One of the passages in the book which struck me as very climactic and which provided good examples of Airs' variety of strange effects and "features" was the passage between pages 192 and 196, in which Mae battles her body's possession by Old Mrs. Tung. We spoke shortly about this passage in class, but I would like to provide a more elaborate comparison. While speaking to an intelligent desk providing a lesson about the "U.N. format" and politics around Air, Mae is suddenly "possessed" by the soul of Old Mrs. Tung. During a battle of minds, where Mae desperately tries to regain control over her body, Old Mrs. Tung and Mae exhange dialogue using the only media available - Mae's voice and body.
The effect created, namely, that two voices are spoken through only Mae, instantly reminded me of schizophrenia and/or multiple personality disorder. People with these mental diseases, especially schizophrenia, have been observed to "demonstrate [...] disorganized and unusual thinking and speech." (Wikipedia) To draw an analogy, Air emulates the effects (such as "word salad") of these conditions through the sci-fi qualities of Air. To me, this helps to provide a solid reference frame in reality, as to comprehend the extent of Mae's and Old Mrs. Tung's situation. This "tool" of metaphors is very often employed by science fiction stories, and I think Geoff Ryman creates an interesting new use of the tool . A lot of sci-fi terms we take for granted today do actually have analogy-driven roots - such as "shield," "ship" and "(star)gate."
Without previous references to word salads uttered by schizophreniacs and from other sources, I would have had lots of trouble making sense of this passage. The idea here is that the concept that two souls or minds may exist in one single body has already been introduced to me. Without such an introduction, this passage in particular would be difficult to comprehend. For example, I would have considered the sentence fragment "Someone answered Mae aloud" (pg. 192) very confusing or some kind of play of words (which, it in some sense is, but it is a plot device rather than a linguistic method.)
I see your point Jonah, and you did bring this up in class. By looking into the format of the text and dialog, it does seem like Mae is crazy as the typical mad man in novels. But i think that other factors affects Mae's personality as well depending on her progress through the story and that there are a lot of symbolism that wasn't really discussed in class.
ReplyDelete"[. . .] Old Mrs. Tung and Mae exhange dialogue using the only media available - Mae's voice and body."
ReplyDeleteI love this idea that orality and physical action effect the resolution to Mae's problem, rather than, let's say, some ethereal exchange of "air"-mail. Let's follow this notion a bit further. If we treat Mae's body and voice as media (she was, after all, formatted), how do we conceptualize the birth of her baby? What about the differences between voluntary and involuntary biological processes?
Having read Pierre Levy, would anyone venture to say that "collective intelligence" is just another way of saying "multiple personality disorder"?
"would anyone venture to say that 'collective intelligence' is just another way of saying 'multiple personality disorder'?"
ReplyDeleteGood point. I might post something regarding this a little later.
Jonah, I really appreciate your insightful post. While I was reading the passage between pages 192 and 196, it never occurred to me that Mae could be Schizophrenic or have Multiple Personality Disorder. However, after reading your post I could understand why you made that connection. Schizophrenics cannot distinguish the difference between was is real and what is fiction. Mae, in many instances acts as if she does not know what the difference was.
ReplyDeleteI see Mae more of a Multiple Personality Disordered person instead of a schizophrenic. When she battles with Mrs. Tung throughout the book, it is as if she is battling with another personality that she has. Both personalities are speaking through Mae’s voice as you mentioned. I think it would have been really interesting to discuss this in class.