Glory Days

I’ve been traveling again this week – several days in Phoenix – and have been able to finish a couple of new books as a result.  I’m still working my way through “The Forgotten War” by Clay Blair but, at almost 1,200 pages, this book is a tome and it’s not available on my i-book app so it didn’t make the trip.  A final review will have to wait until next week.

I decided instead to spend some time with “Ready Player One” by Ernest Cline.  I’d been meaning to read this one – given that the movie is scheduled for release on March 29, 2018 – and since it speaks to so many things so close to my heart.  I’m also going to apologize in advance for the length of this post but those of you who read to the end will – I hope – not criticize me too harshly for over-writing.

The book has been described as an homage to the popular culture of the ‘80s – a decade I claim as my own – and it is that – but I actually found it to be much more.  It’s really a comprehensive tribute to so much of what defines – for the lack of a better term – “Nerd Culture” – comic books, anime, science fiction and fantasy and computer games.  At its heart –  on its most basic level – it’s a celebration of gamers, the history of gaming and gamer culture.

That’s where it speaks to me most directly.  I have been, still am and always will be a gamer – not a serious or skillful one – in fact, if you listen to my son – I’m pretty awful.  It doesn’t matter – I still play computer games and I still love them – even as a perpetual noob.  I started with pen and paper D&D when I was in High School and with the earliest console / computer games like Spacewar, Pong, Dungeon, Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork.  We were early purchasers of an Atari 2600 and it had pride of place in our family room.  I don’t even want to think about how many quarters I burned in Arcades like Aladdin’s Castle while I was in High School – Galaga, Centipede, Tempest, Missile Command, Joust, Defender and so many others.  After purchasing my first computer – around the time I headed to College in the late 70s and early 80s – I became an unabashed devotee of games like Ultima Online, Ultima Underworld, Baldur’s Gate, Betrayal At Krondor, Command & Conquer, Doom, Warcraft, Starcraft, Dungeon Keeper and sooooo many more.  As good as all these games were and as much fun as I had playing them, EVERYTHING changed on November 23, 2004 – the release date for World of Warcraft (WOW).

I bought WOW the day it came out and I was lost to the world for quite a while afterwards.  That was more than a game – that was a world and a society that many of us truly lived within – all too often to the exclusion of far more important things – for a very long time.  We adventured, we made friends, we stalked and killed enemies, we came together to form guilds, we built businesses and amassed fortunes and we saved our virtual world – over and over and over.  It was immersive and amazing and gloriously fun – and it was – at times – far more satisfying than the real world in which we actually lived.

WOW defined a category of games called MMORPGs – Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games – and for those of you who have played WOW or one of the other popular MMORPGs – you’ll feel right at home in this book.  Most of the book actually takes place within the mother of all MMORPG called the OASIS.  For those of you who haven’t played one of these games, it might feel a bit disorienting at first but you’ll eventually get comfortable switching between RL (real life) and time in game.

I won’t describe the plot in detail – anyone interested can read the book or see the movie – directed by Steven Spielberg.  It’s only necessary to know that the story involves a competition within the virtual world of the OASIS – the outcome of which has significant ramifications for a global society that has come to depend on and largely live within the OASIS.  It also pits a small group of teenage gamers against a huge, well-resourced, demonstrably evil corporation.

Here are some of my impressions.  First and foremost, this is teen fiction – it’s about teens, for teens and drips with the passions and emotions and internal conflicts that many of us likely struggled with when we were teens.  Secondly, it’s very simply written and you can fly through this book.  I read it on auto-pilot – took less than a day – skimming large portions.  You don’t lose or miss anything by doing so.  The plot is simple and linear and not particularly complex.  The language and writing are pretty basic.  The characters were pretty simple and straightforward – acknowledging as I say this that it will sound pretty arrogant to most younger readers – it would have to me at age 15.  At that age, I felt like I was complex and deep and so smart and far more passionate about meaningful things than most of the adults around me.  I didn’t realize at the time that all those adults who didn’t seem to enthusiastically acknowledge the importance of what I was saying and feeling and thinking were actually just watching me grow through the same awkward stage that they’d all experienced themselves and knowing – with hind sight – just how much I didn’t know and that things were going to get a whole lot more complex – pretty darn quickly.

Having said all that, I really did enjoy the book – likely because of the time spent in game and the Author’s amazing historical knowledge of computer and console gaming and “Nerd Culture” resonated with me.  It was a wonderful walk down memory lane that I really enjoyed.  Anyone who lived through and loved the 80s – anyone who loves and identifies with some / all aspects of “Nerd Culture” – any gamer – is really going to enjoy this book.  I’d recommend you get a copy and read it before you destroy the opportunity to do so by going to the movie.  It’s a fun trip.

There’s one other reason I really enjoyed the book.  I’ve said before that my favorite books are those that make me think about myself, about who I am to those around me, about what I’ve done right and what I’ve done wrong.  I don’t believe that this book has any real or lasting literary value but it did prompt me to do a bit of that in a very specific way.

My son is the gamer that I always wished I could be – he’s played a lot and he’s extremely good across multiple genres – MMORGPs, Strategy, 1^st Person Shooters.  There was a time – long, long ago – when he used to watch me play.  These days – it’s usually me watching him and it’s a joy to do so.  It’s actually one of the things that has connected us over the years.  There was a year when he and I actually took a vacation to LA so that we could join the studio audience watching Riot’s League of Legends North American Championship tournament.  After the matches, we’d go out for dinner and then head back to the hotel room where we both spent hours in game – playing late into the night and ordering room service.

I’d be the first to say that I wasn’t a perfect parent and I didn’t create the perfect young life for my son while he was growing up.  Between ages 1 and 10 – he lived in 3 different countries – far too many different homes and schools – as he and the rest of the family followed me from place to place around the world and around the US over the course of my career.  He lived through a tough divorce between two parents who never figured out how – post-divorce – to co-parent.  For an incredibly intelligent young person, he had some challenging school years – never really taking it as seriously as I thought he should.  Long to short – he had a fairly complicated and challenging young life.

One very consistent part of his young life during all those challenging years was his gaming.  By the time he was in High School, he spent lot of time in game – playing far too late into the night – letting it eat up his weekends – impinging on the time many of his peers spent doing homework or playing sports or hanging out in person.  I’m pretty sure that most parents would feel that I wasn’t forceful enough about balance.  I occasionally confiscated his laptop or put limits on time in game but I never chose to be the authoritarian about it that I could have been – possibly due to the feeling of hypocrisy it would have left me with – given my own gaming and the fact that it was an interest he’d originally picked up from watching me.

I can’t tell you with any certainty why I made the choices I did – maybe because I understood a little too well the attraction of time in game.  Here’s the truth – life is hard work – putting yourself out there and fulfilling your responsibilities and doing your best every day and working to be a constructive and productive and positive person – particularly for all those you care about – is not easy.  It takes a lot of energy and a lot of effort and you fail all too often and sometimes you get hurt and sometimes you hurt other people and you make mistakes every single day.  For a teenager, I can understand all too well how much of a sanctuary time in game can be.  Even as an adult, I can assure you that it sometimes feels like a pretty attractive option.  With all the ups and downs I dragged him through over the course of his young life and given what I knew was a challenging situation – I probably just didn’t want to deprive him of that sanctuary.

I think I enjoyed the book because it prompted me to think back through all of those years and all of those choices – it gave me some important, introspective moments – and for that I really am grateful.  I’m particularly grateful because – as it does in the book – everything comes out OK – not perfect but OK.  He’s taken control of his undergraduate education – selected the school that he wants to attend – and is getting ready to start there in the Fall Semester.  He’s taken control of his life – cooking, cleaning, shopping, managing a budget.  He’s learned to live with consideration and kindness and thoughtfulness towards those around him.  Most importantly, he’s met and connected with a wonderful, smart, pretty, caring young woman who seems to value him for all the good things he brings to the table and is committed to what looks like a really fulfilling relationship.  Short to long – he’s growing up and he’s doing it pretty darn well.  Good job Buddy.

I consider myself a relatively well educated individual – holding both undergraduate and graduate degrees.  I’m relatively well read – with history being one of my favorite topics – and I work to stay informed on current affairs.  I’ve lived for 10 years in Asia and have served overseas as a Diplomat.  Even with all that, it never ceases to amaze me just how much I don’t know.  One of my favorite topics has always been the Second World War – a topic on which read extensively – I consider myself reasonably well versed.  As I started into this book, however, I quickly realized that my education came to a hard stop on or around August 14, 1945 – VJ Day – the day on which Japan’s unconditional surrender was announced.

I decided to pick up a title on the Korean War while watching the Winter Olympics.  I started into “The Coldest Winter” by David Halberstam but found the first few chapters a little disorienting due to the fact that it begins well into the conflict.  I switched to this title – “The Forgotten War” – by Clay Blair and found it to be a much better jumping off point since it provides more historical and political context.  I’m about a third of the way through the book and wanted to share a few initial thoughts.  I’ll caveat everything that comes after by saying I know very little about this time in America’s history – anything I write will be based only on what I’ve learned from a single book.

First take-away – the U.S. was completely unprepared for this conflict.  It was eye-opening for me – the speed and degree to which the United States demobilized after the end of WWII.  In a short period of 2 – 3 years, Harry S. Truman presided over the dismemberment of what was arguably the most powerful military organization this world had ever known.  Blair describes a President whose desire to decrease the federal deficit, combined with a dislike or distrust of the professional military establishment, led him to decimate both branches of the armed forces.  By 1948, the United States was a nation with significant global commitments, facing significant perceived geo-political challenges, coupled with minimal ability to support those commitments.  Combine that with a residual over-confidence flowing from our victory over both the Germans and the Japanese and you had the makings of a perilous situation.

Second take-away – the U.S. came out of the Second World War without a clear vision for what it wanted to be in the post-war world.  While the book only touches lightly on these topics, it does describe a dysfunctional relationship between the Service Chiefs and the Truman’s 2nd Secretary of Defense – Louis A. Johnson – a relatively toxic relationship between the Army and Navy in an era of rapidly shrinking budgets and messaging miscues to Russia and North Korea on the part of both State and Douglas MacArthur – who all too often took it upon himself to opine independently on U.S. foreign policy.  All we knew was that we were apprehensive about what we saw as the rise of a monolithic, global communist movement led by the U.S.S. R.

With the notable exception of the current Administration, we as Americans have come to expect a foreign policy rooted in well-thought out, principled positions, built upon international alliances, enabled by the exercise of soft power and backstopped by overwhelming military power.  None of that was true for the United States of 1950.  We were still a relatively new global power – just beginning to build the capabilities and institutions – economic, military and diplomatic – that would help to define the post-war world.  We had not yet established the foreign policy construct(s) that spoke to situations like Korea.  Nevertheless – or maybe as a result – when North Korea invaded the South on June 25, 1950 – the U.S. was relatively quick to intervene despite the fact that U.S. government that had not identified the Korean peninsula as a strategic priority.  In the face of a perceived global Communist threat – facing criticism from Republicans at home that he was soft on Communism – with assurances from his military leaders – particularly MacArthur – that this would be a simple and easily won conflict – it became all too easy for Truman to decide to intervene.

Third takeaway – we were blithely unaware of just how unprepared we were for a conflict of this type.  Our disregard for the possibility that a small country like North Korea could field a capable military organization led everyone to believe that the mere entry of the U.S. military would result in a quick end to what everyone expected to be a brief and bloodless conflict.  It didn’t take long for the North Koreans to disabuse us of this notion as they decisively drove both the Republic of Korea and U.S. militaries back to that small enclave in southeastern Korea which became known as the Pusan Perimeter.  The military situation became serious enough – quickly enough – to cause U.S. military and political leadership to begin discussing the possibility of a U.S. Dunkirk.

Final takeaway from the first third of the book – we did regain control of the situation and managed to blunt the North Korean advance – stabilize the Pusan Perimeter – but not by superior generalship or military brilliance.  As our area of control contracted, we benefited from interior lines of communication, we mobilized and deployed every military resource we had into the conflict, we took courage from desperation and we ground the North Koreans down.

Americans have, for quite some time, lived with an unshakable belief in the quality and capability of our military.  That belief seemed to be just as strongly felt in 1950 as it is today.  One of the things I appreciate about the portion of the book that I’ve read so far is an awareness of the degree to which this belief was effectively challenged in relatively short order.  It had me thinking back to the events described in the first book of Rick Atkinson’s Liberation trilogy – “An Army At Dawn” – a really good history of the U.S. military in WWII.  That book describes our entry into the war against Germany and the fighting in North Africa.  In a very similar way, we threw poorly trained and equipped soldiers into battle against a motivated, experienced, well equipped enemy with all too predictable results.  One of Atkinson’s themes is that any army has to learn to fight – learn to become a killing machine – and that the process of doing so is a painful and difficult one.  You see the same thing happening in the first months of the Korean War and watching it happen – even on the pages of a book – is an agonizing process.  As the war on the Korean peninsula progresses, incompetent leadership is exposed, inadequacies of training and equipment become obvious and our military learns to fight again – at great cost.

It feels good to put down the speculative fiction for a bit and pick up something like this.  It’s not about the writing – it’s about what I’m learning.  Still plenty to read and plenty to learn – I’ll update you as my education progresses.

In my last post, I recommended that you have something light and frothy and fun to read once you’re done with the Southern Reach Trilogy.  As I was getting ready for my trip, about halfway through the 2nd book – “Authority” – knowing I was going to finish the entire series – I had to make a choice about what would come next.

After purchasing all ten of Richard Kadrey’s Sandman Slim novels, Amazon knows to keep putting his other work in front of me.  I’ve posted on the Sandman Slim novels before – they’re fun – they make me laugh – they’re quick, easy reads.  I’ve finished five of them and each one has been worth the time.  The stories are a bit jumbled and clunky but the quippy, cynical, sarcastic dialogue is priceless.  I do wonder whether they’ll hold up for another 6 books – the 11th volume is coming out this year but – so far – so good.

Monday night…I go to Amazon and there it is – this book – one of my featured selections.  I make an impulse buy – actually, two impulse buys – since I also order the 2nd book in the series – “The Wrong Dead Guy”.  Then I download both books to my iPad so that I’ll have them for the trip.  I figure the odds are with me on this one – I’m going to want something light and funny as a palate cleanser – I’ve really enjoyed Kadrey’s other books – it has an average of 4 out of 5 stars on Amazon – I can’t really go that wrong.

Thinking back on this, I should have known.  I have a pretty standard approach to purchases.  For a new author or a new series, I start with an e-book.  They’re less expensive and they take up no space.  If I really enjoy the work and feel it has lasting significance or value, I’ll go back and purchase a hard copy.  I have no idea why I went in so hard on these books but shame on me.

The law of averages caught up with me on this one.  With so many good books to read, there are few things sadder than wasting your time on a bad read.  Fortunately, the time I spent on this one was mercifully brief – finished it in a day.  It’s mindless, poorly written, pointless and it’s not even that funny.  This was basically Sandman Slim with a boring lead character, an one dimensional supporting cast, an atrociously conceived government agency, no worthy antagonists, a whole bunch of goofy garbage layered over the top – the “Tentacle Twins” – really?? – and some really flat dialogue.  I’m not even sure what Kadrey was thinking.  I have to believe that authors as productive as Kadrey know when they’re writing below the line.  I can only assume that he had a contract, he had a deadline, he had to write something and – once he created the world – he decided it would be a shame to throw it away – so he just wrote a sequel.

If you haven’t read this one – don’t bother – don’t waste your time or your money.  I will never crack the spine on the second book in the series – “The Wrong Dead Guy” – unless the day comes when I have absolutely nothing else to read.  Both of these books are never going to make it to my Library.  They’re headed down to the basement – to be stored in one of my many, many boxes of less meaningful books.  The only reason I’d ever let them back out is if they somehow start to show resale value.  At that point, I may put them as subjects for an “In The Cart” post.

I’m rarely this harsh with a book.  I’ve said before – I can almost always find something to enjoy in any book – not the case here.  When I want to read Kadrey, I’ll go back to Sandman Slim – unless or until those start to head south and get tiring.

The one good thing that came out of this experience was a decision to shift back to something a little more academic.  I mentioned in an earlier post that the opening ceremonies of the Winter Games motivated me to read something on the Korean War – a topic I still know little about.  I purchased both “The Coldest Winter” by David Halberstam and “The Forgotten War” by Clay Blair.  I started into “The Coldest Winter” and found the first chapter compelling.  It was also a bit disorienting because it begins well into the conflict – at that point in the war when the U.S. Army is approaching the Yalu – prompting the Chinese to enter the conflict.  I wanted a more complete picture so I made the decision last night to try “The Forgotten War”.  It provides more historical context – a helpful summary of the regional and geo-political situation leading up to the war.  If common sense hadn’t prevailed, I probably would have read well into the night.  It’s an excellent book and I’ll be going back to it tonight.  Once done, I’ll switch back to “The Coldest Winter”.

I’ll let you know how they were.

I’ve been traveling all week for work and I have to say – nothing in this world feels as good as coming home.  There was a time – long ago – when I enjoyed business travel – particularly international trips.  I got over that pretty quickly – now it’s just work.  The most joyful aspect of traveling for work these days is coming home – pulling into the driveway – seeing the light streaming out from an open front door – silhouetting Daisy and Butterscotch who are always waiting for me with wagging tails – jumping all over me like they haven’t seen me in a year – then getting that big, warm, wonderful hug from my wife.  For me, that’s what makes a trip worthwhile these days.

Another source of joy involves the extra reading time that comes with travel.  I’ve never been able to work on planes – too little space – too many people – too many distractions.  I now just embrace the time as an opportunity to read.  Combine that with the time you have in the hotel room after all the work is done and I’m usually able to make some real progress on whatever book I’m into at the time.

When I left for this trip, I was halfway through the 2nd book in the Southern Reach Trilogy – “Authority”.  By the time I got back home yesterday, I’d finished both “Authority” as well as the final book in the trilogy – “Acceptance”.  I promised to come back and post final thoughts once done and this will be my chance.

In my first post on the Trilogy, I mentioned that I wanted to finish the books before the release of “Annihilation” as well as my concern about how anyone could turn this body of work into a movie.  I’m doubling down on that after finishing all three books.  THERE…IS…NO…WAY!!  I like Natalie Portman and I’m sure they’ve made an entertaining movie but I’m also pretty sure that it bears only a passing resemblance to the book and to what Jeff VanderMeer has managed to accomplish with it.

I’ll still probably go see this movie.  I’ve checked the reviews and it’s actually hard to tell what I should expect.  On Rotten Tomatoes, it scores much higher with critics than with audiences.  Given the density and complexity of the story – that may be a good thing – no way to tell.  Having finished the books, however, I feel like I should finish this trip and see what Hollywood has done with – or to – a pretty amazing book.

I’ll start by saying that I found these books to be beautifully crafted.  For me, VanderMeer’s language was hypnotic and immersive – it drew me in and focused me.  There was nothing going on in my head while I was reading that didn’t involve what I was reading.  Not sure if this is true for others but all too much of what I read these days allows me to skim and drift and read on autopilot and still enjoy the story.  That was not the case for these books.  In order to appreciate what VanderMeer is doing, you have to truly pay attention to every paragraph and page.  I read these books in a very deliberate way – anything else and I know I would have either missed things – or missed feeling things.

I also felt that the way VanderMeer structured the story across three separate volumes was really impressive.  He increases both the complexity and the pace of the narrative in every volume.  He offers up small things early on but provides no indication of their eventual significance.  He uses the first two volumes to put all his pieces on the board and pose questions.  The third book brings everything together and connects almost every dot in a relentless and very satisfying way.  I read through these books without a pause – progressing automatically from one volume to the next – didn’t even think about putting them aside or stepping away.  I treated them like a bucket of popcorn – once I start, I am not going to stop – not even going to pause – until there’s nothing left but a small pile of lonely, unpopped kernels.

Ultimately – by the time I finished – these books left me tired – “stick a fork in me cuz I’m done” tired.  I had a similar feeling after finishing “The Stars Are Legion” but was very dissatisfied in that case because I just didn’t find much meaning in the story – it was a bit of a hot mess – very hard to connect with on any level.  Southern Reach is different – you can’t help but connect with these books.  They force you to think – to turn inward and ask yourself a whole host of questions about how you relate to the people around you and to the world in which you live.

The books became quite personal for me – demanding introspection and self-evaluation – never a bad thing in my experience.  I think any story that leaves you asking questions about yourself has done a pretty profound thing.  Short to long – they’re hard but satisfying work and I’d highly recommend them.  I’d also recommend that you have something light and fun and frothy to turn to once you’re done – more on that in my next post.

I mentioned that I’d picked up several new series while my Facebook account was deactivated.  This is one – Area X:  The Southern Reach Trilogy – consisting of “Annihilation”, “Authority” and “Acceptance”.  I used my travel time this week to dig into the series and have gotten about two thirds of the way through the second book.  Dangerous as it is to write about a series that you haven’t yet finished, I really feel the need to post some of the impressions I’ve collected now that I’ve passed the halfway point.

First and foremost – I have no idea how they’ve managed to turn this body of work into a movie – or even why chose to do so.  I wanted to read these before the movie release so that I could go into the theater knowing what the author was trying to accomplish before it was all re-interpreted by Hollywood.  The movie is scheduled for release on February 23 – next week.  I’ve viewed the official trailer and I can see elements of the book but – based on those two and a half minutes – I was right to read before I saw it on the big screen.  The movie looks to be entertaining but bears slight resemblance to what VanderMeer gave us in his books.

These are not happy or uplifting books – every page is packed with pain or unhappiness or dislocation or disconnection.  For anyone who hasn’t read them – you’ve been warned.  You’ll find nothing – at least up to and through the series’ halfway point – to celebrate – nothing encouraging – in these books.  The Author’s messages about us, about who we are, about how we live, about how we fit into the world – are overwhelmingly depressing.  If you’re coming off a breakup or divorce, if you’re just lost a job or a loved one, if you feel like you’re struggling with your sense of self or place within the world – these books are not for you.  While I’m open to the possibility of a cathartic ending in Book 3 that provides some salvation for the characters and holds out a glimmer of hope for us as a society and species – based on what I’ve read so far – I’m not counting on it.

There is very little dialogue or action in these books – at least the first two.  Most of what you’ll read comes to you in the form of internal monologue – in the first book from the Biologist and in the second from the Area X Director – called Control.  Their names are unimportant to the point where you don’t even learn the Biologist’s name until Book Two. You drift through both books listening to what’s going on in their heads.  When they do interact with others, it’s in short, clipped, almost content-free conversations – always characterized by a marked lack of trust and a lack of certainty that anyone is who they represent themselves to be.  In some reviews, I’ve seen the whole thing characterized as dream-like but that’s not really how it felt to me.  These are just people who have never learned to relate to anyone or anything outside themselves and who place little value on or interest in the possibility of an external relationship.

It’s incredibly de-personalized and both The Biologist and Control are profoundly broken characters – disconnected from everyone in their lives – families, spouses, colleagues.  What we learn of their parents does not fit with the expectations that most of us carry around in our heads – both characters are second generation broken.  There is no way to connect with or relate to these two characters.  It doesn’t keep them from being fascinating – it just means you never wind up liking either of them all that much.

In addition to lead characters that don’t fit within their own society or culture, the book also suggests that – as a species – we no longer really fit into our own natural world.  The two main characters make it clear that we’re losing our ability to relate to our own kind – something that may feel familiar given the all too tenuous nature of so many relationships these days.  One of the conclusions you can draw from the work that Southern Reach does in Area X is that we’re also losing our ability to relate to and fit within the world we occupy.  Area X is often described as a “pristine wilderness” but those who venture in seem incapable of connecting with it.  It’s emptiness and lack of any human footprint makes it threatening and inimical.  Basically, we’ve cut ourselves off from the rest of humanity and from the world in which we live.  It’s profoundly sad.

Southern Reach – the organization – is a great example.  After more than 30 years, it’s mission has been deprioritized, it maintains little contact with the government that established it, the staff has dwindled over time, it’s made little progress in its attempts to understand Area X and – as a result – you have a building full of workers that feel more like zombies than living, breathing humans.  There’s a brief episode in the books where Control asks his Deputy why they still use paper files and records.  The only answer you get is that the former Director insisted on doing it that way.  It’s not significant to the story – at least not yet – but it struck me as just another way in which Southern Reach lacks a connection to the rest of the world and to the larger organization of which it is ostensibly a part.

I will say – even with all of this – it’s hard to put the books down.  I wondered, halfway through Book One, if I’d really want to progress to Book Two.  I eventually found that I had no choice.  I wanted to see what happened to these sad, broken people – forgotten by the rest of the world – going through the motions – dealing with something they didn’t – never would understand.  I also really wanted to see what more I could learn about Area X.  More than halfway through Book Two, there have been no big reveals – its still a big, empty space – mapped but not understood – like a black hole – things go in but they don’t normally come out.  The only exception so far has been the Biologist.

I’ll keep reading in hopes that Control can put a few pieces together – can connect with the Biologist – can answer some of these weird questions about this really bizarre place.  Once I’m done, I’ll come back and let you know if any of this has changed.