The Teleportation Accident - Part 2 (February 2014)

[Casceil]

This thread is for discussion of Part Two.

[Peter]

The explanation of how Baily's teleportation device is supposed to work reminds me of Digital Philosophy where the most fundamental thing in the universe isn't matter or energy, but rather information.

[Terry]

Okay, I just got to the part where all the family portraits of the 'descendants' of the guy involved in the original Teleportation Accident are exactly the same. BIG red klaxon going off here...

[Daniel]

Terry wrote: "Okay, I just got to the part where all the family portraits of the 'descendants' of the guy involved in the original Teleportation Accident are exactly the same. BIG red klaxon going off here..."

Too funny, but I think this is also a large part of what makes Beauman's writing succeed. He leaves open a huge door of possibility, then nudges it closed by telling you that your first impression wasn't at all the case, yet he doesn't shut the door with such finality that all doubts are quelled. The reader is constantly left in limbo, and consequently prepared to always expect the unexpected.

[Casceil]

Well put, Daniel. There are a number of these "what really happened" events scattered through the book, and I think part of the point of the book may be "Don't trust what you see; look closer." But that's just a guess.

[Terry]

Yes. This. Almost immediately I'd continued reading after pasting that, I started to be unsure of what I thought was the case...

[LindaJ^]

Daniel, that's a pretty astute observation. One I certainly did not make, although I believe I did start to realize that nothing was likely to ever be what it seemed to me or to the characters, for that matter.

A couple of the things that I found intriguing in this Part were the subtheme about Los Angeles and Gorge's disease. This is probably not the place to explore them, as they continue, but since they start here ....