| name | value |
| location | Melbourne |
| date | 2020-09-20 |
It’s one of those books you’ve heard whose name 10 years before the actual reading takes place. Nevertheless, upon finishing the book you realise exactly why it’s gained so much attention and mostly appreciation.
There was a moment when I felt an acute sadness that I had to put down the book, take a breath, and then open the book and read the same paragraph again to grasp what I actually felt and why I felt so.
[SPOILER WARNING]
It was the short monologue of Phil Resch started off describing his squirrel and the simple fact that he had one that struck me hard. I didn’t even know why it happened. Half guessing whether it was reflecting why the empathy tests were animal-related, I read on. Then a couple of pages after I started to realise that the empathy I had at that moment of whatever kind, must be somewhat condescending, almost hypocritical.
The book has been obviously trying to picture a world where androids — not even worth being called by the proper word, but merely nicknamed “andys” — were considered inferior and sentenced to death. So when I was hinted that someone could’ve been an android who didn’t realise it themselves, I naturally grew a sense of pity. It doesn’t matter what happened next and how my feelings changed over and over again towards both the human protagonists and the android ones (or they were ultimately the antagonists, I don’t know), that instant of emotions I had were genuine.
No one ever told me that this book could be so insanely sad.