How High We Go in the Dark

How High We Go in the Dark is a novel that seldom presents “good” choices. A global plague during a time of drastic climate change creates a universal feeling of struggle and despair, guiding character intentions and goals. The scenarios the author presents are increasingly dire, and the characters must decide the best way to navigate the changed world. Through the characters’ struggle and their resulting decisions, the author explores this theme, presenting how hard it is to know the “right” answer when surrounded by unknowns.

The first choices seen in the novel are also among the most tragic. As the plague infects children, and later adults, deciding what to do with the terminally ill becomes a weighty choice. The City of Laughter is one such decision, granting families a final day to say goodbye before performing an act of euthanasia. Dorrie and David encapsulate the two different sides of this impossible decision: Dorrie decides to take Fitch to the park and give him a final day of freedom, while David decides to bury himself in his work in hopes to find a cure. The novel makes no judgment on either decision, for both parents feel their son’s passing in different ways and navigate their grief in different contexts. Their combination of love and mourning underscores the difficulty of choosing what happens to a child, especially when hope and time have both run out.

The colonization mission, and whether to be involved in it, is another weighty choice. Theresa and Bryan outline the clear difficulty while still exploring the possibility of space travel. Bryan discusses the importance of contributing to human longevity by ensuring the continuation of the race, while Theresa describes her desire to stay on Earth and ensure that the planet itself, and most of the population, survives. Both options center on species survivability but seek to achieve it in different ways. This is even more complex for the people who have earthly connections. Bryan has a son whose survival is one of his top priorities, and Miki decides to join the expedition with her granddaughter to ensure her survival. She questions leaving her family behind, especially when she learns that the others of the crew don’t have any connections to Earth. Each character involved in the colonization endeavor adds another complication to its implementation, providing a clear understanding of why it’s so difficult to join such a cause or remain behind.

Even the choice of seeking connectivity is difficult, made more so by the fear of rejection. After the plague, many of the characters spend their time trying to create a community and find a place to belong. They struggle with relationships and making the everyday decisions needed for survival, in part because of how unfamiliar the world has become. The novel thus applies the difficulty of choice to everyday decisions that are more familiar, decisions like hosting a barbeque or asking a woman on a date. While these may feel like low-stakes choices compared to those earlier in the novel, they’re still huge decisions for the characters making them. Nagamatsu grounds the story in relatable experiences of decision-making by organizing his novel so that more commonplace decisions are at the end of the text and in doing emphasizes that making difficult choices is commendable.

People often equate community to a geographical location, connecting it to the place where a person lives or grew up. However, this novel highlights the factors that go into community, such as actively choosing to be a part of one and being emotionally vulnerable enough to face rejection. By exploring how community falls apart and comes back together, the novel reinforces that community is built, not granted, inviting reflection into the composition of communities.

The novel first explores the disruption of community by introducing stressors that make interaction dangerous. Early chapters witness the onset of the Arctic plague and questions related to its transference; the first to get sick contract the virus from water contamination, but the virus soon spreads to others. The uncertainty of how it spreads and evolves ultimately causes rifts among communities, causing families to isolate and sparking racism. Communities are further disrupted when adults fall into comas and many die, leaving those who survive in a state of disruption as they try to understand what happened to their loved ones. The result is an intense splintering as people choose isolation over closeness. Dan details how overwhelming the world has become and, as a result, how people choose loneliness to cope with their grief. Akira’s story further describes the intensity with which people feel their loneliness, as some people he knows die by suicide over surviving in a world that doesn’t have the support system to care for its survivors. These stories become warnings against both people and systems that encourage loneliness, speculating on the disastrous results when people don’t have others to lean on.

The loneliness of some characters contrasts with those who try to reconstruct and foster community. Dan represents the most explicit of these instances, as he writes an email sharing his thoughts with his neighbors, trying to convince them to choose community over loneliness. He takes the first step toward building a community by making himself vulnerable to his peers, offering companionship and a place to belong. An offer becomes a powerful thing, a symbol of connectivity for people whom the plague has isolated. Rina’s story shows what it’s like to be on the receiving end of such offers. When she returns to Japan, she initially struggles to see the community in a positive light. As she settles in and sees the positive aspects of her home, she gradually comes to understand how much the community of her neighborhood means to her. Her family and friends, in many ways, invite her back into the community she felt rejected from as a child. The most important part of Rina’s story is her realization that she can choose both communities. She can be a part of US and Japanese societies simultaneously, and in doing so finally achieves a sense of belonging. Rina shows how one person can be a part of many circles and doesn’t have to restrict themself to what’s nearest geographically, highlighting the complexity of belonging.

The crew of the USS Yamato develop a community among themselves, forced together by circumstance but choosing to bond and create something more than a working relationship. This becomes integral to their colonization effort, allowing them to make group decisions and develop group ceremonies that will one day become a part of the mythos of their survival. Community becomes intrinsic to survival and emotional wellness.

Mourning and desolation are repeatedly explored throughout How High We Go in the Dark as the characters face circumstances that challenge humanity’s survival. A consistent escalation of tragedy hovers over the characters, challenging their mental and physical wellness. However, even in the face of mass death and desperation, the characters maintain hope and act accordingly. Through their intensive efforts to cure the plague and help humanity survive, they underscore the importance of hope.

The central challenge of much of the novel is the plague. The characters deal with the deaths of their loved ones and their increased levels of isolation, often facing tragic choices as they try to survive. Even while making those terrible choices, they still hold onto hope that they’ll be successful and will survive. The work that Aubrey and David both conduct makes this abundantly clear. They’re both scientists working on different aspects of the plague: David works to keep people alive, while Aubrey works with the dead to understand the behavior of the virus. They both perform their duties even following the deaths of people they love, transforming their grief into action so that they can achieve something extending beyond their individual experience.

The colonization effort is grounded in hope too: The belief that humanity will survive even in the direst of circumstances is central to the colonization effort’s success. The intergalactic mission draws inspiration from the humanity they leave behind. Their moments of low emotion, often driven by finding uninhabitable planets, contrast with their desire to find a new home so that they can once again flourish. Their bravery and dedication are grounded in faith, giving them the strength to travel for thousands of years until they finally find a new place to call home. This is evident in the final page of the book, an open letter to whatever civilization remains on Earth. It includes a plea for information, a commendation of achievements, and the quiet hopefulness of a person who has accomplished a mission and knows that the future is brighter than the past.

Hope is the driving force of almost every character in the novel. The collective desire to not only survive but thrive propels scientific advancement, reconnects communities, and empowers people to reach out for help even when they’re at their lowest. The world builder is one of the best examples of this. She inadvertently causes the Artic plague, experiences the death of several of her families, and witnesses the slow destruction of Earth’s climate and ecosystem. Despite her many pains, she continues to reincarnate and tries to enact change for the world. Doing so is not only an act of love for the planet Earth but also a continued testament to her hope to reunite with her daughter, showing the full scope of what hope is capable of.