I honestly think it's kind of an important feature of the book. Since it's about the evolution of one's consciousness. At least for me being able to place how old he was as he found himself making the thing helps the parts that can feel sort of strange have the right contextual... extrusion? I recall what it was like to be in my mid 20s, I was thinking a lot about what it meant to be alive and people started suddenly around 25 treating me like what I thought was an adult.
The content of the book being about the procession of consciousness and all, yeah, it's a different book if you know he's 27 than if you think he's 60.
I honestly think it's kind of an important feature of the book. Since it's about the evolution of one's consciousness. At least for me being able to place how old he was as he found himself making the thing helps the parts that can feel sort of strange have the right contextual... extrusion? I recall what it was like to be in my mid 20s, I was thinking a lot about what it meant to be alive and people started suddenly around 25 treating me like what I thought was an adult.
The content of the book being about the procession of consciousness and all, yeah, it's a different book if you know he's 27 than if you think he's 60.