Friday, March 22, 2013

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch : Part 2


I downloaded this novel onto my Kindle Fire and was thrilled to learn that it had narration. I listened through the second half of the novel and felt that I retained more information than when I read it to myself! With that said, I absolutely loved this novel – it is by far my favorite of those we have read so far!

What really caught me about this novel were the religious aspects and the idea of escapism. This novel really dealt with some unhappy characters that were simply trying to find some happiness in unwanted circumstances. Anne’s character really intrigued me because of her religious views that seem to be somewhat dismissed once she moves to Mars. It’s ironic that she wanted to go to the colonies to try and convert people and ends up using CAN-D and CHEW-Z.

While I would never go so far as to take a substance to escape from reality, I do understand the allure of wanting to get away from unpleasant circumstances. Whenever I feel down, I read or listen to music that puts me in a better mood – it’s a way to escape from the world that is not treating me well.

2 comments:

  1. I thought that Anne was so skittish the more we got to know her. I thought that she was going to be a nice girl that had good intentions, but then she switched to wanting sex and doing Can-D then she would pull back from doing them. It was interesting for sure. You had a good point that she was intriguing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You make a good point about Anne. She was a character I never quite figured out. I think that she found her strict religious beliefs offered very little solace once she was in an environment with such a bleak outlook. Colonizing Mars was a life sentence, what she found when she got there was worse than she imagined and there was no "out". I read (or heard I can't remember) somewhere once that "we can endure anything if we know that it will end at some point". Anne had no end in sight. Even soldiers get an end to their tour of duty.

    ReplyDelete