How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu - Part Two: Point of View

Because Sequioa Nagamatsu's pandemic novel is written in the form of many short stories, readers have the opportunity to see the world and overarching story from several perspectives. As such, each one is unique and provides something new to the story. The variety of characters are vast, including an archeologist, comedian, doctor, forensic analyst, mortician, artist, and celestial being. Besides their careers, each character has a unique background and way that they cope with the grief in their individual world. Thus, we see the world from many different angles. This gives us an opportunity to see these characters as mirrors (they reflect who we are), or as windows (they show us how people different then us may be).

How does the author decide which perspectives will be important or relevant to the story he is telling? Each short story provides a different viewpoint of the world, but they also show various ways to cope with grief, which is the sole purpose of the novel. As stated before, the goal with How High We Go in the Dark is not about finding a cure or solution to the plague, but how to cope and live within it. Nagamatsu writes these stories to give us different examples of how living and surviving in such a world might look like for people from different backgrounds, families, and countries.

Additionally, each of these characters has a sort of freedom to take action within their circumstance to provide us with that new insight into the human experience. For example, in the story "Songs of Your Decay," the main character is a forensic analyst charged with studying the plague's development in a friend who she has fallen in love with. We are given a unique perspective into how a forensic scientist views the pandemic through this character that describes to their deceased friend the way she's is studying and taking care of his body. The way the story is crafted is much more interesting than a forensic report as it shows a woman's grief related to her work.

Summary

The various points of view in the novel work well because readers are given multiple perspectives by which they can experience this story world and examples of people coping with grief. If you would like to use this tactic in your own writing, remember to make each character distinct. Just because they might be dealing with the same problems, doesn't mean they will handle it the same way or have the same motivations. In "Life Around the Event Horizon" the main character, Bryan, is more concerned with preventing grief by helping his fellow scientists discover technology to help them leave Earth permanently. Whereas in "The Used-to-Be Party" the main character, Dan, is motivated by his loneliness after waking up from a coma to help his neighbors come together to work through their grief. Each voice is distinct, has their own background, and will approach what the plot has thrown at them differently. You may have more than one main character, but that doesn't mean you have the luxury of having flat characters.