|
On “the Electric Ant” a PkD’s short story
Beyond the plot...
In the story, the company's true owners have created Garson Poole, an electric ant, to run the company instead of them. After an accident, he discovers that he's a robot, and his friends Danceman and Sarah can't do anything to stop him from killing himself
But what if things weren't as they seem?
What if Danceman, the loyal friend, was really a conspirator?... 
Garson Poole could be the company's real owner. After all, he isn't programmed, he only has a reality tape. Then Danceman and Sarah wouldn't be the kind friends, they would be conspirators trying to kill Poole to get the company. Poole says himself that Sarah is always near him, and it irritates him. And when he wakes in hospital, Danceman immediately asks him if he has seen Sarah. Why would he like to know that? Because he and Sarah caused it. It was their first attempt to kill him. It's really a strange coincidence that Poole has an accident at the beginning of the novel... and the story that Danceman tells about the real owners could be an invention
Then seeing that the attempt has failed, what could be easier than to show him that he's being controlled? He'll try to free himself and die! So we see Poole trying to change his reality while Sarah (at first shocked to see him alive, that's why she's crying)"tries" to stop him.
That's why, once Poole dies, she calls Danceman, who says : "So, WE're finally free of it". The two of them were together in it. But Sarah didn't know something she should have: she isn't real. Once Poole is dead, she doesn't exist anymore in anybody's memory, except Danceman's. So when he decides to erase her...she disappears. Leaving Danceman head of the company!!!
This could be the real story behind the plot, and it's a really incredible twist! How could you explain the "WE" another way?
Taken from the English Bugnon Blog
|
