This book of philosophical fiction is compared, by the Guardian, to the few of other popular classical works in genre; the likes of ‘Candide’ by Voltaire or ‘Nausea’ by Sartre. Ward’s novel, however, has a more contemporary setting to it, where AI, non-binary parenthood, and parallel other worlds exists. But I want to start with its title. Thought experiments, which Ward also defines at the beginning of her book, are imagination tools where certain theories are explored only through the intellectual framework. These tools are used to expand our knowledge and understanding of things that might otherwise be unavailable for materialistic exploration.
An immediate example that comes to mind is Galileo’s thought experiment where he claimed that two bodies with different masses, if dropped from a height, would fall at the same rate should the air resistance be removed. In order to proof this in an actual setting, NASA conducted Galileo’s thought experiment in a vacuum chamber - an isolated chamber where the air is sucked out by the machine, creating total vacuum – where they dropped a feather and a spherical metal ball at the same time, and to our unbelievable surprise, they did actually fall at the exact same rate. A video of this experiment can be found on YouTube, and it is one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever seen.
Of course, Galileo had a mathematical explanation for this, backed by the physics of gravity, but not all thought experiments are as performable as Galileo’s. The reason they are called thought experiments is to allow scientist to push beyond what can actually be realized, and thereby give us glimpses into what can be possible even if we cannot yet prove it in material terms.
Ward puts love, a very non-scientific and rather romantic phenomenon, also as a thought experiment in her book of short stories that are linked to a continuing plot, involving two couples of same gender characters, Rachel and Eliza, and Greg and Hal, as well as a boy, Arthur, which Rachel gives birth to with the donated sperm of Hal.
‘Is love all we need? Do we need it at all?’ is the quote at the beginning of a TED-Ed video titled ‘Why do we love?’. In that video, the narrator explores the possible reasons why human beings fall in love, from evolutionary causes to mythical tales. Ward adds to this inquiry by hypothesising, if only by its title, that love might only be a thought experiment, which may or may not exist after all. It is only something that humans can think about doing, thereby originating in thought, and fail to find any actual proof of it in the real world. Maybe it is only an experiment, involving us, about how to keep reproducing, seek fulfilment, create drama and pain, and invent more tragic stories. Love, a mere thought experiment, that has captured so much of our history, while being responsible for incredible stories of passion, violence, wars, heartbreaks, and the whole of literature and poetry. Yet it very much feels real to those who go through this profound experiment, and those who suffer immeasurably in its aftermath. For, this life is either love or lack thereof.
The first experiment in Ward’s book, that brings into question the illogical nature of love and its existence, involves an ant, who later narrates one of the more original chapters, that creeps its way into Rachel’s head through her eye. Eliza, her spouse, refuses to believe her on logical grounds, but commits to play along with this absurd idea since Rachel religiously infuses Eliza’s trust in her with her believing that there indeed is an actual ant living inside her head. Each chapter in this book begins with a thought experiment, like Plato’s cave-people and Plutarch’ ship, and continues the story from different narrators, in different setting. A sub-plot involves Rachel’s parents and her mother’s memory of meeting Ali, the protagonist from second chapter, at a beach in Turkey whom she falls in love with. After the death of Rachel from a brain tumour, told in one of the beautifully written chapters, Arthur’s parents tell him that Rachel is now living on a different planet, and the latter chapters is about Arthur going on a space voyage to find his dead mother.
Ward’s book is unique, with few very tantalizing chapters, but on the whole, it lacks in emotion, cohesion, and fails to involve the reader in its story, like Richard Powers’ ‘Bewilderment’ did for me. But always love its title.
Ratings: 3/5 October 20, 22_