The original movie had been slowed to a running time of twenty-four hours. What he was watching seemed pure film, pure time. The broad horror of the old gothic movie was subsumed in time.
The “he” is purposely not identified. The movie is: Psycho. And what he is watching is a museum exhibition showing Hitchcock’s classic so that the experience lasts one full day. The point? For the exhibitors, who knows, but for the novel’s protagonist James Finley the point is that experiencing the movie in this way has the unexpected effect of transforming into reality the fiction that was originally produced from reality.
"Consciousness accumulates. It begins to reflect upon itself. Something about this feels almost mathematical to me. There's almost some law of mathematics or physics that we haven't quite hit upon, where the mind transcends all direction inward. The omega point”
The title of the novel derives from concept of the Omega Point developed by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (mentioned at least twice in the novel). The actual concept of this idea is far too complicated to explain here, but it is important to note that its significance to the novel beyond the title. Essentially it can be boiled down thusly: the point at which everything in the universe is moving towards. Because it is a spiritual theory as much as a scientific one, the end point is supposed to be a unification of the divine.
Everybody remembers the killer’s name, Norman Bates, but nobody remembers the victim’s name. Anthony Perkins is Norman Bates, Janet Leigh is Janet Leigh. The victim is required to share the name of the actress who plays her. it is Janet Leigh who enters the remote motel owned by Norman Bates.
It’s an interesting point. And true, for the most part. Everybody and their cousin has at least some idea who Norman Bates is. Ask who Marion Crane is and only film buffs will be quick with an answer. It’s a weird thing to contemplate about the film. Perhaps that is the kind of stuff that comes to mind when watching a movie you are already familiar with play out its two hours over the course of twenty-four hours. And, of course, once it has been pointed out, it's kind of hard to not to start wondering why this is so.
“Human perception is a saga of created reality.”
Beyond the Omega Point and behind the fanatical study of Psycho, this quote encapsulates what the story is really all about. It is a story about perception and how perception can be altered. Elster writes an essay about the evolution of the meaning of the word “rendition” and the Pentagon suddenly wants him to work for them. When Psycho is slowed down to a crawl lasting twenty-four hours, Finley starts noticing things he had never seen before despite being obsessed with it since long before.
