Choices: Speed of Dark

The bounty of available time generated by the completion of my school duties has enabled me to catch up a bit with my reading list. Just recently I've finished "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel, which I still am not sure what I feel about and "Speed of Dark" by Elizabeth Moon.

"Speed of Dark", other than the name of a great music blog, is also a story about being the odd man out, so to speak, but not because of the usual reasons among "normals", but because of Autism. The protagonist is a seemingly functioning and highly intelligent autistic man, who has a regular well paying job and a group of friends. However, one day he is faced with a difficult choice: an experimental treatment may "cure" his autism. Anyone who has lived and operated, even for a short time outside the silent normal majority of their society because of some characteristic that was at odds with the majority, may appreciate this type of dilemma.

The overbearing, sometimes not so subtle, pressure to be normal versus your own unique individuality, no matter how different or "flawed" others may consider it. Be it skin color, religion, sexual preference or how long your hair is, if it's genetic or social, there's something about you that makes you special. But that something also prevents you from being one of the crowd, for better or worse. "Not that there's anything wrong with it..." - but is there something wrong about you? About how you were created by God? (if you take that into consideration).

I won't spoil the rest of the plot, but I would have like the conclusion to be different. Though I sometimes don't like open ends in books or movies, I think this was a good place for one.

Anyway, this post's beautiful song comes from the American indie rock/folk band Ida. Their soft and gentle sound along with song's title were somewhat close to what I felt when I finished reading the book.

Check out Ida's official website, MySpace and last.fm pages for more updates and great music.

Ida - My Fair, My Dark {MP3} (from the My Fair, My Dark EP)
The song will be hosted for 3 days only.