/lit/ - Literature

Just finished reading chapter 3 (thank you >>18863312). Here is what has happened so far:

Set in the authoritarian Hunger 1984 Divergent Games universe, "L'Academie" is a story about a man named Eddington. His daily life is dictated by The Regime - six days a week he leaves his home in The Complex, District-E to take The Box to L'Académie (his mother once lived in District-E but now works for The Plant). L'Académie is a four-year education program where the subjects, upon completion, are allowed to go beyond The Wall.

Wherever he goes, he is constantly reminded of the tenants of The Regime:
> Knowledge is Power
> Report any signs of Double-Rods to Prefects.

Like all other citizens, Eddington sports a government-mandated Dark Academia Blazer and earbuds wherever he goes. In chapter 2 he learns that this was not always the case, however, since at one point a group called the Rouges resisted this dress code (although the resistance was futile).

One day, Eddington starts to experience weird thoughts, unlike anything he has experienced before. He has heard of something called The Cross before - is this it? In fear of being apprehended by The Prefects, Eddington heads over to The Corner for a checkup of his earbuds. No faults are found with his earbuds, but Eddington still feels like something is off.

After being handed a mysterious note by an art hoe at a café - made out of paper, mind you (books are banned by the Regime) - Eddington sets out on a stealth mission to return to the safety of his home and hopefully get some answers. It is a dangerous journey, and just as he is about to get caught by the security systems, a mysterious man in a long dark coat tracks him down. This truly is Waldun at his best. Allow me to share a small excerpt from their interaction on page 40:
> "We're not safe here. The Regime has had their eyes on you for a while." The man in the long coat looked around.
> "I'm sorry, sir?"
> "Things don't make sense in your head, right?" The man straightened himself. "We have to go. I know a place. Follow me".

Eddington is brought back to the man in the long coat's hideout place, where he is terrified yet fascinated to find shelves filled with... books! It is here that Eddington learns that he is unlike all the others at L'Académie. He is not yet another mindless cog in the machinery, he is a free thinker. The earbuds did never, and will never, work for him because his Modern Renaissance mind is too original. Upon turning a hidden lever disguised as an ordinary book in the bookshelf, a secret passage back to his apartment is opened and he is sent off with a book under his blazer. Chapter three ends with Eddington safely hidden away from the Big Brother surveillance system in his bathtub, where he can inspect the book in peace and quiet.