“In an old and lonely forest, far away from almost everything, sat a curious dwelling. At the base of a grove of massive trees was a small, square building made of brick, overtaken by ivy and moss. Who it belonged to was anyone’s guess, but from the looks of it, it had been abandoned long ago. It wasn’t until a man named Giovanni Lawson (who wasn’t actually a man at all) came across it while making his way through the forest that it was remembered with any purpose.”
These are the opening two paragraphs of the novel. The easy, conversational tone of the narration is conveyed instantly with this opening. The rhetorical questioning of the owner of the curious dwelling engages the reader into the conversation. The full naming of the man indicates his significance as a character while the parenthetical addition works to create an aura of mystery and expectation about what he might be if he is not really a man. The paragraphs work together to make almost any reader who casually skims opening pages instantly understand that this story does not operate within the confines of everyday reality. No actual mention of magic may appear, but the overall tone and atmosphere suggests that this will be a world in which magic of one sort of another happens.
“Engaging Empathy Protocol,” Nurse Ratched said, the monitor switching to a smiley face, eyes and mouth black, the rest of the screen yellow. The hatch on her lower right side slid up, and one of her tentacle - like arms extended, patting the top of Rambo’s casing. “There, there. It is all right. I will clean up the blood and whatever other fluids come from his weak and fragile body. He will most likely void his bowels too.”
This novel is an example of pastiche. The story may be original, but it derives much of its literary aspects through allusions and pop culture references. The nurse that speaks these line is officially a robotic device called Registered Automaton To Care, Heal, Educate, and Drill. The name is therefore, most obviously, an acronym that shortens that unwieldy name to Ratched. Some readers will further appreciate the broader implications of the name due to its being a reference to Nurse Ratched from the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and its subsequent Oscar-winning film adaptation. Those who make this connection can enjoy the irony of this robot engaging an empathy protocol since Nurse Ratched is a notorious sociopathic villain who demonstrates an utter lack of empathy herself. In addition to this aspect of pastiche is the name Rambo which will immediately reference for many readers the image of a muscle-bound soldier played by Sylvester Stallone in multiple films. The primary literary motivation here is also irony since the Rambo in this story is a Roomba-like vacuum cleaner.
“The Blue Fairy,” the Coachman said. “If anyone can help, it will be them.” The tower on the screen disappeared, replaced by a large triangular structure covered in black glass, a beam of light rising from the tip. “This is Heaven. If there was ever a reason this place could still be considered the City of Sin, it would be Heaven. The Blue Fairy runs the entire operation. The Authority allows Heaven’s existence because of their dream machines. The Blue Fairy gives over the data collected from the machines.”
The story at its most basic level can be termed another retelling of the Pinocchio story. This version, however, complicates the whole idea of a puppet who wants to become a real boy with its technological update. The Blue Fairy is actually one of the few references in the book that explicitly makes a connection between the story and the foundational works from which it constructs its pastiche. The Blue Fairy, for those not familiar, is the magic entity who delivers Pinocchio his wish to become a human. This excerpt demonstrates the extent to which the technological advancements have been incorporated into the story. The Fairy in this instance is more than just a wish-granting genie but a godlike entity. The concept of a heaven existing only because an “Authority” allows it to do so communicates the extent to which this novel takes the various referential pieces from existing stories for the purpose of constructing a philosophical metaphor on the nature of humanity. And the linkage between heaven and dreams and machinery capable of producing dreams further underlines why pastiche is such a popular form of fiction. It can connect what seem to be unrelated stories and characters together in order to capitalize on the built-in familiarity of those previously existing works.
