I kept waiting for the payoff for Brad being an obviously horrible person and it never came. :-/ CEO of a small company who makes inappropriate sexual comments to his subordinate and apparently eventually engages her in a relationship while they're both still working there. Ew for power dynamics alone, let alone cold-opening with a joke about vaginal fluid five minutes before you put your lust-object on national television and take credit for her work.
It's interesting to me when people find it horrifying or despair-inducing to think that there isn't a magic otherworldly "conscious mind." It just means that we're all a part of the same universe, ne? ;-) There are external forces that control you - like gravity - and internal forces - like memories - and there's a use in making a distinction. Plus, the brain has several layers of feedback loops and can edit itself, so it's not like it's just a static locked-in response. Also, if love is fake, so is pain; still just an interpretation of sensory input by the brain. If anything, love is better, because it's something we can make for ourselves instead of something that is built in at a deep unconscious level. Even bacteria and plants have aversion responses, but it takes a pretty large brain before you get affection and companionship as phenomena.
I liked Laura, basically. She's the only sensible one in the story.
Also hi. I'm feeling a little better these days.
