Heads

Heads
by Greg Bear
1990

Thoughts Going In

The book has:

150 Pages
34 Lines to the Page
+/- 10 Words to the Line

Yielding +/- 50,000 words

It's a short book.

Most publishing houses (I am told) have target lengths for the books that they publish, which makes sense, as I used to prefer thicker books with smaller writing, as I knew I'd be getting more story for my buck. And as such, there are (or at least, I have) standard expectations:

 50,000 This Small Thin Book
 75,000 Typical Romance Novel
100,000 My Target for a Novel

250,000+ Let's Split It Up

Since I do not pay for content, I'm not looking for value anymore. And the short length of this book was appealing, as was the TOR imprint and the clean never been read before look of the book.

The disembodied head on the cover makes me think the story will be stupid. But then, campy can be fun.

After reading the jacket, I am told that there are a bunch of cryogenically frozen heads... of which I could care less. But I can see having fun with them, making them humorous:

'When I get my body back, I am going to so smack you upside the head.'
'Yeah? You'll be too busy bending over from me kicking you in the balls.'
'Gentlemen. Gentlemen. Didn't you hear. They are not giving us our bodies back. They are going to extract our memories and incinerate the rest.'
'Bastards!'
'Heathens!'

And so on and so forth.

I for one, hope the witty repartee is better in the book (or any future book I might write) than in the example text I just provided, because if not, one (me, you, the author, whoever) is better quitting while they're (wait for it) a head.

Of course, I don't, actually, expect humour. But man, it would be nice.

The second thing they promised on the back cover was a discussion of Absolute Zero: specifically, a cold so cold that it can 'freeze space-time itself... and bend the laws of physics', which sounds pretty cool. I'd always taken Absolute Zero as a state of matter: matter, which in turn, occupies space-time. But if one goes all quantum mechanics (a bunch of hooey, I know), then maybe it is the space-time which holds the energy and Absolute Zero is a state of non-space-time... whatever that might mean.

Seriously, whatever.

The important point in all that is: while reading the cover, I slipped off into thinking of matter as some sort of topological interpretation of the space-time continuum (a sort of planar fabric of sorts), which equates energy as folds (or knots, if that makes any more sense to you) and its absence as a sparse and empty plane (stretched thin to the point of non-existence), which is sort of meaningless... until one realizes that we might just be talking about The Void from whence The Big Bang was born.

So, don't play with fire (or the total absence of fire), because you might just get burned.

And thus, as an answer to the question:

Why am I reading this book?

My excuse will be food for thought.

But the real reason (I am reading anything) is that I am sick of standing and I want to sit down. Reading is a sitting pastime for me, while writing is a standing one. So, read I shall.

Oh (and finally), I was, also, planning on mentioning that I have some jealousy issues when it come to the DAW/TOR imprint (don't ask me about the relation -- if any -- between the two). In that, neither are publishing my books. Of course, I don't think I have ever sent either of them a query letter, asking them to. But if you are going to start being reasonable, I got no time for you and would much rather be reading a book about Absolute Zero and Disembodied Heads.

Real Words

Wow! Impressive word there, Mr. Bear. I'm going to need you to hold on a second and let me look that-there word up, so I can see if it's real... and if so, what in tarnation it means.

• Zaftig
• A full figured woman.
• Arbeiter
• A German word meaning worker.
• Used in story, I believe, to denote a robotic worker.
• Anodyne
• Painless.
• Lacuna
• A void or gap.
• Apostasy
• Heresy, basically.
• Nacred
• That mother of pearl sheen.

Beautiful Techno-Jargon

Post-Boolean Three-State Logic
Disorder Pumps
Chromopsychology
Five Interactive Media

Individual Consensus

Notable Quotes

Rho said, looking at him with high-energy complete-equality adoration.

I had been assigned twelve possible in-family girlfriends at the age of thirteen.

"Movies are a weak shadow. Religion is where we ought to go."

Running Thoughts

• I've been carrying the book around in my back pocket, as I prepare Food & Drink in preparation for reading.
• It fits really well back there.
• And the snacks are almost gone (ironic, that), so it's almost time to read.
• A nice dump of information at the start.
• Analysis.
• Psuedo Techno Jargon.
  • Or Real Techno Jargon, have it your way.
• Force Disorder Pumps!
• Yep, that's what they are.
• A QL Thinker.
• That's a Quantum Logic Thinker to you, bub.
• I have an idiots understanding of those.
• And since it was 'suspiciously cheap', I'm hoping for some AI tie-in.
  • Ah, the Memories from the Heads will be loaded into the Thinker.
    • And fun times, await.
    • Thus is my guess.
• I'm just going to track these made-up techno-jargon phrases.
• Which is what I started doing, above.
• The future is presumed to be capitalistic.
• Looking into the past from the distant (or not so distant) future, I believe capitalism will be seen as an evil.
  • As intrinsically immoral.
  • As we might view owning slaves.
• He blinded me with science!
• Slaughtered lyrics courtesy of Thomas Dolby.
• The QL Thinker is destined to become an Oracle.
• As an Out of Chain of Command (and normal delivery channels) deliver of information.
• A Mathematical Psychic.
• A useful tool by the author to introduce new plot points.
• I wonder if large scale Quantum Computers require a non-probabilistic (and therefore, deterministic) universe.
• Entanglement is when a Quantum State is interlocked with and dependent upon another.
• Large Scale Quantum Computers rely upon this Entanglement.
• But if we can Entangle a significant portion of the Universe, why hasn't the Universe already done this.
• Keeping in mind that a Tightly Entangled System (one at Total Interdependence) is synonymous with a Deterministic Structure.
• I am sure one could work the math differently
  • But then, that's always the case.
• It boils down to:
  • How are Lock-Step Registers different from a Lock-Step Universe?
• BM: Binding Multiples
• I presume a legal family like association, akin to marriage, but for larger clan-like organizations.
• I do not know how to handle all these fake names.
  • In what way to call out, document, and play with them.
  • In the end, I listed them out (along with the word definitions), two sections back.
• The details presented Ring True.
• Within the context of this artificial world.
• Sorry, who?
• It's a strange turn of phrase.
• There are plenty of strange turns of phrases.
• Logologism is a logic based religion.
• Or so, I would guess.
• I am told they are capable of "believing six impossible things before breakfast."
• I find little enjoyment in either business or political intrigue.
• I, also, find it hard to see the honor in either.
• A straight-forward lesson in evaporative cooling.
• Let the boys think they are learning something.
  • Which, they probably are.
• The Universe has been breaking the man-made Third Law of Thermodynamics for a long time.
• Fusion and Fission are equal and opposite reactions.
• Think of it as unto Empalthy in Chemistry.
• It's a diffusion gradient.
• I mean, of course, I'm wrong.
  • But then, the joke's on you, because I'm right.
• Has the author decided at this point?
• I know that I wouldn't have.
• I'd have an idea.
  • But then again, it would be tentative.
  • Perhaps, like the state of of my Real Word, Technical Jargon, and Quote sections on this page (you know, at the time of this writing rather than your reading), it's all up in the air.
• The analogy is clear.
• But remember the most important teaching:
  • To follow, one must lead.
    • Or if you like, to follow my example, one must lead by example.
    • But the actual idea is more akin to:
      • To go where I have gone, one must go their own way.
  • There is no other way.
• The parallels are uncanny.
• We have gone far beyond an analogy.
• Code (enough footsteps on the bridge to salvation) for those who know...
  • To follow.
• I wonder how many know.
• And of those who think they know, how many of those folks really know.
• It would be great if the Founder of Logology was one of the Heads.
• Otherwise, why such a long aside?
• This is a guess.
  • But if it is an accurate guess, it's final inclusion in the review becomes... um, trickier.
  • My goal is not to provide endless spoiler after endless spoiler.
    • I have no need to provide a Plot Outline.
  • On the other hand, these are my thoughts as I read the book.
• Still, wouldn't it be great if he were one of the heads?
• Failure is to be expected.
• I would wager the author never worked in business.
• I don't like the Political Game so much so that I skipped a dozen pages.
• Then, I skipped one or two more.
• It doesn't bode well.
• I think I will stop wherever I am when the cover falls off.
• I may rip that cover off.
  • Tonight!
• Seconds later, a fifty page jump.
• I will read the last dozen pages.
• A few pages later and I doubt I will miss any of the intervening.
• As long as both questions are answered.
• Or are there three questions that need answering?
• It's odd how resistant I am to be the first person to mark this book with a pencil.
• The cover is falling off.
• So, it's going in the trash can, once I am done.
• Yet, I had every intention of reading to the end of the page that I am on (as it is my custom to break at the end of the first paragraph on a page turn) rather than mark the book.
• In the end, I did mark the book.
• Thus, The End will have to wait until the morrow.
• Skipping a third of the book speaks volumes.
• I went back to skim over the parts I skipped.
• But I have no regrets.
• Even in fiction, I want my facts more concise.
• Right at the end.
• Lies upon lies.
• Nice.

My Thoughts (above) are sort of jumbled at the end (after I started skipping pages), loosing their original ordering.

The Debriefing

There was a moment (or long drawn out scene that looked like it was going to last a while) in which betrayal, lack of honor, and/or emotional turmoil (so, I'll leave you guessing) looked like it was going to play a central role in the rest of the story. And since the writing was effective, I felt the pain. But I had no wish to feel the pain. So, I pulled out of the story and skipped ahead. Basically, my enjoyment of the book ended there, as I read the last dozen pages (or so) mostly for closure.

I liked the hardcore SF elements: a character named Rho, details concerning life on the moon, and the discussions about the Space-Time Continuum (and other points of scientific interest). But I do not care (in real life or otherwise) about political intrigue. I am not a drama person. For the most, I find Soap Operas uninteresting. And as such, I found huge parts of the plot boring.

Furthermore, in the last year or two, I have come up with the slogan:

The Market and The Government are One.

I would label the author (based on the society he depicts) as a Laissex Faire Capitalist. But since I do not believe Laissex Faire Capitalism is possible (it is a slogan that will never become a reality), I found some of the assumptions underlying his created Political World to be impractical.

And thus, my Final Verdict is that the cover was the best part.