It's Not What You Think
Stories are incredible. Each story we tell ourselves has a profound impact on how we live our lives. The stories we tell about others is just as impactful. I can't count the number of times I've read something on the news where I can tell the authors bias. Whether the bias is towards a certain group of people, belief system, or worldview. But beyond that the stories we tell are invented. They are nothing more than constructs.
In Adam Sternbergh's latest novel Near Enemy—a sequel to Shovel Ready, Spademan is back. He's still in New York and he's still being a bullet for those that can't do their own dirty work. But he comes upon a new set of circumstances that set this novel apart from the first immensely. He not only tackles how we tell stories about Muslims, but how certain sects of people take the blame. Blame that should belongs to the ones pointing the finger. He does this through characters and metaphors. As a neighbor to Manhattan I can only imagine what Sternbergh see's on a regular basis. Inn regards to narratives that have profound impact on the lives around him.
Spademan is dealing with the Limnosphere, again. Where the rich tap in and experience a fantasy world where anything goes. They can do any deed without any punishment. They can re-create themselves without any limitations, outside of their own imaginations. The only difference between this time and last is that now people are being executed by a woman wearing a burqa and dying in the real world. This was the one rule of the Limnosphere - no one dies. But like stories, the Limn is a construct. Just codes and data that ones subconscious can experience. When there are constructs there are no rules, just problems to be solved. Spademan finds himself in the midst of this problem and the people trying to solve it. What makes it interesting is that Spademan chooses action. He chooses a story that looks after the misunderstood characters. Instead of backing up a crooked cop who wants to see his own desires met.
The other side to the Limnosphere is there is another movement who want nothing to do with the "dream world." They are called Wakers. People who have sworn of the Limnosphere and choose only to live in the "nuts & bolts" world where real things happen. They want to wake the world from it's slumber. They realize the Limn is destroying this world because when people opt out of the world nothing can change. Things stay static.
It was a fantastic sequel that made me realize that even within fiction we can see the truth of ourselves. It reminded me that I have pointed a finger at the greater world in expectation to change without wanting to change myself. I would rather tap in to whatever technology is available. For me, I'd rather entertain myself instead of create something—add something to the world. We hardly ever view ourselves as the perpetrators of our own demise—it's much easier to point a finger. The best part is, like Spademan, we can choose how we can effect the constructs around us. We can choose to add something, to create, to connect, to love instead of get lost in an endless sea of other people's stories.