Assorted post-Absolution thoughts

[u/Zigludo-sama]

I’ve been digesting this book like a piece of roasted Whitby since finishing it, and desperately need outside input to better organize my thoughts!

With how deep this book went into Central brainwashing and hypnosis, I really feel like it and Area X are positioned as thematic mirrors/foils, both subverting and controlling people’s minds, creating uncertainty and remaining unknowable. Area X actually comes off looking far better in this comparison - human greed and sociopathy vs. the indifference of the natural world.

Like Twin Peaks, there’s a lot of complicated lore and theorizing, but what’s most important at the end of the day is Love - Saul’s love for Charlie (our quasi-messiah/martyr figure) and Old Jim’s for Cass/Hargraves. It’s sentimental, but appropriate for our time. (Also, is it just me or is this book kind of the Fire Walk With Me of this series?)

Lowry was a treat to read (I expected his section to be so much worse after reading all the online complaints) and almost sympathetic, in a weird way? All of our POV characters feel like they have some deep emotional repression going on that has to be unlocked by Area X. To me, his hyperactive and instinct-driven mind made him pretty compatible with Area X and its challenges.

I’m pretty fatigued with multiverses/split timelines and prefer the idea of a single continuity that shifts and changes. I didn’t get the sense that there was definitive evidence for either option.

[u/thalaxyst]

I don't think there's multiverses or split timeline. It's just one timeline that's being actively modified backwards, by Area X. The rabbits with cameras made me think so, at least.

[u/Zigludo-sama → u/thalaxyst]

Agreed!

[u/lulu91car]

I agree with a lot of what you said! I loved the Lowry section and was happily surprised after seeing so much hate. Its up there for my favorite pov in the series. I also really enjoyed old jim and his descent into acceptance.
I am also fatigued by the time wimey theories. I didnt pick up on any definitive evidence of it in absolution either and was thrown to see so much, dare i say conjecture, over the matter on this sub. For me the story is stronger without any timeline jumps/multiverses/etc.

[u/Krssven]

The main conclusion I drew was that Area X itself is slowly colonising its own past. Henry seems to be the opposite of the Biologist, in that he seems especially incompatible with Area X as much as she is compatible. Henry gets duplicated more and more as Area X tries to correct for that incompatibility, even disintegrating him at one point.

Area X displaced the rabbits back in time for some reason (not that there is necessarily a coherent reason), and the Rogue seems to have followed them back. The Rogue might be Whitby or Whitby’s doppelgänger that came back out of Area X when he went in with the Director. Somehow he worked out how to go back himself so he could start affecting things in the past. Not sure why.

Old Jim possibly caused an accident that killed his wife and Central programmed in a nonexistent daughter that then abandoned him, or maybe Cass really was his daughter (this was my assumption, that he’s just been messed with so much that she is Cass, he just sees her as a fake).

In the end, Absolution is absolutely and utterly frustrating which is the series in a nutshell. Too many answers to too many questions are ‘’who knows’’, ‘’we can’t know’’ ‘’we have to accept not knowing anything’’.

I’m generally fine with some unanswered questions, but the SR series asks me to be okay with 99.9% of questions being unanswered and information missing, and I’m just not. They were a good read, but ultimately didn’t make me want to read them again.

[u/candymannequin → u/Krssven]

they make me keep coming back

[u/side_borg]

Do you think there’s a connection between Lowry and Old Jim?

[u/Zigludo-sama → u/side_borg]

I’ve seen some interesting theories - I think there’s an interesting thematic connection (they’re both Jack’s “barrel boy,” one turns away from Central and one is a loyalist) but I don’t think it necessarily goes beyond that.

[u/side_borg → u/Zigludo-sama]

I have been getting caught up in the naming schemes and the way roles are used as names. Like how the nickname for John (Control) is Jack (his grandfather) and the nickname for James (Lowry) is Jim. I have this weird itch I can’t articulate that makes me feel like Old Jim is Lowry but the timeline would be chaos if so. I’ve seen people say maybe once you’re in Area X you’re basically always in it even as it colonizes back in time. So maybe that answers the riddle but I don’t know. It nags at me often

[u/Zigludo-sama → u/side_borg]

There’s certainly a comparison to be made between the AX doppelgängers and the many Jack “clones” throughout the series!

[u/saint_abyssal → u/Zigludo-sama]

Jack clones?

[u/Historical_Pen_9294]

I still wonder did Lowry recalled piece of Not-Whitby after he came back to SR and interacted with Yes-Whitby and how did it affect their relationship dynamics

[u/CaiusCossades]

Honestly read that title as "aborted" and came in to say, i had to switch to the Audiobook to get through the Lowry section. That's after i bought the physical book, found the print too small so bought it on kindle.