The Secrets of Serotonin


	The Secrets of Serotonin

RayWatkins

10-5-2009 11:20 AM

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RayWatkins says:

What Richard Powers' new novel gets wrong.
By Peter D. Kramer

Posted Monday, Sept. 28, 2009, at 9:29 AM ET

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/ee244d02-a281-4779-adfc-f5331f01ad0f/5EC15896-B128-453D-AE72-82DE884F10F4/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.slate.com/id/2229119/pagenum/all/" href="http://www.slate.com/id/2229119/pagenum/all/" style="font-size: 11px;">www.slate.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2229119/pagenum/all/"><P><SPAN class="imagewrapper"><IMG height="225" width="150" alt="Generosity: An Enhancement by Richard Powers." src="http://img.slate.com/media/1/123125/122946/2207169/2227207/090925_Book_Generosity.gif" /></SPAN>Novels can suffer from bad timing, and here I mean not in plot arc or prose rhythm but in the relationship of their publication dates to current events. I know this truth from experience. <A target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0743223241?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0743223241">My only novel</A> concerns a thoughtful anarchist who communicates with those he loves through blowing up buildings. It appeared to mostly good notices in August 2001; after Sept. 11, the book was all but undiscussable.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.slate.com/id/2229119/pagenum/all/"><P><A target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0374161143?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmaga-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0374161143"><EM>Generosity: An Enhancement</EM></A>, by Richard Powers, suffers a milder version of this bad karma. The novel is social satire in the form of literary science fiction, a genre that harks back to Walker Percy and whose ancestors include Swift and Voltaire. We are not in a world of droids on Tatooine but, rather, on a fictive Earth whose technology is a half-step ahead of our own. As Powers puts it, "This Chicago is Chicago's in vitro daughter, genetically modified for more flexibility." </P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/5EC15896-B128-453D-AE72-82DE884F10F4/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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