Passage (novel)
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| Passage | |
 Cover of first edition (hardcover) |
|
| Author | Connie Willis |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Bantam Books |
| Publication date | 2001 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| Pages | 594 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-11124-8 |
Passage is a novel by Connie Willis published in 2001. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2001 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2002. It won the Locus Award for Best Novel in 2002.
Nominally a science fiction story, Passage concerns itself with the efforts of a research psychologist to understand the phenomenon of near-death experiences by interviewing hospital patients after they are revived following clinical death.
[edit] Plot introduction
The protagonist allies herself with another researcher who can induce a pseudo-near death experience, but they have trouble finding volunteers who can have a near death experience but are not affiliated with a particularly persistent charlatan researcher into the phenomenon, and she eventually elects to undergo the process herself. She finds herself wandering through a dream-like version of the Titanic, encountering people known to her who have died recently, or are themselves symbolically near death.
The dream motif is reflected in her experiences in the hospital, a 3-D maze of buildings, bridges and passages where the task of getting from one location to another is frustrated by blockages caused by maintenance and perpetual repainting, not to mention the need to avoid human pests. One such pest is a charlatan researcher of NDEs, who contaminates subjects by steering their recollections in the direction of his own quasi-religious theories. Another is a patient who is all too ready to share his recollections of World War II, which change constantly, suggesting that he is a pathological liar. However, in a way that often occurs in a Connie Willis novel, it is these pests who help the researcher find a resolution to her puzzle. Unfortunately, just as she fully understands the nature of the near death experiences - and before she is able to inform anyone - she is stabbed by a patient affected by a drug called "rogue", in the emergency room.
An RIPT scan is a procedure in which chemical tracers are used to "simultaneously [photograph] the electrochemical activity in different subsections of the brain for a 3-D picture of neural activity in the working brain".[1] The fictional RIPT scan is not to be confused with the real-life PET scan, which is a similar procedure. The main difference between the two is that the PET scan uses radioactive tracers, whereas the RIPT scan uses chemical tracers. The reasoning behind this small improvement in the technology is that the author of the story needed a brain scan that could be performed repeatedly without harm to the patient. Hence, the creation of the RIPT scan.
Her partner must now race to find the conclusion she had drawn, in order to save her and others.
[edit] Publication history
- First hardcover edition, 2001: Bantam Books, ISBN 0-553-11124-8.
- First paperback edition, 2002: Bantam Books, ISBN 0-553-58051-5.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Willis, Connie (2001). Passage (in English), 38.
