Simulacra Land

First, Any one else want to slap this guy or is it just me? If I was reading this book for leisure I would've put it down after he said he didn't care if the cats died, as long as it looked right! And that poor old liver lady! Making her do the same thing again and again just for his enjoyment? Yeah, he's right up there on my list of least favorite literary characters with Holden Caulfield and Billy Pilgrim.  Alright now on to the serious part of the post...

The nameless narrator of Tom McCarthy's Remainder is a bit out there. In a real world he would have never been able to accomplish the things he did. To set up reenactments and hire people to reenact his weird memories all so that he can have a "real" experience. It is ironic that what  he believes is a real experience is how Robert Di Nero acted in the movie when movies are scripted down to the very last detail, much like what the narrator decides to do with his building.
He is constantly searching for a true aesthetic experience through the creation of his mad little world. I could not understand how anyone in the novel would have listen to him for more than five seconds before heading out the door. To control people the way one controls dolls is more than a little creepy.
In terms of Post-modernism, which we discussed in the beginning of class as valuing manufactured nostalgia, depthlessness, and culture within a society, I would have to say that our narrator has created a Post-Modernist dream land. His constructed apartment building therefore can be seen merely as a form of simulacra. The whole building appears real in the way he has dressed it, ordered it, and hired the people to preform within it, but it is a fake. A construction in the head of a crazy man bend on creating the perfect human experience, yet going about it the entirely wrong way.
In addressing these elements of Post-Modernism, I believe McCarthy is asking the reader to question what is real in the world? All of the scene we see are manufactured and manipulated by the narrator in his quest for something "real." What can this tell us about the fate of true aesthetic experiences in the world? Are there any left? Or are all the things we experience recreations of other events, stories, and historical moments?