Kimberly T’s Reviews > Stories of Your Life and Others > Status Update

I gotta say gang I love a short story compilation. Thinking hard!

Division by Zero is sadder than I expected it to be. I was curious when we started the story with the theory behind dividing by zero = indefinite, because division is supposed to be inverse of multiplication but multiplying zero by infinity will always be zero. Watching Renee fall apart because she loses meaning in her life and Carl falling out of love with her and losing meaning in the same way.. 1=2. 9A=9B.

The marriage between Renee, a mathematician realizing she’s written a proof that unravels mathematics as we know it, and a Carl, a biologist. There are also mathematical history explanations and proof explanations. The math is a metaphor for something…

“Reynolds plans to save the world, to protect it from itself. And his opinion of me is therefore unfavourable. I’ve shown no interest in the affairs of the external world and made interrogations for aiding the normals. Neither of us will be able to convert the other.”

Leon wants mind-computer links! Yikes.

What can’t I do?

(Did not expect this.. There’s another superhuman. Reynolds. Uh oh!)

This little episode has reinforced my opinion of the affairs of the world; I could detect clandestine plots everywhere.. but none of them would be interesting. I shall resume my studies.

(Nice, Leon’s uncovered that the CIA director let a bombing happen to have power and control over the CIA. And that’s blackmail! Kinda sucks he doesn’t care about humanity anymore though. Like individual people.)

The fastest way for me to make money is, oddly enough, gambling.

(Leon is now on the lam! What will become of him??)

It’s likely the CIA will wish to retain me as a subject…after that, they’ll get some volunteers from their ranks, starve their brains of oxygen, and treat them with hormone K. I certainly don’t wish to become a CIA resource…the best I can do is to downplay my skills and get this question wrong.

(Fuck the military industry btw lol. I forgot they’d want Leon.)

“Penetrating computer security is really quite dull; I can see how it might attract those who can’t resist a challenge to their cleverness, but it’s not intellectually aesthetic at all.”

Ooookay my guy. Look at all your neurons.

Second story, called “Understand”: someone who essentially drowned after falling into ice gets Hormone K and has an increase in intelligence. And now he’s gonna get more.