Word: blum
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...SIMULTANEOUS MAN by Ralph Blum. 238 pages. Atlantic-Little, Brown...
...case of Ralph Blum's The Simultaneous Man, most of the items in question fit snugly enough into a compelling plot designed to dissuade the itchy finger of exegesis. The book is at once a superior science-fiction story, a polished exercise in literary styles and a deeply personal moral statement...
Identity Transplant. For Blum, the dark powers are impenetrable bureaucracies, military cabals and value-neutral scientists on both sides of the ideological curtain. He sees them as threatening to rob men's souls by corrupting their memories and feelings...
...Although Blum's indictment is sweeping, his vision is specific. Workers at a Government arsenal experimenting in mind alterations surgically erase one man's memories in order for him to receive those of another. The input source is Andrew ("Bear") Home, a hulking psychopharmacologist and a survivor of a Chinese brain laundry in North Korea. Significantly, Bear is also the son of a Russian-born mother. The man scheduled to receive Home's memories is a black enlisted man, sentenced to life in prison for killing an officer...
...Mythology. It is a key that the reader should turn for himself. Although interpretations may vary, it seems clear that Blum's puzzling tale has some roots in the basic myths of the twin culture heroes who father new tribes, cities and even heavenly bodies. Romulus and Remus, or Castor and Pollux come first to mind. But in the case of Bear and Black Bear, Blum's biblical symbolism suggests Esau and Jacob. To this are added a dash of psychedelics and some excellent literary effects. In the early pages, the prose has a deadly metallic precision. When...