“Which do you think is bigger? Outer space…? Or the inside? It is one of the many questions that Robin asks her father Theo, evoking in turn the great obsession of science fiction with thought, which, from classics such as ‘Star Maker’, by Olaf Stapledon, to ‘Flowers for Algernon’, by Daniel Keyes, explicitly cited here, traverses the pages of the last, beautiful novel by Richard Powers. That cosmos full of planets that are power of life, and to which in the text you can travel with astrophysical simulators, is, in reality, the cosmos of our consciousness, which, curious and indignant, does not stop getting rid of its own emotions questioning for the end of the world and the beauty of the experience. Less botanical, less rhizomatic, more accessible in its eco-literary practice than ‘The Clamor of the Trees’, ‘Desconcierto’ portrays a world that we know too well -plagued by climate change and pandemics, by the punishment of illegal immigration and mental health calamity-, framed in the relationship between a father and a son, both enchanted by the powerful memory of the one who was a wife and mother and died in an accident, radiating infinite tenderness.
Father and son
The backbone of the novel is the dialogue between Theo and his son, who suffers from a psychological disorder diagnosed that can be named as a consumer (ADHD, bipolarity, autism), and that his father does not want to medicate. An experimental treatment called ‘neurofeedback’ allows him to merge with his dead mother’s consciousness, and he then becomes a being enlightened by calm and wisdom, able to control his anger. The novel is narrated from the point of view of Theo, an astrobiologist whose voice Powers builds alternately from grief, uncertainty, fascination and anguish, always with transparent and poetic prose. It is a happy idea that his son’s replies are written in cursive, as if he were responding from another galaxy of typographies, as if each word that comes out of his lips -and his troubled head- were really significant to understand a world that walks determined to self-destruct.
current dystopia
Structured on the basis of diaphanous concise chapters, alternating astral travel, the memory of a past overflowing with love and the story of a wounded fatherhood, this is a dystopian novel that seems to be happening right now. Perhaps that is why Powers decides to start and finish it in the same trip to the dark heart of nature, that place where the stars shine allergic to light pollution and each bird sings in its own language; in short, a place where life and death converse looking into each other’s eyes. The shadow of an ecological icon such as Greta Thunberg is present in much of the text, although Powers is much more interested in empathizing with the bubble of inner consciousness of her beautiful father-son relationship than succumbing to parallels with the reality we already know. In short, “Disconcern” is a novel of hurtful intimacy in its small excess.
‘Bewilderment’
Author: Richard Powers
Translation: Teresa Lanero
Editorial: AdN Alliance of Novels
367 pages. €18.50