At the
current point in humanity’s technological evolution, the body is largely
plastic. We have no cure for cancer or the common cold, but if anyone wants
bigger breasts, hair implanted, bones sculpted, fat sucked out, or many other
types of cosmetic surgery, the body can be re-molded. The brain, however, remains a mystery. We have drugs to counteract some conditions
and very specific types of brain surgeries are possible that do not immediately
induce death (lobotomy!), but as a whole, altering personality, memory,
interests, and other such aspects of the mind is simply not possible. Pat Cadigan’s 1988 Fools imagines precisely this world of possibility—including all
the little flaws and imperfections.
Miles beyond turning a penis into a vagina, what a world it is.
To say
Cadigan’s vision of the future is a twisted version of reality is only the
beginning. Fools plays with actuality by shifting between reality and virtual
reality, and further yet, realities within virtual reality. Consciousness smeared across personal memory
and the memories of others, self-developed skills and those implemented from
others, and mind-to-mind and mind-to-machine connections, the combination is a
milieu of mentality that must be read to be believed. Not for the feint of heart, Cadigan slips the
reader slowly into the waters of surreal consciousness, but once they’re in,
it’s head to toe, the world taking on a dreamscape hue. (But do ignore the
cover.)
“Tell her about a chop
shop? Sure—then follow up with a description of how they'd dig out Sovay's
self-contained memories with all the finesse of a chimpanzee digging grubs with
a pointed stick, working fast because a hot mind wouldn't keep in a jury-rigged
hold-box. Any excised memories that could unambiguously identify the mind would
be flushed and whatever remained of his talent sold. There would still be a
fair number of associations clinging to it but people who buy from suckers
don't fuss about a few phantoms. Nor do they complain if the merchandise is
half-mutilated from rushed pruning.”
Rendering
cyber cowboys into base cyberpunk material, Fools
is a fully immersive experience.
Cadigan’s imagination brilliantly graded along subtle shifts and lines
of consciousness and perception, the reader is helped along by the fact
sections of text change in font type to hint at the ‘reality’
of the underlying situation as the characters and their sense of understanding
is tested to the max. It just ain’t your
grandpappy’s cyberpunk.
The
concept of self twisted so far out of shape, in fact, it may make the reader
uncomfortable—and indeed, seems one of
Cadigan’s objectives. Who would want to
live in such a headfuck? Life subjective
enough, the mind technology adds so many layers, so many nuances, so many
possibilities—both desirable and not—one would grow crazy within a few minutes
discerning ‘truth’. As a fictional
construct its pure amazement, but as potential reality, scary as hell. What if mindsucking were possible, a husk of
a body left, and memories, talents, and hobbies fragmented at a futuristic chop
shop to be divvied up and sold on the black market? The idea that someone could
be walking around with your memories of high school not the worst of it, but
that it’s so easily done, so simple to manipulate the most fundamental aspects
of personal identity that hammers the biggest spike of concern. The hardcore neuroscientist, of course, harps
that such technology is impossible. But
it is not Fools aim to be predictive.
Science is
pushing ahead, trying to understand the brain and its mechanisms. Inherent to this quest is the ability to have
influence upon that knowledge if/when it comes (e.g. to mitigate an effect or
alter a symptom). Much as medical
research has paved the way for plastic surgery, so too would knowledge of the
brain make available the possibility of manipulating the brain in non-critical
fashion. Certainly today people have
individual opinions about what can and cannot be done to their own bodies, but
the modern liberal does not deny a person their freedom to change what they can
with the options and finances they have available. And it would seem Cadigan argues the very
same situation would exist if the brain were to become as malleable as the
body: those with legal or illegal access to brain tech would take advantage in
ways that puts personal identity into its most subjective state in the
post-religion era.
When
reading a novel, I have trouble not picturing its structure in visual
terms. Fools is a + symbol speared by a pin. The novel opens with the story “Fool to
Remember”. About a young woman with a
memory addiction, she discovers that she has been feeding her habit by helping
people commit virtual suicide, picking up the pieces of memory after. Discovering a detective’s persona lodged
within her own, however, turns her in a new direction. “Fool to Believe” is about a detective who is
assigned the task of tracking down the perpetrators who have mindsucked a young
actor. Going undercover taking on new
meaning in such a technologically replete setting, the detective dons layers of
personality going into the case and emerges… well, you’ll have to read.
The pin is
“Nobody’s Fool”. Perhaps a contentious
choice, readers who need to have things explained to them will appreciate the
manner in which the intersection of the previous two tales is presented in more
transparent terms (emphasis on the wide range of meaning encompassed by this,
i.e. you’ll still need a re-read). It’s
also possible readers who followed the story may consider it to detract from the
ephemerality of it all. I personally
appreciate the fact Cadigan included this section. She does not go about revealing the tricks of
her trade in stage magician form, rather creates an overview, binding the
preceeding narratives into a cohesive whole.
In the
end, Fools is a cyberpunk novel about
the kaleidoscope of reality that comes about due to manipulative mind
technology. Defining the term
‘multi-layered’, the novel requires re-reading.
Cadigan starts the reader on an easy stroll through the consciousness
that steadily moves into the deep reaches of true mental subjectivity. More complex with each twist of technological
possibility—memory editing, talent theft, personality modifications, etc.—it
requires the reader’s attention to keep pace with the savvy diction, insider
jargon, and truly head-twisting changes in perception. Literally and figuratively cerebral, this is
a core cyberpunk text that starts with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, moves through Neuromancer, and arrives in cyberpunk territory wholly of Cadigan’s
own. Great novel.
(Paul
McAuley has written a better, more concise review of Fools here
on Gollancz’s SF Gateway website.)
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