Summary and Analysis: Chapter 18
New Characters
Mr. Wade Cortot: a former special-effects man who once worked in Hollywood.
Mr. Al Jarry: an actor who portrays Wilbur Mercer.
Summary
Stratton asks Isidore to retrieve the rest of her belongings from the apartment
below his, including her television so she can listen to Friendly’s important
announcement. Isidore explains that his television is only able to receive a
government channel, and Roy Baty explains that they are only interested in
watching Buster Friendly's show.
Isidore reaches Stratton’s apartment and unplugs the television. The silence that results begins to disturb Isidore, and he concludes that people must live amongst others in order to “live at all” and that he is now dependant upon the three androids in the apartment above. Isidore brings the television to the upstairs apartment and begins to discuss Buster Friendly with Roy, who abruptly tells Isidore to stop talking and turn on the television. Isidore then goes back downstairs to retrieve more of Stratton’s belongings. On the stairs, Isidore notices a spider and instantly catches it in his plastic medicine bottle, an item he keeps on his belt for this type of rare opportunity.
Friendly is beginning his important announcement on the television when Isidore enters the room and announces that he has caught a spider. Stratton asks to see the spider and Roy orders them not to speak while Buster is on the television. Stratton claims to have never seen a real spider and asks Isidore why it needs so many legs. Stratton states that she doesn’t think it actually needs all of those legs, and Irmgard concurs and suggests that they cut four of the legs off to see if it’s true. Irmgard and Stratton then enter the kitchen with the spider and, using a pair of Irmgard’s scissors, begin to cut the spider's legs off. Isidore begs the androids to stop.
Friendly explains that his research staff has discovered that the backdrop behind Mercer is artificial. Friendly then displays blown-up images of Mercer’s backdrop and a “specialist” highlights details of brush strokes, indicating that the landscape is fabricated. Friendly then continues to claim that the authenticity of the weeds and rocks involved in the terrain upon which Mercer moves is also questionable, as proved by other members of his qualified research team. He then concludes, based upon the evidence, that Mercer is not actually suffering. He continues to describe how his research team was able to track down a former special-effects movie employee, a Mr. Wade Cortot, who has identified the backdrop as one used by a defunct movie maker with whom Cortot had previously worked. In addition, his team was able to find the actor who portrays Mercer, a Mr. Al Jarry of East Harmony, Indiana, who says he had been making fifteen minute films for an unidentified employer involving the use of rubber rocks. With this, Friendly concludes that Mercerism is a hoax. He then poses to his viewers the question of whom is responsible for propagating such a hoax. Friendly asserts that if the purpose of Mercerism is to promote unification amongst its practitioners, then this could become useful to a “would-be Hitler.”
The androids in Isidore’s apartment listen to the announcement intently then discuss among themselves the concept of empathy upon which humans depend as a means to distinguish themselves from androids. Irmgard returns to the kitchen, where Stratton has now removed four of the spider’s legs. Irmgard then lights a match to the spider, which prompts it to move feebly away without any legs. Irmgard then gloats with the satisfaction that her prediction was true, that...
(This entire section contains 1301 words.)
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the spider would be able to walk with fewer legs. Irmgard realizes that Isidore is upset about the spider, and she offers to pay him back in whatever amount is quoted in Sydney’s. When Isidore doesn’t respond, Irmgard asks him about his thoughts concerning Buster’s revolutionary discovery. Stratton interrupts to say that she thinks Isidore is upset and points to his empathy box. Roy interjects by speculating that Buster’s announcement might now cause humans to start wondering about Mercerism. Stratton responds that she doesn’t think it will end the “cult of Mercerism” but that the announcement will cause a lot of humans to be unhappy. Stratton also states that they’ve waited for months to hear Buster announce what they already knew.
Isidore grabs the spider from Stratton and drowns it in the sink. The androids discuss Isidore’s grief and conclude that it has more to do with the spider than with Friendly’s announcement. Roy remarks to Isidore that the announcement marks the end of Mercerism, and that if that was the last remaining spider on Earth, it also marks the end of spiders. Isidore responds that he isn’t feeling well and asks Roy to confirm that the sky behind Mercer is painted and, thus, not real. Isidore then claims that Mercerism isn’t over and makes his way across the room where he realizes the extent of the decay that exists all around him.
Items around the apartment immediately begin to crumble. The androids order Isidore to stop whatever it is he is doing, but Isidore responds that he isn’t responsible. The floor then begins to sag and bits of animals and bones emerge, including a donkey that is apparently still alive. Isidore watches in horror as a crow pecks at the donkey’s eyes. The spider, missing all but three of its legs, then wanders across Isidore’s feet. With this Isidore realizes that “the bones have reversed themselves; the spider is again alive. Mercer must be near.” Winds begins to blow and weeds start growing over everything in Isidore’s apartment until the walls burst and Isidore finds himself in a familiar and desolate landscape. Mercer stands before him and Isidore asks Mercer if the sky is indeed fake. Mercer confirms that it is and that Isidore is too close to see the brushstrokes. He explains that in order to detect the brushstrokes, Isidore needs to view everything at a distance, as the androids are able to do. Isidore asks if this is why the androids claim he is a fraud, to which Mercer responds that he is a fraud, and that the androids correctly exposed this truth. Mercer then tells Isidore that despite this, the androids will still have difficulty with the fact that both he and humans still exist, and that Mercer will continue to lift Isidore out of the tomb world into the landscape with which he is familiar until Isidore decides that he no longer wishes to struggle. Mercer then hands Isidore the spider with all of its legs restored.
At this moment an alarm bell sounds. Roy exclaims that a bounty hunter has entered the building and orders the lights to be turned off and Isidore be removed from his empathy box.
Analysis
Friendly declares that Mercer is a fake. This announcement comes from a source
that is equally questionable, which seems to suggest that the competition
referred to by Isidore in Chapter Seven does indeed exist. The elements
involved in Friendly’s investigation are researched and brought together by
characters that could be as unauthentic as the findings concerning Mercer. This
alludes to the falsity surrounding human existence on Earth and refers back to
the need for humans to appeal to some form of moral ideology for compensation.
Both Friendly and Mercer serve as public figures who espouse different belief
structures under by which people live.
Isidore's experience of having his entire physical world dissolves into the tomb world from which Mercer struggles to ascend symbolizes the power of Mercerism as a belief system, and the status of Mercer himself as an iconic figure.