It’s common to question reality in a world consumed by images, one where our sense of self is no longer fixed. Reality is an impossible chimera. Who knows when this feeling originated, but I’d assume long before Baudrillard’s notion of hyperreality. Maybe Plato had similar thoughts in Ancient Greece. I imagine he’d absorb reality television and A.I. into his world view and return with an even more salient theory.
LEWANDOWSKI: I remember walking into Margaritaville in Las Vegas. Everything is a replica of reality. The carpet looks like sand. The bartender is wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Jimmy Buffet’s music looped on the stereo. It feels real, but it’s not real, which reminds me of what you’re exploring inFAMA: In the novel, Jesse finds himself caught up in reality TV, but isn’t really interested in reality TV, so there’s an ironic slant from the beginning.
That’s why I wanted to write the haunted house scenes, because it’s another physical space you can be in your body and perceive threat, but it’s not a threat. There’s a control element. You submit to not being in control and you come out of it more comfortable with the uncertainty. FAMA: Jesse latches onto this bad boy persona, even though he really isn’t one. It’s a delusional optimism. He’s at a rock bottom at that point. He’s had this whole meltdown. The whole fascination with celebrities hitting their bottoms as clickbait is interesting, because it’s very gendered. Jesse could do that, like Robert Downey, Jr. as a comeback to have this amazing career. I’m not sure Mars could do that. Celebrities are already the dogs of our culture.
LEWANDOWSKI: I thought about this idea reading the book: yearning for immortality while also hoping to eradicate any kind of feeling. What do you think about this?