60 pages • 2-hour read
How High We Go in the Dark
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Chapters 8-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 8 Summary: “Life Around the Event Horizon”
Bryan, the brother of Dennis (from Chapter 5, “Elegy Hotel”) holds a press conference about a tear in the space-time continuum that has appeared in his brain. This singularity has the potential to revolutionize space travel and allow for extraterrestrial colonization. Theresa, Bryan’s new wife, is reluctant to leave Earth. The two review blueprints for a starship made using salvaged alien technology from Area 51 as they debate the benefits of leaving, and Theresa fiddles with a purple crystal pendant when their debate gets heated. Bryan reflects on his hopeless outlook, which stems from the death of his mother, wife, and daughter within a short period, after which he soon married Theresa. Bryan’s son resents his marrying so soon after the deaths of his wife and daughter, but he and Theresa are brilliant scientists working to secure humanity’s future.
Bryan and his fellow scientists are working to convert the radiation in his head to an energy source. Bryan hides his fantasy that the hole in his head connects to a parallel universe in which his family members are alive. The public reaction to his anomaly varies: Some people express the belief that he’ll end the world, while others see him as their salvation. Theresa helps take care of him at home; he has increasingly severe headaches. In addition, she corrects his mathematics and tries to find a way to fix his singularity, highlighting her brilliance. Their discussions about saving the world juxtapose their conversations about day-to-day life and Bryan’s increasingly strained relationship with his son.
Bryan works on a video journal for Theresa, revealing how much he loves her and how much she has helped him. He becomes overwhelmed by the number of conspiracy theories about his singularity and contrasts them with the knowns. He worries about his future, the inevitability of his death, and the state of the singularity. He tries to ground himself in the present but continues to get caught up in the possibility.
Chapter 9 Summary: “A Gallery A Century, A Cry A Millennium”
On December 30, 2037, Miki and Yumi—the wife and granddaughter of Cliff from Chapter 1—prepare to board the USS Yamato, the mission of which is to colonize another planet. Miki tries to comfort Yumi about the change and minimal presence of teenagers on the ship before they say goodbye to their remaining family members. She thinks sadly of Cliff and Clara. They board the ship, and Miki accompanies Yumi to her stasis pod, where the young woman will be kept in cryogenic sleep until they find a habitable planet. The adults and scientists will enter periods of stasis, awakening to check possible new homes. Miki, the ship’s designated artist, takes notes about the planets they encounter and sits by Yumi as she sleeps. She’s lonely, having no one but Yumi, and suspects that she was offered a place on the ship because she’s Cliff’s widow.
The ship’s commander asks Miki to paint murals to help improve morale. She works with Dorrie, from Chapter 2, “The City of Laughter,” who is a lottery winner. In her spare time, Miki writes letters to Cliff in Clara’s old journal, detailing her daily life and information about the crew. She notes that Bryan, for whom the ship is named, is staying on Earth with Theresa to create satellites capable of cooling the planet. She privately believes that they had extraterrestrial help in both the ship design and the singularity in his brain.
Dorrie and Miki both begin to pray to the universe, thinking about interconnectivity and love. Because of their long voyage, they receive messages from Earth that span decades, detailing the discovery of a plague cure and efforts to reverse climate change. The explorers receive personal messages as well, simultaneously bolstering and subduing them. After 110 years, they arrive at a planet like Earth. Members of the exploration party are killed by creatures in the sand, and the others perform a funeral service for the fallen, after which they release the dead through the ship’s airlock. Miki writes a letter to the still-sleeping Yumi, expressing worry that they’ll find a suitable home.
The next planet they find has weather extremes that make it uninhabitable. Miki feels increasingly guilty and listens to old audio messages from Cliff to feel better. Subsequent planets they find looked habitable from a distance but turn out to be covered in water. The crew grows depressed, struggling to hold onto hope. Miki writes to Clara, telling her late daughter how proud she is of her research and work. They pass a rogue planet covered with ancient infrastructure but devoid of life, making note of it for future study.
They check two more planets within the Kepler system before preparing for a space jump that will span millennia. Relationships build among the waking crew; Dorrie and Miki take commissions for the murals they paint. Miki writes to Cliff, in awe of life and the passage of time. She vows to hold onto hope before she goes into a long cryogenic sleep. When she wakes, 6,000 years have passed, and the explorers have found the planet Cygnus. She’s selected as part of the welcoming party for those who have been asleep for the whole voyage. She looks at her many murals and writes a welcome letter to Yumi before she wakes, carrying the wisdom of centuries and lightyears with her.
Chapters 8-9 Analysis
Technology within How High We Go in the Dark advances to become reminiscent of traditional science fiction, showcasing fast-traveling spaceships and astronomical singularities. The seven years that have passed within the book have built to a final hope, efforts to colonize another planet to ensure humanity’s longevity. The cryogenic sleep, monstrous new worlds, and implications of alien life forms in Chapter 9, “A Gallery A Century, A Cry A Millennium,” are a sharp contrast to the daily drudgery and fear in Chapter 8, “Life Around the Event Horizon.” The novel expresses both the science and the humanity surrounding widespread technological change, especially when that change occurs within the context of broader tragedy and calamity.
Many themes intersect in this section of the novel as humanity strives to ensure its survival but also must deal with the ramification of such activity. Here, the theme of The Difficulty of Choice becomes clear as characters from both stories try to make an impossible “right” choice. No sure answer exists about what they should pursue, and they’re thus split between their loyalties to Earth and their need to ensure the survivability of the species. Pain and heartache become unavoidable as they navigate priorities. This heightens the importance of the murals that Dorrie and Miki paint, because as their story goes on, the murals gradually become a testament to people and the world they left behind. Murals become memorials, honoring the now-dead even in the face of outward expansion. The struggles that the characters in these chapters overcome and encounter highlight the theme of The Power of Human Perseverance through their intrepid interactions with the universe as they dedicate themselves to all of humanity. The fear of the unknown that those aboard the USS Yamato experience parallels the fear of the inevitable that those on Earth experience. Both groups channel their fear to promote the best possible outcomes, and the end result is a path to human survival.
This portion of the novel is unique in that the mourning that occurs is done in the absence of direct plague-related deaths. The characters all know people who have died of the plague and feel grief over their passing, but those deaths are a step removed from the novel’s “present.” The mourning is present but not fresh, showing the longevity of loss and how it continues to impact ongoing endeavors. Bryan has found a new wife in Theresa and is performing work that stands to save the world, but he still lingers over alternate realities in which his daughter and first wife are still alive. Miki memorializes the dead through art and letters, honoring their memory even as she pursues life. The characters continue to show the complexity of grief and the different ways that they manage it, a clear representation of how people mourn in different ways and how loved ones live on through those left behind.
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