The Red Sea

"The ceaseless mutation of forms composed of indestructible substances is the greatest thought that mankind was ever given."

On Solaris, there is an ocean which is a monstrous, biological fluid with amazing capabilities. It exerts a gravitational pull, correcting the planets misguided orbital path around the two suns. But the most fascinating aspect of the ocean is that it is able to produce life, gleaning knowledge of the scientist's deepest hidden thoughts and recreating living, breathing people which mimic or stand in for lost relations to Kelvin, Snow, and Sartorius. This red ocean is able to produce a "ceaseless mutation of forms", a byproduct of the scientist's minds who inhabit the station on Solaris. The created likenesses are memories from the deepest recesses of people's minds taken from dreams. Then when Kelvin and the others awake, the person, flesh and blood, is there next to them in a form that is immortal and ageless-a god. These creations become their masters, their gods, whom they must placate at any cost.

Rheya, the alien reproduction of Kelvin's deceased ex-wife, does not understand why she cannot stop following him, even to the point of her tearing the door off it's hinges to be near (this is what the picture illustrates, her confusion at acting the way she does; in fact, she doesn't even know why she's bleeding). Lem's entire novel reflects the ideas of Luctretius: religion as a byproduct of the human mind and nature as the ultimate creator.

Whilst human kind
Throughout the lands lay miserably crushed
Before all eyes beneath Religion—who
Would show her head along the region skies,
Glowering on mortals with her hideous face—
A Greek it was who first opposing dared
Raise mortal eyes that terror to withstand,
Whom nor the fame of Gods nor lightning's stroke
Nor threatening thunder of the ominous sky
Abashed; but rather chafed to angry zest
His dauntless heart to be the first to rend
The crossbars at the gates of Nature old.
And thus his will and hardy wisdom won;
And forward thus he fared afar, beyond
The flaming ramparts of the world, until
He wandered the unmeasurable All.
Whence he to us, a conqueror, reports
What things can rise to being, what cannot,
And by what law to each its scope prescribed,
Its boundary stone that clings so deep in Time.
Wherefore Religion now is under foot,
And us his victory now exalts to heaven.
-Lucretius


Rheya etymologically comes from the goddess named Rheia, the titan mother to all Olympus gods. While the ocean produces the substance that makes Rheya "real", it is Kelvin's mind that produces the her characteristics which form of a familiar, comforting deity. When it is time for her to leave (try not to spoil it too badly), it is nearly impossible for Kelvin to let go. The destruction of the gods mirrors Lucretius' denunciation of the pantheon. Rheya is the embodiment of what Lucretius is questioning in De Rerum Natura.

The ocean echoes Lucretius as it presents a disruption to the entirety of human experience and knowledge as it creates life at will. This is in complete absence of a god or creator in the most common sense, instead posing a natural force as the ultimate source of life.

Whence Nature all creates, and multiplies
And fosters all, and whither she resolves

Each in the end when each is overthrown.

-Lucretius

 Just as the red fern, like the red ocean, conjures up the proposition that the world and all of creation has not changed but rather the way in which we are seeing it has evolved. The fern was an object or symbol within my mind but had not been fully illuminated until experienced fully. Likewise, the ocean on Solaris is a symbol for the expansion of human knowledge which is never completely realized until Kris Kelvin arrives there and truly understands the pure natural power of the ocean. The ocean lives, creates,  moves, a godlike organism which tests the reality of Kelvin's world and the realm of possibility.

Since everyone's posting poems...

This was a quick assignment I had done for film class where we were to "describe what our shoe meant to us". Most of the people had quirky utilitarian definitions like, "Comfortable, rugged...Holy shit! Shoes!" The other requirement was that it be short enough to fit into a tweet, so as to be concise and not too boring.

Don my Stocks
summers arrival,
On/Off while
warm months wan,
Frozen gaze
enveloping pleasure,
Oily prints
as nude on snow.

Just had some fun with it.

Ferntacular!

Opening the bible, as I often do, I stumbled upon The Red Fern which I really like.

The large-leaved day grows rapidly,
And opens in this familiar spot
Its unfamiliar, difficult fern,
Pushing and pushing red after red.

There are doubles of this fern in clouds,
Less firm than the paternal flame,
Yet drenched with its identity,
Reflections and off-shoots, mimic-motes

And mist-mites, dangling seconds, grown
Beyond relation to the parent trunk:
The dazzling, bulging, brightest core,
The furiously burning father-fire...

Infant, it is enough in life
To speak of what you see. But wait
Until sight wakens the sleepy eye
And pierces the physical fix of things.

I had never really looked at a red fern but this one is growing out of rocks it seems. There are a bunch of them all nearly identical.

I think this poem is merely describing the fiery red fern in the first three stanzas but the last one is what really piqued my interest. It almost discredits the first three. I believe he is saying that you can talk about, write about, and describe, or try to illustrate certain beauties in life but sometimes words will just not do the object justice. As here, the fern was just an opaque and lifeless image in my mind until I googled it and realized how amazing it really looks. Further, these pictures probably do not do proper homage to the actual living thing.

Volcano

Through the weaved links on the chain fencing I watch my two children playing on the elementary school playground; it is only the third day of school. The biting autumn wind reminds me to zip my jacket. The imminence of a long, frozen winter continuously confronts me with my mortality-a frail and fleeting collection of memories and words. The bell rings for what seems a solid minute and I kiss my young children goodbye wrapping their small frames in my arms in loving embrace. They eagerly scamper inside for spelling hour. I turn to walk home and think of these kids, not just my own, but every one of them. They will speak our language; but will they know our stories? They will endure a literate despair.

Up the cracked concrete stairs I plod slowly along, and pause momentarily, noticing the faded and chipped crimson paint of the egress. The hinges are rusted and utter an arduous groan as I enter. This is my house, my mansion, which was my parents' and their parents' before them; also bequeathed to my children. The home has become dilapidated and used throughout the years of occupancy yet it retains a certain character and authenticity which those new homes can never attain. Architects and contractors copy the designs of Victorian, Colonial, and Bungalow houses from centuries past but the ghosts within can never be duplicated, constructed, or contrived. Perhaps our children will wonder at the creaks and groans in the walls and roofs when the wind begins to gust. Perhaps they will just see the house aesthetically: a run-down, used, old home which has suffered the same hardships as its inhabitants and its surroundings.

But when the opulent sun breaks in the early morning on the front porch of that home, they will bask in the heat and life of it; they will remember the house for its true nature and beauty-for it is as much a part of them as it is a part of me.

Violet's Story Revisited

Violet's Story

So, in case you don't know, Violet is my four year old daughter. This is her story. She can't read yet but can decipher some basic words and knows her alphabet, etc. I told her to tell me a story and this is what we ended up with.

"Once upon a time there was a princess named Vanilla and her mom didn't let her go out any of the time. And she didn't let her mother go out because she didn't want to go out because she wouldn't, because she wouldn't because she wouldn't. Blah blah blah. And then the prince came and she had a furry coat and she had a list about it. Most of all she loved her bunny. Hop hop hop went the bunny. Hop hop hop she helped her bunny. Hop hop hop hop hop with her lovely penny and her little woof woof named Allay. Allay and bunny went to the store because they wanted to sweep and they sweeped the computer and they sweeped the wall because most of all she loved her bunny, she loved her bunny. The queen loved the animals and she tried to keep her away from the bunny and her bear Sandy with a pink bunny and a white bunny with a broom she wouldn't go without a bloom bloom wash. Tada the end of that one. Now it's time for the next one. Because she has a bow doesn't mean she was a boy. I made myself homemade handcuffs today out of this today. I just did and then I had a little time and then it was really hard getting it off. (Singing) Balupadupadup. I don't know what to do. She didn't know what to do. I am singing the song for her because she didn't know what to do. She didn't know what to do because she's lost, because she's almost new because she's eating fruit every day. I don't know what to do. She didn't know because I didn't know. She had a floppy coat that was pink and black and she had nice soft shoes on and a nice soft Hoseypillow. And she didn't know her name, she couldn't write her name. (Begins to strum the guitar and sing now) She would be a bad bad bunny because end of story but we still have part of the story left. If you ever liked a tomato, if you don't like to talk to tomatoes, then you don't like to talk to me, and if you like to talk to me, then you don't like to talk to me. It's fine if you don't. I don't know who did it for awhile. The End. I will tell you more of the story. Hopping leaping for awhile. You don't know what the frog is. It's a Wooluf. A Wooluf is a wolf that doesn't scratch or doesn't bite, but most of all, doesn't bite. And her name is Vanilla. Va-uh-nil-uh. That is what it says? If you don't have this list, then you don't know what it is. (Guitarring again) And I don't know what to do, I love books and you do too."

So this is completely unedited. I just wrote what she said/sang. Actually turned out kind of cool (I think).