The Adjustment Team

"The Adjustment Team" will sate nearly any conspiracy lover as it is a story about secret organizations that set day to day life on the correct path.  I'm more interesting, however, in thinking about it as a metaphor for a supernatural creator/designer.  Knowing Dick's own fascination with God, it makes for an inert testing crossover between religious belief and illuminati-like secret organizations.

I've recently had a fascination with Baudrillard's idea of the simulation and simulacra,  as expressed in Turkle's work (so I don't have a deep understanding).  I connect it here because, in the the world of "the Adjustment Team", the world is more a program of cause and effect, with the Adjusters being able to see how events relate and lead from one to another.  It questions whether the world should have a Designer or not; then, assuming there is a designer, it asks if the designed should be aware of it.  I've  a feeling I will continue coming back to this: Dick wonders if there is something beyond us, then asks us if we want to know or not.

(Also, not the best post.  I blame being on a long weekend vacation, and typing on an iPad.)

I wouldn't have remembered that retail.

A love of Jonathan Lethem, a new job involving technology in education, and some mild issues with identity and identity formation lead me back to Philip K. Dick.  It began with a paranoid day caused by reading the prologue to Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other.  In that book, Turkle mentions a book called Love and Sex with Robots.  Long story short: this lead me to think of a conversation with my father-in-law (do NOT make a connection there).  His theory was that my grandparents generation would have an issue with inter-racial marriage, while his generation, okay with inter-racial, has an issue with homosexual marriage, while my generation is okay with both (we're almost to the point).  I, looking into the future, believe that my generation will have an issue with human-technology marriage/relationships.

That lead me to purchase Bladerunner and attempt to re-read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. My standard inability to finish things I start, lead me to put down Androids... and pick up The Selected Stories of Philip K. Dick.

(I had initially written something like this intro two weeks ago in my head.  I then forgot it, and remembered it today.  I mention this only because it seems reflective of Dick's work itself.)

"We Can Remember That for You Wholesale" was the inspiration for the movies, Total Recall, and it becomes clear fairly early that the writers of the movie put a lot of effort into expanded a basic idea.  "We Can Remember That for You Wholesale" creates the interesting premise that the movies turn into a two hour long action movie.

Similarly to "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", the story deals with memory and memory alteration, and how memory is less about recall and more about creation, as well as a belief that personality and memory have an unusual connection.  What "Wholesale" posits is that certain personalities will always want certain things; a secret agent who has been to Mars will always want to go to Mars even when those memories have been taken away.  

It has been too long (coincidentally, the same amount of time a ReKal vacation is) since I read the story, and can't seem to say anything of value.  Maybe I'll try coming back to this one someday.

Remainder

A night or two ago, I finally finished Tom McCarthy's Remainder.  According to the note on the front cover, I began the book in late '09. I faintly recall getting somewhere around halfway and putting it down.  Christmas '12 I restarted the book.

I got about 2/3 of the way through and put it back down.

Then on January 2014, I sort of resolved to read more, particularly before I sleep and particularly to avoid just watching TV shows I've already watched. I also cleaned up and organized my ReReads account and decided to start a clean slate of books I've read.  There were far too many books with a simple star rating.  I wanted to remember the books and have a written document of that memory.

This is why it is serendipitous that I am writing this for Remainder.  In Remainder, the narrator has been the victim of an accident that has left him disabled and amnesiac (at this writing I have only suddenly realized the narrator has no name, or that I have no memory of it).

Because of the settlement he receives because of the incident that caused his amnesia (which he cannot recall and is legally unable to discuss), he ends up with several million pounds which become more than that after some excellent investment.  After a night at a party and a crack in a wall, he decides to use his money to make full, 1:1 scale reenactments of a few moments in his and other people's lives.

This is not a book for those who worry about their own authenticity.

If you've seen Synecdoche, NY, the set up is similar.  The book grapples with a person's feelings about authenticity, particularly in their actions.  What the narrator never seems to realize is that the same issues he has with fluidity are not unique to him.

Originally his issues stem from the massive physical therapy he has to undertake, requiring every motion to be a conscious one.  After viewing Pacino in Taxi Driver, the narrator is bothered how fluid the characters motions seem to be.  He obviously could not hear my screams in regards to an actors' movements never being truly genuine.  Having just yelled at pulped tree, I clearly had some re-examining to do.

Because it is late, and I'm typing this on a phone, I'm inspired to close it.  I loved picking up this book with only the shadows of memories of the books plot and characters.  Though I had put the book down twice, neither instance was due to the book being uninteresting.  It felt oddly comforting to come back to(especially since I didn't want to restart the book again). It was a fascinating read.  Unfortunately, I choose to leave you the same way the book left me: unclear on whether it had ended or not.