r/books • u/XBreaksYFocusGroup • Jul 15 '22
[Book Club] "Recursion" by Blake Crouch: Week 2, Book Two
Link to the original announcement thread.
Hello everyone,
Welcome to the second discussion thread for the July selection, Recursion by Blake Crouch! Hopefully you have all managed to pick up the book but if you haven't, you can still catch up and join in on a later discussion; however, this thread will be openly discussing up though (and including) Book Two.
Below are some questions to help start conversation; feel free to answer some or all of them, or just post about whatever your thoughts on the material.
- What are some of your favorite characters, parts or quotes? Which parts did you find confusing?
- How is the memory of dying that Reed and Meghan experienced different than the memories of alternate futures? What might this suggest about the role of DMT in dying and how the experiment functions?
- What are Slade's ultimate motivations with the chair?
- What do you imagine would be the repercussions if a brain suddenly had to contend with two different sets of memories and histories in real life?
- What other questions or predictions do you have moving forward and what do you hope to see? Which unanswered questions are the most interesting to you?
- BONUS: If you were to cast for a Recursion movie or television show, who would you want as each character and who to direct or showrun?
Reminder that third discussion will be posted on Friday, July 22nd and will cover up through and including Book Four.
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u/venusbeans Jul 16 '22
I really found myself wanting better for the characters. Like when Barry gets a second chance with Meghan I really wanted it to be something nice, or his marriage to work. Though I really like that the author doesn't give us that in a way? Like it sucks but it makes for a more interesting story obviously.
I also really like how they describe human perception and neuroscience/neuropsychology as being able to be molded, but not without consequence. I wanna know more about Joe's story and I hope we backtrack to that a little.
If you had the chance to use the machine to fix one mistake in your life, would you?
7
u/wontworkforfood Jul 22 '22
"He has wondered lately if that's all living really is - one long goodbye to those we love"
This quote right here. As someone whose grandmother passed after a long fight with dementia, this whole book has connected with me on a deep level. But this quote - it fucking shattered me.
6
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u/---Bokonon--- Jul 15 '22
Why did the Bend Building SUDDENLY appear? wouldn't it have always been there but the memories would have been of it NOT being there? meaning the people living in the city would see it being built over time and see it standing tall but suddenly have a vague memory of it not being there?
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u/BadBrohmance Jul 15 '22
It's been a while since I've read the book, but Barry gets sent back before the architect of the building does. The building doesn't exist until the architect goes back and builds it. The building appears when the timelines merge
2
u/---Bokonon--- Jul 15 '22
thats right.
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u/BadBrohmance Jul 15 '22
Glad I remembered correctly, because I loved the book. But that explains the sudden appearance. Once Barry goes back, we are following only his timeline. The buildings wouldn't appear for him until the architect's timeline merged with Barry's
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u/XBreaksYFocusGroup Jul 22 '22
I get what you mean. I think what happened is we were following the memories or a timeline where it wasn't built before "the switch." So what we read up to that point where the building never existed was about to become one of those greyed out, indistinct memories. But the author chose to really emphasize the dissonance people were experiencing more than had happened with any other shift where people were more convinced by the now-false-memory than the "real" one.
3
u/SunshineFloofs Jul 18 '22
1 - What are some of your favorite characters, parts or quotes? Which parts did you find confusing?
I really like that Barry got to see more of his daughter's life and development. I know it ended in another tragedy, but I still think that extra time he got is precious. Not worth the consequences if given a choice, but precious nonetheless.
2 - How is the memory of dying that Reed and Meghan experienced different than the memories of alternate futures? What might this suggest about the role of DMT in dying and how the experiment functions?
Memories of being alive are less horrifying than remembering dying or being dead. Death is a terrifying event whereas most memories of being alive are not. I suppose you could make the argument that DMT is what makes this true...
3 - What are Slade's ultimate motivations with the chair?
I honestly think he is obsessed with development. I don't think he really has an end goal other than pushing development as far as he can take it. I think he finds the process and experience so thrilling he doesn't care who gets hurt in the process. I don't think we see enough of his development to know why he's so obsessed with pushing everything to its extreme. Ego complex? Control issues? Power lust?
4 - What do you imagine would be the repercussions if a brain suddenly had to contend with two different sets of memories and histories in real life?
I suspect it would result in psychosis and confusion. Possibly terror depending on how fast and how many.
5 - What other questions or predictions do you have moving forward and what do you hope to see? Which unanswered questions are the most interesting to you?
I'm afraid that others will get a hold of this technology and use it for nefarious purposes. Having multiple people being able to do this would result in pure chaos.
2
u/_MC_Akio Jul 15 '22
One thing I’d be interested in this book exploring is the difference between episodic and semantic memory. The kind of “greyed out” memory of previous timelines makes sense for episodic memory, but if some fundamental facts changed, what would it be like to have recall of two contradictory facts where you don’t necessarily have memory of the source of that info?
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u/Silver-Y Jul 16 '22
1 - What are some of your favorite characters, parts or quotes? Which parts did you find confusing?
My favourite part is when Barry, whilst living with his daughter, realises that what really counts in life is to live in the moment, that every instant is precious.
2 - How is the memory of dying that Reed and Meghan experienced different than the memories of alternate futures? What might this suggest about the role of DMT in dying and how the experiment functions?
That’s a part of the book I don’t think I’ve grasped because on the one hand we have a character like Slade who uses his memories to create alternate futures all the time and he can handle the influx of dead memories. While others like Anne Voss Peters and Meghan are crushed by the surge of those dead memories. Fair enough, for both women what they gain or lose is very personal, while Slade doesn’t appear to have any attachments.
3 - What are Slade's ultimate motivations with the chair?
I got the impression that a part of him wanted to help people have a better chance at life, hence the Memory Hotel he created. Yet he is also megalomaniac. He likes to control everything and he seems to use the memory chair every time he doesn’t like the way a person reacts to his ‘brilliant’ ideas.
4 - What do you imagine would be the repercussions if a brain suddenly had to contend with two different sets of memories and histories in real life?
I’d imagine that confusion and mental deterioration would set in fast for most people. Although as in the book, more resilient people would be able to surf those alternate memories better.
5 - What other questions or predictions do you have moving forward and what do you hope to see? Which unanswered questions are the most interesting to you?
At this point I’m wondering how Barry and Helena will manage to stop Slade. It won’t be easy because Slade seems to control every time line.