Thursday, May 28, 2009

Dr. Manhattan

What was your reaction to Jon? Why do you think Laurie lived with the guy for 20 years?
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6 comments:

Ben said...

I had a little trouble suspending disbelief on that particular character. The author tried to make him act like he thought a guy with those powers would act, but I thought his characterization was pretty flat, thin, and rang false.

As for the second question, it's like the issue with the Comedian (except less outrageous). I didn't believe that she would have stayed with him for that long.

I liked the book -- I really did, even though I'm slamming it in these comments!

4:25 PM, May 28, 2009
kc said...

I thought some of the scenes with Jon were the most poignant in the book. Science fiction is full of characters who aren't really human but who live among humans and provide compelling commentary on humanity — and sometimes even seem to acquire human traits. Spock. Data. The Star Wars robots. I saw Jon in that role and mostly enjoyed it. I was riveted by the scene where he got disintegrated at Gila Flats when he was going to get Janey's watch from his coat — and the long, strange episode on Mars when he is "remembering" all of time at once. I loved the sequence on page 24 of Chapter IV with the frozen Hiroshima clock and the hands around the cold beer.

And the Einstein quote about being a watchmaker.

I could see why Laurie would stay with him. She could do a lot worse, for one. And also he provided ultimate safety and was pretty interesting to have around, even if he lacked certain human qualities. I was mystified about why he would be attracted to teenage Laurie in the first place. It seems like the authors just gratuitously introduced the notion that of course, being a man, even if a freakishly blue one, he would still have his head turned by a PYT.

10:00 AM, May 29, 2009
Erin said...

He reminded me of Spock, too. I bought Laurie's relationship with Jon up until the scene on Mars where he basically says that since she left him, he didn't care whether she (and the rest of humanity) lived or died. Did he love her? Was he capable of an emotion like love? Did he value their time together or appreciate what she had given up to be with him? That's why I started to wonder why she was with him in the first place.

And yeah, I wondered about his motives, too. Why would a guy like that want a girlfriend? The book said something about how having Laurie around kept him calm and content and how, unlike other secret military weapons, he needed to get laid sometimes (or something like that). And that didn't make that much sense to me, based on his behavior in the book. I mean, he acts like he'd be content living alone on Mars for the next thousand years.

But I agree that Jon was a fascinating character. I also loved the scenes with his accident and his contemplations on Mars.

2:36 PM, May 29, 2009
kc said...

But in that scene on Mars, he was ultimately persuaded that he DID care about humanity. I understood those discussions as mainly philosophical — what is humanity, after all? That sort of thing. And I felt that he kind of had a point, in an abstract way, but that he would soften somewhat and understand in the end.

Yeah, the thing about his needing sex seemed like straight-up machismo on the part of the authors, to me. They just apparently can't conceive of a male creature in any other way. But why would it matter to him, really, who is bed partner was? One lay would seem as good as another for his purposes.

Maybe we were supposed to think he had emotions but that he couldn't really understand or express them. He couldn't "process" them so he more or less denied them.

2:58 PM, May 29, 2009
Erin said...

Well, it's hard to know what someone like that would think or feel. Would he retain human desires and emotions, or would he be above all that? I guess I think the author was a little wishy-washy on that point.

6:41 PM, June 01, 2009
kc said...

Yes, wishy-washy, but there was also the notion that while he didn't really feel things anymore he did remember when he was human and how he felt in certain situations, so he could kind of piece together responses to things based on memory.

Like his sexual experience is purely physical now (which, if that's really case, wouldn't masturbation be just as good and more efficient? I mean, needing a sexual partner betrays some level of emotion, I think, even if it's pretty primitive), but he seems to understand that his partner requires more than pure sensation. She needs interaction, so he can kind of feign interest, even though his mind (and duplicate body!) is totally elsewhere.

But I think you've made a great point, which is: Isn't his experience basically unknowable by people? I think that's why we always want Spock to crack a smile or Data to let fall a tear or have a dream in his sleep, because if they really, truly do lack fundamental human qualities we just can't "get" them. But giving them those qualities is fraught with inconsistency and bias.

10:10 PM, June 01, 2009

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