Comments on: Playing God http://www.laurenmclaughlin.net/2010/01/08/playing-god/ You already know you're being watched. Do you know you're being scored? Fri, 06 Jan 2012 22:20:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Lauren http://www.laurenmclaughlin.net/2010/01/08/playing-god/comment-page-1/#comment-419884 Lauren Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:14:01 +0000 http://www.laurenmclaughlin.net/?p=1135#comment-419884 Which is why he's such a beloved and successful author. I did enjoy the book, of course. As a testament to its non-suckishness, I did finish the whole thing, which may sound like faint praise, but, given how rare that happens, is actually the highest praise I can give a book. The characters didn't ring as true to me as they did to you, but perhaps I've been hanging out in the wrong cafes. Ironically, the most realistic character of all to me was the one who was totally fake (not the tiger, but the other one I can't mention without giving away too much). It's so cool how personal reading is. How two people can read the same book and have different experiences. That's what I love about being an author. The reader completes the transaction by bringing his or her own experiences to the page and fleshing it all out. Which is why he’s such a beloved and successful author. I did enjoy the book, of course. As a testament to its non-suckishness, I did finish the whole thing, which may sound like faint praise, but, given how rare that happens, is actually the highest praise I can give a book. The characters didn’t ring as true to me as they did to you, but perhaps I’ve been hanging out in the wrong cafes. Ironically, the most realistic character of all to me was the one who was totally fake (not the tiger, but the other one I can’t mention without giving away too much).

It’s so cool how personal reading is. How two people can read the same book and have different experiences. That’s what I love about being an author. The reader completes the transaction by bringing his or her own experiences to the page and fleshing it all out.

]]> By: Matt Kressel http://www.laurenmclaughlin.net/2010/01/08/playing-god/comment-page-1/#comment-419846 Matt Kressel Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:29:56 +0000 http://www.laurenmclaughlin.net/?p=1135#comment-419846 I just finished the novel and I have to say I disagree with your assessment of it. To me, all the characters were very real & I often found myself comparing them to analogues in my real life. Chase was a kind of blank slate, easily duped and very much the follower. Consider the tale of his "discovery" at the end of the novel, and how little choice he had in the matter; he never was an agent in the story. Things happened to him, but how many things did he initiate himself? This was intentional; Chase was the dupe, the unquestioning fool in all of us (consider how Perkus excoriates him continually for it). But the rest of the cast, Perkus, Abneg, Oona and even the dog Ava, they all felt hyper-real to me. Letham was certainly doing some interesting metafictional things. The giant tiger, in being something so absurd and yet ignored by most people is Lethem asking us, what absurdity are we ignoring about our own reality? As Claire Clarke says near the end, we forget everything but what we need to know to carry on. I found the novel wonderful. I just finished the novel and I have to say I disagree with your assessment of it. To me, all the characters were very real & I often found myself comparing them to analogues in my real life. Chase was a kind of blank slate, easily duped and very much the follower. Consider the tale of his “discovery” at the end of the novel, and how little choice he had in the matter; he never was an agent in the story. Things happened to him, but how many things did he initiate himself? This was intentional; Chase was the dupe, the unquestioning fool in all of us (consider how Perkus excoriates him continually for it). But the rest of the cast, Perkus, Abneg, Oona and even the dog Ava, they all felt hyper-real to me.

Letham was certainly doing some interesting metafictional things. The giant tiger, in being something so absurd and yet ignored by most people is Lethem asking us, what absurdity are we ignoring about our own reality? As Claire Clarke says near the end, we forget everything but what we need to know to carry on.

I found the novel wonderful.

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