Douglas Hall - The Thirteenth Floor

[lonelywalker]

TITLE: Unplugged
AUTHOR: lonelywalker
AUTHOR SITE: World On A Wire: 13th Floor Resources // Lonelywalker's Fanfiction
CHARACTER: Douglas Hall
FANDOM: The Thirteenth Floor
SPOILERS: The entire film The Thirteenth Floor, and the book Simulacron-3 by Daniel Galouye, on which the film is based.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters and I'm not making any money.

Comments

[daddysmutantkid]

Despite Doug’s knowledge that the project means the world to Whitney, that Whitney is an emotional wreck following Fuller’s death, and that Whitney was shocked by the idea that Doug might close down the project, Doug apparently never suspects that Whitney would take the initiative and download into the program himself. Yes, Whitney hates confrontation, and tells Doug that going into the program alone is stupid - but we repeatedly see how much emotion and work Whitney has invested in the project. Doug, however, takes no steps to look after or check in on his friend, even at such a traumatic time. Although Whitney saved Doug’s life in the program, Doug doesn’t even think of saving Whitney.

Come on. Supposed you were a guy, who of the following blondes were you more likely to run after?

(a) a mysterious lover looking like Marilyn Monroe
(b) your nerdy male friend whose oddities you've gotten to know for six years?

If Jane had not been there Doug might have had a real strong motivation to look after Whitney, and the story would have taken a totally different direction.

[lonelywalker]

If Jane had not been there Doug might have had a real strong motivation to look after Whitney, and the story would have taken a totally different direction.

Sure. But my point remains: Doug does not act as a friend should to Whitney, and in fact directly/indirectly leads to Whitney getting killed. His love/affection for/interest in Jane supercedes his concern for his friend. Is this understandable? Yes, in the context of (a) male hormones, and (b) the context of the "deja vu" he experiences. Is it the right thing to do? No. And it underlines how divisive Jane is in splitting up the three men at the core of the film (four if we count her ill-fated husband).

I have to say it would have been very interesting to see Whitney's reaction to Jane, had he ever met her.

[daddysmutantkid]

Sure. But my point remains: Doug does not act as a friend should to Whitney.

Well, things like this are easier to be solved in fics, but … How do you actually act as a perfect friend? The list of commandment sounds very easy in theory. Practically it might be very difficult to deal with Whitney the way "a friend" would. Maybe Doug behaves towards Whitney reservedly because is he doesn't get much among people and therefore doesn't know how to treat him. Maybe he treats him with reduced temperature for good reason, seeing how easily Whitney jumps on other people's emotions. If he (theoretically) had started crying together with Whitney, it would have gotten Whitney even deeper into crying than he already is, and into a total loss of control. Maybe talking softly and reasonably might be the most advisable thing to do.

The fact that he gives a damn about Whitney's emotional situation speaks for Doug and hints that they are mre than working colleagues. Most people just don't ask such questions even within the family. The fact that he gets up from his lover's bed to look after Whitney (much too late, but at least better than never) also speaks for Doug greatly.

As for why he wouldn't prevent Whitney from downloading, I can't think of any reason for now, but even shy people have their special areas which they share with no-one. Doug knows that Whitney is an expert in the field of supervising computer systems, and he also knows that he better shouldn't meddle into "Whitney's stuff". It is also noteworthy that (canon) Whitney enjoys assisting a lot, apparently seeming to have more satisfaction in supervising things than in experiencing them firsthand. Maybe Doug couldn't imagine that after such a long time of assisting, Whitney suddenly would want something for himself. I must say that even to me it came as a surprise that Whitney suddenly should go for download, although from the very nature of his programming job he should know its unreality. I'm thinking of it in terms of a drug. At the beginning of the 1990's there was a TV show with William Shatner, called Tek War, (which I didn't watch) about a drug computer program which is directly induced to the brain. What if Whitney had been addicted to whatever, become clean and still considered clean by Doug although Whitney has been in temptation for a long time? You don't easily realize if your friend becomes an addict, only when it's too late.

[lonelywalker]

The key thing is that Doug is physically and verbally violent towards Whitney, and threatens to essentially destroy Whitney's entire life and career by shutting down the program.

Yes, of course there are mitigating factors - Doug himself has just almost been killed by Ashton. However, we see him acting very calmly and rationally after that.

The question is whether Doug could have anticipated that Whitney would do anything rash. And for that we really would need a look at their past behaviour. Maybe Whitney normally reacts by just doing whatever Doug wants (as he does by allowing Doug to jack in, in the first place). However, I would expect that a friend would call him and check that he's ok - maybe apologise and promise to sort things out in the morning. This seems to be what Doug intends to do when he does finally go to speak to "Whitney".

I suspect, really, that the evidence shows that these two guys are friends, just not particularly close friends.

By the way, Whitney does make a remark, "wish I could see it for myself..." after Doug jacks in for the first time, which is the foreshadowing for him jacking in himself later on.

[daddysmutantkid]

The key thing is that Doug is physically and verbally violent towards Whitney, and threatens to essentially destroy Whitney's entire life and career by shutting down the program.

Douglas is in a state of upset and shock after almost dying. In this state you'd do and say anything and it may last for considerable time. [Ever got hit by a car?] Doug is very much out of character and honestly it's the only time in the movie when the acting pisses me off. On sober reflection, later, Doug might leave the system active (a) as a business man, because he has to present anything to his investors and to the drooling market and (b) because in the last part, the film seems to hint that killing virtual characters is unethical (apparently, they don't play Doom anymore). Even Jane leaves the cop alive, which is quite surprising after she just had her husband shot. I also doubt that mild-hearted Doug seriously would have had the guts to turn off the system consciously, once he realizes that he is a simulated character himself. He could have done this immediately after returning from 1937, but even in his anger he takes a night to sleep things over. "I'll do this tomorrow" is what you say when you want to avoid an uneasy task. [Can you imagine that speech to the employees?]

We don't know what he would do in sobriety because on the last part, things are taken over by decisions of the system. The only ethical decision, and the end to the film however, would be Doug living quietly in the 1990s leaving the system alive. If his conscience is really as high as Jane claims, then how could he go on living with millions of murders? I think that's what he would do as he is taken off-track already by one single murder case.

As for the friendship: Real friends must have the possibility to yell at each other sometimes, right?

[lonelywalker]

Regarding the killing of virtual characters - the film seems to argue that it is ethically wrong to kill someone with a soul, and interprets that as meaning "a virtual character who can discover the truth to his/her own existence". So, playing Doom is ok. Killing Fuller isn't.

Jane's argument is, of course, bullshit. She says Doug has a soul because he found out his world isn't real... except all he really did was be told that by Fuller. Maybe Fuller actually did some legwork, but he might have discovered it by accident. And Whitney never knows that he isn't real, but I don't think we can argue that Doug has a soul and Whitney doesn't.

One bit of leeway is that Jane says the 1999 world was programmed so no one could discover the truth. Maybe there was some psychological block put in place so that they would automatically discard any thoughts that they aren't real. And, therefore, the key to having a "soul" is really being able to go beyond your programming.

I think you're right that Doug would have had to reconsider his idea of shutting down the program. However, I don't think that Whitney would have seen it like that. His reactions throughout the film are generally very childlike: he believes what Doug tells him.

And, yes, of course real friends disagree: we see them arguing, we see Doug making fun of Whitney's hair, etc. But Doug always wins Whitney around. Whitney never wins. So it's a rather unbalanced friendship.

[daddysmutantkid]

[I wouldn't be suprised if I'd get my log-in account suspened for abusing it by the end of this month... ]

As it happens, the best idea came when I was nearly out the door.

I've got a question for you: Do you thing Doug would have even taken into consideration dating Jane, assumed Fuller had not died?

The entire interpretation of Doug stands and falls depending on this one question.

[lonelywalker]

Do you mean...

(1) Jane is really Fuller's daughter, and not from the Real World.

or

(2) She is from the Real World, but not claiming to be Fuller's daughter?

And the answer is "it depends". Let's do it one by one.

(1) In this case, we have the issue of whether Doug would date the daughter of his boss/friend, and we really have no idea what Fuller might think about this, or what Doug's prior dating record is like. However, we could assume that, since Fuller really likes Doug, he wouldn't object too much. A lot of the negative aspects of Jane's character would presumably also be absent - she wouldn't be trying to shut down the company, etc.

The main question, in this instance, is whether Doug could fall in love with a woman he wasn't already in love with? Yes, she's pretty and smart, but we know that Doug probably comes across a lot of pretty, smart women, and still has no current relationship.

(2) We basically come down to the same issue. I think that, had Fuller not died, the triumvirate of Fuller, Doug, and Whitney would be much stronger against outside influences and the threat of Jane's attempts to shut down the company. Fuller, after all, has and executes a plan - not something Doug ever manages to do.

However, we would have to assume that via David's influence on him, Doug would still be in love with Jane through artificial means. Whether this would overcome his loyalties to Fuller, I don't know. I think Fuller would be the one to knock some sense into him, but then again, he wouldn't have much of a motive for doing so.

In the end, it all comes down to deja vu, not Fuller's presence.

[daddysmutantkid]

You're good at reasoning, but my question goes into another direction. Bierko says Doug doesn't know what he needs, but I'd rather say that Doug willfully excluded romantic love from his life super-imposing that with some sort of love / respect for Fuller. It seems the only constant shade of emotion of him through the film, the thing that makes him human. It seems to be what "remains" of him even after he discovers that he isn't real. We noticed before that he has no pictures of lovers and no complaints of lovers on his answering machine. Canon doesn't say that he's impaired or crazy, so given his status it should be fairly easy for him to get a blonde "trophy wife" from anywhere. (The lawyer I worked for was working 12 hours a day and yet he managed to find a trophy wife/ life partner. It's not a question of time.) I think Doug rather chooses not to do this, and defines himself essentially over Fuller (which does not mean that Fuller used to see this the same way).

Now when Fuller is dead, Doug is suddenly confronted with an overwhelming feeling of loss, which might make him consider start a relationship to fill the gap Fuller left, something he wouldn't consider while Fuller was still alive.

My question is: In an alternative reality, do you think reticient Douglas would have gotten himself into a love affair with Jane that "easily" knowing that Fuller was alive? Answering this defines a basic idea of how Doug may be characterized. This doesn't necessarily have to be about sex but it may also be about business. Would it matter to Doug if Fuller was disappointed with him, in case if Doug pursues his private life instead of protecting the company from hostile overtaking ...?

[lonelywalker]

So is the question, therefore, not particularly about Jane, but rather any woman, if we eliminate both her relationship with Fuller and the deja vu element?

I think that, in that case, it would be unlikely for Doug to be interested. We can fairly safely assume, as you say, that a good-looking, smart, rich guy like him, would have had opportunities in the past to settle down with good-looking and/or smart women. His loyalties, it seems, were to Fuller.

Certainly, Doug doesn't seem to be so interested in the program (compared with Whitney). His entire interest in the company itself dissolves after Fuller's death. Perhaps this is a simple result of trauma, and would not be true in the long-term, but who knows?

But... *sigh* In my mind, it still really doesn't come down to the question of Fuller being alive or dead at all. It comes down to whether Jane has a hold over him through David's love for her.

I can buy all you say about Doug's actions in the past, giving up romantic love out of loyalty to Fuller. I suspect he would continue to do so, were Jane just an ordinary woman. And I think he would go after Jane if she had the hold over him, even if Fuller were alive (although perhaps less quickly).

My theory, of course, relies on the idea that Doug's love for Jane *is* a direct result (and perhaps only a result) of David's influence in his head. If not - if it is, in fact, at least partly a reaction to "fill the hole" left by Fuller's death, then I would have to reconsider my answers.