Books About the Many Worlds Theory — PART 2

Welcome to the sequel in this series, where I read books which explore the possibility of multiple parallel universes. If you haven’t read PART 1: https://audreyblogz.wordpress.com/2024/01/28/books-about-the-many-worlds-theory-part-1/, I suggest you do that since I will probably get lazy and this post will not be as interesting as the first. Scratch that, this post isn’t lazy, but it is significantly more critical and lengthy.

Today I’ll be talking about my experience reading ‘The Midnight Library’ by Matt Haig. As I noted in my previous post, I was interested to read this book based on what I knew of the plot. I mean, wouldn’t you be curious to see all the lives you could have lived?! I had heard people both ranting (in a bad way) and raving (in a good way) about this book. This is not usually a great sign with popular books, as it implies that the booktokers and bookstagramers are hyping up a mediocre book that no one with more than 10 brain cells would actually enjoy. But, I gave it a try anyways, and…

I didn’t hate it. Is the main character annoying? Yes, but at least she’s annoying in a way that is believable, rather than annoying because she makes so little sense as a person. Nora Seed seems to me, a fairly realistic depiction of an obnoxious, self-pitying, depressed person (no judgement, that’s me too sometimes!).

Quick-fire other things I was not too keen on:

1. Beware, the heavy-handed sciency-sounding metaphors and allusions abound in this novel! Prepare yourself for plenty of comparisons to scientific phenomena and quotes from various philosophers. Haig clearly wanted to tell a story that reflects the larger universe and its intricacies. However, I’m going to wager a guess, that Matt Haig does not have a significant science background. Not to sound all high and mighty, but coming from MIT, I know what it sounds like when really smart people interpret life through an academic lens. And this was not quite it. This felt forced. The chess metaphor used throughout the story was also questionable. I immediately got the sense that Haig does not play chess when he says that ‘the game isn’t over if there is a single pawn still on the board.” Ummm hello, have you ever watched ‘The Queen’s Gambit’? That goes against the whole point of ‘checkmate’! The only aspect of this parallel that I appreciated was the infinite nature of possibility in both a chess game and in the library.

2. The idea that when you ‘read’ an alternate life, you take the actual, physical, place of some other version of you is glossed over. Maybe my issue stems from having read ‘Dark Matter’ prior, which explicitly addresses the consequences of said self-replacement. ‘The Midnight Library’ on the other hand, leaves us with many more questions, in the sense of this plot-point feeling under-developed. Where does the other ‘you’ go while you take their place? What happens if you stay forever in their world? Does the original ‘you’ just get robbed of their own life, trapped in nothing-ness forever? IMO, Haig describes the feeling of returning to one’s root life akin to how Rick Riordan describes ‘the mist’ in his Percy Jackson series: a haze that obscures magical elements and makes people see what they ‘think’ they should see (150). I would say then, that the premise of ‘The Midnight Library’ is closer to being magical, rather than based in science. However, as mentioned above (1.), Haig makes it clear that we should believe the midnight library is a scientific phenomenon, rather than a magical one.

3. In a supposedly infinite library of countless possible lives, why is there only one book for each decision/regret that Nora desires to change? Isn’t it a little suspicious that someone dies every time she makes a different decision? When Nora moves to Australia for her bestie, her bestie dies. When she stays in the band for her brother, her brother dies. When she extends her dad’s life, she inadvertently cuts her mom’s life short. These imply that life decisions are a 1:1 exchange, that something good must always mean something bad. I believe our successes don’t necessitate sacrifices as large as another person’s life. It’s also heavily implied that people don’t know what’s best for themselves or their lives. While a band is her brother’s dream, its what drives him to suicide in an alternate world. If there are infinite lives, with infinite changes, based on minute decisions, it begs the question: shouldn’t there be lives where Nora makes these decisions, but in a slightly different way, such that her entire family and friends don’t end up dead? What about the world where Nora moves to Australia with her bestie, but doesn’t have a birthday party, and thus her bestie is never killed in a car crash? It’s givingggg overprotective dad who wants to dissuade his kids from misbehaving— “Do you know what happens when you do drugs? You die!”

4. We could explain away all of these plot holes as just, ‘well the midnight library is Nora’s near-death brain’s mechanism of making sense of what’s going on, just like a dream’ AKA the deux-ex-machina that the book tries to sell us. The events of the story are not actually taking place, thus the questions I’ve raised are not relevant, because Nora’s brain is simply guiding her towards wanting to live again– as is human survival instinct. But, isn’t this explanation kinda boring?

5. I also don’t love how explicit ‘The Midnight Library’ is with its morals and lessons. Ms. Elm, the librarian, guides Nora’s decisions so heavily throughout the novel that it feels like we almost don’t see any of Nora’s own character growth, despite the book’s implication that she is learning and changing. I guess one could argue that Ms. Elm is a physical representation of Nora’s conscience, the part of her that wants to have hope, and to live. Nevertheless, this still makes for an unsatisfying progression, when Nora doesn’t come to any realizations on her own, but must be entirely guided by someone else. I don’t want to be told by Ms. Elm how to properly live life. I don’t want an all-knowing entity to provide me with answers. I would rather a book leave me with as many questions, as answers.

6. Lastly, let’s address Nora’s relationship with Dan, her ex-fiancé, and once-husband in another reality. This relationship was just not compelling at all. Nora doesn’t seem to like or respect Dan at all, leaving the reader to wonder how they ended up together, let alone engaged, in the first place. He seems too close to a caricature of the evil, abusive, shitty boyfriend, to the extent where their relationship seems more of a forced moral lesson from the author, than a genuine struggle that Nora must contend with. In fact I found none of the relationships in ‘The Midnight Library’ to be particularly compelling, especially given that the main relationship, between Nora and Ms. Elm is in fact just Nora’s relationship with herself.

On a more positive note, because truly, this book was enjoyable for the most part, let me talk about some things I did like about ‘The Midnight Library’:

1. I like the thought-experiment of walking back through all your regrets to slowly illuminate what you actually regret, in order to figure out what’s important in your actual life. I also liked the idea of revisiting the reality of how events or people made you feel, rather than the imagined sentiments that linger in our minds when we dwell on regrets. I think both of these are great tools for gaining clarity in our own lives.

2. Haig briefly touches on social media commentary in his book. Essentially, he implies that the larger the social media presence, the more disconnected the person feels in actuality. I don’t necessarily agree with this, but Haig mentions ‘Dunbar’s number’, which is a theory that ‘human beings [are] wired to know only a hundred and fifty people, as that was the average size of the hunter-gatherer communities (127).” Now this is a theory I can get behind, and totally agree with. As a self-proclaimed introvert, who also loves making friends and talking with others, I 100% believe we are forced into communication with way more people than is optimal for our well being. I also agree than since much of this communication is virtual, we are doubly losing out, since virtual interaction doesn’t hold a candle to in-person interaction.

3. Haig’s claim that once you accept yourself for what and who you are, you will be free. This is another insight I generally agree with. Too many people, myself included, can get caught up worrying about their faults or lacks. But guess what?! Ain’t shit you can do about most of them. You will feel much more free, happy, and capable once you accept yourself as you are, and go from there.

4. The idea that when we change bad decisions (regrets), we in turn, lose many of the good decisions that came along with said regret (257).

5. Sometimes you just need to shift your perspective in order to completely change your life/your experience. However, shifting your perspective is extremely difficult to do without some kind of outside intervention (a la Ms. Elm’s role in the Midnight Library as a guiding figure for Nora) (281).

6. “There are patterns to life… Rhythms. It is so easy, while trapped in just the one life, to imagine that times of sadness or tragedy or failure or fear are a result of that particular existence. That it is a by-product of living a certain way, rather than simply living.” (179). This reminds me of Buddhism, and the idea that life is just suffering, and we gotta learn to accept it, and then we will be free. I think it is a valid point, life is nothing without suffering, and if it wasn’t this particular tragedy, it would be some other.

7. “It seems impossible to live without hurting people… That’s because it is” (186). Agreed, although some people are definitely more adept at this than others.

8. “She didn’t even need a large house and the perfect family. She just needed potential. And she was nothing if not potential. She wondered why she didn’t see it before” (269). This idea resonates a lot with what I’ve been feeling lately– Reacquainting myself with my potential has done wonders for my enjoyment of life. I think this also ties back to the idea that hope is what keeps us all going.

We’ve gone over the good and the bad, now let’s discuss the mediocre:

1. I was surprised when we find out that you can actually meet other people who are on their own ‘library-like’ journey while on your own (141). I don’t know what I think about this…

2. The black hole vs. the volcano as symbols. The same National Geographic issue, which features a black hole, is a recurring motif throughout Nora’s different lives. However, we end the story with a gift from Nora’s brother: a new issue, one featuring a volcano (286). So what does this mean? My surface-level analysis? Nora’s attempts to live out lives other than her own is a ‘black-hole’. I.e., it’s never-ending, soul-sucking, and is literally nothingness/meaningless. A volcano on the other hand erupts, it’s in motion, and it is full of emotion. Just like Nora’s eventual realization, that she wants to live her life, it’s been bubbling up inside for a long time, before finally erupting, and in its wake, transforming itself (or herself) and its surroundings.

3. Thoreau was mentioned a whole damn lot in this book. Now I’m not a philosophy major, so I don’t know much about Thoreau. But if I did, maybe I would connect with this book more. Or, maybe I’d just be even more annoyed at the frequent faux-high brow references.

4. The idea that when we are lost in life, a solid way forward is to simply ‘follow kindness’. Haig also writes: “compassion is the basis for morality… Maybe it was the basis of life too” (198). I’m not too sure about ] many things. And I’m also definitely not the most kind person I know, but I think there is definitely truth to this statement, and value in this mindset.

5. “When you stay too long in a space, you forget just how big an expanse the world is. You get no sense of the length of those longitudes and latitudes.” (134). This quote resonated with me, as it’s a question I am currently grappling with. Is the right way to go about life to travel and to seek what is new? For me to not stay in Chicago? I am very much a homebody and creature of comfort, while society and those close to me encourage me to travel or to simply venture out from what I am used to. Yet, I also think travel is not all it is cracked up to be, read: The Case Against Travel. I might disagree with Haig here. There are many philosophers who believed you could learn and grow just as much, if not more in the home.

And now, time for some comparisons AKA the bringer of all joy (in an alternate universe):

1. Both Dark Matter and The Midnight Library used Schrodinger’s box/cat as a scientific explanation of the phenomena in their respective stories. The use in ‘The Midnight Library’ felt repetitive, but I did like the addition of Nora’s own dead cat as a literal manifestation of the idea. In Haig’s story though, Nora’s cat is always dead, there is no story in the library in which Nora’s cat is still alive. Therefore, Haig seems to contradict the idea that the midnight library is the same as Schrodinger’s box. ‘Dark Matter’ focuses more on how Schrodinger’s box is the scientific basis for his machine which can jump you between realities. In that case, I think the novel uses the concept well in order to more easily explain the many-worlds theory to the reader.

2. In Dark Matter, we and the main character, Jason, immediately contend with the consequences of jumping to a parallel universe. We see this as “Jason #2”, from a parallel world, physically forces Jason #1 out of his root life, who is then left miserable in the absence of his actual life. In contrast, in ‘The Midnight Library’ vaguely implies that when you enter into a parallel world via the library, you are replacing another version of yourself. To add on to this, Ms. Elm implies that one can permanently remain in a parallel world. Thus, throughout the book, I kept wondering, where the heck does ‘Nora #2’ go when she takes her place in another reality? Haig alludes to this multiple times as well, such as when Nora describes experiencing ‘a new feeling– as if she was taking someone’s place’ (207). Well… Isn’t she? Yet, there are never any stake or consequences for Nora stealing her various alternate lives.

3. The journey to wanting to be alive, and going back to her original life back was quite forced and overly drawn out in my opinion, especially when compared to Jason’s realization in ‘Dark Matter’, which occurred pretty early into the story. Instead, in The Midnight Library’ we see a repeating theme: it’s clear Nora doesn’t actually want to die yet nothing comes of said realization. Or, Nora seems to ALMOST realize she needs to go back to her root life, but it’s like she never quite gets enough activation energy to pass the threshold of realization until the very end. For instance, Nora “felt grateful to be with Ash. Or rather, and more precisely: she imagined she was grateful, because he was lovely, and there were so many moments of joy and laughter and love.” (239). Yet it’s not until at least 10 pages later that Nora really starts to think she should leave this falsehood of a life behind. Multiple times I noted, ‘ok, so she’s finally going to realize that this isn’t HER life’, and consequently, that she needs to return to her original root life. ‘Dark Matter’ could have been longer. ‘The Midnight Library’ could have been shorter. The repetition made the build-up and resolution of story feel less impactful, and like Nora’s journey never had any real danger or stakes. That’s one thing that ‘Dark Matter’ did excellently, making the stakes of the journey VERY clear. And it did a great job at setting a tone of urgency, vs. The Midnight Library’s attempt to create urgency with the library seemingly-randomly malfunctioning based on Nora’s state of mind. The integrity of the library is explicitly said to depend on Nora’s mental state and beliefs. However, to me, the reader, Nora’s mental state seems pretty much the same throughout the entire story. Thus, there never seems to be 1. much of a character arc, or 2. a concern for whether Nora will eventually live or not.

4. One of the main themes of ‘Dark Matter’ is the importance and power of everyday love. ‘Dark Matter’ briefly touches on the power of love, when Nora realizes that her root life has been so sad and meaningless in part because it has been lacking love (247). However, this is not the main message of ‘The Midnight Library’, where Nora eventually gives up love and a family in order to return to her root life– the complete opposite of the final events in ‘Dark Matter’. However, the story does also emphasize the importance of kindness, which is a similar sentiment.

5. Both “The Midnight Library’ and ‘Dark Matter’ explore the troubles of losing one’s sense of self. As Nora keeps on picking up new books, and living out different lives, she begins “to lose any sense of who she [is] (215).” Similarly, in ‘Dark Matter’, Jason seems to lose touch with his original identity as he spends more time as Jason #2, and later when he lives through other worlds. This checks out– it makes sense that we lose our sense of self when we are removed from the world built up by the consequences of our own actions and inactions.

‘Dark Matter’ performed as expected of a ‘best-seller’. It had universal appeal, but it often tried too hard to be appealing, hence preventing me from forming any strong feelings about or deep connecting with the book and its characters. All in all I appreciated exploring the many-worlds theory of the universe through both of these books, and I’m sure there’s plenty of other similarly-founded books that I am open to reading in the future. If you like a good thriller and you want to be a solid 5/10 on the freaked out level, read ‘Dark Matter’. If you’re depressed and don’t mind slightly shmushy, surface-level lessons, read ‘The Midnight Library’.

Thanks for (probably) scanning over this post, and goodnight,

Audrey