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"Mind Reader" -- Review of Richard Powers' Latest Book
I've long been a Richard Powers fan. When I next hear Speaker Pelosi remind us what's "for the children," I will think of this book.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/books/review/bewilderment-richard-powers.html
By Tracy K. Smith
Published Sept. 21, 2021
Updated Oct. 1, 2021
BEWILDERMENT
By Richard Powers
The great American poet Lucille Clifton once said: “In the bigger scheme of things, the universe is not asking us to do something, the universe is asking us to be something. And that’s a whole different thing.” In Clifton’s mind, this proposition was not speculative but resolutely practical. What if we exist to serve as stewards of the planet rather than its plunderers? What if it is our calling to be the equals of all living things rather than agents of their domination? In the face of all that we have waged, ruthless and unending battles for the right to get wrong, what would it take for us to accept a different role in the bigger scheme of things?
The proposition that our thriving as a species hinges on assenting not to a different manner of doing but of being sits close to the conflict — and the extraordinary revelation — at the heart of Richard Powers’s novel “Bewilderment,” his 13th, including “The Overstory” (2018), which won a Pulitzer Prize. Personal peace, if not thriving, is predicated on the protagonist Theo Byrne’s ability to see his own life, the memory of his deceased wife and his son, Robin, through newly adjusted eyes...
Lucille Clifton’s work demands that in order for our species to recognize its proper place in the universe, we must collectively admit to the beauty and the inviolable sanctity — the essentialness — of Black life. The conscience animating “Bewilderment” lobbies for the essentialness of plants, animals and those of differing needs and abilities. This being 2021, Powers also seems committed to demonstrating an awareness of Black Lives Matter as a viable proposition. Two characters identified as Black play briefly but significantly into the narrative arc of “Bewilderment.” On the depth spectrum, I’d say they occupy spots somewhere between extras and archetypes; their choices help Powers trip the switch on certain narrative inevitabilities, but, by and large, the bewilderment of the novel’s title is played out in white bodies and minds and in spaces where whiteness can be taken for granted...
...the dynamic Powers calls out has implications in every context where the wishes of a powerful few claim priority over the needs of others. Coercion is often manifest as the reasonable-enough-seeming demands for compliance insisted upon by teachers, colleagues and even strangers in order to foster the comfort of others: Don’t fight; don’t procrastinate; don’t carry a grudge; carry your own weight; don’t make others uncomfortable; don’t incite guilt; don’t dare name the ends of power’s zero-sum game. Aren’t these the demands with which calls for all manner of change are routinely deferred?
Published Sept. 21, 2021
Updated Oct. 1, 2021
BEWILDERMENT
By Richard Powers
The great American poet Lucille Clifton once said: “In the bigger scheme of things, the universe is not asking us to do something, the universe is asking us to be something. And that’s a whole different thing.” In Clifton’s mind, this proposition was not speculative but resolutely practical. What if we exist to serve as stewards of the planet rather than its plunderers? What if it is our calling to be the equals of all living things rather than agents of their domination? In the face of all that we have waged, ruthless and unending battles for the right to get wrong, what would it take for us to accept a different role in the bigger scheme of things?
The proposition that our thriving as a species hinges on assenting not to a different manner of doing but of being sits close to the conflict — and the extraordinary revelation — at the heart of Richard Powers’s novel “Bewilderment,” his 13th, including “The Overstory” (2018), which won a Pulitzer Prize. Personal peace, if not thriving, is predicated on the protagonist Theo Byrne’s ability to see his own life, the memory of his deceased wife and his son, Robin, through newly adjusted eyes...
Lucille Clifton’s work demands that in order for our species to recognize its proper place in the universe, we must collectively admit to the beauty and the inviolable sanctity — the essentialness — of Black life. The conscience animating “Bewilderment” lobbies for the essentialness of plants, animals and those of differing needs and abilities. This being 2021, Powers also seems committed to demonstrating an awareness of Black Lives Matter as a viable proposition. Two characters identified as Black play briefly but significantly into the narrative arc of “Bewilderment.” On the depth spectrum, I’d say they occupy spots somewhere between extras and archetypes; their choices help Powers trip the switch on certain narrative inevitabilities, but, by and large, the bewilderment of the novel’s title is played out in white bodies and minds and in spaces where whiteness can be taken for granted...
...the dynamic Powers calls out has implications in every context where the wishes of a powerful few claim priority over the needs of others. Coercion is often manifest as the reasonable-enough-seeming demands for compliance insisted upon by teachers, colleagues and even strangers in order to foster the comfort of others: Don’t fight; don’t procrastinate; don’t carry a grudge; carry your own weight; don’t make others uncomfortable; don’t incite guilt; don’t dare name the ends of power’s zero-sum game. Aren’t these the demands with which calls for all manner of change are routinely deferred?
