Remake (novel)
Encyclopedia
Remake is a 1995 science fiction
novel
by Connie Willis
. It was nominated for the Hugo Award
for Best Novel
in 1996.
The book displays a dystopic near future, when computer animation and sampling have reduced the movie industry to software manipulation.
Tom fills the rest of his time with the usual Hollywood pastimes, popping pills and poking popsies. Then he meets Alis, who is the classic girl from the heartland come to realize her dreams in Hollywood. Except nobody makes movies the old way anymore. Anybody can be in a movie—just pay your money at the booth on Hollywood Boulevard, and they will video you and digitize you into your own personal copy. Alis wants more. She wants to make her own movies and dance with the stars. Tom is soon astonished to see her appearing in movies he has been given to edit. She appears to have travelled back in time. Or is she a ghost from the past, as in the movie Portrait of Jennie
?
Life in this LA is different. Nobody drives. Transportation is provided by the skids, which are basically rooms that teleport
from point to point around the city. Supposedly this trick is done using the Casimir effect
, an obscure quantum physics phenomenon. Travelling this way can be unnerving, as the "walls" of the rooms are interfaces to unreal spaces. However, you can always watch a movie on these walls while you wait for people to walk in and out, complain, argue, eat, etc. until the next slide happens.
Tom falls for Alis, possibly because she is the only unattainable woman in the city. For her part she wants Tom's help but not much else. Tom gets her access to the films so she can rehearse. She keeps popping up in movies, however. How is she doing it? He finds out that she's been using the equipment in the skids, projecting herself into movies on the "walls", dancing with Fred Astaire
. Are the skids really time machines?
What's real anyway?
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Connie Willis
Connie Willis
Constance Elaine Trimmer Willis is an American science fiction writer. She has won eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards. Willis most recently won a Hugo Award for Blackout/All Clear...
. It was nominated for the Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
in 1996.
The book displays a dystopic near future, when computer animation and sampling have reduced the movie industry to software manipulation.
Plot summary
Tom is a remake artist. He does the soulless and soul-destroying work of editing movie stars in and out of digital copies of movies, which are the only kind that still exist. The movies are all fake, but the money is very real, so there are constant legal battles over who has the rights to use which actor's image. Since the movies themselves are continuously available, the actors have to be continually edited in and out as the vagaries of court decisions demand.Tom fills the rest of his time with the usual Hollywood pastimes, popping pills and poking popsies. Then he meets Alis, who is the classic girl from the heartland come to realize her dreams in Hollywood. Except nobody makes movies the old way anymore. Anybody can be in a movie—just pay your money at the booth on Hollywood Boulevard, and they will video you and digitize you into your own personal copy. Alis wants more. She wants to make her own movies and dance with the stars. Tom is soon astonished to see her appearing in movies he has been given to edit. She appears to have travelled back in time. Or is she a ghost from the past, as in the movie Portrait of Jennie
Portrait of Jennie
Portrait of Jennie is a 1948 fantasy film based on the novella by Robert Nathan. The film was directed by William Dieterle and produced by David O. Selznick. It stars Jennifer Jones and Joseph Cotten.-Plot:...
?
Life in this LA is different. Nobody drives. Transportation is provided by the skids, which are basically rooms that teleport
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
from point to point around the city. Supposedly this trick is done using the Casimir effect
Casimir effect
In quantum field theory, the Casimir effect and the Casimir–Polder force are physical forces arising from a quantized field. The typical example is of two uncharged metallic plates in a vacuum, like capacitors placed a few micrometers apart, without any external electromagnetic field...
, an obscure quantum physics phenomenon. Travelling this way can be unnerving, as the "walls" of the rooms are interfaces to unreal spaces. However, you can always watch a movie on these walls while you wait for people to walk in and out, complain, argue, eat, etc. until the next slide happens.
Tom falls for Alis, possibly because she is the only unattainable woman in the city. For her part she wants Tom's help but not much else. Tom gets her access to the films so she can rehearse. She keeps popping up in movies, however. How is she doing it? He finds out that she's been using the equipment in the skids, projecting herself into movies on the "walls", dancing with Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
. Are the skids really time machines?
What's real anyway?