“Datafeeds” – A Summary
The
story “Datafeeds“ by Deena Larsen is divided into three parts which all
describe the same incident but in three different worlds. There are also three
different ways of access the story: The reader can systematically follow the
numeration of the chapters at the bottom. The second one is to click on the
braid on the top left corner or, as the third way, to use the links within the
text.
The
main character is the first-person narrator Jane, a woman who works for the
government. That very day, her team has an important meeting about a new
approach concerning water policy with the Californian Legal Team including the
boss Ken and she and her partner Brian have to present that approach. Unfortunately
there are some elemental number errors in the presentation and so Jane has to
find Brian to correct them. Then the meeting takes place.
The
first part of the story is set in the blind world. After finally finding the
right kind of orange juice in the supermarket, Jane enters the lobby of the
government office building. On this occasion she explains how people orientate themselves
in their worlds with the help of so-called electronic individual ‘strings’
which navigate them to certain places. Besides, people always introduce oneself
with their name before saying anything else.
Jane
hears an elevator going up and she enters it but she is not alone in it. Tim,
who works for another department, is there as well. They talk about some work
Jane really needs him to finish and give it to her until the next week.
On
the meeting room floor she gets off and listens closely to the people around
her to find Brian. After some time she find him and they talk about the errors
in the presentation, so Brian can go, fix and then copy them. Meanwhile, Jane enters
the conference room and prepares it by arranging food and drinks and also
checking the function of the electronic equipment. People start entering the
room and Jane goes to welcome Ken while she is also communicating with her best
friend Carol through hand spelling at the same time.
Jim,
the boss of Jane’s team, addresses the meeting and hands over to Jane so she
can start her presentation. Everything is going well and when Ken has a
question she leaves Brian to answer and explain that in detail. Ken is
convinced of the approach and agrees on further collaboration.
After
the meeting, Jane and Brian sit next to each other but do not say a word. Jane
wishes, not for the first time, that she could find out what people are feeling before they say it.
The
second part is set in the seeing world and takes place two years later, after Jane
has changed dimensions. Again, she is in a hurry, because the choice of finding
the right orange juice in the supermarket was not very easy for her due to the
colourful labels. Jane tells that it is still very hard for her using her eyes
and coping with all the different impressions, colours and forms although she
practiced a lot in the past. However, she still does some of her daily routine
with closed eyes because it seems much easier for her.
When
she enters the elevator she closes her eyes, because otherwise she might get
distracted by the changing numbers of the floors again, but she steps on
somebody’s foot. It is not until she gets out of the elevator when she recognizes
the voice of Tim who is muttering about her. She feels ashamed but only tries
to make her way through the crowd around her to the meeting room – without
crashing into anyone and, at the same time, trying to memorize how Brian looks
like to identify him somehow. But the only things she can remind are his
height, dark hair and a red shirt he wear the last time she saw him. Jane is
desperate in not finding Brian and so she simply calls out his name in the
crowd but no one answers. She feels stupid and so she enters the conference
room to arrange the food and to organize the material needed for the
presentation while hoping that nobody will recognize the error. However, she is
still looking for either Jim or Brian to see her but only her friend Carol approaches
her with a compliment concerning her dress. On this occasion Jane shares her
thoughts about her not understanding the importance of clothes and looks in the
seeing world.
After
Jim’s introduction Jane starts with her presentation, fixing her eyes on somebody
in the back row so it seems as if she looks at everybody. Again, she gets
interrupted but this time by Jim who points out that Ken had a question at an
earlier point and that they should come back to that now. Jane, who had not
recognized Ken’s hand sign earlier, tries to clarify the problem although it is
Brian’s part but she just cannot see him in the room. Brian interrupts her and
she has to recognize that he is the person she was looking at the whole time.
Brian tries to explain the problem based on the wrong numbers but is not able
to convince Ken, who leaves angry and not willing to cooperate.
After
the meeting Jane knows that Brian wants an explanation – and he does not even
have to say so. However, Jane wishes for some more data to understand what
people really feel behind their faces.
The
third – and last part – is set in the feeling world and takes place, again, two
years later. In the feeling dimension the heartbeat of everyone is sensible, so
everyone knows about everyone’s feelings and emotions.
Again,
Jane is in a hurry but this time because of a two slow clerk in the supermarket
which she should have sensed before. Although she already lives in this
dimension for two years she still has a lot of problems with identifying and
separating heartbeats, mainly, because she is swamped with handling all the
information – or datastream – coming from the people around her.
In
the elevator she meets Tim who she asks right away about the agreement she
needed him to do. His reaction is surprised, which is only shown by the
impression of his face, and so Jane listens to his heartbeat. She then realizes
that he seems worried about something else and she apologizes for her mistake.
As soon as she gets out of the elevator she needs to slow down her heartbeat,
otherwise she might mess up her presentation. She then finds Brian and tells
him about the mistake and again, his reaction is surprised. His heartbeat tells
her that she was again quite impolite and apologizes for not noticing his
feelings.
While
Jane arranges the food and the packets, Jim sets up the beat transponder, a network-driven device that augments
heartbeats so everyone in the room can sense everyone else.
Before
Jane takes over from Jim and starts her presentation she has to slow down the pace
of her heartbeat. Then she starts. After some time she is interrupted by Ken.
He points out to her that he had a question earlier and that she seemingly was
not able to sense and answer his concerns,
which is also the truth. Brian tries to help and explain the concept quite well
but his heartbeat shows his embarrassment. Ken refuses the approach because how can we follow something you have
proposed when your hearts are obviously not in it? and leaves. Jane and
Brian sit together after the meeting and Jane can see that Brian is angry
because it is shown on his face.
Although
Jane loves the dimensions of seeing and feeling but she wishes back her home
dimension – a world which is much simpler and where we could shield our bodies. A minimalistic datastream where what
was said was all that mattered.
Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Katrin Blatt
kablatt@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de València Press