Fragments of a Holographic Rose

There is a lot of symbolism in this short story: Fragments of a Holographic Rose. The rose is a metaphor for the life that is being lived. The fragmentation illustrates a world where when we lose something dear to us and it's been shattered into pieces, we are constantly looking through the shards to see the beauty it once held. Parker had his life shattered when his girlfriend left him so he is sifting through the remnants of their relationship and reliving her memories through the use of the ASP tapes.

The ASP is a new technology which has totally changed the future of the world. Parker, the main character, has shifted his life dramatically from a steady job to a life in the slum suburbs. In a world where jobs are rare, it makes sense that people have these tapes to rely on as a way to soak up all their free time. In much as Ready Player One has a less dystopian, but more functional society where people don't have jobs, but do spend all their free time playing the VR game, Fragments of a Holographic Rose has these sensory tapes that people can turn to for comfort. This is another cautionary tale of a writer who is predicting a fictional but not entirely impossible future. It sounds like the main character made a choice to leave his job and promised fiscal security in a post apocalyptic world. He did this because of the alluring temptations of the ASP tapes which he could cybernetically lose himself.

The life he chose to live in the shantytown, versus the life he could have had with a stable paying job, would confuse most people. Why wouldn't Parker choose to live in the higher society? I think this choice illustrates the power and grip of the new scary technology of total immersion into recorded memories. The sadness of being lost to the technology of the future can lead people to avoid similar possible mistakes, or make them too afraid of change and making it harder for mankind to progress.