Fragments of a Hologram Rose

I thought other sci-fi was hard to read and understand, but this has to take the cake for me. In this story, we are looking through the lens of a man who has just gotten through a breakup with his girlfriend. His name is Parker. We’re obviously farther into the future due to the describing of electronics around him. This lonely soul is trying his best to cope with the trauma by using these tape recordings that captured his ex-girlfriend’s sensations during certain periods of her life. Sounds like a very unhealthy way to cope to me. Of course, our protagonist has given up the chance for stability working at a Japanese company in order to relive his life through these tapes instead. The future of the US seemingly is filled with war and has become a depressing wasteland of a reality, which gives Parker more of a reason to want to succumb to escapism. I think this is a very interesting way of addressing escapism and reality in the future. The thought of having tapes to record how you feel during certain situations of your life is enticing, but just like some episodes of Black Mirror, I feel like they could end up doing more harm than good. Since Parker has given up all of the aspirations he’s been working towards to help him cope with this breakup, I don’t think this would become a fairly positive thing. Rekindling memories of an old relationship is one thing, but continuously living through it like it’s a drug is a completely different. I don’t think this idea in itself is made to be abused like that, but the fact that the first time we’re introduced to this kind of reimagining of the sense is us seeing it through a poor man who’s just gotten dumped kind of says something about how it will be used. At least in my opinion. I think recordings like this could be dangerous to the mental health of those using them especially if it’s used in succession like how Parker was using it. It could, on the other hand help those who need have conditions that mess with memories, like Alzheimer’s patients or those with amnesia or dementia. This story was also very hard to read (at least to me), since there were so many descriptions of electronics that I could not even fathom what they looked like or were used for. I do know that that is the territory that comes with the Cyber Punk genre. Despite it being mildly difficult to navigate what was happening in the story, there was enough scene exposition that I could at least picture what was happening, which I think was the point. If that’s true, the author succeeded brilliantly. Overall, an interesting take on a melancholy story of a man longing for the times of the past where he had the girl. The technologic touch was pretty compelling to read.