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Permutation City by Greg Egan
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U 50x66
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it was ok

I have this awesome string of random bits that I'm hiding in my pocket. It is a magical fairy land with dragons and wizards and lots of attractive princesses that need saving. What do you mean that's just pocket lint? It's all information! I can interpret it however I want. There's so much pocket lint in the world surely some of it is actually Narnia. In my pocket lint universe I am an immortal god! My name is only spoken in awed pocket lint whispers. What do you mean pocket lint immortal god Me has nothing to do with the Me that you've known for the last three hundred pages? We've got the same name. We look the same. Sometimes we say the same things!

The premise of this book made no sense. That's fine in the abstract. There are plenty of books worth reading that make no sense. But this is a Greg Egan book, so the real point of it is the idea, which as I may have mentioned, makes no sense. Go read his collection Axiomatic instead.
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Reading Progress

Finished Reading
December 3, 2009 – Shelved

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message 1: by George (new) - rated it 4 stars
Jun 24, 2019 03:12PM

George Mann I think the case for the pocket lint universe has often been overstated. For example, if someone else takes some of their own pocket lint and then adds it to their own, is it still true to assert that I still have full control of my own meta-lint world or has Narnia subsumed it? Further, if pocket lint arises spontaneously without any influence from an eternal force, can it be destroyed by simply taking the affected garment to the dry cleaner? So many questions...


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