AsianBuns's Reviews > The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

** spoiler alert ** So my feelings for this novel are quite a mixed bag. Overall, I think it was a beautiful and well fleshed out story. I actually felt excited to read it and I loved the sci-fi elements mixed with the existential “drama” of being human.

At first I thought the author might just be a misogynist who fantasizes about women actually liking pain, but the ending led this to be a surprisingly feminist story (portraying most men as egotistical, power hungry creatures that must be tamed, taught a lesson to, and brought back down to earth by a beautiful, crazy and confident lady!) and almost anti technology, which is also surprising for someone who is a computer programmer! I do think the ending was beautifully romantic, minus the unnecessary *descriptive* incest! And looking at it from the technical aspect, there was virtually no talk of P.I in chapter 8. I get that it broke down, but more details would have been nice. Chapter 8 was like “Oh Caroline doesn’t wanna talk about P.I, so it’s not going to be talked about. Period.”

I loved certain aspects of Caroline because she reminded me of myself and my own desires. She exhibited a strong sense of freedom. A symbol of beauty and confidence. She was unafraid to feel and to experience. However, the more I read about Caroline... The more I felt she was portrayed as a bit of a selfish and annoying child. Like, she couldn’t have her way, she felt lied to, her own real death was taken from her, so now she’s death obsessed.. So in the end, she just became a b**** and a junkie for pain and pleasure. Except, of course this pain had to be administered by a male for it to satisfy both the sexual need and desire for male attention.

A lot of this book is about the “extremes of human behavior that might emerge when all limits are removed” so yes, the sex and the gore are necessary descriptives to portray those extremes of human behavior because a vital aspect of being alive is the ability to feel pain and pleasure. And of course I get it, pain and pleasure - oh the slim and wavering line between the two! How they can mingle and form into one, how different acts can dither from one to the other…
Anyway, other things I did not like:
-I didn’t like how she was often defined by her body, as her character stated itself. But this is an unsurprising reality of being a woman. Or maybe it’s just a man’s perspective of a woman’s perspective of herself …lol.
-I didn’t like how in chapter 6… I think it was insinuated that her sex with Fred, that also gave her no sense of excitement, was her first time having sex since before the change.. And before the change, she was 106 and sick for many years, so it’s safe to assume she hadn’t gotten any action in quite a long time. You would think even that “pedestrian” sex would bring her some excitement. Not only in terms of time, but to do it in her youthful body again, you would think that would spark something. But no. It wasn’t enough. It didn’t get her HIGH ENOUGH.
-I didn’t like how it was also insinuated that after the change, she was filled with immediate dissatisfaction, boredom, and anger. Where was the initial rush of curiosity for the events that just occurred? Why did she immediately assume it was all a sham, a lie, a fake? Who's to say, in the book’s reality, that it’s any less real than the reality before? Why did she immediately want to fight the circumstances? What’s the point in saying “reality” was taken from you by a “machine”, when that machine was just a product of a man, who was a product of a culture, which was a product of human identity, which in itself is an extension of nature? What makes P.I’s reality any less real than the original reality? What because now there’s no fight, no prize, it is therefore not real? It seemed mostly, she was mad that her sense of individuality was taken away. That now, that JUST ANYONE could have anything, didn’t have to put any work into anything, there was no point or meaning in any of her actions. That her meaning and value as a human was defined by the struggle she felt she needed to overcome in order to “build a life.” How can she feel appreciated and special if the world she was thrown into now tells her she is objectively not because the metrics she used to define those feelings have been destroyed.

I don’t think the author intended her character to come off that way, but what I said above is just one way of looking at things. In the end, I think there were a fair amount of contradictions and hypocrisy, especially by Caroline. Just one example would be when Lawrence said “he had gone along, because he already knew the other way didn't work. If this way didn't work either, what would it mean?” Well.. It would mean the death of your children and the death of humanity completely. If technology is inevitable, and Caroline admits that she was only pushing that day as far as possible into the future... It reminds of her statement earlier “if it's going to happen anyway, isn't it better for it to happen sooner instead of later?” ..can’t that logic be applied to this scenario? Isn’t it better to ensure your children’s survival.. Sooner than later? And to do that would be to introduce bits of technology.

The takeaway I got from this book is that the ultimate human quest is to find meaning in one’s life. Take that idea away and you are no longer human. The idea of meaning is what creates humanity. And this meaning is defined by our struggles (aka our inability TO have everything we want) and defined by our fear of the unknown. (aka death) I have more thoughts on this.. but overall, it was a very unique and solid read for me.