Dr. Identity

by D. Harlan Wilson

Book Overview

For a professor at Corndog University it's quite acceptable to purchase a robotic doppleg nger and have it teach your classes for you. But how does it reflect on your teaching skills when your doppleg nger murders the whole class? Follow the Dystopian Duo (Dr. Blah Blah Blah and his robot Dr. Identity) on a killing spree of epic proportions through the irreal postapocalyptic city of Bliptown where time ticks sideways, artificial Bug-Eyed Monsters...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933293322
• ISBN13: 9781933293325
• Release Date: March 2007
• Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Dr. Identity by D. Harlan Wilson

D. Harlan Wilson's Dr. Identity is a hip, darkly funny satire that focuses on newly minted assistant professor Dr. Blah Blah Blah, the robot he occasionally sends to teach his students, and the overall absurdities of academic life. Shortly after beginning his stint at Corndog University, Dr. Blah finds that his colleagues demonstrate a covert animosity toward him, which, in addition to his students' tardiness and apathy, renders his new job altogether intolerable. When a discouraged Dr. Blah sends his robot, Dr. Identity, to teach his class for him a second time in one week (which is normally a risky undertaking at Corndog U.), the machine's accidental murder of a student sets the stage for a fun, mind-bending journey, which, although completely surreal, becomes eerily reminiscent of the reader's own college experience. In addition to the well-read hilarity of the book, Wilson's juxtaposition of the realistic and the bizarre does a great job of reinforcing aspects of the novel that parody academia and its strange, unspoken codes of conduct. This pairing becomes an elegant, economical way of suggesting that the pretensions within Corndog University's English department are just as absurd as electric sheep or neozuters having a conversation in Donaldduckspeak. For example, Wilson writes: "Bob had legally changed his surname to an author in his field who was of interest to him in some pedagogical or scholarly way. Additionally, he had done his best to dress himself up like the Russian novelist, sporting dimestore spectacles, a long greasy beard, and a motheaten overcoat. He had grafted eyebags on his face, too" (16). Poking fun at the way academics, like many other professionals, feel pressured to assume a persona, Wilson takes Dr. Blah and his colleagues beyond the stereotypical tweed blazer with suede elbow patches, often emphasizing some characters' desire for plastic surgery and other physical changes to better perform their jobs. Depicting commonplace behavior in an exaggerated and surreal way, Wilson's parody subtly hints at the ridiculousness of doing a job and trying to act the part at the expense of one's individuality, keeping the reader laughing out loud all the while. Dr. Identity's exploration of technology and the ways it shapes the characters' sense of self is also impressive. Often focusing on the way electronics and other innovations begin to dominate rather than merely mediate one's day-to-day experiences, characters sometimes demonstrate a desire to imitate technology or even become mechanical themselves. For example, Wilson writes in Dr. Identity: "I thought he was an android. He was wearing mechanical contact lenses. Apparently it's a new fashion statement that surfaced yesterday and was disseminated last night via the Schizoverse...That was the de facto scoop your student-things gave me. To be nonhuman. Nobody told me about that kind of technodesire" (32). Using the same juxtaposition of the everyday with the

D. Harlan Wilson shows us the world...and you need to see it.

I have been a fan of D.Harlan Wilson's very descriptive and at times disturbing stories, but never have I been able to connect the dots until reading Dr. Identity. Reminding me a bit of Kurt Vonnegut's work, his heroes are flawed, and their enemies are not individuals, but culture, society and history, which are certainly making a mess of our planet. Bliptown, it's enhabitants and cultures are so outrageous that at first glance the reader might not see the reality inside, but take a closer look and you will see that it is the current state of the world staring you in the face. This is a very daring and truthful novel - one that every participant of society should read read and learn from!

Like...wow

Words cannot describe what this book is about, what it's like to read it, or even if it's good or not. Dr. Identity just "is" and your brain will find a way to rationalize the enormous amount of organized chaos in its own unique way. No two people will rationalize it the same way. Instead of building a world and explaining why the world is the way it is, Wilson chooses to simply present this world and let us make of it what we will. A lot of stuff happens in Bliptown, and it's our job to organize it ourselves and figure out what it all means, if anything. What is this surreal, violent and crazy story about? I'm still not sure. What I do know is that it's laugh-out-loud absurd, totally unpredictable, chaotic and yet oddly familiar. Amidst the chaos, I got the feeling that there was some sort of sinister architecture holding the whole thing up. A method to the madness. Not entirely sure what, but on some subconscious level the story made me a better person... I think. The energy buildup is incredible, and the ending is quite a fitting release for it. It's anticlimactic, yes, but again I sensed it was appropriate (more sinister architecture). Highly recommended you read Wilson's Stranger on the Loose before attempting this book. It will help you appreciate it better. Thanks, Herr Wilson-thing for one hell of a ride.

D. Harlan Wilson's flawless transformation into a novelist

Known for his surreal short stories, this is Wilson's first foray into novel writing, and he pulls it off without a hitch. The book is set in a city of the future where trends come and go at the speed that it takes a bullet to leave a gun. It's the sort of place where the box set for a season of a television show would be released a minute after the first episode is finished broadcasting. And most of the inhabitants are disguised as someone or something else. I can't recall a book (or movie for that matter) more violent than this one. It puts the kill count of any Arnold Schwarzenegger movie to shame. But the violence is cartoonish rather than disturbing. Most of the book is a chase sequence with the occasional pit stop. Dr. Blah Blah Blah is a hesitant Mallory Knox to his Mickey - Dr. Identity, his android simulacrum who teaches is literature classes when he's not feeling up to it and has been programmed with the balls to do everything that Blah feels the urge to do but never does because of his inhibitions. In this case, it's all about murdering the people who get on his nerves. Dr. Blah must be very easily annoyed. Pursued by the Papanazi, a group of maniacal photographers competing to give the public what they most desire - snapshots of the "Dystopian Duo" in action, the two criminal take us on a whirlwind tour of the city, a locale that throws science fiction, fantasy, and surrealism into a blender and mixes them into a hangover cure where anything can happen after you take your first sip.

What an iagination! Couldn't put this down.

I was pretty much rivetted to this novel after page 2. At first I thought that only my desire for science fiction and futurist tales were going to be the only desires satisfied, however, this story goes so much further. The 'between the lines' messages within this tale and the way in which Wilson carefully manipulates both the reader and the characters is superb. I haven't had so much cause for re-thinking my psyche since I saw Dune and Bladerunner. Top notch!