51 pages • 1 hour read
Emily St. John MandelA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Gaspery, a time traveler, explicitly wonders, “what makes a world real?” (206). Reality is explored in terms of the natural world and a manufactured, or simulated, world. There are several avenues of thought, such as sensory experience defining what is real. On Earth, Olive notes, “Everything that can be touched is real” (71), but she distinguishes between plant life that grows naturally and “biotech” (71) that is created by humans. The sensory experience of touch is important to her, but it is not a way to determine what is created by nature and what is created by humans. However, when Gaspery considers if his reality is a simulation, he groups human-made objects and nature-made objects together. “The desk is real [...] The wilted flowers on the desk are real [...] Zoey’s hair. My hands” (128). The desk is manufactured and the flowers could be biotech, but the human body (rather than an AI) is usually considered natural.
Gaspery asks, “How do you investigate reality?” (130). This question is complicated by advanced technology. Both Olive and Gaspery are from a moon colony (Colony Two), where people are aware that humans create nature. To Gaspery, Colony One’s “dome lighting still looked like theater” (117).
By Emily St. John Mandel
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Art
View Collection
Canadian Literature
View Collection
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
Earth Day
View Collection
Family
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Music
View Collection
Order & Chaos
View Collection
Popular Book Club Picks
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection
The Future
View Collection
The Past
View Collection