Plowing the dark

It seems as if technology in the 21st century develops so quickly that soft- and hardware are obsolete as soon as they are released into the market. The same could be said about my latest read.

Plowing the dark is set in 1989/90 and was published in 2005. It juxtaposes two settings: a multinational’s lab, intent on being first-to-market with quality virtual reality technologies, and a man who is being held hostage in Iran by religious fundamentalists.

In the first setting, the characters wrestle with the dangers of virtual reality versus the enthralling experience of it, the differences in perspective between generations, the constantly updating technology. It asks why we need to replicate daily experiences virtually and why art no longer fills our aesthetic hunger.

In the second, the man is in isolation and treated like a chained dog. He gets through the days, weeks and months using routine and his imagination, and negotiating for small, everyday concessions which he appreciates as great gifts.

In the first few chapters of the book, I was uninspired by the themes, which seemed dated six years later. Perhaps the author means to trick the reader into apathy, maybe not. Reading on, the characters contribute so many perspectives to any debate, whether about technology, art, accountability or moral philosophy.

The chapters featuring the hostage, in a few pages, provide a key to his experiences, experiences far from our own lives if we have the luxury to read this book. It stands on its own (to be honest, I wish more pages were spent with the hostage), yet provides an apt metaphor for the concerns of the first set of characters.

As with Three farmers on the way to a dance, the novel is more concerned with exploring its theses than the conventions of fiction, but unlike that first novel isn’t didactic (although, again, I felt differently in the first few chapters).

Since I’m only halfway, I could only speculate any further. Perhaps the remainder will swing back to trite didactics; perhaps it will prophesy our present and future; perhaps asking this of any novel is too much of a burden. Regardless, the novel has already made me think and even hunger for the physicality of art and quiet spaces.