Richard Powers told The New York Times a few years ago that “from an early age” he was a “fan of awe.”
Well, I hope you’re as awed as I am in the dextrous, luminous ways that Powers entwines science with what it means to be human.
Think of how he brought the study of plant and tree communication so vibrantly alive in his novel, “Overstory,” a book that changed the way I walk through a forest and see the world.
Now, Powers has published “Bewilderment,” a novel about a scientist who is raising a troubled child after the death of his wife and who turns to an experimental biofeedback program to help his son.
The boy can access a version of his mother’s emotional life through artificial intelligence. Here’s how the neuroscientist who has developed the project describes it in the novel:
“It’s a non-invasive process. We train (your son) how to attend to and control his own feelings, the same way behavioral therapy does, only with an instant, visible scorecard.”
The therapy works and the boy thrives — for a time.
In an author’s note at the beginning of the novel, Richard Powers confides that he had a nephew who loved animals but who “flew into rages at the stupidity of humans.”
Powers asks: “Could another kind of emotional therapy have made a difference?”
My Thread Must-Read is Richard Powers’ “Bewilderment.” Listen for my interview with Powers on my Friday book show. — Kerri Miller | MPR News
Host Kerri Miller kicked off the fall season of Talking Volumes on Tuesday with a conversation at the Fitzgerald Theater featuring novelist Lauren Groff.
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