“We abandon consciousness as if we were waking from a bad dream. We throw it off like clothes that never fit us right. It’s an ecstatic release we’re physically unable to apprehend while we’re in our bodies.”
The overarching motifs in the three stories are the philosophy of life and the afterlife. In “Like Beauty” the dystopian future in New York City is inhabited by alien species and cyborgs amongst humans. Therefore the concept of life and what it means to be alive is explored philosophically. The three main characters are Catareen, a Nadian reptilian alien, Simon, a cyborg, and Luke a homeless human teen. Luke having been raised religious even though he does not believe in their ways he is still spiritual. In this sense, he extends his beliefs to the other two friends who have their own program or sense of reality. When Catareen in on the verge of death and Simon is torn as he developed feelings for her, Luke is there to offer him a perspective on the afterlife that is propitious than life itself.
“He stood staring at the constellations. Walt had sent him here, to find this, and he understood. He thought he understood. This was his heaven. It was not Broadway or the horse on wheels. It was grass and silence; it was a field of stars.”
The essence of the novel is molded upon Walt Whitman’s poetry specifically the Leaves of Grass that focuses on the cyclical nature of life. The idea explored in the first story is rebirth of which Lucas is obsessed with and goes on to understand it. He believes that his dead sibling is present in the form of a ghost and dwells within the machines in the wake of the Industrial revolution. Since Walt Whitman is a contemporary poet during this period Lucas gets to meet him and his works resonate with his current predicament. As Whitman’s poetry suggests, leaves of grass are an allegory of rebirth and the notion that energy never dies but is transferred.
“She gave me life. Gratitude is the only appropriate response to everything that happens.”
In “Like Beauty” the discourse between Simon, a cyborg, and Luke, a young human, explores the concept of humanity. Simon is half-human and half-machine therefore his thinking is a programing done by his creator. Although he gradually grasps certain human behaviors and emotions. Whereas Luke is a product of his environment as any other human which Simon fails to understand or rather indifferent to. The quote is Luke’s sentiment on not holding a grudge against his mother who was negligent and uncaring. Therefore Simon responds with “Biological are mysterious” alluding to the irrational nature of human emotions according to him.
