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Same Same
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
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Same Same
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Publisher's Summary
In the shifting sands of the desert, near an unnamed metropolis, there is an institute where various fellows come to undertake projects of great significance. But when our sort-of hero, Percy Frobisher, arrives, surrounded by the simulated environment of the glass-enclosed dome of the Institute, his mind goes completely blank. When he spills something on his uniform - a major faux pas - he learns about a mysterious shop where you can take something, utter the command “same same,” and receive a replica even better than the original. Imagining a world in which simulacra have as much value as the real - so much so that any distinction between the two vanishes, and even language seeks to reproduce meaning through ever more degraded copies of itself - Peter Mendelsund has crafted a deeply unsettling novel about what it means to exist and to create...and a future that may not be far off.
What the critics say
“Like an ever-shifting Rubik’s Cube, Mendelsund’s narrative blends influences and genres at will: It begins as an sf dystopia, unfurls like a mystery, and includes some deeply insular sections reminiscent of the late David Markson.... Mendelsund has created a dense, complex, and rewarding novel that explores the ever-hazier distinctions between copying and creating, between ourselves and our ubiquitous devices, and between what is real and what is simulated.” (Booklist)
“[Mendelsund] has a grand time serving up what would seem to be an extended metaphor for creativity...that would do Brian Eno proud. Mendelsund's novel of ideas makes a neat bookend to Richard Powers' Galatea 2.2 as a study of creation in the age of the smart machine.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)
“Rewarding.... Absurdist, uncanny metafiction about the nature of identity, individuality, and authorship in an era of rapid technological advancement.... Comically disturbing.” (Publishers Weekly)