Light from Uncommon Stars

Aside from music, the book’s other major motif is food. Aoki goes into mouthwatering detail about the various foods the characters eat, from donuts to Hainan chicken to eggplant parmigiana. Food represents a number of different ideas in the book. It reflects the stories of the immigrants who have shaped the city and helps demonstrate the theme of change and transition. Among the multiple restaurants described many were once owned by one family but later passed to a different family, and over time, their menus have evolved to reflect the changes in their community. The mixing of various different cuisines captures the mixing of cultures.

Food is also an important representation of the nuances of humanity that Lan initially struggles to understand along with her struggle to open up emotionally with her family. Food, like music, is a seemingly simple thing that Lan initially dismisses. When the Tran family takes over Starrgate Donut, they use their ship’s duplicator to replicate flawless donuts, since “if one enjoyed a food today—why should one not enjoy the same food tomorrow?” (151). However, over time, they start to lose customers. It isn’t until Aunty Floresta and Edwin have a breakthrough that Lan realizes food is not something that can simply be cloned. A certain level of emotion and intuition has to go into making it. One can’t truly make good food without learning how to appreciate the diversity of tastes in the world. The ship’s replicator, a technology far more advanced than anything on Earth, can recreate “perfection.” But merely repeating the same thing over and over drains the life from the food. The solution is to learn to appreciate the music of making food, just as the cure for the hopeless repetition of the Endplague is music itself.

The giant donut sculpture that the Tran family transforms into a stargate functions as a symbol on multiple levels. It represents both the past and the future. It symbolizes the Tran family’s link to the Galactic Empire they fled, as Lan used her idea of constructing a stargate to gain the needed permits to flee to Earth with her family. It also symbolizes passage, eventually serving as a gateway back to the Empire, to allow tourists to come to Earth. After the family’s escape, there’s no actual need for them to complete the stargate; nonetheless, for seemingly no reason, Lan starts to obsessively work on the project. Lan’s focus makes Aunty Floresta worry that Lan might be infected with the Endplague, a fear compounded by Lan’s strange obsession with the Stargate arcade game.

The Stargate game is a symbol of the Endplague itself, representing the nature of the illness. The game’s levels rise indefinitely, never reaching an endpoint, yet eventually, the game grows repetitive, forcing the player to lose by either boredom or exhaustion. The futility of the game and the futility of building the stargate, in turn, are both symbolic of Lan’s hopelessness and trauma.

In the end, the giant donut atop Starrgate Donut also transforms into a symbol of hope and escape, as Shizuka and Lan use it to flee Earth and Tremon’s clutches. Lan admits that she didn’t know why she was building the stargate at the time, but in line with the themes of the novel, her apparent symbol of hopelessness becomes one of hope. By escaping through the stargate, Shizuka gains the opportunity to play her music to the stars and cure the Endplague.

Shizuka keeps a pond of koi fish in her backyard, first put there by her father many decades before. The first time they are mentioned, the koi are associated with sameness and stasis: “In the fishpond, the same koi glided among the water lilies. Beyond that, the same hill dropped away, the same unending vista of homes, cars, and places to drive them” (17). The koi fish are also associated with Tremon, as the first time Shizuka summons him is next to the koi pond. The full significance of the koi fish emerges later, however, as Shizuka contemplates whether she will sell Katrina’s soul in order to save herself. Shizuka observes that while the koi fish have been in this pond for decades, their numbers never grow, because “the older ones, the graceful ones…the chosen ones, the brilliant ones, the ones gilded with darkness, with flame…were also the ones who ate their young” (272). The Influence of Parents on Children is a major theme through the story, with many parents (Katrina’s parents and the Matías in particular) choosing to destroy their children rather than change with the times. Shizuka has the choice to destroy Katrina, whom she has grown to see as a daughter, in order to save herself—specifically, in order to regain her original self, that is, to avoid any change. But Shizuka recognizes that while the koi fish survive, they only keep spinning in the same circles and never leave the pond. This trait ties the koi fish to the horror of the Endplague, a state in which growth stagnates and change is impossible, giving way to self-destructive despair. Shizuka recognizes that “eating her young,” like the koi fish, would end a child who could allow her beloved music to evolve and change in ways Shizuka can’t imagine. Ultimately, Shizuka chooses to save Katrina and let her carry on her legacy, rather than become like the selfish, stagnant koi fish.