Someone help me on how the whole time travel works.........
Ok, for starters, I thought Rant was brilliant, almost as good as Fight Club. The ending suprised me, I liked it a lot, but I do have a few questions.
1. What is "boost shifting" or "boosting" that is referred to? I know that it's done by the government, but I don't know what it is. I know that the way Rant escaped from it was by having rabies; it killed the part of the brain where the "boosting" is done.
2. How are Rant/Chet/Simms the same person?
3. How does Rant travel back in time?
I have read the book all of the way through. I am NOT doing a book report on it. It is just confusing.
I didn't compare this book to Fight Club. Fight Club is my fave Chuck book, and I was just saying I liked Rant almost as much as it.
The book never describes what boosting is.
From further reading, it seems like they travel back in time when they get in a car crash and are in a certain state of mind. I would like to know fully how Rant time travels and how is all three persons, Rant/Chet/Simms. I am just a little lost.
Re-read the book dude, it seems like you missed a lot. I will answer the easy question about boosting though, the other will take time. Boosting is not a government thing, it is recording everything your senses catch (sight, smell, touch, etc) and then re-watching it later. People mostly record boosts of happy things and then sell them (edited) just like we do with movies in todays world. It puts the viewer in a kind of virtual reality situation except they also feel every emotion the person who recorded it feels. It is explained much further in the book, so yeah, I suggest you re-read dude.
[QUOTE=Steven Laidlaw;1079325]Re-read the book dude, it seems like you missed a lot. I will answer the easy question about boosting though, the other will take time. Boosting is not a government thing, it is recording everything your senses catch (sight, smell, touch, etc) and then re-watching it later. People mostly record boosts of happy things and then sell them (edited) just like we do with movies in todays world. It puts the viewer in a kind of virtual reality situation except they also feel every emotion the person who recorded it feels. It is explained much further in the book, so yeah, I suggest you re-read dude.[/QUOTE]
From my understanding boosting is from the government. It is there to replace all past media such as books, music, whatever. The main purpose of it was to stop people from traveling back in time so they weren't able to really experience things. Rabies was an important part of destroying the port that helps people boost.
someone let me know if I'm wrong
You're not. Boosting was invented by the goverment (or maybe the Historians) to prevent time-travel. But I don't think it is goverment controlled and I would say that the ulterior motive is unknown to most, because so is time travel. I think that's where the confusion is coming in.
Except for the first guys confusion. That comes from paying absolutely no attention to the 30 pages that were dedicated to explaning exactly what boosting was.
Did he ever really explain what boosting was? I mean from the way it was read you could tell but I took from it the reason it was never really spelled out exactly what it is was because of this being originally a non-fictional story. It would be like someone writing a story and then explaining what television is.
[QUOTE=nathaniel parker;1110106]Did he ever really explain what boosting was? I mean from the way it was read you could tell but I took from it the reason it was never really spelled out exactly what it is was because of this being originally a non-fictional story. It would be like someone writing a story and then explaining what television is.[/QUOTE]
ah yeah there is a whole chapter dedicated to boosting.... i know the first time i read this novel i blatantly read over it... BIG mistake
The chapter is called 'Boosted Peaks' (Chapter 15) and its all Shot talking...
my favorite quote in that chapter:
"These days every month, when I have to send the school a payment on my loans, at the bottom of the check where it says "For...," in the blank I always write, "Thanks for the best rim job ever!"
Buddy and Chet are supposed to be the same character, Green is supposed to be their father. Think the interesting thing about this story is, especially if its part of a trilogy, is any of this could be bullshit, because, its of the oral tradition thing. It could, quite easily, be turned around. The time travel theme, isn't delivered authoritively by the author, as is usually the case, with the writer describing the set up, and what he wants to create the story with, the suspension of belief.
Instead, we have different characters putting across their views, which the Author can subtly approve, or hint against, depending what they want to say. Instigator, in another post, critisised Neddy, as a cheap conspiracy gimmick, but of course, that was what Chuck wanted, being unable to use a direct narrative. Neddys opinions seem to make sense, if we suspend our belief of the possibility of whether or not time-travel is possible. In fact, what do we know about Rant and Chet being the same? A number of characters suggesting this being the case. Could quite possibly get all headfuck and, (if it is a trilogy), show us that we're all going down the wrong path, believing spurious ideas from doubtful sources. Am reminded of when Tyler was revealed as a figment, how you had to go back and re-assess all that had gone before, the almost palpable glee that the writer must have gotten, pulling the rug out from under us, adding that extra dimension of 'depth' to his creation. Wonder if he's not setting us up again.
Have you ever seen the movie "Strange Days"? That is alot like boosting.
Wait... these question are the main ones of the book and are all answered. This sounds like you're doing a book report and you don't feel like reading it. Comparing Rant to Fight Club further backs up my theory. How could you have missed the main objectives of the book?