Plowing the Dark is a novel by American writer Richard Powers

Richard Powers

Richard Powers is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology.- Life and work :...

. It follows two narrative threads; one of an American teacher turned Lebanese prisoner of war, the other the construction of a high-tech virtual reality

Virtual reality

Virtual reality , also known as virtuality, is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds...

 simulator.

Plot

Taimur Martin, the prisoner of war, spends over five years analyzing and replaying his life while trapped in a single room. He has little outside contact, he talks a few of his guards, and reads a book called Great Escape, and for a short period of time, is able to communicate through a morse-style tapping code with the prisoners next door. However, he spends most of his time thinking about his life and relationship with his girlfriend Gwen. When he comes out of imprisonment, he has a child and a wife, and much time has gone by. In the parallel narrative, the Cavern, a virtual reality machine, is being built by a host of workers at the Realization Lab. The main character are Adie Klarpol, an artist who no longer does original work; Stevie Spiegel, an engineer turned poet turned programmer; Ronan O'Reilly, an econometrician who hopes to predict the outcome of world events; Jack "Jackdaw" Acquerelli, a young computer programming wizard; and more. Though their story, they hope to recreate the world inside of a three walled room. They create a completely immersing experience, but near the end Adie realizes that she is complicit in some technology that will ultimately be helping the military. She has to reconcile with herself, but ends up creating another room, that shows the destruction and rebuilding of civilization. Powers ultimately explores the possibilities of what can happen in one room, because near the end the two strands connect in a rather ambiguous way.

Cultural references and allusions

One of Powers' most powerful devices is allusion. The novel alludes to several poems including "Sailing to Byzantium

Sailing to Byzantium

"Sailing to Byzantium" is a poem by William Butler Yeats, first published in the 1928 collection The Tower. It comprises four stanzas in ottava rima, each made up of eight ten-syllable lines. It uses a journey to Constantinople as a metaphor for a spiritual journey. Yeats explores his thoughts and...

" by William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats

William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...

 and "The Oven Bird" by Robert Frost

Robert Frost

Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...

. Several paintings are mentioned as well, including "The Dream" (Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier , a humorous description of his occupation as a toll collector...

) and "Bedroom in Arles

Bedroom in Arles

Bedroom in Arles is the title given to each of three similar paintings by 19th-century Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh.Van Gogh's own title for this composition was simply The Bedroom...

" (Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...

).

External links

• Bibliography of editions of Plowing the Dark.
• Listing of reviews and writings about Plowing the Dark.