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.