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Apr 15, 2018callig rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
BLINDSIGHT The title refers to the neurological condition in which ones eyes, and most of the brains visual processing modules work, but a final connection to consciousness doesn't. So the person consciously sees nothing, but unconsciously still does, avoids dangers, flinches at sudden movement etc. Watts contends that this essential mechanism summarizes most of our lives, and that we limit ourselves by denying most of reality that we can't consciously explain. (I didn't hear that twig snap, or see that flash of orange striped fur in the bushes- nossir!) First Contact with aliens is a metaphor for anything new that we subliminally sense but fear and deny. I'm surprised he didn't mention the split-brain cases in which severe epilepetic seizures were stopped by severing the corpus collosum, leaving the individual two half-persons in one skull. Surprisingly, he only footnotes Libet's research This novel resembles a recasting of Solaris, another classic morality play (the Faustian bargain: the devil promises Narcissian serenity at the cost of drowning). This is classic science-fiction: a demonstration of theory through docu-drama. The theories of Mr. Watts are as complex as his sock-puppet characters are crude: individual players are walking avatars of archetypal roles, like Star Treks diffraction of human preoccupations into Ferengi greed, Klingon aggressiveness, Vulcan intellectualism etc. It also works well as an acid satire on t he pitfalls of specialism (schizophrenic fragmentation in which nobody can see the whole picture). Enough already!? I could rant on, as it's hard to review a thought-provoking book briefly! It's dense- far more the standard humans-in "lumpy-faced" alien drag as Watts jibes. You may disagree with the author's conclusions, but so what? The value of his novel is that it forces thought, and that, surely, is the ultimate purpose of any book?! Heart of Darkness meets Solaris! Read it already- if only for the fun rant on pages 301 to 304.