Goodreads asked Phillip T. Stephens:

If you could travel to any fictional book world, where would you go and what would you do there?

Phillip T. Stephens Tough question. One of the greatest works of comedy I've encountered is the Urantia Book, and it would be fun to visit the Hovana administrative worlds which remind me of my childhood in the fifties. But I'd probably get caught in an eternal line at one of the licensing offices, so I'll pass. I loved Narnia when I was a kid, but I found better Turkish Delight here and I'm allergic to big cat fur. Hobbits annoy me. I'd love to chase the bulls and drink Pernod with Jake Barnes and Brett, but toilet facilities were crap in Europe during the time frame of the book. I'd like to be a Canopan visiting Shikasta, but I'd probably forget my true calling and become a couch potato.

So the answer is: Solaris.

Not on the space station, but on the planet, watching the internal workings of my mind reify and have long discussions about the phenomenology of a world mind as opposed to my poor limited one.

As long as my first wife doesn't show up. I like well enough as a person, but sooner or later we'd start talking about our son, get into a huge argument and move to opposite ends of the planet where we would populate it with specters from our incompatible pasts.

Yep, that's it. Solaris. Even if it's only the movie version. The Russian version directed by Tarkovsky. Soderberg version's okay, but shallow in comparison.

Solaris

flag