The Speed of Dark Free

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Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon. In the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. Most genetic defects will be removed at birth; the remaining during infancy. Unfortunately, there will be a generation left behind. For members of that missed generation, small advances will be made. Through various programs, they will be taught to get along in the world despite their differences. They will be ma In the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. They will be made active and contributing members of society. But they will never be normal. Lou Arrendale is a member of that lost generation, born at the wrong The Speed of Dark to reap the awards of medical science. Part of a small group of high-functioning autistic adults, he has a steady job with a pharmaceutical company, a car, friends, and a passion for fencing. Aside from his annual visits to his counselor, he lives a low-key, independent life. He The Speed of Dark learned to shake hands and make eye contact. He does his best to be as normal as possible and not to draw attention to himself. But then his quiet life comes under attack. It starts with an experimental treatment that will reverse the effects of autism in adults. With this treatment Lou would think and act and be just like everyone else. But if he was suddenly free of autism, would he still be himself? Would he still love the same classical music—with its complications and resolutions? Would he still see the same colors and patterns in the world—shades and hues that others cannot see? Most importantly, would he still The Speed of Dark Marjory, a woman who may never be able to reciprocate his feelings? There are intense pressures coming from the world around him—including an angry supervisor who wants to cut costs by sacrificing the supports necessary to employ autistic workers. Perhaps even more disturbing are the The Speed of Dark of questions within himself. For Lou must decide if he should submit The Speed of Dark a surgery that might completely change the way he views the world. Thoughtful, provocative, poignant, unforgettable, The Speed of Dark is a gripping exploration into the mind of an autistic person as he struggles with profound questions of humanity and matters of the heart. From the Hardcover edition. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published June 28th by Del Rey first published More Details Original Title. Lou Arrendale. Clarke Award Nominee Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about The Speed of Darkplease sign up. Does it hold up on it's own? Betonce stein I think it is quite good. We are all different, so I feel the 'cardboard cutouts' opinion could be said of any characters in any book. I think she did …more I think it is quite good. I think she did a good job of showing us without really understanding us less. See 2 questions about The Speed of Dark…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start your review of The Speed of Dark. May 13, J. Keely rated it it The Speed of Dark ok Shelves: novelscience-fictioncontemporary-fictionreviewedamerica. This book is about as 'sci fi' as an episode of CSI. Moon basically takes 'Flowers for Algernon' and hacks off the ending. The writing was alright, and there was some interesting characterization, but I suspect it only got the Nebula and Clarke because award committees love nothing as much as political correctness. This book is the equivalent of an actor making an Oscar bid by The Speed of Dark a mentally-challenged character. I know Moon is a The Speed of Dark fi author, but in this book, it feels like she just stamped This book is about as 'sci fi' as an episode of CSI. I know Moon is a sci fi author, but in this book, it feels like she just stamped on the 'Sci-Fi' label in order to draw an audience, or perhaps because her publisher refused to authorize a genre switch. I hope that isn't true, because that's always a cheap move. This is just modern pop-fiction, an 'emotionally confessional' book with a veneer of 'vaguely near-future'. This wouldn't have been a problem if Moon had used this opportunity to explore human psychology, which was how 'Algernon' and 'A Clockwork Orange' treated this same theme, but she didn't. She rehashed half of an interesting idea, and failed to capitalize on it. Speculative Fiction has always been obsessed with what makes us human, and how The Speed of Dark we can change before we stop being human at all. While that should be the main theme of this book, it goes almost unexplored. The climax is rushed and inauthentic. We never actually see the character change, we don't witness the effects as they happen, instead they are lightly explained in choppy montage at the end. Compared to the rest of the book--an internal, step-by-step presentation of a fairly different mind--this sudden, convenient, external ending is disappointing and jarring. The denouement following the climax is particularly tidy, with all the subtlety of the end of an 80's college movie where we learn through super-imposed text that "Barry went on to win the Nobel prize" to the strains of Simple Minds. And it's a shame, because the story leading up to the climax is interesting enough, presenting the psychological workings of autism. There was also a part about fencing, which excited me at first, being a former competitive The Speed of Dark and coach, but instead, it was just weird SCA dressup boffing. It's an alright read, goes pretty The Speed of Dark, and it might give you some insight into brain disorders, but The Speed of Dark doesn't tie human experiences together; which is really a shame, because other sci fi books have successfully used this topic to ask some very difficult and profound questions about how the future The Speed of Dark technology might change the way we think, and about the different ways people process The Speed of Dark. You'd think we'd have something more to say after sixty years of neurology and psychology, but apparently not. It also pales in comparison with 'A Clockwork Orange', another good light sci fi which explores the morality of changing the way that people think. This book was light and fluffy, especially given its subject matter, and while it will probably make soccer moms feel proud of themselves for reading something so 'different', it doesn't endeavor to change the way they think about humanity, the mind, or the possibilities within us. View all 20 comments. May 29, Lyn rated it liked it. Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon tells the story of an autistic man in the near future where advances in medical technology have cured many diseases. The protagonist is in a small group of people who were born just before these advances and so have grown up in a world where their disability is a close anachronism. This is a subtle, introspective work that focuses on psychological, philosophical and theological questions about normality and The Speed of Dark of life. I could not help but cast actor Jim Pars Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon tells the story of an autistic man in the near future where advances in The Speed of Dark technology have cured many diseases. I could not help but cast actor Jim Parsons, from The Big Bang Theory, in the role of the hero, and throughout the book his was the voice and face that I imagined as Lou. There is some very thin characterization, almost straw man, that weakens the larger credibility of the narration, but the ending is very good and well worth the time reading. View all 7 comments. Aug 19, Sandi rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: Everyone. Shelves: sci-ficross-genre This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Speed of Dark may need to review my top-ten shelf and see what can be bumped. Is there a speed of darkness? | HowStuffWorks

Light journeys at the fastest speed possible for a physical item. Darkness is eliminated when the light appears and returns when light leaves. The speed of dark is the speed of light but there are other kinds of darkness that can move quicker than light speed. For example, a shadow. Throughout a range, a shadow can end up being much larger than the object creating it, but still imitate its source, relocating the same way for the exact same quantity of time. So when a shadow is bigger than the things casting it, it moves a greater range when the item moves but in the very same amount of time. Make a shadow big enough and it can take a trip across the surface faster than light. If you, here on Earth, cast a shadow onto the Moon, not an easy thing to do, that pointed from, state, point A. To point B, your finger would The Speed of Dark move a few centimeters. In a fraction of a second. But the shadow it cast on the Moon. Would move countless kilometers in the exact same quantity The Speed of Dark time. That breaks the light barrier. Faster than light could take a trip from you to that somewhere else. And our superluminal shadow is transferring. No details from point A to point B. Sure, point B is being cast into darkness. What we tend to call a shadow. The darkness you are causing only changes to shape. When recently unblocked light fills. The previous gap. A space. Travel at all. That a shadow is a physical thing, when in The Speed of Dark. A shadow is just the absence of physical things The Speed of Dark. However, that does not indicate two shadows. Or, a minimum of. View as Man brings two shadows. Near each other. Right prior to they make contact. The shadows appear to magically bulge toward one another. In a sort of smooch of darkness. The region where an item totally obstructs a source of light is called. The umbra. Part of the shadow. Where just a part of the light source is. Blocked, we find the fainter penumbra. But as two or more penumbras. Technique and overlap, the combined quantity of light they obstruct can be enough to. The shadow blister. The The Speed of Dark has a huge. To shut out all of the sun. Here, on the surface of Earth, we are no place near that. Far away, which is why night is so umbral. You eclipse. Our atmosphere scatters shorter wavelengths of light. More than longer wavelengths, that makes the sky. During golden, you can see. The separation. While driving east from Denver to Kansas City. I got a particularly great view of it. The beautiful pink band above it? Right after the sun sets, and vanishes from view. No longer visible sun. This is what we call twilight. Civil twilight. You can still do a lot of stuff outdoors without the need for artificial lights. Down to 12 degrees listed below the horizon, we The Speed of Dark. Nautical twilight: artificial lights are more or less essential however the sky. Still scatters adequate light to be brilliant enough for ships at sea. To navigate by seeing a contrast of the horizon in between dark sea. Down to 18 degrees. Astronomical golden is occurring. The Speed of Dark appears like. Night however The Speed of Dark sky can still get darker. Huge golden ends, not all nighttime astronomical observations can be made. Below 18 degrees is technically. Honestly, night. If you live at greater than Throughout the summer the sun never goes more than 18 degrees below the horizon. Places like London just reach astronomical golden at the most. During these months. So, if you live in among these locations. Cut to the chase since we are looking for fast darkness. When scissor blades snip, the intersection point in between both blades moves quicker. Think about it in this manner:. If you had a pair of scissors The Speed of Dark blades that were a light-year long. Light year, in not a year, however … a second. No laws are being broken here since such a snip. Would The Speed of Dark physically impossible. As I have actually pointed out in the past. When a push force is applied to them. Rather, that force moves through electro-magnetic forces, from one atom. To the next, and so on down the line. A The Speed of Dark wave. That travels at The Speed of Dark speed of noise through the material. But what if we overlooked that issue by enabling the blades to merely be individually. Already in motion? Well, their point at the crossway. No more info than you might already gather. By witnessing the approaching blades. However do not suspend that geometric point of intersection just yet. Another type of darkness that can The Speed of Dark much faster than light. When waves collide their crests can fuse into larger crests. Their troughs into bigger troughs. This is positive disturbance. But crests hitting troughs counteract. Damaging disturbance if these waves are light. The result is darkness. Speed of Dark - Wikipedia

Look Inside Reading Guide. Reading Guide. In the near future, disease will be a condition of the past. Most genetic defects will be removed at birth; the remaining during infancy. Lou Arrendale, a high-functioning autistic adult, is a member of the lost generation, born at the wrong time to reap the rewards of medical science. He lives a low-key, independent life. With this treatment Lou would think and act and be just like everyone else. But if he was suddenly free of autism, would he still be himself? Would he still love the same classical music—with its complications and resolutions? Would he still see the same colors and patterns in the world—shades and hues that others cannot see? Most important, would he still love Marjory, a woman who may never be able to reciprocate his feelings? Now Lou must decide if he should submit to a surgery that might completely change The Speed of Dark way he views the world. A lot of novels promise to The Speed of Dark the way a reader sees the world; The Speed of Dark actually does. He makes a deep and lasting impact on the reader while showing a different way of looking at the world. Such a book is The Speed of Dark. Certain technology, such as genetic engineering and nanotechnology, is more advanced than at present, but the society in which Lou Arrendale and the other characters live and work seems contemporaneous. How much of a change of pace was this novel for you? Is it science fiction? And if so, what makes it science fiction? Elizabeth Moon: This was definitely a change of pace. Occasionally an idea or a character blindsides me and knocks me right out of what I intended to do next. PW: What is autism? Is it a genetic condition? A mental illness? The result of an infection? Physical trauma? EM: Autism is a pervasive developmental disorder. Most children with autism are clearly born with it, and the best current evidence suggests that something begins to be different in autistic fetuses well before birth. Since it occurs at higher frequencies in families with other cases of autism and related neurological conditions, genetics certainly plays some role in many, if not most, cases of autism. Some people will blame anything, however unlikely, and in the face of contrary data; there is no evidence that infant immunizations cause autism. PW: What are some of the warning signs that parents The Speed of Dark be aware of? Where can people go for more information or help? EM: The autistic spectrum includes a range of developmental disabilities that are similar but not identical. Classical autism presents as developmental delay, often global, but particularly affecting sensory integration; fine-motor coordination; language, both receptive and expressive; and social interaction. The amount of delay varies widely. The autistic child may not talk at all, or speak only to echo what he just heard, or repeat that jingle. He may ignore TV to sit by the bureau flicking the handles of drawers over and over. He is likely to do the same thing hour after hour, day after day: stacking The Speed of Dark, winding The Speed of Dark unwinding string, some other repetitive activity. A child whose autism is milder, and undiagnosed until school age, will usually demonstrate very uneven abilities—excelling in one subject, and flunking in another—and will also have the associated difficulty in reciprocal social interactions. PW: Milder. As with classical autism, there is a wide range of severity. All small children do things that autistic children do, all the lists of behaviors you may have seen in magazine articles, but normal children also do much more. If they repeat advertising jingles ad nauseam, they can also demand more cookies, ask The Speed of Dark, play pretend games with friends, argue about bedtime. Normal children may also have strong idiosyncratic interests. I was horse-crazy, and made endless parades of my toy horses. They may flap their hands, spin the wheels of toy cars, act shy and refuse eye contact, or be unusually sensitive to texture The Speed of Dark taste, all without being autistic. What matters is not any particular behavior, but the overall pattern of development. The child may have a hearing loss or any of several other problems—autism is only one of the possibilities—but the sooner the cause is identified and therapy begun, the better. Parents today have many resources. Doctors vary in their understanding of autism; some may be reluctant to make the diagnosis early because when they went to school it was a very bad one. But most family practitioners and pediatricians are at least familiar with the diagnostic criteria, and can help families determine if autism is a possibility. PW: Lou Arrendale is an extraordinarily vivid creation. I know you have an autistic son; how much of The Speed of Dark is based on your The Speed of Dark and your experiences in raising him? In addition, I had read books by Oliver Sacks; Temple Grandin, who is herself autistic and a fine advocate for the autistic community; Clara Park, whose autistic daughter, a talented artist, is now in her forties; and others, and had found online groups of autistic individuals who demonstrated the wide variety of personalities and abilities that autistic people have. Lou is by nature a quieter and more thoughtful person; our son is more exuberant. PW: Despite being autistic, Lou functions better than many so- called normal The Speed of Dark. He has a job, friends, interests. He is highly intelligent and extremely sensitive to certain sensations and perceptions, such as, for example, smells and textures. And his pattern recognition abilities, which he relies on in every The Speed of Dark of his life, from his job at the pharmaceutical company to his hobby of fencing to his interactions with others, are phenomenal. How typical is Lou of people with autism today in terms of his social The Speed of Dark and mental abilities? Only a few exceptionally intelligent autistic children had the kind of support they needed to achieve independent living as adults. As The Speed of Dark as DSM-IV, the prognosis was that only 30 percent of the most intelligent and capable autistic persons would ever live independently. However, with the advent The Speed of Dark mandated public education for all students and early childhood intervention, the situation has improved markedly. Social problems are still the main reason for autistic persons not achieving full independence, but more and more of them are holding jobs and living in The Speed of Dark sheltered environments. They are still earning less than non-autistic persons of equivalent intelligence, and autistic persons who are also retarded or have another disability physical or other are still likely to need lifelong assistance of some kind—but few now are consigned to residential institutions. I expect that in the next five to ten years, as children who received good therapy in the birth-to-five-years range reach adulthood, we will see a reversal of the DSM- IV prognosis, with 60 percent or more holding jobs. Assuming, of course, that the economy improves. Sensory perception and sensory processing differences are universal. If there is an autistic child anywhere who tolerates tags in T-shirts or bulky seams in socks, I never heard of one. PW: How is autism treated today? Have you seen much progress since the birth of your son? Do you think that we are on track toward the sorts The Speed of Dark advanced therapies available in your book? EM: Autism is treated today in a variety of ways—the most useful being intensive supportive therapy for young children. The earlier autism is diagnosed, and the earlier families begin helping these children develop, the better the prognosis. Communication therapy not just speech therapysensory integration therapy, skills training including The Speed of Dark skills training —all these and other therapies, not The Speed of Dark the same for each child, make an enormous difference. I had to figure out a lot of things for myself— not much was available, at least not here. But after the legislation that mandated early childhood intervention for disabled children, more and more people were working in the field and soon began to discover what worked best. Positivereinforcement behavioral shaping—more on the model of Karen Pryor than the rigidity of the academics, in my opinion—works best. I definitely think that the sort of advanced therapy I wrote about is within reach; whether the research heads in that direction or not will depend on funding. But in the process The Speed of Dark writing this book, I was reading an international neuroscience journal Nature Neuroscienceand kept worrying that the science was catching up with the story all too fast. The Speed of Dark Lou is constantly questioning what it means to be autistic and what it means to be normal. He comes to believe that the two are points along a spectrum rather than wholly unrelated ways of being. I think this must be true because of my own experience in reading the novel. At first, I found Lou fascinating but alien; I could sympathize with him, but from the outside The Speed of Dark in. Then, as I read on, a curious and amazing thing happened. I began to empathize with Lou. His way of thinking stopped seeming alien to me and began to seem human. In fact, I began to recognize more and more of myself in him. When the demands of daily life took me away from the book, his voice stayed with me, coloring my perceptions of the world, until I felt almost as if a part of me were autistic. It was no longer possible for me to think of Lou as alien, and it even became difficult to think of The Speed of Dark as damaged, exactly. Just different. Which raises a lot of The Speed of Dark practical and philosophical questions about autism. To a large degree, we meaning society in its judgmental role create aliens from humans by excluding them, by defining them as too strange, too difficult. Human cultures have always done this. It helps a group to bond, if they define nonmembers as completely different. How would you respond to this criticism? EM: With a loud snort. No parent of an autistic child would ever romanticize autism, or minimize the strain it places on both the child and the society in which that child lives. Hours of screaming when nothing would comfort him.