Epistemology and Simulacra in Tarkovsky's Solaris

Anshuman Fotedar2006MT50430

- Do you know yourself ?●- As much as anybody does

Contents● Introduction

● Science as Religion

● Epistemological Fall

● Simulation and Simulacra

● Musical and Visual Tropes

A Polish science fiction novel which deals with (among other themes) the ultimate inadequacy of communication between human and non-human species

In probing and examining the oceanic surface of the world named Solaris from a hovering research station the oblivious human scientists are, in turn, being studied by the sentient planet itself.

In due course, Solaris scientifically probes for and examines the secret, guilty thoughts of the human beings who are analyzing it.

Solaris has the ability to manifest their secret, guilty concerns in human form, for each scientist to personally confront, while the self-aware planet studies their responses to its psychological experiments.

Tarkovsky's adaptation is a “drama of grief and partial recovery” concentrated upon the thoughts and the consciences of the cosmonaut.

The psychologically complex and slow narrative has been contrasted to that of Western science fiction films, which rely upon fast narrative pace and special effects to communicate character psychology and an imagined future

EpistemologyFrom Greek epistēmē, "knowledge, science" + λόγος, "logos" or theory of knowledge

The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope (limitations) of knowledge.

It addresses the questions:

* What is knowledge? * How is knowledge acquired? * What do people know? * How do we know what we know?

Debate in this field focuses on analyzing the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification

Science As Religion in Solaris

●The world that Lem creates centers around epistemological questions. Science is generally accepted as answering those questions and thus assume a role akin to that of religion.

●Parallels between science and religion are made

●Contact with alien intelligence, specifically the planet Solaris, is elevated to a high pedestal.

●One Solarist Muntius calls contact ”an ultimate goal” which ”has become sanctified. It has become the heaven of eternity”

Muntius also suggests that the contact Solarists seek would serve the purpose of revelation – disclosing the destiny of man

The science of Solaristics aims to fulfil the epistemological role of religion by answering the question Gibarian poses in Kris's dream: ”How do you know what you are?”

Snow/Snaut insists that this is what man is actually looking for through contact.

”We are only seeking Man. We have no need of other worlds. We need mirrors.”

Tarkovsky depicts the connection using mise-en-scene and set design.

Berton is framed by giant portraits on the wall behind him. From the way the subjects are portrayed it can be assumed that they are

patriarchs of Solaristics. Berton's account would amount to heresy for these orthodox Solarists.

In an early scene, Berton recounts his

experience on Solaris to a committee, which

finds his story incredible and find him unqualified to report because he is

uninitiated to the doctrine of Solaristics.

When the men on the station meet in the library, we see that the library looks like a church, with candles, stained-glass windows and busts of the saints of Solaristics.

At one point the camera zooms in for a close-up on Sartorius's broken glasses which he tries to fix without success.

As imperfect instruments they represent the frailty of humanity's efforts at perception.

In the library, the characters try to make sense of a Solaris that no longer conforms to the dogma of Solaristics.

In the recording he leaves for Kris, Gibarian says his suicide ”has nothing to do with insanity; it has more to do with conscience.”

This is a confession that he had lost his faith.

In the scene in which Hari regenerates after drinking liquid oxygen, the resurrection would normally be taken to imply new awareness.

In this case, the awareness Hari gains is of her own inhumanity. While staring at her hand she gasps, ”Is this me?... It isn't me. I'm not Hari!”

The 'Adam & Eve' Parallels

The station as a paradise where Kris can live together with an immortal Eve

The first appearance of Hari is preceded by the camera slowly zooming in on Kris's head while

he sleeps, then panning away to show Hari sitting where no one had been before.

The zoom and pan could be construed as mimicing the hand of God extracting Hari from

Kris's memory like Adam's rib.

The short duration of happiness Kris and Hari have together could be compared to Eden, or to the final paradise of heaven, since Hari's appearance seems to represent the accomplishment of the promised Holy Contact.

Loss of Faith – An Epistemological Fall

”Inner, hidden, human problems, moral problems, always engage me far more than any

questions of technology”-Tarkovsky

(Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970-1986)

Loss of Faith – An Epistemological Fall

Solaristics fails because it fails to help humanity to understand itself – it fails to give 'mirrors'.

Since Hari is not truely human the long awaited Holy Contact cannot produce the mirror necessary for self-knowledge.

If Hari is part-human, one might think that she could serve the purpose of Snaut's 'mirror' and give humanity self-knowledge. However, the mirror that is sought is an idealised one - ”an ideal image of our own world.”

”A mirror of a subjective reality – a mirror that distorts the real into what it is wished to be.”

However, Hari is almost the opposite: a mirror that reflects the hidden shame and darkness of the human soul.

Solaris is a catalytic voyage at the end of which Kris looks for resolution

”...while outwardly the journey seems to end in fiasco, in fact the protagonist acquires something

of inestimable value: faith.”- Tarkovsky

(Sculpting in Time)

In the final scenes, it is revealed that the house on Earth to which Kris seems to have returned is actually on an island in the ocean of Solaris.

This could suggest either another phantasm of the ocean, or a new heterogeneity of Kris's soul.

The rain falling inside of the house may suggest the depth of spiritual cleansing Kris has undergone through what he has experienced.

Lem and Tarkovsky - Different, but Related Focii

Lem creates the world, Tarkovsky peoples it.Togther they show us the problems of science as epistemology and the repercussions those problems happen to have on certain individuals.

With their worldview shattered, Hari and Kris are left to comprehend their existence as best they can. Hari dies in a vain attempt to erase the awareness her presence brought, while Kris seeks a new order.

It remains unclear if Kris does manage to find it in the end, but he does seem to have found peace.

Use of SoundSounds – diegetic or otherwise, can be used to add layers of metaphor and set up a multidimensional view of a subject.

In Solaris, the dialogues run slowly and the use of music during the three hour runtime is minimal.This makes the few appearances of non-diegetic sound stand out.

Sound and the absence of sound are both utilised. They become a sort of commentary and reasoning for the whole film, and highlight relevant moments.

The natural sounds, such as birds, rain storm and flowing water correlate to the episodes in the earth. These kinds of sounds represent the genuine world of the Earth, its memory and humanity.

The urban noise, which appears only once, in the episode of driving a car through a megapolis, represents the modern culture.

The cosmic environmental sound takes place in different moments and provides a kind of diversity but generally symbolises the presence of Solaris: it might be, then, interpreted as a sound of universe.

A quotation of Bach, the Choral Prelude in F-minor sounds in the film four times and reflects the global idea of the Earth as an image for Solaris.

Hunters in the Snow - Pieter Bruegel

This painting of a wintry scene in which three hunters are returning from a hunting expedition accompanied by their dogs appears as many as four times.

Both Bach and Bruegel are concentrated at the golden section and the end of the film: they convey the Earth and humanity in eternal

images.

The Return of the Prodigal Son

References● Lem S. : Solaris (1961). Trans. Kimartin J, Cox S (1987). Harvest Books

● Spackman A. : An Epistemological Fall : Tarkovsky's Humanist Interpretation of Lem's Solaris. 2001, Perspectives (Brigham Young University)

●Jordan M., Haladyn J. : Simulation, Simulacra and Solaris. Film-Philosophy, Vol 14, No 1 (2010)

●Baudrillard, J. Simulacra and Simulations (1994). Trans. Glaser S. Ann Arbor. The University of Michigan Press

Simulacra

●Simulacrum (plural: -cra), from the Latin simulacrum which means "likeness, similarity"● a representation of another thing, such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god; ●it had gathered a secondary association of inferiority: an image without the substance or qualities of the original

●In his Sophist, Plato speaks of two kinds of image-making.●

●The first is a faithful reproduction, attempted to copy precisely the original.●

●The second is distorted intentionally in order to make the copy appear correct to viewers.●

●He gives an example of Greek statuary, which was crafted larger on top than on bottom so that viewers from the ground would see it correctly. If they could view it in scale, they would realize it was malformed. This example from visual arts serves as a metaphor for philosophical arts

● the tendency of some philosophers to distort truth in such a way that it appeared accurate unless viewed from the proper angle.

●Modern French social theorist Jean Baudrillard argues that a simulacrum is not a copy of the real, but becomes truth in its own right: the hyperreal.

●Where Plato saw two steps of reproduction — faithful and intentionally distorted (simulacrum) — Baudrillard sees four: ●(1) basic reflection of reality●(2) perversion of reality●(3) pretence of reality (where there is no model); ●(4) simulacrum, which “bears no relation to any reality whatsoever.”

●In Baudrillard’s concept, simulacra are perceived as negative