Plot summary[ edit ] Raphe is a casualty of the dot-com collapse, a former website designer now forced to work as a clerk at a mailbox shop in order to make ends meet. He discovers the shop is actually a front for a scam. His exposure to this seedy underground sparks his curiosity and eventually leads him on a journey into some of the more bizarre subcultures of San Francisco.
She discovers the hunt for love is far more complicated than she expected, especially when looking in all the wrong places. Mark Hazodo is a rich video-game entrepreneur whose love of games extends into a sordid secret sex life filled with extremes. The journeys of these three main characters intersect, overlap and eventually collide with outrageous, provocative and sometimes disturbing consequences. Major themes[ edit ] SoMa explores the continuum of sexual orientation.
The author makes the argument that in an open society, where people are allowed to pursue their desires without restrictions or shame, simplistic black and white views of sexuality are replaced by orientations that exist as complex shades of gray. The novel also depicts the consequences of living in the new millennium, an age when the latest generations have been bombarded since birth with constant sensory stimulation. Behaviors are pushed to new extremes in order to experience a tangible level of joy, pain, love or pleasure.
The novel explores the sexualization of previously ordinary moments, in order to turn them into opportunities for gratification. Even sex and drug use are played out in unusual, dangerous ways. The author has said the novel also represents a spiritual and philosophical treatise. In an interview with the literary review Small Spiral Notebook, Scott said, "Each of the main characters in SoMa follows a particular life philosophy to deal with their freedoms.
Do these older belief constructs fit these times? Do they help or hurt the characters?
