How High We Go in the Dark

This section of the novel centers on the loss of a mother figure and the difficulty that this poses for those left behind. In Dennis’s case, the loss of his family is tinged with strain, colored by his own past of not fitting in. His rift with his father and his mother’s role in that rift shapes the rest of their interactions, making it impossible for them to reconcile and move forward. After her death, Dennis realizes the mistakes they both made, imagining a different present in which they were both able to overcome their failures. The robo-dog repairman, however, idealizes his wife in the wake of her passing. His relationship with his son becomes strained because of—not as a preface to—his wife’s death. In both cases, maternal death places a mother in an idealized position, focusing on her positive characteristics even in the face of negative ones.

Each narrator exemplifies becoming stagnant in face of both personal and public trauma. Dennis remains emotionally aloof from a job that he has no strong feelings about, finding passion only when he’s helping underprivileged communities. He remains part of the hotel even when his family expresses a need for his help, packing his bags in preparation for a phone call and trip he never makes. The robo-dog repairman is similarly settled into his work life, clinging to fixing robo-dogs even though he can’t access the parts he needs anymore. His skill set has become obsolete, and his grief drives him to hold onto his wife’s robo-dog, refusing to face its inevitable technological failure just as he’s refusing to face the elimination of his skill as a commodity. These two men, despite their different circumstances, are driven by the need to financially benefit from whatever they can, even as society is shifting around them and they grapple with their grief, having to prioritize money over their social or emotional well-being.

The narrative exposes the transformation of funerary rituals as new societal standards. Dennis’s story depicts loved ones renting rooms for their deceased, spending several days with the body in an extended visitation ceremony. The nameless narrator of Chapter 6, “Speak, Fetch, Say I Love You” hosts a funeral ceremony for the robotic dogs who have donated their parts to sustaining others and then visits his wife’s ashes in a skyscraper devoted only to hosting ashes. These funerary rites reveal the difficulty of transitioning into a world fraught with plague. People long for the opportunity to honor their loved ones, but to do so they’re restricted by capitalist interests, their mourning made transactional because of the increased demand. As Dennis outlines when reflecting on the boom in mortuary businesses, the high number of bodies makes it impossible to efficiently process remains, creating systems that must be paid for to accommodate the influx. The need to store remains, as well as the overwhelming state of the funerary business, even creates a new financial system built on funerary-based money. Thus, the needs of the bereaved contrast with the options afforded by the system that society developed to sustain itself based on supply and demand. The funerary practices are parasitic, charging large amounts of money to people with no other options, inviting reflection on how honoring the dead and meeting societal obligations often feel at odds in a monetized system.