Apr 30, 2018
Sweetness #9, Stephan Eirik Clark
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Sweetness #9, Stephan Eirik Clark
When does patience turn into doing nothing at all?
Stephen Eirik Clark, Sweetness #9, page 257
Fascinating, isn't it? The human mind. Where it can take you. How it can leave you behind.
Stephan Eirik Clark, Sweetness #9, page 80
The tension between wanting to enjoy what we have and finding ourselves unable to do so is the subject of Sweetness #9, the first novel by Stephan Eirik Clark. David Levereaux is a young graduate of the food science program at Rutgers who has started work at Goldstein, Olivetti, and Dark, “an industry giant” in food and flavor development. David narrates his story, which begins in 1973 and proceeds to the present day. His time in Goldstein’s animal testing labs introduces him to Sweetness #9, “The Nine,” an artificial sweetener not unlike saccharine or aspartame. A series of tests performed on lab rats and monkeys awakens David to the possibility that Sweetness #9 is more harmful than anyone has yet disclosed—after several weeks of exposure to the sweetener, one of David’s rats, which he has named Louie, becomes lethargic and refuses to complete a maze test. The lab’s monkeys soon grow obese and refuse to do anything but watch television. After informing a superior of his suspicions about Sweetness #9, David returns to his lab only to find that each of the animals has been replaced with a new, thin, healthy imposter.
Woody Brown reviews Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark.
"It's here, in the 100 trillion synaptic connections that bridge these neurons, that chemical signals fire in the dark, forming all of your perceptions and thoughts, the very driving agents of our shadowy lives. And are these perceptions and thoughts stable? Can we ever say this is who I am, this is Ernest Leveraux? Or does it change every day, hour, or minute, depending on your diet and whatever happens to pass through your bloodstream?"
From: Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark
"Yes, asking Tennessee to lead a field trip was out of the question. It would be like asking a leader of the women's movement to babysit your kids. Even if I knew the answer would be yes, I wouldn't be able to sit through the explication leading up to it."
From: Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark
It was a strangely freeing moment. Standing there staring up at the TV, I realized the truth doesn't matter, only your relationship to it does.
Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark
The questions that undermine our faith don't arrive through deep meditation and diligent study. They pop up like soldiers from a fox-hole, ready to shoot you down before you even have the time to realize you're dead.
Sweetness #9 by Stephan Eirik Clark