History Literature / TheIdentityMatrix

* BuxomIsBetter: Played straight but lampshaded to show what rat bastards the [=IMC=] conspirators are.

One of the best novels by the speculative fiction writer Creator/JackChalker, ''The Identity Matrix'' was written early in his career when Chalker was better known more for his plots than for AuthorAppeal and remains one of the better examples of the "Earth as a battlefield between two alien cultures" subgenre. Out of print but well worth reading if you can find a copy.

!!This work contains examples of:

Contains examples of:
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* BodySurf: By the truckload!

* GovernmentConspiracy: The IMC.

* BiTheWay: Both heroines, making this both a fairly early mainstream example and relatively FairForItsDay.

* HappinessInSlavery: Misty actually ''likes'' being a nymphomaniac prostitute because she's finally getting the attention Victor always craved. She's not actually a slave but she might as well be because (pre-restoration) Misty doesn't have the wits to survive on her own outside a brothel

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Both the alien Dan Pauley and government agent Harry Parch use this to justify their actions, and both are defensive about it when pressed.
** [[spoiler: echoed by Stewart in the epilogue. While he's not entirely comfortable with the open carnality of Misty and Dory's pansexual lifestyle he cannot deny his role in creating it.]]

* TheMasquerade: Boy howdy!

* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: used by IMC to justify programming nymphomania into Misty's personality. Not all of them are comfortable with this. The head of LaResistance even makes this argument to her face, telling her as long as she truly wants a life of sex and exhibitionism she cannot be exploited because her would-be exploiters are actually fulfilling her deepest desires. [[spoiler: this makes his role in her programming seem even worse in retrospect, though it could be argued he was just trying to make the inevitable as painless as possible.]]

** [[spoiler: echoed by Stewart in the epilogue. While he's not entirely comfortable with the open carnality of Misty and Dory's relationship he admits the results did save the planet.]]

* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: used by IMC to justify programming nymphomania into Misty's personality. Not all of them are comfortable with this. The head of LaResistance even makes this argument to her face, telling her as long as she wants lots of sex and exhibitionism she cannot be exploited because her would-be exploiters are actually fulfilling her desires. [[spoiler: this makes his role in her programming even worse in retrospect, though it could be argued he was just trying to make her comfortable with the inevitable.]]

* EthiicalSlut: Misty, post-programming.

* HarsherInHindsight: Chalker's portrayal of relatively carefree sex workers happily engaging in UnproblematicProstitution takes on a different tone when you realize this novel was published during the early, so-called silent years of the AIDS epidemic.
** Stuart's lecturing Misty to embrace her wanton nature because her shamelessness [[NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization gives her power in an otherwise exploitative situation]] takes on a very different tone when you learn he included that aspect in her programming.

* HappinessInSlavery: Misty actually ''likes'' being a nymphomaniac prostitute because she's finally getting the attention Victor always craved.

* NotIfTheyEnjoyedItRationalization: used by IMC to justify programming nymphomania into Misty's personality. Not all of them are comfortable with this..

* AuthorAppeal: [[GenderBender gender benders]] resulting in improbably busty heroines...and ferryboats, believe it or not.

* BrainlessBeauty: Played straight with the new personality designed for Misty but averted later after they restore her stolen memories. After her final "restoration" Misty describes herself as "...a stripper and prostitute who could discuss Von Clauswitz, A.J.P. Taylor, and the fine points of Jungian psychology before going to bed with you."
* BuxomIsBetter: played straight but lampshaded to show what rat bastards the [=IMC=] conspirators are.
* DifferentForGirls: played straight twice from opposite directions: once when Victor has to deal with his GenderBender and again from the other side when Victor's old male memories get reloaded on top of Misty's thoroughly female personality.
* EarthIsABattlefield: for a covert side-skirmish in a galactic war that few humans even know about.

* GovernmentConspiracy: the [=IMC=]
* GrandTheftMe: The aliens' method of acquiring new bodies. Then they kill their victims to cover their tracks. Dan Pauley does prefer to use street criminals but that's as much for practical as moral reasons, since they tend to present themselves by attempting to [[MuggingTheMonster mug him]] and aren't likely to be missed,

* [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Hoist By His/Her Own Petard]]: The research Victor/Misty does on Dan Pauley is used to reprogram her mind in ways that will punch his buttons.
* IDidWhatIHadToDo: both the alien Dan Pauley and government agent Harry Parch use this to justify their actions, and both are defensive about it when pressed.
* LaResistance: The civilian scientists within [=IMC=] [[spoiler:subverted, it's all part of the plan.]]
* TheMasquerade: Boy Howdy!

* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Played with: The heroines appear to win out over both the aliens and the GovernmentConspiracy [[spoiler: only to have the epilogue reveal that they were never anything more than pawns in a deeper {{plan}} in the first place -- on the part of the person they thought was the head of LaResistance, no less. Then comes the postscript to the epilogue, which implies that at least one alien figured out the plan but played along for idealistic reasons of his own.]]

Permanently cut off from their old lives, Victor and Dory have little choice but to volunteer as both researchers and test subjects at the Identity Matrix Center, a secret underground facility outside Los Vegas where a secret government task force is engaged in desperate efforts to unravel the alien's body-swapping technology and determine which of the two alien sides offers the best chance for humanity's survival, all while "Vickie" learns the ins and outs of being a woman. But when Dory stumbles across evidence that [=IMC=] may be playing a deeper game things suddenly take a more sinister turn, because while [=IMC's=] understanding of Identity Matrices may not yet be advanced enough to transfer minds between bodies it's certainly advanced enough to make two troublesome girls disappear. One false move later and Dory and Victor's memories and personalities are replaced by those of Delores Eagle Feather (a Navajo orphan) and Misty Ann Carpenter, an extraordinarily enthusiastic (and extraordinarily well-endowed) stripper and prostitute.

One of the best novels by the speculative fiction writer JackChalker, ''The Identity Matrix'' was written early in his career when Chalker was better known more for his plots than for AuthorAppeal and remains one of the better examples of the "Earth as a battlefield between two alien cultures" subgenre. Out of print but well worth reading if you can find a copy.

* GrandTheftMe: The alien's method of acquiring new bodies. Then they kill their victims to cover their tracks.

* BigBreastsBigDeal: Misty is a classic example of Type 4.