'Acts of God' is a 2024 philosophical comedy sci-fi novel written by Kanan Gill. The book is based on what is known in literature as the simulation hypothesis: what if we and everything we know are parts of a simulation? While it sounds outlandish and too insane to the common mind, there's no verification that we currently have or ever probably will have to disprove it. I could go on about this topic, but let's come back to the book. The storyline follows roughly two paths in parallel, one that of a simulated world with a coincidentally cosmic detective, Manjunath, and his assistant, Heng, and one that of the simulation's creator, Dr. Krishna, or otherwise known as Dr. K. As the world's 'most genius person' attempts to intervene in his own simulation, how does Manjunath and Heng manage to reason through anomalies that lead to mysterious disappearances and accidents?
Right off the bat, I should talk about the surprise that took me by while reading this. I have seen a lot of stand-up videos of Kanan Gill over the years, and while yes, they had shared the observationality as that in the book, along with other factors such as timing and modulation, I did not expect it to...turn out existential to such an extent. No, I love this. I was fed up with academic and social pressures, and reading Russell through wasn't exactly...a day's work, so this was meant to be a lighthearted adventure, and it sure started so, but while the humorous undertone never left the scene completely, the story got more involved-it was a race, the race towards an end for both parties, and I quickly found myself changing sides as to who was good and who was bad, who was more or less real, and so on. The book is a complete underline underneath the writer's name, it highlights the subtleties of his humour in more emphatic tones, and philosophy was sprinkled with socio-political commentary.
As we go through an analyzis, I bear with you the fact of your involvement in possible spoilers.
The story structure of Acts of God is bi-periodic between that of the simulation and Dr. K's world(let's call it the 'real' world, the emphasis intentional). But often within the same chapter, it switches. I feel this could have been messed up if not done properly, but I'm glad it did turn out to be so. The pacing of the switch matched reader expectations, and I felt that stayed on so towards the pre-climax, the real world being emphasized more, at least in my mind. The character evolution was something I loved within the story. It's almost sugar-coated how we realize the character of Dr. K: the flashbacks led towards the latter half to fill something - a void - and fill in his purpose. But even with Heng or Manjunath, that isn't a left-out topic. Heng becomes bolder (though he never was a BS-tolerating type), and Manjunath becomes more well-meaning in his speech, after he realizes his world having shifted and his actions having meanings. Yes, I loved Bolivia Capslich as well, obviously. Now, the author says he never meant to introduce too much of physical features into the user to form a whole physical embodiment of the character, but I felt there was enough to imagine Heng and Manjunath, and I always saw Dr. K to be some form of Rick (from Rick & Morty).
Many parts of the work focus on something ambitious to the human soul yet - to find the simplicity in all of life's ways.
It's hard for us, but Kanan proposes this, through Perenna's gift badge and through Brede's enlightenment: life is no
disease and it has no cure. Solutions are simple. Dr. K's genius is vividly seen not in how he scores marks or cracks equations,
but in how he understands this principle. He understands people; he knows this principle, something which might have been
influenced by his friendship with Dr. Perenna. Give a man a headache and finally through that lens he realizes his other pains
were just distractions. His ultimate end with this story is a fulfilment that he provides to this vision - to finally accept
Perenna's outcome and to move on, with her and his fates.
"If the truth is destruction, then let destruction be true." The crux of reality is something that we grapple with at some
point(s). Most move on, most feel that it's not worthwhile to ponder on existentialism when on the other side is just acting like
nothing happened and have a joyous and normal life. I feel it's our individual methods to cope with it, because none of us can
reach that finish line anyway. This book provides an existential doubt - what if you knew your world could be simulated? How
would you accept it? The undertone serves to relieve the reader from a crisis, because why is there one? Why not see it
through how an inquisitive scientist or detective would? Why not see where this leads?
The sociopolitical commentary is strong here. The resonance is with people. People want a version of the truth, the one they can accept. If you don't, they call you an eccentric or a kook. Try to be unconventional, and you get ostracized, much of it because that is how you were trained to feel yourself. Yes, your life might be upturned in a day, are you going to flip the tables and blame the game? Our story is riddled here with 'journalists' serving up moguls and societies worshipping demigods. Anything but introspection. You see light, and you riddle it with its causes, and turns out- the actual cause wasn't in your list, because you crossed it off to avoid seeing it. Brede's character's wisdom seems almost stoic. He knows there's nothing he can do to avoid the outcomes of his enlightenment, so he just..lets be. He just avoids touching the broth himself again.
There's also a small section in the beginning about how it was just much better dividing the world into zones instead of individual countries. Let's forget about practicality and patriotism for a second. You have a no-secret world(as the writer later goes on to say: nope), and you have the fact that countries in the past have only used the names of their countries as a method to polarize their people into a global fallout, why would you still go back?! I feel humans prefer that comfort from being in a group, and while our cultural identities are warming, it often lays the grounds to alienate others for fear of losing something of ours. Them and us. Groups and people. Classifications. We basically crave this s***. Of course, to implement diversity in unity is harder, but I am laying off the practicality, as I said earlier, to fundamentally point to this part about us.
Dr. Krishna and Dr. Perenna's relationship was heartwarming. As said, we have been accustomed to just speculate a trajectory for it, but the author stops us to remind us how relationships can go much further, and that strikes the heart. Because at some point, we all have people with whom we know this to be true. It's almost wish-like, and yet, we search for that something else. It's not our fault, we are like that. Dr. K's evolution carves out neatly in a flashback with Perenna. His grappling with what we call OCD strikes a core in some people. The author avoids giving clear answers; it's about a feeling, and feelings are never cut and precise. To add a side note, think about how he sets in exercises to lay us in the dark later, but I amn't even mad, I just wrote. Perenna is Krishna's aid. Her advice is striking, how in all our complaints lies a selfish part, and how we can use that fact to set it aside. The interval where Krishna transforms into the Convenor felt psychologically set blank for me personally, however, though the writer did take care in explaining how it became out through paragraphs. K's conversation with Divya lays more structure to this.
I have some issues(obviously):
- Yes, the eventual goal with the simulation project is clear. But the starting idea of the simulation was for the entire universe. As far as I understand, we are interested in the entire cosmos, many especially in ET. If the makers are only to be concerned with setting a seed, why is there the idea of unfurnished parts?
- The Woodwose arose out of a fallout, which probably took place after the 21st century. Why would such beings be ignorant about all technology, even the basics of un moto? I feel their skillsets, if any, were left rather undeveloped, though at one point it was mentioned to the readers to not take them for cavemen(how would you otherwise converse with them like how Dr. K did?)
- Certain parts were, pun intended, unexposed, ones with bareness. Manujunath's and the head sister's introductions are what I want to focus on. Both are glinted with their humouristic touch, and that serves well, but the exposition for that was left critically blank. How bare is Manjunath? If the head sister is naked, what about the other Woodwose? Do some of them also wear glasses? Parts which I felt should have been detailed at least to the briefest if introduced so.
- The idea of nested simulations is hard to perfect, and I felt the writer did it beautifully, but there is still a hole, and that lies in the past of the 'reality'. We have beings called Essentials, and according to K, Manjunath is one. We also know that K and P both think they could also be a simulation. Did they try searching their past for Manjunath? There are certain differences between their reality compared to that of any simulation they made, one very fatal: they conducted a simulation; their halting problem is when their system is about to attempt making a subsystem, which means they somehow got over that problem. Why could that be?
- Manjunath was introduced with certain traits, which include his callousness and his habit of iterating over senseless possibilities, eg, as in Pg. 48. I felt the former to fade slightly, but the latter to just disappear after a couple of uses. What happened? It made me laugh, but at the same time, I did feel it to not be natural in a normal conversation; maybe in a standup.
I am pleasantly awed by this debut. Acts of God was a read that lured me into it, up to midnight's mid. I felt relatability in this work. Kanan's language includes certain bits that I learnt in the same old set of curricula, made me feel like all lingo need not be either edu or off it. From coming in for comic relief to feeling existential comfort, this book did in fact serve its message even through it's title - Acts of God, and that asks for itself - for which system?