DADES Chapter 1

Ok, so I had some trouble logging in, so I just decided to make a new account. Anyways…

The book starts out with a news report type thing. Its about a turtle that recently died. The significance, or at least what ive determined, was that animals in general are an important part of the post world war terminus society. Most of the animals of the world have died, and although it wasn’t specifically stated, I believe that it was the last of its species, which recently died off. Animals are important to their society for two main reasons. First of all, they are sort of a status item. It makes you seem more upper class to own an animal, and the bigger the animal, the better. On a deeper level, it is also considered important to have a real animal, because they are one of the only fully organic, natural thing still around in their world. There is also some sort of religion/belief called Mercerism. What it is has not been completely specified, but Rick specified that it would be against Mercerism for his neighbor to have two horses, and him to have none. From this, you can infer that it has something to do with their society’s fascination with animals.

For example, all, or at least most of the population has these Penfield mood organs put into them. They are made to give humans a control over their moods. For instance, if you want to feel happy, you dial it to a certain setting. If you want to be depressed, you dial it to another one. Rick, the main character likes the use of the mood organ, but his wife, Iran, is against it. One of the major differences between the two of them is their embracement of technology. Iran is against the overuse, and would like to be human, where as Rick is not as much bothered by technology controlling him. Also, Rick is somewhat meek and yielding towards Iran, and it seems that she is the one in charge in their relationship. They seem bitter towards each other.

The book takes place in San Fransisco, California. The year is 2021, after World War Terminus. The war resulted in dust, or nuclear fallout that causes birth defects of some unspecified sort, as well as the mutation of “regulars” into “specials”. To prevent the defects, men wear lead codpieces. Most of the world has emigrated to mars, where there has been a “second earth” built.

Humanity is a tough thing to define, but I can best define it as the ability to feel, and think. A computer can think, but the one thing setting it apart from a human is that it cannot have emotions.