I found this to be a very entertaining little story! As a psychology major, the story's focus on the unconscious, neuroticism and extreme guilt were of great interest to me. It's almost like Dick had an Introduction to Psychology text-book sitting beside him while he wrote this one!
The idea of a ship thinking as a person would was new to me. It's unfortunate that Victor wasn't able to realize that Martine arriving to planet LR4 was, for the first time in ten years, complete reality. It's almost as if he had become entirely numbed to anything but the memories fed to him by the ship.
It's interesting to note that no matter what pleasant memories the ship tried to put into his mind, Victor always brought forth some kind of negative twist. His neurotic and anxiety-ridden tendencies were so prevalent that he was unable to relive a positive memory without tarnishing it in some way....
I've decided to read the list backwards this week. Therefore, this is my first "machine story". Although I'm fine with the fact that my car can't speak to me as I drive (I like my music just fine) it's a pretty interesting concept and made for a good read!
5 comments:
One interesting thing, I thought, was that the memories were not particularly traumatic. But even average memories turned in on themselves and affected his sanity.
You read the list backwards. I read it by which story had the fewest pages (starting here) and moving forward. I really liked this story too (i am also a psych major). His negative memories did not seem so awful -- but how he used those memories to blame himself for things -- such as his wife leaving him was really sad. I was disapointed that once he did land he was still a complete looney toon ----------I think we both got the feeling that he actually did land and it was not another wish fullfillment set up by the ship.
I just think it would be horrible to be at the whim of a machine and also to be stuck in your own head.
yes I did read the likst backwards!! Although I left the longest one for last ..
I'd totally show you my Dick.
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