[lit-ideas] Re: Philosophers and Programming Languages
- From: Paul Stone <pastone@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:12:27 -0400
I read a book over the weekend called "the End of Mr. Y." -- very hard
to classify this. I can only describe it as a philosophical,
name-dropping (in terms of philosophers), post-structuralist physics,
science fictional, sado-masochistic, adventure novel.
Its heroine, Ariel Manto, a Ph.D. candidate (in something resembling
the philosophy of literature and science or some such nonsense)
happens upon an extremely rare book (there's only one in existence)
which contains a recipe for a potion that allows her to enter a
strange mind-space called the 'troposphere'. In it, she can blink in
and out of other people's minds. What starts out as a dalliance (a la
Nicholson Baker's "The Fermata") turns into a full-fledged adventure (
with agents gunning for her, like in "The Matrix") and then into a
[William] Gibsonesque philosophical investigation into time-travel,
religion, god, the history of the universe etc.
In the end, I think she (scarlett thomas, the author) bit off a little
bit more anyone can chew in only 400 pages or possibly a lot more. A
lot it was very provocative and thoughtful, but in the end, the
reality was that she had to cop-out because alas, she doesn't know any
of the answers to the questions she raises. The "epilogue" is a
two-page exercise in "WTF?"
It's funny how one always hopes that there will be a real revelation
in these types of books, but there rarely is. Anyway... that's my
weekly book review.
p
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