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chairmanbernanke's review against another edition
2.0
Two paths and many lives blend together. Difficult to read in parts.
mepresley's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Plowing the Dark is, as Powers cannot help being, both lyrical and intelligent. At its heart, it’s the story of human loneliness and our quest for something more, something bigger, something outside ourselves. We are presented with two parallel narratives, a third-person POV focusing on the explosion of virtual reality technology in the late 1980s/ early 1990s, centered around Adie, an artist recruited by an old friend to the TeraSys Realization Lab, and a second-person POV which relates the story of Taimur Martin, held hostage for 4+ years in war-torn Lebanon.
As Adie labors to create a sanctuary and the narrative philosophizes about the final phase of human evolution wherein mind and matter will become one, Taimur struggles to survive a protracted solitary confinement, trying to pass endless time without any substantive interaction with another person. Adie creates first the Jungle Room, inspired by Rousseau’s Dream, then an interactive version of Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles, and finally Byzantium, inspired by Yeats’ poem. The final room she reworks completely in the wake of the Gulf War and her realization that TeraSys tech is far from harmless, being harnessed by the military to optimize casualties. The room becomes a political statement about the ways that we destroy what we create, and each other.
Everyone at the Realization Lab is painfully lonely, from Ari Kaladijian, who struggles with the limitations of earthly existence in the face of the magic of mathematics— “an abandoned man…in such pain” (264); to Stevie, who jokes about taking out personal ads and finds solace with Adie about Ted dying of MS, squinting at the relationship to call it love; to Jackdaw, who is duped by a fake online fiancée and resigns; to Ebesen, who is haunted by the ghost of his late ex and lives in a messy, dilapidated mobile home; to O’Reilly, who left behind his long-time girlfriend to move from Ireland and join the TeraSys team; to, of course, Adie, who has apparently been spiraling since her 1979 art show, which drove her out of the art world altogether, and has been single since her divorce from Ted. They are all, quite literally, cut off from everything outside their Cavern, from which they rarely emerge except to sleep, watching from the nascent 24-hours news cycle as the world rewrites itself— Tiananmen Square, the fall of the Soviet Union, the Gulf War.
Taimur, for his part, exists only in his broken, deteriorating body and in his mind, where he writes his life story, analyzes his on-and-off again relationship with Gwen—which drove him to Lebanon in the first place, reconstructs the streets of Chicago in his head, and narrates all of his favorite novels to himself, before finally retreating into an imaginary room that very much resembles Adie’s Byzantium.
It's an emotionally affecting, slow-paced story that can be, at times, inaccessible, especially for someone who lacks any background in tech. The use of second person can be jarring, particularly in the sections that have no clear POV. The novel is, at times, also too repetitive, particularly when it comes to hammering home the idea of what virtual reality offers to the human race.
eberico's review against another edition
3.0
I remember enjoying the tech-y parts of this book by my beloved [a:Richard Powers|11783|Richard Powers|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1263155076p2/11783.jpg], but feeling like the ending fell a bit flat.
rosencaitlyn's review against another edition
2.0
Just not for me. Felt like it took forever to get to an even remotely interesting point
meliciraptor's review against another edition
5.0
Not an easy read but totally worth it. Two storylines about the power of art vs. commercialization and imagination vs. isolation. Needless to say they meet in a beautiful way overpowering time and space.
silas_p's review against another edition
simply could not get through, way too long and descriptive
addicted2booksstefania's review against another edition
1.0
* 1.5 ⭐️
IM SO CONFLICTED. I read this for my intro English class, and we did an analysis on it, and I love the way my professor talks about it, but I could not get through this book with ease. I can appreciate the ideas and the writing, but certain things are flawed and I just, I wasn’t a fan.
IM SO CONFLICTED. I read this for my intro English class, and we did an analysis on it, and I love the way my professor talks about it, but I could not get through this book with ease. I can appreciate the ideas and the writing, but certain things are flawed and I just, I wasn’t a fan.
bettyvd's review against another edition
2.0
Onevenwichtig: de hoofdstukken over een man die in Libanon gekidnapt wordt zijn nog vrij goed, de delen over het lab waar men op zoek is naar de ultieme vorm van virtuele realiteit zijn zwaar op de hand en clichématig.