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The History Of Luminous Motion

3.88 of 5 stars 3.88 · rating details · 267 ratings · 48 reviews

Phillip is eight years old. He experiences material reality as a hindrance, so he tries to stay in an inner realm composed only of abstract concepts like gravity, motion, sound and light. He lives with Mom, who stays alone in her bedroom. Once he killed a man with gleaming tools from a hardware store. He has a friend with whom he does burglary and drugs and seances. Then D...more

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Mar 28, 2013 Mari Gee rated it 5 of 5 stars

I stumbled upon this in a used bookstore for a dollar or so in the very early 90s. It was before internet access was a house-hold thing, and for some bizarre reason I never read the jacket cover, so I had no preconceived notions. I miss that sometimes... knowing too much about a book before reading it is a bit like watching a million trailers for a movie... by the time you see it you've pretty much seen the best parts already. Which is mainly why most of my reviews don't give an outline synopsis...more

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Aug 29, 2009 John Young rated it 1 of 5 stars

Okay... I am starting to feel bad that I have only been putting highly rated books in my book-list here, so I feel compelled to list some things I hated.
I read this many years ago, and wanted to like it. A friend in college that was extraordinarily well-read gave it to me, and another (respected) friend touted it as well...
I couldn't stand it!
To this day, I will admit that maybe I just wasn't getting something, but I refuse to re-read it to find out.
The main problem that I recall was the narrato...more

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Oct 22, 2012 Tripp added it

Shelves: first-person, past-tense

Lyrical, sharp, beautiful writing in the service of a disturbing story. Bradfield takes the risk of stretching the voice of his eight-year-old point of view character, Phillip Davis, and Phillip's adolescent friends--none of them sound like any kids you ever heard, I don't care how precocious. He pulls it off; he pulls off this dialogue because it's spoken by kids, not in spite of. It was a great risk to take, and he nailed it.

The language is amazing, and all in the service of the story and Brad...more Lyrical, sharp, beautiful writing in the service of a disturbing story. Bradfield takes the risk of stretching the voice of his eight-year-old point of view character, Phillip Davis, and Phillip's adolescent friends--none of them sound like any kids you ever heard, I don't care how precocious. He pulls it off; he pulls off this dialogue because it's spoken by kids, not in spite of. It was a great risk to take, and he nailed it.

The language is amazing, and all in the service of the story and Bradfield's narrative goals; in fact, the language, being so at odds with the creepy and downright horrible images and episodes recounted by Phillip, creates an extra layer of dissonance and discomfort. I notice some of the Goodreads comments mark Phillip as a young psychopath, though he seems more like a sociopath to me, or, to quote the psychiatric diagnosis from near the novel's end, "paranoid schizophrenic, with delusions of grandeur and competitive reality disorder."

It's remarkable how destabilizing and claustrophobic it is to be locked into Phillip's point of view for the duration, which made it difficult at crucial moments to distinguish what was conventionally real from what was Phillip's reality. The novel nicely doubles as a Lost Planet guide to late 1980s Southern California, particularly that aspect of suburbia that can seem deficient of almost everything that makes life vital and interesting. The cigarettes, booze, and drugs consumed by young Phillip and friends is stunning.

Phillip's obsession with the fundamental forces of the universe serve to structure the book, with sections titled Motion, Light, Sound & Gravity, and so on. Here is where Bradfield's prose achieves escape velocity time and again. Even when he's using his gift with language to show the emptiness and tautology of Phillip's mother's dialogue, it's a thing of brilliance:

"In those days I thought light was layered and textured like leaves in a tree. It moved and ruffled through the car. It was gentle and imminent like snow," captures part of Phillip's early fascination with what he calls the history of luminous motion.

When he and his mother finally stop driving away from Phillip's dad and settle in one place, he goes to school. Rather than a simple statement of this fact, Bradfield colors it with Phillip's perception and vocabulary: "It was interminable day after day of vacuous and unremitting childhood, unrelieved by any useful information whatsoever. The world had closed itself around me, and threatened to teach me only what it wanted me to know."

Finally, when it comes to the gruesome, Bradfield understands the secret Hitchcock knew so well, that there is no need to hold the camera on the blood and gore. (view spoiler) Gorgeous language, disturbing story.

(less)

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Feb 10, 2010 Christoph rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What is the difference between childhood and delusional fantasy? In-the-moment it would seem nothing! When a human has no experience of a world on which to base reality other than the schizophrenic world of a drifter, the psychic outcome of children forced to experience a world such as this might find something akin to a rabbit-hole tale that does not have a happy ending. Not to give a moral point to the History of Luminous Motion that otherwise may not exist, but certainly this is a notion that...more What is the difference between childhood and delusional fantasy? In-the-moment it would seem nothing! When a human has no experience of a world on which to base reality other than the schizophrenic world of a drifter, the psychic outcome of children forced to experience a world such as this might find something akin to a rabbit-hole tale that does not have a happy ending. Not to give a moral point to the History of Luminous Motion that otherwise may not exist, but certainly this is a notion that struck me towards the end of reading this book.

This is the story of a supposedly young boy of 8 (and a half even) immersed in a world of chaos and insanity yet also rationality and measurement. The young anti-hero, who as the story progresses one assumes is some anti-christ in training, has somehow absorbed the wisdom and analysis of the literary and (most significantly) scientific world which he finds buried in an unending stack of self-imposed education. Meanwhile, surrounding himself with a triumvirate of less ambitious but equally skilled pre-adolescents, they all seem to be bizarre caricatures of full-fledged adults. I picture something akin to cartoon characters with adult thoughts and emotions in miniaturized bodies.

Like the film Memento, as we see the world through this twisted youth's eyes while still able to draw from the world of our concrete lives where we know who we are and how life is really supposed to work, we are forced to consider the idea that the reality portrayed in this story may be unknowable but definitely not what it seems. Regardless, we are on this ride and we follow young Phillip on the rollercoaster around Southern California with his transient, chaotic mother hopping from one unstable situation to the next. Broken homes ending in murder? Seances with the dead? The death of his mother? His father? The sexual tension with Beatrice? There is no true clarity on these questions, only the cold, calculating mind of a man-child.

Beyond the surreal story, there is a coincidential organization to the book that just makes too much sense to be unintentional. For instance, the book is organized into 7 sections each named after some property or parameter of life but slowly moving from the physical to the emotional by the books end. The first three and last three sections are approximately equal in length (about 80 pages) with the middle section aptly named Mass. Further, at the bottom left hand corner of certain pages the initials of the book are listed with a stepwise integer starting at 1. The first notation occurs on the 20th page, then the numeration is listed every 16 pages until the 11th number occurs, 20 pages from the end. I am not clear on what this notation means but it is present in my copy of the book.

To be sure, this is a multi-layered book both emotionally, psychically and mathematically. A fairly easy and light read on the surface but there are deeper meanings waiting to be found in this strange little story. (less)

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May 13, 2011 Nicolas Shump rated it 1 of 5 stars

For several years before and during my undergraduate years at KU, I worked at the Town Crier in downtown Lawrence. It no longer exists, but it was a bookstore, pipe shop, and Hallmark card store. We sold magazines too. I worked there mostly for the books and the employee discount.
For me, one of the first things that attracts me to a book is its cover. Often with the books displayed with only the spine visible, I am drawn to titles. This was the case with Scott Bradfield's first novel, The Histo...more For several years before and during my undergraduate years at KU, I worked at the Town Crier in downtown Lawrence. It no longer exists, but it was a bookstore, pipe shop, and Hallmark card store. We sold magazines too. I worked there mostly for the books and the employee discount.
For me, one of the first things that attracts me to a book is its cover. Often with the books displayed with only the spine visible, I am drawn to titles. This was the case with Scott Bradfield's first novel, The History of Luminous Motion. Bradfield had earned a PhD in English from Cal-Irvine, part time home of Jacques Derrida.
I have learned that Bradfield is now an American expat who lives in London. He has written several additional novels and has achieved a modicum of fame for an speech turned into in a essay titled "Why I Hate Toni Morrison's Beloved."
This is my first and probably last Bradfield novel I will read. The novel is the story of an 8-year old boy Phillip who lives with a mentally ill mother who makes a living by stealing the credit cards of men she sleeps with. Phillip's father comes in and out of his life throughout the novel. Phillip kills one of her mother's boyfriends who they had actually moved in with. The man, Pedro, according to Phillip is one of the few decent men his mother had met. From the grave, Pedro occasionally appears to counsel Phillip on a variety of topics.
Phillip's two friends in the novel are a pair of 12-year olds named Rodney and Beatrice.
From what I described so far, the novel is a bit odd, but I suppose there are 8 year olds who are capable of murder and probably women like Phillip's mother too. So that is not my primary beef with Bradfield's novel. It is the utter implausibility of the maturity and interests of the three kids. Now I'm a fan of Marquez and other magical realists. I don't mind the appearance of fantastical elements into a narrative, but I think Bradfield over does it.
To his credit, Bradield is a gifted writer who has a true talent with his prose. Here is Phillip's mom explaining the concept of luminous motion:
“‘The history of motion is that luminous progress men and women make in the world alone,’ Mom said. ‘We’re moving into sudden history now, baby. That life men lead and women disavow, that sure and certain sense that nothing is wrong, that life does not beat or pause, that the universe expands relentlessly. You can feel the source of all the world’s light in your beating heart, in the map of your blood, in the vast range and pace of your brain. That’s the light, baby. You don’t need any other. Just that light beating forever inside of you.’” (42)
Bradfield also excels at creating vivid portraits of the inner landscape of his characters. This is a description of Phillip's mom and her darkness:
“Sometimes I even looked forward to having the darkness take me places. I took me down luminous rivers on large rotting rafts and barges. I saw strange birds flying overhead, and the eyes of other creatures emerging from the mucky water. I traveled down the river where twisted houses sat on shores filled with dark men who wouldn’t come outside. The dark men were inside whispering about me. They held heavy spears and weapons by their side while their addled women cooked large pots of gristly meat and hung their washing out to dry. The men wore loincloths and streaks of paint on their arms and faces. A few mangy dogs lay around outside the circle of men, contemplating the dim fire. One of the dark men was my father.” (130)
We learn of Phillip's desire if not for love, then for an enveloping sense of affection:“I never wanted to be loved when I was eight years old. I wanted to be crushed by soft massive arms. I wanted to be lifted into some towering embrace. I wanted to be hugged so tight I couldn’t breathe. I wanted to be hugged until my eyes watered and my lungs collapsed and my heart popped.” (140) Though there is an implicit sense of violence in this description, there is also the presence of a deep longing in Phillip. Since Phillip does not find this embrace, he turns to drugs (taken from his parents, weed, and various types of beer and hard liquor. This is where the novel starts to leave a bad taste in my mouth. Because everyone knows of 3rd graders who can easily score good dope and cheap liquor. Phillip is kept out of school too, so he sits around stoned and drunk all day.
When he does go out, Phillip hangs with Beatrice and Rodney his 6th grade "mentors" for lack of a better term. Rodney at least has an ambition. “So that’s when I decided to become a warlock. To master the satanic arts of black magic. Devil worshipping, for you laymen. I want to learn to master what they call the black arts.” (178)
Beatrice rounds out this odd triumvirate of boy murder and apprentice warlock by appearing to be the group intellectual.
Here's Beatrice lecturing Phillip on one of his intellectual shortcomings:“Man’s myth of intentionality. I do things to you. Prediction. Subject and object. The dream of perfect cosmic grammar.” (170) Is this the type of grammar they teach in schools now? It gets better though. Beatrice not to be outdone by Rodney's aspirations of the dark arts embarks upon an ambitious reading project.
“I’ve been reading a lot lately, Phillip, since we broke up. French feminists, existential Marxists. I’m teaching myself French so I can read Sartre’s Critique of Dialectical Reason— much of which has been improperly translated, from what I understand.” (171) So the real question I suppose is what Beatrice woudl be doing if she and Phillip had not broken up? Heidegger, Camus or perhaps de Beauvoir?
For me, all it would have taken is for Bradfield to add ten years to the age of the protagonists to make me go along for the ride, but I don't know that even Garcia Marquez would try throwing in a prepubescent devotee of French existentialism!
Without spoiling the ending, Rodney and Phillip embark upon a violent course of action encouraged partially by the dead Pedro.
If you can imagine a trio of messed up, but hyperintellectual tweens with a passion for drugs, sex, and violence, this is the novel for you. I couldn't make it work. (less)

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Jul 26, 2009 Mary rated it 5 of 5 stars

I found The History of Luminous Motion at a second-hand bookstore and picked it up knowing nothing about it, or the author. I'm so glad I did. I love this book. It's one of the best I've read in years, actually. I'm not quite sure how he managed to get away with this insanely brilliant eight-year-old narrator, but it only made it more interesting. I'm definitely going to reread it at some point.

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Nov 10, 2009 Krok Zero rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fall-2009

Imagine if Don DeLillo and Oliver Stone collaborated on a remake of Bugsy Malone, except instead of kids-as-harmless-gangsters, you've got kids-as-philosophical-psychopaths. At its best, this novel achieves that wonderful effect I get from guys like Barry Hannah—the sense that every sentence is so thrillingly non-ordinary that I don't even have a context or a frame of reference for it. At its worst, this is an assortment of highly pretentious ideas about—oh, I don't know, "history" and "motion"...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Walter rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of the odder books I have ever loved, but reading Justin Torres' WE THE ANIMALS made me pick this up again, as something is Torres' storytelling reminded me of Bradfield's. I am pleased to say it held up twenty years later. Give this to people who liked Emma Donohoe's ROOM, though that is by far the superior book.

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Apr 20, 2009 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this without knowing anything about it—which was, and is always, best. As a result I experienced most of the story in a state of blissful confusion and anxiety without expectation. This book was a huge influence on any efforts I've made to write something evocative.

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Sep 12, 2009 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people who truly believe age is only a number

Shelves: 2009

phillip is 8 years old and when you read this book you might be like me and have to keep remembering that. a precocious little boy living in the fast lane on the way to mayhem. everything about this book is interesting with a streak of chilling running through it. phillip's inner dialogue and ability to understand adults is beyond his years. job well done!

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Aug 16, 2011 herocious herocious rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this book after Mary Miller highly recommended it on Facebook.

I liked it a lot. Really couldn't put it down for too long.

There was a part, though, motivated by Black Magic that struck me as graphic and almost unnecessary, but not out of character. I wouldn't like watching this part in a movie.

Having said that, this novel absorbs and shocks and disgusts and leaves you suspended in a very familiar house that is no longer yours.

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Aug 12, 2009 Michael rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary_fiction, read-but-dont-recall-much, read-when-young

Read this years ago when I was maybe reviewing books for a small journal. Had the author's collection Dream of the Wolf. Liked both, but didn't love either. A completely interesting writer, but not one to inspire warmth.

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Nov 26, 2008 Kandee rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this book 4 times, each time loving it more and more...until this 'friend' borrowed it and bitched about the over use of similes... and now that is all I can see, but my memory of it is solid, so I won't read it again

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Nov 10, 2009 Alison rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another very disturbing book that confirms for all time: single mothers destroy only-child sons! Blech. But a good story and interesting look at one boy's response to leaving the center of his mother's world.

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Aug 22, 2010 Linda Cohen rated it 3 of 5 stars

I loved this the 1st time I read it but on a 2nd reading a few years later it didn't hold up as well as I would have liked. Still overall a very good book.

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Aug 06, 2011 Gaije rated it 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorite, favorite, favorite, books ever. Gorgeous prose, weirdly surreal narrative, love, love, love.

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Jun 21, 2009 Stacey rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

As far as books about precocious children go, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a better choice.

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Feb 11, 2009 Lyric Powers rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

this has been my favorite book since i first read it when i was 13. it's absolutely beautiful.

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Apr 09, 2013 Allie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Loved the prose, but I wanted the book's grimdark, world-weary child protagonist to have a little bit more of a sense of humor.

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Aug 12, 2011 Julia Clinger rated it 5 of 5 stars

Darkly beautiful. Creates its own insane rules and lives by them. Funny AND die.

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May 04, 2013 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Strange; wonderful and creepy and strange.

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Sep 07, 2012 Matthewsherling rated it 5 of 5 stars

possibly my favorite novel of all time

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Dec 29, 2010 Kaethe rated it 5 of 5 stars

If you want to tell a story about rootless, drug-addled characters who drift amorally through hell, you have to make the characters younger and younger. Fitzgerald and Hemingway wrote of vets in their 20s and 30s. Ellis brought the age way down, but I think Bradfield may have hit the limit. Toddlers are hellish, but they don't know how to buy drugs and they're to small to wield most weapons.

I don't know why I'm so drawn to stories like this. Probably just cheap thrills. But I still loved it when...more

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Jan 31, 2010 Sara cunningham rated it 4 of 5 stars

thrilling, twisted, and fantastic.

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Sep 26, 2012 Mark Hill rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very disturbing.

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Aug 30, 2012 Nathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

The mental life of a precociously brilliant eight-year-old who departs from family and convention and along the way makes stops at fantasy, delusion, substance abuse, devil-worship and delinquency. Making sense of a world without a moral center. Chilling and sad.

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Apr 20, 2008 Brent Legault rated it 4 of 5 stars

Where are you, Scott? And more importantly, why don't you write? I miss you. I miss the little things you used to say. In your novels, I mean. The novels you used to write. Back in the good old 1990's. You were fast-tracked for Boy Wonderism but now you're not here anymore. Why don't you write? Where are you, Scott?

You're not dead, are you?

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Aug 14, 2007 Breakzqueen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: samsfiction

I have read this book over 50 times. I think I first read in in '95.

It's poetry. Some of the most lyrical writing I've come across in modern fiction.

Haven't been impressed with the rest of Bradfield's oevre, unfortunately.

Will post more about this book soon.

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Aug 14, 2007 Breakzqueen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: samsfiction

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Oct 03, 2007 Melani rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I feel like Bradfield read Lacan and was winking at the reader as he painted characters from Lacanian concepts. I would give more stars but there was something disjointed about the book as a whole; the first and second half didn't jive.

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