From: "Nigel Price" 
Subject: (urth) Off topic: Solaris
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 23:04:40 -0000

Echoing what Andy said, thanks, Nutria, for all the stuff on Solaris, which
was fascinating. Thanks, too, while, I'm about it, for your speculative
interpretation of the symbolism in the Blue-Green-Whorl triangle back on 4
January (cf (urth) Blue-Ushas; Green-Urth -- Problems). That was very
helpful, and I was surprised that no one followed you up on that specific
line of thought.

But about Solaris: I loved the original Russian film, which I went to see
twice in the week it came out in this country and have seen several times
since. When I heard that Hollywood was doing a remake, I could hardly
believe that they would do anything so hubristic and utterly redundant.
Anyway, I've recovered now, and I gather that the new version is now on
general release in the States. An off-topic question, therefore, to you and
others who have seen the new movie, which won't get to the UK for a while I
suspect: is it any good? Reply off-list if you think it more appropriate!

A secondary question: does anyone know whether there is an English
translation of Lem's novel other than the one that was made from the French
translation? That one's OK, but frustratingly "secondhand".

Nigel [who is now wondering about possible Christian symbolism in
Tarkovsky's "Stalker", the film version of the Strugatskys' novel "Roadside
Picnic", which seems fairly absurdist and nihilistic to me]


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