A karma card registering zero or less is a death sentence. Lethem's other big product innovation is a class of drugs called Acceptol, Forgettol, Believol and Avoidol, which can be brewed to order for an individual's psychological needs. I'm not a believer myself. Playgs kilt peopl off and naminals nor there werent nothing growit in the groun. Reading this book is a formidable decoding task, not appropriate for speed reading, but Hoban's depiction of a primitive future is nothing less than poetry.
Dogs try to eat people.
Psychological pain is addressed by confining all human memory to the mind of one person, the Receiver, who is also the only living being who remembers such anachronisms as colors, snow, sand and the sun. To protect people from their own emotional quagmires, spouses are selected based on compatibility, and parents never raise the children they bear. Those too old to work get a cheerful retirement party and a fatal shot in the arm. There's no unemployment or crime. Once the Receiver trainees realize what's been sacrificed for perfect security, they want to come back to the pain and pleasure of our time.