Saturday, August 10, 2019

Howie Balaban: If You Could Do It All Over Again

Hello old friends. Sorry I’ve been absent from this space for so long. I’m reaching a point in my personal life (which has been quite busy for too many reasons to count) that will once again allow me to share various thoughts with you all. 
For the purpose of this piece, we’ll be looking at Blake Crouch’s latest sci-fi success: Recursion.

Last March, I gave you my thoughts on his bestseller Dark Matter (link here). Summing that one up, a person could simply call it Robert Frost’s “Road Not Taken” on some incredible steroids. Recursion has a similar premise, but is still different enough to provide a whole new reaction.
There are two main characters in Recursion. One is a New York City law enforcement officer named Barry Sutton. The other is a hard core scientist named Helena Smith. Both have lived through a number of terrible circumstances in their lives, and both have used those experiences as excuses to make their respective jobs their main purposes for going on with day-to-day life.
When we first meet Barry, he is in his mid-forties, divorced, and has suffered through the painful, sudden loss of a teenage child. Helena, on the other hand, is around the same age and has nearly run out of funding for her scientific research that, if successful, could bring about a major breakthrough in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease.
In quite a deft manner, Crouch manages to weave together the simultaneous stories between the two protagonists as they look for a way to solve the mystery that they are unaware they are ultimately responsible for creating. Dubbed “False Memory Syndrome” by the media mentioned in the story, to explain exactly what it is would be giving away a great deal of the story, I believe. Let’s just say if you’re a fan of fast-paced science fiction with strong characters, you won’t be disappointed.
Plus, since I absolutely love looking for comparable pop culture things to use when describing something, let’s also say this: imagine if the movie Frequency and the Back to the Future trilogy merged, and Inception was the mad scientist behind it all. Forget everything you think you know about paradoxes in Recursion, because they really don’t exist. The very concept of time itself is turned inside out and upside down in this book in the most intriguing way I’ve ever come across.
Ultimately, the theme throughout Recursion is this: if you had a chance to go back and change one moment in your past, would you? What would you do differently? How would the different choice you made or different action you took affect your life from that point forward? How would it affect other lives around you, and how much of a butterfly effect would you have on the world? 
Indeed, Crouch manages to open a Pandora’s Box of infinite possibilities with Recursion that I personally found myself marveling at with each passing page. For instance, I’m sure I’m not alone in having experienced a sense of déjà vu at least several times in my life. At one point in the story, Barry asks himself, “…is déjà vu actually the specter of false timelines that never happened but did, casting their shadows upon reality?”
When I read that passage I found myself wondering a) what a unique way of looking at things, and b) what if that’s exactly what déjà vu is?! Thinking about it further, even now, is simply mind-boggling. If, as some religions and belief systems profess, we are reincarnated, then who is to say when we are reincarnated? Are we in fact living a life over again? Seriously, this is some deep philosophical stuff that I can barely begin to fathom.
Later in the book, when Crouch brings the media presence back into the fold, a talking head says this: “If memory is unreliable, if the past and present can simply change without warning, then fact and truth will cease to exist. How do we live in a world like that?”
This was another deep question that also left me speechless. Think of how far we have come as a society. We have 24-hour news networks, and a social media network that never sleeps. The problem, even without what is fought in Recursion, is that with so many outlets, there are far to many questions about who to trust. So while that comment in the story helped drive the fiction story line, it was also quite applicable to the state of the world, at least in a manner of speaking.
In the beginning of Recursion’s gradual descent toward a very open conclusion, one of the primary antagonists defends much of the “bad” the book describes being fought since all of it was done in the name of progress. “It will be destructive at first, like all progress. Just as the industrial age ushered in two world wars. Just as Home sapiens supplanted the Neanderthal. But would you turn back the clock on all that comes with it? Could you? Progress is inevitable. And it’s a force for good.”
(A quick aside: typing that, it reminded me of Thanos in Marvel’s “Endgame” calling himself inevitable. Progress is most definitely inevitable. However, not all inevitability is a force for good. But this whole train of thought could lead to an entirely separate discussion elsewhere, so let’s stop there and just say both Endgame and Recursion are great.)
What should be noted here is the complexity of the “bad guy” in Recursion. Yes, he’s the one our protagonists ultimately team up to take down, but he is not necessarily “evil.” Crouch is able to portray this particular character in such a manner that you may find yourself rooting against him because he’s a bit of a jerk, not because his goals are “wrong.”
The story’s main characters have several ensuing discussions that more or less mirror the theme of one of the greatest episodes of Star Trek (the original series) called “The City on the Edge of Forever.” In that landmark episode, the plot asks what would have happened if the U.S. had delayed entering World War II. Of course, the catalyst to the whole ordeal is the woman from the 1930s who Captain Kirk falls for, and he is forced to not change history. Still, the premise of “what if?” is prominent throughout Recursion. And as one character says, “The ‘what-ifs’ snowball out into infinity.”
Without spoiling the thrill ride that is the actual story, I should touch on part of the final act of Recursion, in which we are essentially reminded to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. To paraphrase what one character says during this part, we should all let technology take a back seat when we can and enjoy a walk, or a game with family and friends, or a good movie, or a good meal. Basically, enjoy whatever simple pleasures life has to offer. 
Because if Recursion “taught” me anything, it’s that we shouldn’t worry too much about the things we cannot change or the things we wish we could change. They have helped make us who we are. Together, we are all part of an imperfect world, but each of us perfectly fits into it.
And there is no need to change perfection.

Howie Balaban is hoping to be a more frequent contributor once again as the summer slowly winds down. That is, at least, his imperfect plan.