Loop (novel)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

is a
horror novel Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defi ...
by Japanese writer
Koji Suzuki is a Japanese writer, who was born in Hamamatsu and lives in Tokyo. Suzuki is the author of the Ring (novel series), ''Ring'' novels, which have been adapted into other formats, including films, manga, TV series and video games. He has written ...
, and the third in his series of ''
Ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...
''. The story revolves around a
simulated reality A simulated reality is an approximation of reality created in a simulation, usually in a set of circumstances in which something is engineered to appear real when it is not. Most concepts invoking a simulated reality relate to some form of compu ...
, exactly the same as our own, known as the Loop: created to simulate the emergence and
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
of life. It is in this alternate universe that the events of the previous novels, ''
Ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...
'' and ''
Spiral In mathematics, a spiral is a curve which emanates from a point, moving further away as it revolves around the point. It is a subtype of whorled patterns, a broad group that also includes concentric objects. Two-dimensional A two-dimension ...
'', took place. ''Loop'' is the only book in the series to have not been the basis of any ''Ring'' films. However, the 2000 video game '' The Ring: Terror's Realm'' borrows a few elements from it, including a simulated reality called the Loop.


Plot

The story revolves around a medical student named Kaoru Futami. His father, Hideyuki, contracts a deadly disease known as Metastatic Human Cancer (MHC). This terminal cancer affects all forms of organic life: humans, animals, and plants. Events lead Hideyuki to tell Kaoru more about a research program he was involved in called the LOOP project: a
virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...
simulator meant to represent the emergence of life and how the world most likely evolved. It is known that almost everyone who was involved in the LOOP project has died of the same cancer. Kaoru takes a part-time job tutoring a boy named Ryoji, an
asymptomatic carrier An asymptomatic carrier is a person or other organism that has become infected with a pathogen, but shows no signs or symptoms. Although unaffected by the pathogen, carriers can transmit it to others or develop symptoms in later stages of the d ...
of MHC, and his mother, Reiko. Despite her being 15 years his senior, Kaoru falls in love with Reiko. Eventually, they begin an affair once Ryoji begins
chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...
. When he finds out, Ryoji commits suicide by falling backwards out of a 12-story building. 1 Month later, Kaoru learns from Reiko that she may be pregnant with Kaoru's child. He also reads Ryoji's suicide note, in which he explains his motivation for taking his own life. As Kaoru continues his investigation into the LOOP project, his father asks him to meet a microbiologist named Amano, who was involved in the final stages of LOOP before it was scrapped. Amano reveals that LOOP utilized a hundred
supercomputer A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
s strung together to recreate life, and tells Kaoru of a scientist in
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
who might still be alive. During this period, he also discovers that the MHC cells all equal 2n X 3. Kaoru's mother, Machiko, convinces him to go to New Mexico after relating a tale of the "Ancient One" who has a thousand eyes watching. Kaoru then ventures to New Mexico, only to find the scientist dead. However, inside the scientist's lab, the computer turns itself on and tells Kaoru to put on a pair of virtual reality goggles and gloves, which brings him into the LOOP simulation. Kaoru experiences a Native American's life who has a wife and two children and is brutally murdered by white colonisers. Coming out of the simulation, Kaoru calls Amano and asks for the coordinates of the events that are crucial to the LOOP evolution: the lives of Asakawa, Takayama, and Yamamura. Amano pinpoints the exact coordinates of the events that take place. He also explains how Kaoru can merge consciousness with people in LOOP or watch from afar like a ghost. He then finds out, in complete detail, events from the previous novels, navigating from different angles. First, he looks at things from Ryuji's eyes, then Asakawa, finally settling on a character named Ando, who discovers the truth about Sadako. Soon after, he has another discussion with Amano, who knows that the LOOP's creator intends to recreate Ryuji's death. By doing so, he could create a clone and insert it into a woman's womb. But they forgot that Ryuji's clone would carry the Ring Virus with his genes. Therefore, when Ryuji was reborn, the virus escaped and mutated into the MHC virus. Desperate to find the cure for the MHC virus, Kaoru ventures deeper west into the desert only to encounter a storm that leaves him on the verge of death. He is then saved by an old man named Eliot, who has purposefully crafted all the events to bring Kaoru to him. After resurrecting Kaoru, the man explains what happened and that Kaoru is Ryuji's clone. As a result, Kaoru has an exceptional gift of immunity to the MHC virus. To stop the virus from destroying the real world, Kaoru is sent back to the LOOP world as the one who solves (and eventually stops) the Ring virus. One of the main problems is that he cannot return to the real world to see his father (still in the hospital) or Reiko ever again. To save them, he agrees. Upon accepting, the old man transfers Kaoru's analyzed molecules into the LOOP, where he promises Reiko can see him. In the LOOP, Kaoru solves the problem with Ando's help. He watches Ando's resurrected son play in the water. Once Ando leaves, Kaoru looks up at the stars, wondering about Reiko.


See also

*
Horror fiction Horror is a genre of speculative fiction that is intended to disturb, frighten, or scare an audience. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror. Literary historian J. A. Cuddon, in 1984, defin ...
*
Gothic fiction Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean me ...
*
Japanese literature Japanese literature throughout most of its history has been influenced by cultural contact with neighboring Asian literatures, most notably China and its literature. Early texts were often written in pure Classical Chinese or , a Chinese-Japa ...
* ''
Ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...
''


References


External links


SaruDama
- contains reviews of ''Loop'' and other Suzuki novels.

- contains a detailed looked at the character Sadako Yamamura in the films as well as the novels. {{The Ring The Ring (franchise) Japanese horror novels Japanese science fiction novels Novels by Koji Suzuki 1998 Japanese novels Novels about virtual reality Novels about cloning Fiction about resurrection Science fiction horror novels