Amazing book where a company can remove memories. The story starts when they discover they can get those memories back as they were only blocked. Told from the viewpoint of various people, rotating, it all comes together at the end, without a cheesy or overly sci-fi ending.
Amazing stuff.
You see, we're all coded, we're all running programs. The goal is simplicity, elegance, orderly cooperation, to produce an effective and bug-free whole. Obviously, the human brain is more of a challenge. The ultimate challenge. When you don't know the operating rules, problems seem impossible to fix. But they aren't. To understand the underlying system, the rules, like Nepenthe does, and then them to fix a, a malfunction, in this a PTSD response - that's just a ... beautiful concept. Actually I don't think there's anything more beautiful than that.
(She realized she'd been leaning forward and holding the edge of the desk. She let go; put her hands in her lap.)
You didn't mention morality, Louise said.
Well no, Noor said. Health, function - those aren't moral matters. It's not a moral matter when a program isn't working. It's a practical one.
Louise looked at her for a long time.
I understand, she said.
On the train home, Noor, knowing she had the job, was able to find it a little bit funny that she'd thought she might have been asked about Helen of Troy.
Helen, thinks Noor.
Helena.
Elena.
The problem with thinking about forgetting things is that it always makes you think about the things you want to forget.
Noor saw the girl sunbathing topless in the garden, one Saturday. She turned away from her naked breast, fiery white in the strong sunlight. A wince on her behalf. Be careful, she wants to say to her. Please look after yourself. Then that night the two of them played drum and bass until four a.m. and she thought: I hope your tits got burnt.
