Science Fiction/Scientific Elements in Rant
So, I've thought a lot about this, and I've read the book twice now to get a better understanding. I found a couple of topics on here about the same thing, but it seemed people were just looking for answers. This is simply what I think of it, and I'd like to know what others think as well.
So, I think it's safe to say that the novel is operating on The Splintered Time theory, in which different decisions and events can cause splinters in time, creating parallel universes and such. This is the same theory that the Back to the Future movies used, but there is one MAJOR difference: The Grandfather Paradox. In the Back to the Future movies, should you go back and mess up your conception in any way, you will cease to exist. This does not apply in Rant. I find it interesting that Chuck decided to operate outside of The Grandfather Paradox, and that's what sort of drew me to the theory and had me researching it so much. Rather than ending your own existence by going back and messing up your own conception, you have the ability to become immortal by doing so. And, if you think about it in the mindset of time travel, it does make sense. You eliminate every direct ancestor you have, making it to where you are the only one. You are your father, grandfather, great grandfather, etc., and every woman involved is dead. You are the only thing tracing back to yourself, therefore making you immortal. I guess it's a bit of a stretch for most minds, but I can see it.
The other thing I find interesting is the use of liminal time. That moment right after your vehicle is hit, when everything is in slow motion, is when you can time travel. I can understand that completely, as in that moment, it seems that time has stopped, or at least slowed down considerably.
Of course, this is all assuming that you can grasp the concepts involved in time travel theory, but to me Chuck's is rather believable.
"Music is crucial. Beyond no way can I overstress this fact. Let's say you're southbound on the interstate, cruising alone in the middle lane, listening to AM radio. Up alongside comes a tractor trailer of logs or concrete pipe, a tie-down strap breaks, and the load dumps on top of your little sheetmetal ride. Crushed under a world of concrete, you're sandwiched like so much meat salad between layers of steel and glass. In that last, fast flutter of your eyelids, you looking down that long tunnel toward the bright God Light and your dead grandma walking up to hug you--do you want to be hearing another radio commercial for a mega, clearance, closeout, blow-out liquidation car-stereo sale?"
-Rant: An Oral Biography of Buster Casey
Dude, I think I totally get how that time-travel kinda works. Now get this, when you're hit, or in Rants case, plummiting off of a cliff, your brain is pumping with adrenaline and d.m.t, all these natural endorphins and chemicals sort of putting you into a heightened state of awareness. In effect, Rant casey found out how to transcend time because of that, for a split second he was able to comprehend a place with no time, time stopped, and then he teleports. Crazy stuff to think about, especially considering that when your brain is overwhelmed by adrenaline a normal person can verge on being a super-hero. Or, according to Dr. Rick Stassmans' research at UNM in the early ninties, subjects on large doses of dimethyltryptamine, (D.M.T) which is naturally produced by the brain during the dream cycle, experienced a timeless dimension, with self aware alien/insect like sentient d.m.t creatures; Like every subject experienced the same exact dream, the same exact way, but the only thing that was different was what these creatures had to say to the individual subject. Brain activity is amplified exponentially, and just perhaps, Buster Casey just knew, and had so much faith, that when he put his whole entire mind to it, he just teleported through this space that he knew was there. He's been training for it ever since his first spider bite. He's been riding on the verge of death forever. Not only that but he knows that this timeline of his is linear, he gets born, grows up, and time travels to try and stop green taylor simms from raping his mom. but green taylor simms exists outside of rant caseys timeline although they're the same person. Maybe green taylor simms killed his mother, then time traveled to an alternate reality where she's not dead, so he can rape her, and still gain all the powers he intends to get.. jesus christ. and not only that. but what's up with bodie carlyle talking about 'boosting' and 'ports' that they have. wtf? they have ways of transferring information directly from some device to their brains? God damnit.. It's just the little things about this book that get me thinking, ya know?
I never thought of it that way. DMT is some serious stuff man. I've been close to trying it and have read all about it. I had troubles comprehending the conceept of how the people, Tina Something, Wax, Simms, also, is Simms, Chester and Rant all the same person?
i like your description
i allways had the feel that rant point towards the enlightened vision of time which is no time, as you say no family bonds because is as you never born you just be.
there is some part on the book that i found interesting, that after crashing there is a long period erasing your past, sometimes there is a need to keep crashing to keep yourself in the path of inmortality, to keep slowly stoping till you finally stop.
...Rant is one of my favorite reads from Mr. Palahniuk.
However as many times as I have read this one I still don't understand what causes one to time travel during a car wreck of intense measure...
If it was that easy I'd be driving off bridges, into gas stations, and in front of semi trucks every week...but I would want to erase who I was so I could become a ghost more or less. Just become a person with no history. Forgotten.
On another note, the science fiction element is not what attracts me to this story. It's the horror. What Rant does is really what makes this novel and the fact that it's written through different perspectives.
Not sure if this is the kind of reply you were looking for, but there it is.
We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra.
Narrator: Martha Stewart.
Tyler Durden: Fuck Martha Stewart. Martha's polishing the brass on the Titanic. It's all going down, man. So fuck off with your sofa units and Strinne green stripe patterns. I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.