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Richard Powers: Bewilderment (Hardcover, 2021, W. W. Norton & Company)

The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual …

Accurate and troubling

We are in the USA with a president very similar to Trump 2 and the world is going down the drain. It's a Ponzi scheme planet, as the protagonist describes it. A very accurate and plausible near future, well written and thought provoking. Greta Thunberg is in the book though, Swiss in this iteration of the universe. I would give the book a strong 5, but for one thing: the underlying premise that medication for mental problems is a Bad Thing and should be avoided at all costs, while other ways of altering brain chemistry could save the world. Maybe this is needed to make the story work, but I still find it troubling.

replied to Kalle Kniivilä's status

@kallekn@kirja.casa I felt very similar about the medication thing- sorta like how Theo wanted this unobtainable purity for his sons upbringing. But there's the thing with psychological 'disorders' where the disorder might refer to how difficult it is to fit into society. Perhaps dad felt that he was capable of tailoring his sons societal environment to allow him to flourish without the use of medication. I remember thinking that if I were in dad's situation, I would try my best to do the same until I couldn't. However I do think the ending is somewhat attributed to Dad's impulse to protect his son from certain things (meds included). Maybe Powers was offering somewhat of a critique of this impulse, giving the reader room to think about how obsession over security can be a negative thing.