Aditya Balaji's Blog

First off, I apologize for the long hiatus from posting on this site! It was for a good reason, though (read on to know more :D).

Anyway, I’m back now - not to do another book review, but for (you guessed it) some shameless self-promotion.

My new book, Half Citizen, is finally out! This has been a real labour of love, spanning nearly 2.5 years of graft, and I’m thrilled to announce its launch today. Half Citizen marks Part 2 of the Rogue Blockchain trilogy, and is my fourth book overall.

About Half Citizen

The book picks up from where its predecessor (Illegal Adult) left off. It begins with Tarun and Rassi gung-ho about their chances of realizing their dream for Tillamet - even while they are aware of the imminent threat of Vipul confessing to the scam that they’re all entrenched in. Tarun, hale and healthy now, seems to be enjoying a fresh lease of life after having discovered a promising protégé in Rassi. Meanwhile, Rassi has rapidly climbed up the social ranks in Tillamet, ever since she returned from Gazam. She and Atal have recently started a company in Tillamet aimed at accelerating the process of convergence of Worlds that have conflicting laws.

However, Vipul’s continued unwillingness to withdraw his confession poses a big challenge. Later, the local media begins to smell a story. And very soon, a washed-up private detective with an axe to grind, is hot on Tarun's trail. Tarun and Rassi know they're smart enough to stall, thwart and counteract the menaces in their path. But there's still the minor issue of needing to fix the universe before the whole city comes crashing down...

If you’ve read Illegal Adult already, expect Half Citizen to be slightly heavier, but doubly eventful :)

Where can you purchase Half Citizen?

The e-book is now available on Amazon, and can be read either on a Kindle device (or) the Kindle app on mobile or desktop. Below are the Amazon.com links and Amazon.in links.

Amazon.com link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BZJWW234

Amazon.in link: https://www.amazon.in/dp/B0BZJWW234

And if you like the book, do leave a review on Goodreads! You can find my Goodreads author page here.

Note: As the series is meant to be read in order, you’d need to read Illegal Adult first, if you haven’t already. You can purchase the same from Amazon too (link to book), at under a dollar!

What’s next?

Stay tuned for the series finale! Happy reading :)

Thanks for reading Learning From Fiction! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

In a 2018 video, author John Green speaks about how interwoven systems shape our lives in powerful ways. Like how him visiting the hospital to get a simple tetanus shot is only possible because there is a system of roads and bridges in place to help him get to the hospital, a supply chain that keeps chemicals refrigerated, institutions that facilitate training and licensing of healthcare workers, and what not!

Often, in the mad rush of our own lives, we fail to notice these robust systems that form the backbone of developing and developed nations. But when we do take a step back and think about it, we are hit with a humbling reminder that no matter how independent and self-made we might think we are, there is a large network of people, processes and systems that have directly or indirectly helped us get to where we are.

In my case, my appreciation for systems was recently re-kindled when I read the book Airport by Arthur Hailey. The book is an edge-of-your-seat classic centred around the many challenges that a large airport faces during an unprecedented storm. The book, while fictional, is a wonderful representation of the ins-and-outs of airport management, giving us a sneak-peak into the intricate systems that are needed to ensure that passengers get to enjoy a safe and pleasant flight.

a.image2.image-link.image2-387-236 { padding-bottom: 163.79310344827587%; padding-bottom: min(163.79310344827587%, 386.55172413793105px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-387-236 img { max-width: 236px; max-height: 386.55172413793105px; }

Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Airport-Arthur-Hailey-ebook/dp/B00JVCHC36

Airport deals with numerous themes, while never failing to thrill. In this post, I’ll talk about a few of the themes which stuck with me.

Tough work

The novel forces readers to put themselves in the shoes of various people who work in the aviation sector, both at the frontend and at the backend. One of the roles which I got to learn about and appreciate, through this book, was that of the air traffic controller.

The team of air traffic controllers is shown sitting in a dimly lit room monitoring dozens of aircrafts and their routes via a digital radarscope. The job demands high levels of concentration and skill, requiring controllers to quickly form a mental picture of all moving aircrafts in a given sector, their speeds, altitudes and landing sequences – along with the ability to think on their feet and pass on appropriate instructions to pilots whenever a change of route is needed. All of this while keeping their voices neutral and low-pitched to give the impression of being in complete control.

The author writes: “In a way, it was like an intricate chess game, except that all the pieces were at various levels and moving at several hundred miles an hour. Also as part of the game, pieces had to be raised or lowered while they still moved forward, yet none must come closer than three miles laterally or a thousand feet vertically from another, and none must go over the edge of the board. And while all of it happened, the thousands of passengers, anxious for their journeys to end, had to sit in their airborne seats – and wait.”

The mental strain of the job is such that many people in this role almost entirely burn out, well before the normal retirement age, with hardly any exit or growth opportunities. And on the chance occasion that a slip-up occurs, it has an extremely scarring effect. Keith’s story arc deserves special mention here.

In the book, there is a character Keith Bakersfield, who had once been in the thick of things during a plane crash that he was partly responsible for, as a controller. To make things worse, circumstances had led his colleague facing most of the backlash for this tragedy. The book describes the limitless feeling of guilt which Keith experiences every day, one which has led him to contemplate suicide.

A few hours before Keith’s planned time of death, a grave emergency situation arises during his shift, and he is hit with a sudden mental block. But somehow, he manages to summon whatever little is left of his mental faculties, and works his way out of this rut to avert disaster.

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a new article!

Subscribe now

In the end, Keith decides not to end his life just yet:

“Keith wondered if… from now on… he could remember the Redferns with sadness, but do his best to make the living – Natalie, his own children – his first concern. He wasn’t sure if it would work. He wasn’t sure if he had the moral or the physical strength. It had been a long time since he was sure of anything. But he could try.”

As you can see, Keith doesn’t get a giddily happy ending, and even his decision to move on is smeared with doubt all over. But perhaps that’s just life as a controller.

The premium on security

This book was published in the 1960s, and quite naturally, some of the airport protocols described in the book have evolved over time. In a way, this book serves as a very useful time capsule, providing rich context to all the frisking and scanning in airports that we have come to accept as a given in today’s world.

a.image2.image-link.image2-313-648 { padding-bottom: 48.2421875%; padding-bottom: min(48.2421875%, 312.609375px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-313-648 img { max-width: 648px; max-height: 312.609375px; }

In fact, the author alludes to this point in the book’s foreword: “...any person could enter an airport and walk without hindrance or questioning to an airline departure gate… no one had a right to question or delay a ticketed passenger… I mention this here because there’s a whole generation of air travellers who have grown up accepting as normal their passage through metal-detecting machines, having hand baggage searched, sometimes their main baggage questioned… looking back, it’s a high price the majority of us have paid for protection from extremists and lunatics...”

Apart from the obvious lack of security devices, we also learn that in some cases, having a focus on security was actually counter-productive for business back then.

For example, the book talks about how passengers who manage to sneak into aircrafts without a valid ticket aren’t really penalized; they are just sent on a return flight back home. Part of the reason is that it is desired to keep these violations as hushed-up as possible, so that other air travellers won’t realize how easy it is to travel without paying (and potentially hurting airline revenue).

There is another incident in the book about a Customs officer in America who is hesitant to tip off the Customs department in Italy, regarding a passenger who he suspects is carrying something dangerous in his briefcase. The simple reason behind his hesitancy is that tip-offs aren’t commonplace, due to fierce rivalry between the Customs departments of different countries.

Systems can be powerful, but when there are flaws in incentive design, things can blow up quite literally!

Focus on the invisibles too

Rapid growth is wonderful for any business, but with great growth comes great responsibility.

Through the character Mel Bakersfield, a manager at Lincoln International Airport, the book talks about how this airport, on the surface, is one of the most modern airports, adorned with a spectacular array of facilities. But what is invisible to the public eye is that runways and taxiways have become barely sufficient to handle the growing load, where a take-off or landing happens every thirty seconds. To make matters worse, decisions around investment in aviation are sometimes politically motivated. Mel laments about how an earlier proposal to triple-deck all parking lots had won approval quite easily (as it was something voters could see and touch) whereas his proposal to increase runway capacity had failed to get any support.

Mel’s brother Keith quips: “Okay, so we can stay on our toes in the tower, and we cope with the hairy ones, and we haven’t brought two airplanes together at that intersection yet. But someday there’ll be a second’s inattention or misjudgement, and one of us will. I hope to God it isn’t me because when it happens it’ll be the Grand Canyon all over again.”

Keith’s prediction nearly comes true when one of the runways is blocked during the storm, and a damaged plane urgently needs to land to keep its passengers alive. Luckily, disaster is prevented in the nick of time, but the crisis does open the authorities’ eyes to the pressing need to focus on the invisibles.

Conclusion

Airport is both well-researched and well-written. Despite its thorough detailing of airport operations, the book never gets dry at any point. I’d say the book is more plot-driven than character-driven, but it still manages to provide multiple layers of complexity to most of the main characters. A highly recommended read!

Leave a comment

Share

I recently read the first couple of books in the ARKANE series, a paranormal thriller series authored by JF Penn. The series is a highly intriguing read featuring Morgan Sierra, a soldier-turned-academic who joins hands with ARKANE - a secret organization researching supernatural occurrences that have the potential to cause mass hysteria.

a.image2.image-link.image2-331-630 { padding-bottom: 52.5%; padding-bottom: min(52.5%, 330.75px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-331-630 img { max-width: 630px; max-height: 330.75px; }

Link to series: https://www.amazon.com/ARKANE/dp/B074CGHPHN

To successfully pull off a series that merges the natural with the supernatural, it is imperative for a writer to make the reader suspend disbelief. While it is true that most fiction readers are willing to set aside some of their rationality before getting into a book, it is also the writer’s responsibility to make this task as simple as possible for the reader. This involves creating an internally consistent plotline that makes implausible events seem remotely possible, given a set of assumptions. And JF Penn does an excellent job of this.

At the end of each book in the series, Penn includes an ‘Author’s Note’, where she talks about the research that went into each object, location and concept introduced in the story, also giving us an insight into how much of the prose is firmly grounded in reality, versus how much is made up (it’s often a 60-40 mix). As it turns out, this is great learning material for aspiring writers in any genre.

The rest of this post covers some of the techniques used in the ARKANE series to help readers suspend their disbelief and have a great ride exploring the world of the unknown.

Placing an anchor in the reader’s mind, responsibly

In the first book, there is a sense of foreboding around the re-appearance of the Resurgam comet. Resurgam is a fictitious comet that is expected to be visible from the Earth in the 21st century, for the first time since 33 AD. It is believed that the appearance of this comet will cause widespread disaster.

Below is a snippet from a fictitious news report that appears in the book:

The comet was named with the Latin Resurgam meaning ‘I shall rise again’ because it hasn’t been seen since 33AD, the time of Jesus Christ. In ancient times, comets were considered to be bad omens and indeed some have claimed that the violent weather events currently wreaking havoc in the South East are related to the comet's approach.

Celestial influence has been seen recently with Elenin, a comet that passed close to the earth in 2011. During the period it aligned with the Earth and the Sun, earthquakes wracked the planet producing the Japanese 9.0 quake, Christchurch in New Zealand and before that, Chile.

There is a concern that the Resurgam comet will have a similar impact, bringing widespread natural disturbances. There are claims from conspiracy theorists that the government is covering up the possibility of cataclysmic occurrences but repeated statements from NASA downplay the potential impact.

a.image2.image-link.image2-256-256 { padding-bottom: 100%; padding-bottom: min(100%, 256px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-256-256 img { max-width: 256px; max-height: 256px; }

Inventing facts about the real world can be controversial. Hence, the author uses a fictitious comet in Resurgam, so that she can exercise the artistic liberty to invent a history for this comet, along with any religious interpretations of the same. But at the same time, she needs to make this believable.

So she briefly introduces the anecdote (and the conspiracy theories) of the Elenin comet, a real comet which was seen in 2011. This helps readers subconsciously place a reference point in their minds to be able to relate to the story of Resurgam in a much better way. At the same time, the author distances herself from the question of ‘whether celestial influence is real’, by exposing the reader to opposing points of view in the same paragraph. This way, the Elenin comet is not used as a means to prove any religious theory, but only as a means to help the reader take small, measured steps into the world that the author has created, rather than making an ungainly jump from the real world to a mythical world.

Providing scientific explanations wherever possible

How can a fiction writer make an implausible scenario seem scientifically possible without sounding like a fraud? One way to do it is by taking a known scientific phenomenon and modifying the experimental conditions, taking them to new extremes, and theorizing how that would play out. Another way is by suggesting possible linkages between scientific theories from seemingly different domains, and exploiting this interplay to come up with interesting stories. Both these techniques are used well in the ARKANE series.

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a new article!

Subscribe now

In the second book, there is a pharmaceutical company called Zoebios which produces MP3 players seeded with audio recordings meant to cure patients of anxiety and depression. The audio recordings work by invoking an image of God in patients’ minds to show them hope, irrespective of whether they are believers or not. But Milan Noble, the CEO of Zoebios also has a hidden agenda to use this device to influence large numbers of people to wipe out certain sections of society. He believes that people are more likely to commit dastardly acts if they believe that a higher authority is telling them to do so.

Below is an excerpt from a conversation between Maria and Simone, two researchers who played a key role in the development of the Zoebios headset:

“There are two positions and I flip between them. One is that God gave us this part of our brain so we could experience Him and a type of consciousness that we don’t access in everyday life. The other is that we have evolved to believe in a God who doesn’t actually exist but is, in fact, manufactured by our brains. I know believers and atheists who both think the God helmet validates their opposite positions.”

“I don’t understand why humans would evolve to believe in God if he, or she, didn’t exist,” Simone said. “Where’s the sense in that?”

Maria shuffled the scientific papers in front of her, unsure how far to take the discussion. “Evolutionary psychologists have suggested that perhaps mankind evolved to a point where they understood the inevitability of physical death. There were some who started to believe there was more than just a physical life, and over time, these people were selected for, in a Darwinian sense, as they were the most hopeful and the ones who helped others.”

“To reduce the anxiety of death, we came up with the unending beyond the physical. Ok, I can see that.”

Based on the author’s note at the end of the second book, while the advanced Zoebios headset as such is fictional, it is actually based on the God Helmet, which is a real invention. The God Helmet is a device developed by the neuroscientist Michael Persinger to test theories on the functioning of the brain. It was reported that some people who used the helmet experienced religious visions in varying amounts.

In addition, Milan Noble’s hidden agenda behind promoting the Zoebios headset is also based on researched theories around the psychology of obedience.

With the above context in place, the below is a summary of how Penn takes experimental conditions to their extremes, while also linking together different domains of science, to help readers take two cognitive leaps of faith:

Leap 1: Through multiple rounds of the ‘survival of the fittest’ game, humankind has evolved drastically, and today, there are much better standards of life and physical health across our species. Today, the fittest members are the ones who have the best mental health, which includes the ability to be unconcerned by the inevitability of death. In such a world, there is a new tendency for humans to seek a device like the God Helmet.

Leap 2: If the God Helmet is given a massive amount of training data (from the large number of Zoebios patients), it can be used to reliably invoke a strong image of God in anyone, irrespective of the person’s belief. In the wrong hands, this device could be used to make people commit cruel acts in the name of a higher authority, without being able to exercise their own free will (if such a thing even exists, lol).

Filling up gaps in history

History isn’t always complete, as the collection of ancient data is an difficult art. The fact that not everything in the past has been meticulously documented or available online, is a blessing for fiction writers, who can use the gaps in history to create their own version of ‘what might have happened’. There is no reason for the willing reader not to believe the writer, since there is no real evidence to suggest that the writer is wrong!

a.image2.image-link.image2-301-388 { padding-bottom: 77.34375%; padding-bottom: min(77.34375%, 300.09375px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-301-388 img { max-width: 388px; max-height: 300.09375px; }

In the first book, Morgan is on a time sensitive mission to find twelve sacred stones. To find these stones, she must locate the bodies of the twelve Apostles of Jesus.

The author’s note at the end says that there is “little known of what actually happened to those twelve men, and what is documented is contradictory and confusing”. She uses this incompleteness in history to weave together her own story of what might have happened to each of the Apostles. And no wonder, Morgan goes on a riveting journey across Italy, Spain, Iran and America as she locates each of the bodies and the stones.

Conclusion

I’m probably in no position to comment on the different interpretations of religion that are seen in this book, and it is hence best to self-select depending on the nature of your belief.

But from a pure storytelling point of view, I would highly recommend this book! The author does most things right – compelling characters, an intriguing premise, vividly described scenes, and of course, the smooth suspension of disbelief.

There were just a couple of areas where I felt both books could have done slightly better. One is the fact that Morgan and ARKANE with their extensive resources seemed to solve puzzles a little too ‘easily’. A few more missteps and gotchas might have made the story even more compelling. Additionally, the exposition of historic facts seemed a little chunky in certain places and could have been a bit smoother.

That aside, this series has been great so far and I’m really looking forward to reading the third book. And I just love the fact that this series has 11 books in all! Maybe I’ll write a follow up article on this series some time in the future :)

Share

I know I’m supposed to ‘separate the art from the artist’ while reviewing any book, but I’m going to break the rules a bit in today’s post :)

I recently read Blood Defense, Part 1 of a legal thriller series featuring Samantha Brinkman, a criminal defense attorney who runs a fledgling private practice. This book is a well-written, entertaining read that revolves around the defense of Dale Pearson, a police officer who is the prime suspect in the murder of Chloe Monahan, a famous TV actress.

a.image2.image-link.image2-431-269 { padding-bottom: 159.93265993265993%; padding-bottom: min(159.93265993265993%, 430.2188552188552px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-431-269 img { max-width: 269px; max-height: 430.2188552188552px; }

Link to book: https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Defense-Samantha-Brinkman-Book-ebook/dp/B0146LBFIE

Blood Defense is written by Marcia Clark, a former lawyer herself - best known for being the lead prosecutor in the infamous OJ Simpson murder trial. While the book as such is fictional, there are some parallels that can be drawn between this story and the actual OJ trial.

For one, the Dale Pearson case is also subject to the ‘media circus’ due to its high-profile nature. And just like how OJ was an almost-personal case for Marcia due to her own experience of being harassed by a man in her youth, the Dale Pearson case is a personal one for Samantha - the lawyer who represents Dale.

Despite the personal nature of the case, Samantha displays a remarkable ability of keeping her emotions aside while representing her clients. We see this trait not only in her dealings with Dale, but with every thief or killer she represents over the course of the book, no matter how culpable her clients actually are.

The story is narrated from a first-person POV which gives readers a glimpse into her thought process, and so it is fairly clear that Samantha is not just ‘surface-acting’, but in fact possesses the mental make-up that her job demands. The rest of this article will delve into some of the reasons why Samantha is able to deal with the ‘emotional labour’ of being a criminal lawyer.

Emotional Labour and Emotional Dissonance

In essence, emotional labour refers to regulating one’s emotions to get a job done. It could apply to waiters at a restaurant who wear a subordinate expression even in the face of an unreasonable customer. It could apply to doctors who need to appear calm even while dealing with gruesome situations.

And as this paper (published by the University of Michigan Law Reform Journal) postulates, being a lawyer requires an incredibly high tolerance for emotional labour. As per the Bar, lawyers are required to ‘zealously represent their clients’ and satisfy their clients’ interests in the best way possible by doing whatever it takes - as long as their actions fall within the realm of legality.

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a new article!

Subscribe now

It is quite clear that Samantha Brinkman does not like some of the clients that she represents, because they have committed horrible acts that warrant punishment in her view. In some of the cases she handles, she is seen secretly wishing that her clients get jail time. But this doesn’t stop her from vociferously fighting to get her clients the best deals possible, because that’s what she gets paid to do. This requires not only a lot of emotional labour, but a high level of emotional dissonance, in which her actual emotions are in violent conflict with her actions. Here’s how she makes things a little easier to deal with:

Mission statement

Below are a couple of excerpts from the book which portray how Samantha views her job:

“I had friends in the public defender’s office who were true believers, who didn’t care how many victims their clients had disemboweled, who thought they were all just poor, misunderstood unfortunates. And some are, though more often they’re just schlemiels who don’t think past the next five minutes—which is largely why they get caught….”

“…I don’t have to love the client. I don’t even have to like the client. Sometimes, I really hate the client. Doesn’t matter. I’m there to take care of society’s refuse, the ones nobody wants—or ever wanted. And if I have to slash and burn to do it, so be it…”

The crux of Samantha’s motivation to be a representative for possible criminals is her innate belief that ‘everyone deserves representation’. Not the cleanest of kids herself during her youth, she often got into trouble for drugs and underage drinking. Somehow, she managed to get bailed out every time and eventually got access to a less-troubled adulthood later on in life.

Having a strong mission statement and reminding ourselves of the reason we signed up for a job helps us rationalize the day-to-day emotional dissonance that the job brings with it.

Trust in the system

The entire criminal justice system is based on the idea of ‘reasonable doubt’. In a documentary describing the OJ Simpson case, the actor playing OJ’s lawyer Cochran talks about how juries respond to stories and that the main job of the defendant is to make different stories plausible to the jury to distract them from the prosecutor’s story. During the course of the trial, Cochran suggests different stories at different stages, trying to discover which story would stick the most with the jury.

Even in the novel, we see Samantha actively thinking, “How do I find another possible suspect that I can point to?” Doing this requires a slightly lower level of conscience where she isn’t worried about potentially maligning an innocent person just to create reasonable doubt in the mind of the jury. But Marcia, the creator of Samantha, knows only too well from experience that the comprehensive checks and balances in the legal system have been painstakingly created based on the expectation that each warring faction will compete ruthlessly to win the jury over.

a.image2.image-link.image2-257-342 { padding-bottom: 75%; padding-bottom: min(75%, 256.5px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-257-342 img { max-width: 342px; max-height: 256.5px; }

In the OJ Simpson case, there is an extremely long process of jury selection to ensure that pure emotional manipulation and partisanship do not end up deciding the final verdict. Towards the end, there is also a long deliberation over whether the appointed judge for the case should continue to own the case, after it is found that the case might be personal for the judge.

All of these processes are there in place to help lawyers be unfettered in their enthusiasm for their clients’ interests. And Samantha takes full liberty (and some more) in exercising this privilege, as she believes there is a higher chance of justice prevailing if she does so.

Stoicism

Samantha is not an idealist by any stretch of imagination. She grew up with an unsupportive mother and an abusive stepfather. Her deep-rooted acceptance of the fact that life isn’t fair protects her from reflecting on existential questions, such as “Why do I live most of my life fighting for someone who might be wrong?”

Now, none of this is healthy by any means. And nor is the general practice of emotional labour. Is there a better way for lawyers to secure justice without having to deal with conflicting morals all the time?

In a simplistic sense, law is about enforcing good behaviour. But because ethics and ethical dilemmas are a complex concept, there is always a gulf between the ‘legal code’ and the elusive ‘moral code’. If there was a perfect set of laws that clearly specified the ‘right thing to do’ in every scenario, lawyers would never need to exhibit emotional dissonance. The very act of ‘going by the book’ would help them understand which clients to represent, what tactics qualify as ‘sneaky’, how much emotional exploitation is valid, and so on.

That might sound unrealistic, but I’m still hopeful. And now, I’m going to break another cardinal rule of book-reviewing - by indulging in some shameless self-promotion. My ongoing sci-fi series, the Rogue Blockchain series, explores the idea of creating a city where people are given the means to discover the perfect set of laws, so that there will exist no difference between what is ‘morally right’ and what is ‘legally right’.

Conclusion

I enjoyed reading Blood Defense. Apart from the exploration of emotional dissonance, it gives a glimpse into the not-so-glamorous lives of celebrity lawyers who appear on TV debates, and also highlights the challenges in running a private legal practice. Any book which makes the law a little more accessible deserves 5 stars in my view, and Blood Defense is Exhibit A.

My last two posts dealt with two distinct sci-fi novels and the insights that they offered. But not all books need to be ‘high-tech’ to provide transferable real-world learnings! In my view, the one big concept that every single work of fiction teaches us (regardless of genre) is that of empathy.

By the very nature of the art form, fiction forces readers to look at events from the point of view of characters that exist outside of themselves. And hence, it is not surprising to learn that people have actually conducted studies to understand whether reading fiction makes us better people.

The novel The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick goes a step further, making an explicit effort to teach readers empathy without being preachy at all. This book (which was later adapted and made into a movie) is centred around Pat Peoples, a troubled middle-aged man who was sent to a rehabilitation centre after a fallout from a failed marriage. He has now returned home and is trying to get his life back together, but he has lost a chunk of his memory following a mental breakdown during rehab. He is delusional about his chances of making things right with his ex-wife, even though she divorced him 4 years ago and is now happily married to another man. Not to mention, Pat has been served with a restraining order that prevents him from making any form of contact with his ex-wife.

a.image2.image-link.image2-405-262 { padding-bottom: 154.33333333333334%; padding-bottom: min(154.33333333333334%, 404.35333333333335px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-405-262 img { max-width: 262px; max-height: 404.35333333333335px; }

Link to the book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374533571

While the story delves into a number of themes - mental illness, family dynamics, coping with death (to name a few), I believe empathy is the story’s binding element.

What is Empathy?

Empathy is the ability to understand other peoples’ thoughts and emotions from their point of view rather than your own. While different people display empathetic behaviour in different capacities and in different situations, it is a skill that can be learnt.

True to the spirit of treating empathy as a trainable skill, The Silver Linings Playbook deals with multiple levels of empathy which people can acquire over their lifetimes:

Beginner Level - “I’ve faced this too, so I get how you feel.”

At the start of the book, Pat has made it out of the rehabilitation centre, but he is still nowhere near healthy yet. He is on tons of medication, has mood swings and is still finding it difficult to come to terms with reality.

He meets Tiffany who is a relatively recent widow and faces psychological problems of her own. Her derailment has prompted behaviour that led her to lose her job. Pat and Tiffany start to develop an unlikely friendship, but Pat’s friends advise him to keep her at arm’s length, as seen in the below excerpt from the book (narrated in Pat’s voice):

Ronnie retrieves the ball, jogs back into his range, and says, “Tiffany is a little odd. Do you understand what I mean by odd, Pat?” I catch his even more wobbly pass just before it reaches my right kneecap, and say, “I guess.” I understand that Tiffany is different from most girls, but I also understand what it is like to be separated from your spouse, which is something Ronnie does not understand. So I ask, “Odd how? Odd like me?”

His face drops, and then he says, “No. I didn’t mean . . . It’s just that Tiffany is seeing a therapist—"

“So am I.”

“I know, but—"

“So seeing a therapist makes me odd?”

The above is a very simple example that highlights how personal experiences dramatically influence how one tends to judge people and situations. But depending solely on personal experiences is not an efficient way to become an empathetic person, because one cannot simply experience everything in a single lifetime! That brings us to:

Intermediate level: “I heard your story, and I can now understand how you feel.”

Pat, while still living in delusion about his chances of making up with his ex-wife Nicki, wants to impress her by reading books which she loves. He notices that all of these books have depressing endings that are in violent contradiction to his own belief that every dark cloud has a silver lining.

He is anguished to note that such books are taught to school children every day, and asks his therapist Cliff about this. The below conversation ensues:

“Life is hard, Pat, and children have to be told how hard life can be.”

“Why?”

“So they will be sympathetic to others. So they will understand that some people have it harder than they do and that a trip through this world can be a wildly different experience, depending on what chemicals are raging through one’s mind.”

I had not thought about this explanation, that reading books like The Bell Jar helped others understand what it was like to be Esther Greenwood. And I realize now that I have a lot of sympathy for Esther, and if she were a real person in my life, I would have tried to help her, only because I knew her thoughts well enough to understand she was not simply deranged, but suffering because her world had been so cruel to her and because she was depressed, due to the wild chemicals in her mind.

The above is a direct illustration of how it is important for all of us to go beyond catchy headlines and memes, and make intentional efforts to understand the full story. Only by exposing ourselves to different points of view, can we actually gain a good understanding of a situation, and avoid snap judgements.

But what if not all aspects of society are adequately represented in media or literature? What can people do to become empathetic beings by nature? The answer - they need to level up!

a.image2.image-link.image2-282-370 { padding-bottom: 75.96899224806201%; padding-bottom: min(75.96899224806201%, 281.08527131782944px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-282-370 img { max-width: 370px; max-height: 281.08527131782944px; }

Advanced Level: “We’re all human beings, and so there must be a valid reason for you to do what you’re doing.”

This level requires a conscious mindset shift. As human beings are biased by nature, mastering the Advanced Level is a pipe dream for most people (I know I definitely haven’t reached this stage yet!). But it is still possible to make progress, as is beautifully portrayed in the book.

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a new article!

Subscribe now

In therapy, Pat is repeatedly advised to “focus on being nice rather than being right”. Prior to his breakdown, Pat was a short-tempered and adamant individual, and these tendencies caused tensions in his marriage. Over the course of the book, Pat repeatedly quotes the phrase “be nice rather than right” in his mind, and becomes a good listener in the process.

While conviction in one’s belief can be a source of strength, it can also be misguiding, for the simple reason that nobody knows it all. And hence, consciously practising a ‘nice-first approach’ can help you put yourself in other peoples’ shoes with greater ease.

Another example of the Advanced Level is seen at the end of the story. By now, Pat has regained his memory, and realizes that his mental breakdown had taken place after he had caught Nicki cheating on him with another man, Philip.

He decides to confront her once and for all, but notices that she is happily married to Philip. Seeing this, he aborts the confrontation mission.

While cheating in any shape or form is unacceptable, life needs to go on. It is the Advanced Level that helps Pat attain closure without sacrificing his own mental wellbeing. He tells himself that Philip is the man who makes Nicki happy. As an ex-husband who was betrayed, it is probably impossible for him to fully relate to this statement. But he still chooses to respect this fact, and the world is better for his decision.

Pro Level

Wait, what can be higher than the Advanced Level? Is it possible to be any more empathetic?

Well, the Pro Level is not about having more empathy. It’s about striking the right balance between empathy and apathy.

The book briefly talks about a football player named Terrell Owens who overdoses on drugs and has come under intense scrutiny in the public eye. Everyone, including Pat’s father, refers to Terrell as a “psychopathic pill popper”. Pat’s heart goes out to the footballer as he believes that Terrell has suffered from depression, not unlike himself. Pat starts to worry about whether, by definition, he himself has psychopathic tendencies.

When fans continue to jeer at Terrence during a football game, Pat talks about his feelings to Cliff, as seen in the below excerpt:

I sit down in the seat across from Cliff and say, “I just feel bad for T.O. That’s all.”

“He’s getting millions of dollars to endure this type of criticism. And he thrives on it. He brings it on himself with those touchdown dances and the hoopla. And these people don’t really want T.O. to die; they just don’t want him to perform well today. It’s all in good fun.”

This might come across as a bit insensitive from Cliff, especially given that he’s a therapist. But I think this is actually Cliff’s way of tempering Pat’s empathy, to prevent him from sabotaging his own progress with his mental wellbeing.

Empathy is a highly desirable skill, but there does exist such a thing as ‘empathy burnout’. In Dan Brown’s Inferno, we met a lead character Sienna who was incredibly smart and compassionate, and wanted to help people in poverty-stricken areas. But then she understood the magnitude of the suffering faced by people, and became overwhelmed by the situation, eventually running away.

Let’s say she had been ‘less empathetic’ in the traditional sense - treating her task as just a ‘project’ and the people as just ‘subjects’. In such a scenario, given her skills, she could have brought incremental improvements to these peoples’ lives. Does that mean a non-empathetic person is more impactful to society?  No! After all, empathy is what drove her towards this project in the first place. The Pro Level is indeed a slippery slope!

Conclusion

The Silver Linings Playbook isn’t within the realm of fiction that I normally read. I accidentally discovered the movie, and then realized that it was based on a book. And boy, am I glad I found it! The book is heart-warming and sad at the same time, with a simple style of narration that is easy on the eye. The author does a great job at portraying the reality of mental illness, which adds to the book’s credibility as a solid primer on empathy.

Share

Note - We are going through unprecedented times with the second COVID wave. Do stay home (if you can), and stay safe. Together, we can get through this crisis.

There was once a contest held at my college where participants had to come up with ideas to monetize flying cars. The contest was primarily targeted towards ex-engineering students who were looking to start a career in product management. Its key premise was that moving into management requires a critical mindset shift, where one should learn to look at technology as a mere ‘black box’ and focus more on who the target customer is, how an invention can be taken to market, how it can generate steady revenue and what the potential risks could be.

And if you think about it, science fiction writers are also product managers in some sense. In most cases, science fiction isn’t really about the science; it’s more about how a scientific breakthrough can be used (or abused) - and the social, economic and ethical implications that come with it. And while it’s true that there are ‘hard sci-fi’ stories where explaining the science is important to the story, the fact still remains that science doesn’t just exist in a vacuum.

Saved In Time: An Escape Story by Francis Mont is one book which epitomizes the above spirit. The story is centred around a magic device called the Time Scope, a TV-like gizmo with which one can observe any event that happened in the past, no matter how private or distant the event was.

a.image2.image-link.image2-474-323 { padding-bottom: 146.6275659824047%; padding-bottom: min(146.6275659824047%, 473.6070381231672px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-474-323 img { max-width: 323px; max-height: 473.6070381231672px; }

The book is a quick, unconventional and entertaining read which delves into numerous themes, while also providing some interesting insights into product strategy:

Different personas. Different motivations. Same technology…

As you may have guessed, fact-finding is one of the killer applications of this device. But product thinking often requires going a few steps deeper to understand which users would benefit the most from fact-finding, and why. In this book, there are 3 distinct personas who use this device for differing reasons.

Zack Dougall is a young, carefree tinkerer who first discovers this device after the sudden death of its inventor. Senator Gordon Hopkins is an honest politician who is worried about the harm that the leading presidential candidate could do to the country. Then there is Joe Petuccini who is a former mobster trying to lead a clean, normal life. He now runs a legitimate casino business and is exploring the possibility of getting into a serious relationship. Somehow, the three of them meet and become the only people in the world who have knowledge of this device’s existence. Each of them need the Time Scope for different reasons, and also need the device to be kept secret for different reasons.

a.image2.image-link.image2-748-1402 { padding-bottom: 53.352353780313834%; padding-bottom: min(53.352353780313834%, 748px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-748-1402 img { max-width: 1402px; max-height: 748px; }

The Cost of Compliance…

When the story begins, there is mutual distrust between the three parties. So they come up with a set of rules regarding who can use the device at what times and for what reasons. This isn’t unlike the compliance function in big organizations where there are precise rules governing how resources can be accessed, to guard against illicit activity by a bad actor.

The first rule that they agree to is that nobody else can know about this device. The second rule is that all 3 of them need to be present when anybody is using the device. And finally, they agree that each of them must disclose which events they want to observe, and obtain an explicit sign-off from the other parties before using the Time Scope for the same.

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a new article!

Subscribe now

Soon, the trio realizes that implementing these rules is leading to a lot of inefficiency. Zack realizes that this affects his plans to start a detective agency because he doesn’t have unlimited access to the device, despite it being located in his own house. Gordon is wary of meeting Joe too often as he doesn’t want the media to dig up any connection between them, as it could affect his credibility as a politician. Joe is an impatient person and finds the Time Scope a little too difficult to operate by himself.

Given that nobody is happy, Zack proposes a new set of rules. He asserts that he should be given the right to use the device whenever he wants, as it’s the only way he can meet his own goals. In return, he says that he can help Gordon and Joe get any information that they are looking for, by taking the observations himself and collecting relevant data for them. In this way, Gordon can avoid physically visiting Joe and Zack too often, while Joe has a handy research assistant to do his grunt work. They all eventually agree to this plan.

Now, this new set of rules is less airtight than the earlier set of rules, as there is the possibility of Zack misusing the device - potentially using it to blackmail Joe or Gordon. But the fact that both Gordon and Joe are much more powerful than Zack acts as a strong deterrent for bad behaviour on Zack’s part. And this system ends up working well throughout the remainder of the book, the three of them becoming close friends!

A key takeaway here is that compliance is necessary, but introducing too many controls can be counterproductive. Organizations need to look not only at the cost of non-compliance, but also the probability of non-compliance and the business value of implementing controls.

Open source or proprietary? It depends…

Should an invention be open-sourced or kept proprietary? In Zack’s case, he needs the Time Scope to be proprietary as it’s the only way his detective agency can be a sustainable source of income.

Later on in the book, this same device is re-created by a civilization on a different planet called Atlantis. Atlantis is presented as a utopian world where people have no intentions of harming each other and every disagreement is solved by rational debate and mutual consensus. In this world, knowledge of the Time Scope is made public, and a group of historians use this device to understand the origins of their planet. They realize that their ancestors are trapped on Earth and are in trouble. Eventually, a large team of people led by a historian named Ivo set out on a mission to save them.

a.image2.image-link.image2-478-1087 { padding-bottom: 43.97424103035878%; padding-bottom: min(43.97424103035878%, 478px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-478-1087 img { max-width: 1087px; max-height: 478px; }

Stories like Atlantis are the reason why open-source aficionados clamour for all technology to be open-sourced. Open-source technology benefits from the collective inputs of a large number of people across the world to solve big problems in the best possible way. But at the same time, open-sourcing a piece of technology makes it difficult to guard against its misuse. In the ideal world of Atlantis, misuse isn’t a probable risk. But could the same be said of our own world? Not always.

Conclusion

This book is weird in a good way. It’s probably not the ideal read for purists who like to see completeness and rigour in world-building. But if you’re the kind of reader who wants to have fun and let your imagination run loose, I’d highly recommend this book.

And by the way, this article is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to describing the level of wackiness that this book deals with. There’s a Hitler Disciple, a unique fog which can rewrite peoples’ thought patterns, and physics assignments where students have to kiss each other in an anti-gravity chamber. And to its great credit, there’s a social message underneath all of this. Read the book to find out more!

Share

Note - We are going through unprecedented times with the second COVID wave. Do stay home (if you can), and stay safe. Together, we can get through this crisis.

Fiction has the unique power to introduce readers to complex concepts, distant locations, and alternate viewpoints – while still being accessible, memorable and light-hearted. This website is a humble attempt to bring together all my learnings from various works of fiction.

To begin this endeavour, a good book to talk about is Crisis: 2038: A Novel, by Gerald Huff. Like many other stories of its time, it explores the idea of artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world. However, this book isn’t about some far-out, apocalyptic scenario. On the contrary, it describes an all-too-believable future, raising some important points about how society needs to take a look at its policies and decide whether they are still optimal in an increasingly tech-driven world.

a.image2.image-link.image2-270-270 { padding-bottom: 100%; padding-bottom: min(100%, 270px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-270-270 img { max-width: 270px; max-height: 270px; }

As the book’s name suggests, it is set in the year 2038, at a time when people are losing their jobs to AI at an alarming rate. Society has reached a point where the number of new jobs created by the increased use of technology is negligible in comparison to the actual number of unemployed people looking for jobs. While technology has provided the potential for a much-improved quality of life, it has also heightened income inequality. Owners of AI-driven businesses are filthy rich, while the rest of the country struggles to fend for itself.

A turning point in the story occurs when a virtual-reality (VR) program goes viral. The program features a young woman named Sara who talks about her vision for the world. She maintains that technology is not the enemy, and that regulating the use of AI and other technology in business would be akin to taking two steps backwards. In her view, the better solution would be to give every citizen an unconditional basic income (UBI).

a.image2.image-link.image2-298-438 { padding-bottom: 67.85714285714286%; padding-bottom: min(67.85714285714286%, 297.2142857142857px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-298-438 img { max-width: 438px; max-height: 297.2142857142857px; }

While met with some skepticism at first, the idea gains increasing popularity over the course of the book as various events unfold. The main arguments that Sara puts forth for UBI are: 1) it will ensure that people have enough money in the bank to pay for basic goods and services, thus keeping money circulating in the economy, and 2) it will ensure that people develop a higher risk appetite to start businesses of their own, and to perform the jobs that they are actually passionate about (this is an over-simplification for the sake of brevity, do read the book for a more nuanced discussion of this topic). She suggests that the funding of UBI can come from taxes paid by big businesses, as well as from redirecting funds from existing government-sponsored programmes for food security, affordable housing and so on (since with UBI, everyone will be above the poverty line anyway).

Like what you’re reading? Subscribe to my newsletter to never miss a new article!

Subscribe now

Now, I’m no economist and I’m in no position to comment on whether unconditional basic income is a good idea or not! But if you’d like to educate yourself more about this debate, there are tons of great resources on the Internet. Scott Santens’ page is a good place to start if you’re looking to learn about arguments for UBI. If you’re looking to find arguments against UBI, this article on Forbes is a good starting point.

Here though, I’d like to touch upon some other themes in the book which really interested me:

Dignity by virtue of citizenship

Any remotely benevolent society has some concept of ‘dignity’ implicit in its laws - the idea that whoever you are, you are entitled to a basic level of humane treatment because you are a citizen. But in practice, reaching this ideal state is not so simple. Today, education, employment and financial security largely define a person’s ‘perceived’ dignity. In the book Crisis 2038, Sara suggests that since there are really not enough jobs to keep everyone continually employed, maybe it’s time to explicitly ensure that all citizens consider themselves worthy of dignity. Unconditional basic income is just one possible tool to meet this end goal.

One may argue that the above thinking might incentivize people not to work at all. But Sara points out that UBI doesn’t actually make anyone rich! If you think about it in terms of Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, UBI is only meant to make the first few rungs on the ladder easier to scale. Hence in Sara’s vision for the ideal world, work is not a means to earn food, shelter, or status – but rather, a way for humans to meet their most elusive need, that of self-actualization.

a.image2.image-link.image2-364-556 { padding-bottom: 65.4532967032967%; padding-bottom: min(65.4532967032967%, 363.9203296703297px); width: 100%; height: 0; } a.image2.image-link.image2-364-556 img { max-width: 556px; max-height: 363.9203296703297px; }

There aren’t just two sides to a story

At the start of the book, there are two distinct factions fighting against each other. One is the pro-tech group, which is of the opinion that those who are complaining about joblessness are simply 'lazy' and unwilling to work. The other faction is anti-tech, comprising capable people who have lost their jobs to robots. Like every other ideological war, this one has escalated rapidly over the years and an anti-tech terrorist group called LKC has come into existence. LKC has been busy creating their own technology with the sole purpose of disrupting the functioning of mainstream businesses. 

It is ironic that the hyper-partisan nature of today's discourse doesn't really intensify debate, it actually weakens debate. It leads people to believe that there are only two sides to a story, with no room for a reconciliation of conflicting opinions, or an orthogonal perspective.

It is only after Sara (and her UBI recommendation) comes into the picture that people actually start to wonder whether the anti-tech group is fighting the wrong enemy. This sparks a passionate (and much-needed) conversation between politicians on different points on the Democrat-Republican spectrum, where they put their mutual animosity aside and jointly brainstorm policies that could lead to the betterment of society.

All the tech in the world, and there is still no remedy for fake news!

Sara visits multiple universities over the course of the book, where she fields all kinds of questions from people, and discusses her philosophies at length in each of these visits. As a reader, you might think that this makes the book repetitive. I did so too at first, until I realized that this might have been intentional!

Because, as it turns out, Sara’s lengthy speeches are reduced to a (false) one-liner. Somebody incorrectly claims that Sara is affiliated with Rezmat, a fictitious tech company that is known to be ruthless and unethical in its quest for profits. People begin believing that the only reason that Sara claims that AI isn’t the enemy is to ensure that Rezmat stays in business. Things soon escalate and Sara gets shot at a public event, leading to her tragic death which causes more unrest.

Think about it - the internet has the potential to democratize anything. Yet, the age old challenge of establishing trust on the internet limits its true potential even today. And while there is continuous innovation happening today in creating more airtight trust protocols, the fact still remains that human beings are the weakest links in any system. If we do manage to come up with a robust system that incentivizes everyone to act in the ‘right’ way, that might be humankind’s greatest achievement ever.

Conclusion

I would highly recommend reading this book irrespective of which side of the political spectrum you identify with. While the book falls a bit short in terms of character development and some of the finer aspects of storytelling, it provides plenty of food for thought in a very accessible manner.

Happy reading, and do stay safe!

Share