2019-11-22 - The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon ================================================ A friend recommended Sheepfarmer's Daughter by Elizabeth Moon. The local library did not have that book, but they had The Speed of Dark. The premise sounded fascinating. The protagonist is an autistic man who is employed for his superior skills working with mathematical patterns. He then has to make a decision whether to undergo an experimental treatment to cure his autism. The book reminded me a little of Flowers for Algernon, a similar story that i read in high school. I really liked how easy it was to identify with Lou, the protagonist. He handles his life challenges with incredible dignity and grace. The toxic relationships and office politics were a little difficult for me to read because they brought to mind personal memories. This book was a little too realistic in this regard. Below are some passages that caught my attention. If i want to understand what this treatment can do that will make Mr. Crenshaw rich, then i need to know how the brain works. Not the vague terms people use, but how it really works as a machine. [Personally, i assume the attitude that the brain is not a computer. We don't know enough about the brain yet to call it a computer.] My questions were wrong questions because no one else asked them. Maybe no one thought of them. Maybe darkness got there first. Maybe i am the first light touching a gulf of ignorance. Maybe my questions matter. [I feel inspired by this paragraph. It is the essence of the whole book. Lou could reasonably be considered the most important person on the planet, but nobody recognizes it. He is treated like crap and he goes through a period of time believing that something is wrong with him. Gradually it dawns on him that nothing is wrong with him, and that he has been actively lied to. Lou learns that he matters.] "Recidivism," Mr. Stacy says, pawing through a pile of hard copies. "They do it again. It's been proved. Just like you can't stop being you, the person who is autistic, he can't stop being him, the person who is jealous and violent." [This would seem to be a static mindset, saying that some people are effectively born jealous and violent and they cannot change. I realize that i am arguing with a fictional society set in a speculative future, but i believe people can change.] author: Moon, Elizabeth detail: LOC: PS3563.O557 S64 tags: book,fiction,sci-fi title: The Speed of Dark Tags ==== book fiction sci-fi