"The Romance in Matrix," RIM, is a novel written in Mandarin. Set in a true time and location, tells four groups of fictitious characters among four different ages. Sixteen pieces are titled according to the keys of Brahms four symphonies, which are c minor, D major, e minor and F major, in addition to four title of seasons. Each piece contains the fabricated plot in different style and time intervals as half day, one day, three days or eight years. Though the realistic backgrounds were given, the intention is more to focus on the individual subjective view rather than ideology. As one novel, this RIM centers on a heroine with her four encounters. Each story in key tells the past and future of each encounters. In c, it illustrates one be her true love but fail to stay together. In D, it tells an ordinary person had affair but ignorance left. In e, while admired by a young music lover, our heroine was fall for an older professor. In F, a ten years younger one in a remote country, enchanted by our heroine's portrait, pursued her for thousand miles and, after he deceased, his pal continues the pursuit and falls for her. Sixteen pieces are presented as a form of matrix in four columns by four rows. Column has time in season and row tells the characters in key. Story were told in the order of first column, spring, and all four rows c, D, e, F, then second column, summer, and four rows c, D, e, F, so forth. Theme of each season and each separate piece may be given as in sequence: Spring with four set-ups: c) Away to Rebuild, D) Return in Recollection, e) Sound and Word, F) Portrait and Precious Stone Summer with four hindrances: c) Promise, D) Loss of innocence, e) Pledge, F) Journey Autumn with four fruits: c) Moment to Immortal, D) Peak of Desire, e) Chase to Liquidity, F) Patch to Relay Winter with four inheritances: c) Bound and Free, D) Ash, e) Winter Journey, F) Imitation and Genuineness This RIM may read from first row and four columns, then second row with four columns, and so on. Do they call it inverse matrix? In that case, the key and each piece may have subtitles as follow: c tells about the perfectionist: Fellowship (Spring), Outsider (Summer), Fate of Purity (Autumn), Approach (Winter) D tells about the nothing-driven existentialist: Accompanist (Spring), Temptation (Summer), Fortresses (Autumn), Revisit (Winter) e tells about a historian and a music lover: Timing (Spring), Achilless Heel (Summer), Knowledge (Autumn), Intelligence to Intuition (Winter) F tells the relay of messengers: Consume and conserve (Spring), Trace (Summer), Portrait in Pieces (Autumn), Bruised Jade (Winter)
About the Author: The author of this novel, "Romance in Matrix," Scott Ting-Ren Kan, was born in Chungking, China during WWII. He grew up in Taiwan and later received his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from University of Idaho in the US. For more than three decades, he worked at Northrop-Grumman, Raytheon and Rockwell to research and develop the control systems of fighters, bomber, missiles and the space shuttle. He published many theses covering the topics as software simulation, trajectory design, system integration and so on. As a professional aero-defense engineer and a devoted family man, Scott has managed to be an amateur novelist. From a young age he has endeavored to write a novel under the influence of French classic, Jean Christopher. He completed a novel in 1971. Started from 1978 he rewrote the entire book with different scope and time background, under other influences from Faulkner, Camus, Chinese author known as Chian Chung Su and others. He finished the novel titled "Four Seasons" in 1991. Then from 1998, he picked a third of his novel "Four Seasons" to work on it and named it "Romance in Matrix." It took more than a decade to complete the final version. The intent to publish it is simply to entertain the readers and to relieve the author's lifelong burden.