Richard Powers
Richard Powers (born June 18, 1957) is an American novelist whose works explore the effects of modern science and technology. His novel ''The Echo Maker'' won the 2006 National Book Award for Fiction.biohacking musical patterns into a bacterial human pathogen, ''
Serratia marcescens
''Serratia marcescens'' () is a species of rod-shaped, Gram-negative bacteria in the family Yersiniaceae. It is a facultative anaerobe and an opportunistic pathogen in humans. It was discovered in 1819 by Bartolomeo Bizio in Padua, Italy.Serrati ...
'', have attracted the worried hazmat-suit-level attention of
Homeland Security
Homeland security is an American national security term for "the national effort to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards where American interests, aspirations, and ways of life can thrive" to ...
. Els flees in panic, and becomes known as the "Bioterrorist Bach". The novel interleaves Els' attempt at a final redemption with a retrospective telling of his life.
Plot summary
There are two main narrative threads in the novel, both centered on Peter Els. The novel begins and ends in the winter of 2011, from the accidental discovery by the authorities that Els was doing home genetic experiments to his flight across the country. Interspersed is the story of Els' life, from his birth in 1941 to his decision in 2009 to record his music in DNA.
Biographical narrative
Els is born in 1941. He turns out to be naturally talented in math, science, and classical music, and is especially enraptured by a recording of
Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...
's ''Jupiter'' Symphony.
A cellist in his high school, Clara Reston, becomes his first love. He follows her to college in Indiana, intending to major in chemistry. Clara convinces him to major in music and to become a composer. She ends up in England, and dumps him long distance.
Els develops under the avant-garde influence of the day, including that of
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...
. A soprano Madolyn "Maddy" Corr who sings his strange songs becomes his next lover and eventually his wife. A particularly energetic, chaotic and anarchistic dramatist, Richard Bonner, choreographs Els' work.
Els and Maddy marry and have a daughter Sara. They move to Boston where she starts a career at a prestigious private school, while Els settles for being a watchman at an art museum and stay-at-home father.
After a few years, Bonner's fringe career in Manhattan artsy circles gets a surprise wealthy sponsor, and Bonner invites Els to compose for his works. Because it involves frequent trips to Manhattan, Maddy sours on Els, and at some point gives Els an ultimatum, and he chooses composing, and they divorce. She remarries almost immediately and moves to Saint Louis, taking Sara with her.
Working with Bonner eventually becomes impossible, and Els breaks off with him. He tries to lose himself, first in menial labor and then in New Hampshire.
Visiting England on the death of his mother, he learns that he has inherited nicely. He runs into Clara, and refuses to reconnect with her.
In the early 1990s, he is surprised by a visit from Bonner. Bonner has been asked to stage an avant-garde opera, and wants Els to compose the music. In brainstorming ideas, Els suggests the 1530s
Münster Rebellion
Münster (; nds, Mönster) is an independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a state distr ...
, and the two are on fire. But shortly before the premiere, the
Waco siege
The Waco siege, also known as the Waco massacre, was the law enforcement siege of the compound that belonged to the religious sect Branch Davidians. It was carried out by the U.S. federal government, Texas state law enforcement, and the U.S. mi ...
ends in a massacre, and Els is sickened, whereas the media, the opera company, Bonner, and potential attendees find the coincidence exciting. Els returns to seclusion, and has to break off relations with Bonner again, using fisticuffs, and suppresses all further productions.
Two years later, a former colleague from Indiana offers Els an adjunct teaching position at a small college in Pennsylvania. Els accepts. By now his relations with his daughter have normalized, and she gets him a dog.
The
2008 financial crisis
8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9.
In mathematics
8 is:
* a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2.
* a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...
forces the small college to let Els go, and in his boredom, and fretful over his declining mental powers, Els conceives the idea of recording his compositions in bacterial DNA.
Bioterrorism scare narrative
When Els' dog Fidelio dies, Els calls 9-1-1 in a panic. He realizes his mistake and hangs up, but two police officers are dispatched to his house anyway. They chat in a friendly manner, but the home laboratory set up disturbs the police officers, and the next day two agents from the "Joint Security Agency" pay a visit. They ask technical questions, learn how he assembled everything on the cheap, and decide to take the precaution of confiscating his incubator, entirely unconcerned about issues of legality.
The next day, after a pre-dawn early jog, he heads back home and finds a media circus has popped up while biohazard teams strip his house, even unburying his dog. Upset, he considers his options, and decides to teach his scheduled weekly music appreciation class at a local retirement home without cleaning up. Afterwards, one of the home members, learning of his situation, offers her son's vacation cabin as a place of refuge, which he accepts.
From there, he begins an odyssey taking him back to Indiana, then visiting his ex-wife in St. Louis. She points him to Bonner in Arizona, who is in early-stage Alzheimer's. He encourages him to tweet his story to the world, one last hurrah performance with the biggest audience he's ever had, as they both agree the Feds will crush Els.
Els then visits his daughter, who has spent the past several days arranging potential legal defenses. Arriving at night, they talk. Els hears the arrival of numerous security forces, and takes a glass bud vase, shaped like a chemistry flask. Sara realizes belatedly what is happening outside, and starts to lose it. The novel ends with Els saying some last words to his daughter, intending to run out, holding the vase high, the "downbeat of a little infinity."
Inspiration
Parts of the story of Peter Els are closely modeled on events in the life of bioartist
Steve Kurtz
Steve Kurtz is an American artist and co-founder of the art collective Critical Art Ensemble (CAE). His work with CAE is considered pioneering in the areas of politically engaged art, interventionist practices, and cultural research and action in ...
. In 2004, Kurtz called 9-1-1 after the death of his wife. Police assumed his home laboratory was suspicious, and called in the FBI, leading to charges of bioterrorism and mail and wire fraud.
Powers, in an earlier visit to Stanford, spent time assisting in the laboratory of biochemist Aaron Straight, which helped shape the details of Els' DIY lab. Powers also learned, from English professor and novelist
John L'Heureux
John Clarke L'Heureux (October 26, 1934 – April 22, 2019) was an American author. L'Heureux was the author of such works of fiction as '' The Miracle'', '' Having Everything'', '' The Shrine at Altamira'', ''Comedians'', '' An Honorable Professio ...
, of the neurological problems that are sometimes associated with aging and music, and in the novel, a fictional Dr. L'Heureux diagnoses Els with these problems.
Music
Music, including descriptions, history, and its effects on listeners, form a major portion of the narrative. Prominent are:
*
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...
, ''
Kindertotenlieder
(''Songs on the Death of Children'') is a song cycle (1904) for voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler. The words of the songs are poems by Friedrich Rückert.
Text and music
The original were a group of 428 poems written by Rückert in 1833– ...
'', which Els plays to accompany the burial of his dog.
*
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically ...
, ''
Quartet for the End of Time
''Quatuor pour la fin du temps'' (), originally ''Quatuor de la fin du temps'' ("''Quartet of the End of Time''"), also known by its English title ''Quartet for the End of Time'', is an eight-movement piece of chamber music by the French composer ...
'', which Els associates with his birth, and plays to dramatic effect in a retirement home just before he flees.
*
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
, Fifth Symphony, which Els listens to when expecting to get arrested at any moment.
*
Harry Partch
Harry Partch (June 24, 1901 – September 3, 1974) was an American composer, music theorist, and creator of unique musical instruments. He composed using scales of unequal intervals in just intonation, and was one of the first 20th-century com ...
, ''Barstow'', whose sources Els tries to locate, as he envisions himself being forced to live off the grid.
*
Peter Lieberson
Peter Goddard Lieberson (25 October 1946 – 23 April 2011) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. His song cycles include two finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Music: '' Rilke Songs'' and ''Neruda Songs''; the latter won t ...
, ''
Neruda Songs
The ''Neruda Songs'' are a cycle of five songs composed for mezzo-soprano soloist and orchestra by the American composer Peter Lieberson (1946–2011) for his wife, singer Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (1954–2006). The cycle is a setting of poems by ...
''
*
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer known for his contribution to the development of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, a ...
, ''
Proverb
A proverb (from la, proverbium) is a simple and insightful, traditional saying that expresses a perceived truth based on common sense or experience. Proverbs are often metaphorical and use formulaic speech, formulaic language. A proverbial phra ...
''
Reception
The novel has been reviewed widely. It received starred reviews from both ''
Kirkus Reviews
''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...
'' and ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...
''. Elizabeth Sile, in ''Esquire'', wrote that "Powers proves, once again, that he's a master of the novel with ''Orfeo''," while David Ulin of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' called the book "magnificent and moving."
Jim Holt, the ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' reviewer, found the novel emotionally satisfying, but intellectually repellent, in reverse of the criticism sometimes given to previous novels by Powers. In particular, Holt is aghast at the very idea of Els' vandalizing genomes.
''Orfeo'' was included on the longlist for the 2014
Man Booker Prize
The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. ...
, the first year that the prize admitted novels from across the globe.