Last week, I was reading a paperback by one of the most popular medical fiction writers of our time, one of my erstwhile faves and to speak the truth, it was a little disappointing as it could easily be classified as his most sorry book ever. You keep turning the book expecting the twist to come in at any moment until towards the end you realize that’s exactly what the writer was banking on too. Needless to say, I am yet to finish the book. Okay, the book was ‘Abduction’ by Robin Cook. The book is about a group comprising of a team of researchers, a couple of homophobic rogue underwater divers and a ship owner who get sucked into some sort of utopian world (hold your breath, which is actually underground, ala Atlantis of the ancient Greek mythology). The world is as the world should be sans violence, sans ugliness, death, decease. To top it off, everything including reproduction has been automated, all the work is done by worker clones (some sort of biotechnological individuals). People are forever young as they have achieved body soul dualism which means that they can download their brain data (something called the essence) into some sort of server and upload it onto a new body every time the old one gets, yes, old. The inhabitants are called the Interterrans who look like humans but are unnaturally good looking. Love is a free for all game. Everybody mates with everybody they like, people are very open about their feelings and they have discovered the ultimate aphrodisiac, a cream which you apply on to your palms to lead you on to ecstasy. Nobody owns anything as everything is aplenty and people are free to use all they want.
Too much of a good thing which is exactly what the protagonists feel too and can’t wait to get out of that place except that they cannot. The most refined amongst them finds the place boring. “Nothing ever happens”. The most immature amongst them gets over the initial euphoria of all the "hot girls" then finds to his dismay he is just not enjoying all the good things without the chase. Which leads you to believe whether violence is something we crave for in our primitive state? If evolution is the goal of existence, will humans ever evolve so much that they will give up violence and evolve into god-like creatures. Even when I speak, don’t you find yourself rolling your eyes and wanting to ask me to shut up and stop sermonizing. So here is the conclusion. For all our pretensions of nicety and goodness and gandhiji, we don’t like to be gods nor do we prefer gods. We want the mix of the good and the bad in people as well as in the world around us. The very same emotion repels us from people whom we find to be too nice or too nasty. Period, we just don’t trust them. Me thinks it is a little something the god put in our genes to ensure we don’t stay on forever in this universe or maybe he put it in to ensure we do. Who knows??
Too much of a good thing which is exactly what the protagonists feel too and can’t wait to get out of that place except that they cannot. The most refined amongst them finds the place boring. “Nothing ever happens”. The most immature amongst them gets over the initial euphoria of all the "hot girls" then finds to his dismay he is just not enjoying all the good things without the chase. Which leads you to believe whether violence is something we crave for in our primitive state? If evolution is the goal of existence, will humans ever evolve so much that they will give up violence and evolve into god-like creatures. Even when I speak, don’t you find yourself rolling your eyes and wanting to ask me to shut up and stop sermonizing. So here is the conclusion. For all our pretensions of nicety and goodness and gandhiji, we don’t like to be gods nor do we prefer gods. We want the mix of the good and the bad in people as well as in the world around us. The very same emotion repels us from people whom we find to be too nice or too nasty. Period, we just don’t trust them. Me thinks it is a little something the god put in our genes to ensure we don’t stay on forever in this universe or maybe he put it in to ensure we do. Who knows??
