A story about the future where there is so little darkness people do not bother sleeping much. One little boy has a new syndrome ‘Allwake’ where he is so sleep deprived that his memory and mind is completely numb and confused. He has become so disconnected from his spirit that he barely knows who he is. He is the beginning of a new breed of children who are under serious threat of being malnourished to the point of being brain dead.
Light and Darkness shows how the Earth’s disintegration due to global warming means that people have no concept of night and day which do not exist any more. People will suddenly fall asleep during the day and red buses will be called which take them away to ‘hospitals’ where they are injected with adrenaline to keep them awake. It is seen as the new disease. Yet no-one goes to bed any more. It is seen to be old fashioned, boring and unnecessary. Shops are open all day and night. Beaches and gardens are hot all year round and of course day and night. People have lots more leisure time which is often used just soaking up the sun. Almost everyone is on beta blockers (?) to stop them from falling asleep – but a rare few are allergic to these and hence they are seen as being diseased with a sudden need to sleep.
The boy, delta ram, is like a sign that things need to change. He suffers from all the negative results of this way of life. He gets severe sun burn, sleepiness, fatigue, memory loss, allergies, a wish for darkness. This life also reflects people’s total denial of the darkness within their own psyches and the world. Everyone is completely brain washed by the apparent utopia of having sun and light constantly.
In the end Delta Ram saves the day when because of his so called illness specialists are brought in and are pushed into creating a dark room for Delta to go to in times of need. Here D finds the rest and sleep that he needs and changes dramatically into a highly intelligent boy with ideas in order to make the world a much more balanced place. He starts to command a lot of respect since the changes in him are so dramatic. His face is seen on every TV screen as the miracle boy. Now everyone wants a dark room