble with authority. Famously, his widow burned his papers after his death, including much suspected to be of great merit and interest.

Snaut  - One of the remaining scientists on the Solaris space station. ‘Snaut’ is Polish for snow (‘shneek’, or ‘snyeg’ in Russian). Snow is a Tarkovsky trope, in this film perhaps mediating liquid (the Ocean) and solid (the Earth), although as the attention given to the Brueghel painting makes clear, snow is central to the nostalgic vision of Earth itself – this would presumably be felt most clearly by a Russian audience.

Sartorius  – The other space station scientist. Ernst Sartorius was a 19thc Lutheran theologian. Among the doctrines his writings explore are the pre-existence of Christ (before his appearance on Earth), and ‘kinosis’ (‘self-emptying’), the idea that God set aside the fullness of His divine nature to live a human life (as Christ). These ideas throw an intriguing perspective on the Ocean and the Visitors it sends.

Hari – Kelvin’s dead lover and Visitor. Called ‘Rheya’ in the novel, perhaps deriving from Aphrodite (‘Afrodyta’ in Polish), the Greek goddess of love who arose from sea foam. One might likewise consider an allusion to Mata Hari, an exotic dancer who has become the archetype of the femme fatale, seducing secrets from men. She was executed in 1917 as a German spy, much, one might suggest, as Kelvin dispatches the first Hari who visits him. Mata Hari’s act derived from Java, where she lived for a time, and in Javanese, ‘Mata Hari’ is the name for the sun – literally, ‘eye of the day’. The actress Natalya Bondarchuk, who plays Hari in Solaris, bears a passing resemblance to the younger Mata Hari (although she was not the first choice for the part).

Kris Kelvin – ‘Kris’ may be intended as an echo of a cartoon space hero, although the name is spelt with a ‘K’ in Latinised Russian. Or Saint Christopher, who carried travellers across water on his back. Or Christ – ‘Khristos’ in Russian. William Thompson, Lord Kelvin, was a polymath 19thc scientist. His most famous quote concerns measuring. Another is: “I am never content until I have constructed a mechanical model of the subject I am studying. If I succeed in making one, I understand. Otherwise, I do not."  For a namesake lying in the arms of a Visitor, this has irony. The historic Kelvin also determined the temperature of absolute zero, or as he termed it, “infinite cold.”

Solaris  - Simply means ‘of the sun’ in Latin. It is possible to imagine some irony between the fiery nature of any sun and the fluid mystery of the Ocean. However, a passing remark by Lem in a late interview gives some weight to the idea that he simply needed almost a generic title, something like: ‘(Just a) planet’.

Guy Dugdale is a freelance researcher and writer.