...now you don't

[threemonkeys]

Have you ever felt invisible? Nobody notices you so you aren't there. Ever remembered something that couldn't have happened? We are defined by our memories. We exist only when we are observed. Perception and reality are not the same thing. Perception is our own reality.

I could go on with the above. Live long enough and you hear all of these and more. In The Glamour, Christopher Priest explores all this stuff. He tells a story of perception from different viewpoints. Invisibility, memory loss, hypnotism, psychic power, magic - these all interact. I think it is meant to be profound, but it is just all very familiar. Yet, Priest is a talented author. Even if the themes are tired, he can still look into his characters and tell their story in a powerful way. He is pretty good at evoking images too. So it is a readable and enjoyable book. You also need to make allowance for it being written 20 years ago - some of these ideas have lost their edge. Sometimes that happens - it isn't going to stop me reading Priest's back catalogue as it get reissued.

Comments

[roaring40s.livejournal.com]

I read a book called "Thinks" by Keith waterhouse years ago. The reader is inside the narrator's head listening to everything he thinks - his plans, memories, what he wishes were true - and it takes a while to work out what is really happening and what is all in his mind. It was intriguing.

[threemonkeys.livejournal.com]

Oh, right - the Billy Liar guy (I had to look him up). Thinks was written about the same time as The Glamour - it seems to have been a popular theme at that time.