Zima Blue

publish Opened 2024-10-24; musings dated 2024-10-31. Related to Poetry and literature I like.

Overall

Great short story about the nature of art and memory, with a sci-fi backdrop. The imagery is rich, and the sci-fi is not self indulgent (I can’t say the same about some of Qntm’s work).

The story is only 15 pages long. You should totally read it before seeing my take: free PDF of the story

Things I liked

In general, I’m biased in liking this story because its driving plot forces are philosophy and art — both of which I studied in school.

Specific things I liked:

• Vivid imagery.
  • The main character is, chiefly, an experienced art critic. I think Alastair writes this character amazingly. She is armed with the wide vocabulary one would expect from a seasoned critic and a nonchalant “above it all” attitude that comes with age.
  • Her internal monologue is so deeply reasonable, thoughtful, and expressive that it warms my heart and brain.
  • Really fragile and thought provoking mood and atmosphere.
• It’s thought provoking.

  • “But if the AM had accompanied me, I’d have a flawless record of how things really were.”

  • “You would,” Zima said. “But that isn’t living memory. It’s photography; a mechanical recording process. It freezes out the imagination; leaves no scope for details to be selectively misremembered.”

  • I love this concept. It’s Selective ignorance.
• A satisfying epilogue.
  • It ties back the unexpected Chekhov’s Gun of Carrie’s old Martian paper. Which neatly conveys Carrie has internalized Zima’s advice, that small distortions in our memory are good because they lead us to treasure things more they deserve — an irrational act, but one worth doing anyways.
  • It’s short and doesn’t overstay its welcome.
    • Also: the brevity of the epilogue conveys subtly how above-it-all this character is at her age. The character consistency there is nice.

Thought provoking things

• Zima acts more human than Carrie.
  • Zima remembers this imperfectly and embellished.
  • Carrie remembers things and even makes decisions by performing a “query” to her AM.
• Characters returning to their inner natures:
  • Zima, to a single purpose automaton.
  • Carrie, to her more optimistic but selectively ignorant self by writing for the Martian paper.
• How fitting! That Carrie, a journalist, should choose to carry an AM unit to record events as accurately as possible.
• Alternative interpretation: Zima is obsessed. Perhaps it’s not an enlightened choice that he returns to his blue-obsessed self.
  • This irrational obsession is ironically quite human.
• What happened to Zima’s memory on Kharkov 8? Given the sci-fi setting of this story, it seems possible (probable?) that he intentionally didn’t carry over his previous body’s memory. Isn’t it interesting that at the end of this story, he chooses to wipe his memory a second time?