Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Summary

“To play requires trust and love.” Gabrielle Zevin’s "Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow" asks us to reconsider the profundity of play and its role in shaping connections, identities, and the creative process.

1: Friendship Beyond Romance

Zevin subverts the conventional narrative of romantic partnerships at the center of life stories by showcasing a deep, enduring friendship as the book’s core relationship. Sam and Sadie’s bond exemplifies how a platonic relationship can be as intense, fulfilling, and complicated as romance.

The two meet as children at a hospital and bond while playing Super Mario Bros, laying the foundation for a lifelong connection. Their shared love for gaming evolves into a profound creative partnership. Their friendship thrives not in romantic sparks, but through their mutual respect, humor, and creative compatibility. However, like any relationship, it’s tested by misunderstandings, jealousy, and external circumstances.

Despite these challenges, Sam and Sadie circle back to each other repeatedly. They demonstrate that collaboration and shared passions can keep people bound together through personal disagreements and professional clashes. Their nearly romantic collapse shows that significant non-romantic relationships can carry transformative power in shaping one’s life.

Examples

• Sam’s fury upon discovering Sadie visited him initially for her community service requirement reveals the complexities of their early bond.
• Their reunion on a Boston subway in their twenties leads to a creative partnership that changes their lives.
• Sadie’s remark to Sam that “true collaborators are rare” underscores their appreciation for their unique connection.

2: Creativity and Gaming as Art

Zevin treats video games as an art form that mirrors life’s struggles and joys. Sam and Sadie’s creations are designed not just to entertain but to examine ethical questions and emotional realities.

For instance, their first game, "Ichigo," narrates a journey back from a devastating wave. It offers both an artistic homage to Hokusai’s woodblock prints and a chance for players to explore themes of perseverance. Their later game, "Solution," becomes a thought experiment about complicity, forcing players to reckon with whether they'll question the purposes behind their virtual labor.

Gaming becomes a meaningful avenue for storytelling and engagement. By aligning gaming with other art forms, Zevin challenges readers to rethink what creativity means and where its boundaries lie.

Examples

• Ichigo’s genderless protagonist lets players focus on the emotional story rather than an assigned identity.
• "EmilyBlaster," Sadie’s poetry-based game, bridges gaming and literature.
• "Solution" forces players to evaluate their ethical instincts in a Nazi-era setting.

3: Resilience Through Play

For both characters, gaming is more than entertainment—it becomes a source of healing, connection, and escape. Sam, grappling with trauma and disability, finds solace and strength in gaming.

After the car crash that changes his life, Sam retreats into video games to cope with physical pain and emotional uncertainty. Sadie’s presence enhances this healing process, offering Sam companionship and a sense of normalcy. Later, Sam channels this deeply personal relationship with disability into his games, crafting stories that reflect his struggles and triumphs.

Through Sam’s perspective, the book illustrates how play offers a safe space to confront life’s most challenging realities. Gaming here mirrors a medium for self-expression and recovery.

Examples

• Sam’s connection with Sadie in the hospital games room serves as his first steps toward emotional healing.
• His insistence on a disabled character in the game "Both Sides" reflects his desire for inclusivity and representation.
• Sam’s attachment to creating characters performing physical feats he cannot showcases gaming as an outlet for his aspirations.

4: Gender Politics in Gaming

The novel portrays the struggles female game designers like Sadie face while navigating a male-dominated industry. Misogyny shadows Sadie’s career, affecting her relationships and public recognition.

Sadie’s relationship with her game design tutor Dov is emblematic of imbalanced power dynamics women face in professional settings. Although her success transcends Dov’s influence, rumors continue to undermine her achievements.

Her experiences highlight gender inequality and the pressures women endure, especially in creative industries where stereotypes and biases prevail.

Examples

• Sadie is one of the only two women in her game design class at Harvard.
• Rumors about her leveraging her relationship with Dov haunt her for years.
• Even as a celebrated designer, her male peers often receive more public credit.

5: The Role of Chance

From fate-driven encounters to the unpredictability of life’s events, chance plays a key role in Sadie and Sam’s story. It mirrors gaming’s built-in randomness and the unpredictability of real life.

Their initial meeting at the hospital and unexpected reunion years later are framed as strokes of fortune. Such moments underscore both the allure and peril of chance, as these opportunities aren’t always repeatable outside of a game world where players can reboot.

This theme emphasizes the tension between gaming’s infinite possibilities and life’s one-shot consequences. It’s a reminder that luck shapes lives in ways both inspiring and tragic.

Examples

• Sam and Sadie’s chance meeting while waiting at a Boston subway becomes a life-changing moment.
• Sam’s mother’s sudden move to Los Angeles sets off the events for him and Sadie to meet as kids.
• A hospital nurse’s request for Sadie to regularly interact with Sam sparks their early friendship.

6: Identity and Belonging

Through its characters, the novel examines the complexities of identity, belonging, and representation in creative fields. Both Sam and Sadie navigate the challenges of cultural appropriation and genuine representation in their work.

Sam, being half-Korean and half-Jewish without a strong connection to either culture, wonders where he fits into debates about cultural ownership. Sadie, too, faces the implications of creating non-binary and Japanese-themed characters without belonging to these groups.

The characters reveal the tensions between drawing inspiration from various cultures and ensuring respectful, authentic representation.

Examples

• Sam’s identity as biracial informs his response to debates about cultural appropriation.
• Sadie questions whether their first game Ichigo would survive today’s pressures on cultural authenticity.
• Mapletown creates a virtual world with progressive viewpoints contrasting real-world limitations.

7: Video Games as a Space for Exploration

Sam and Sadie’s games create immersive experiences that tackle real-world themes. Their collaborative work serves as a reflective space for players to explore emotions, identities, and moral dilemmas.

Players in their MMORPG, Mapletown, can live out progressive ideologies that break from societal norms, such as legalized same-sex marriages far before it happens outside the game. Games like "Solution" confront players with ethical trade-offs, pushing them to think critically about their decisions.

This use of gaming transforms it into a platform for empathy and learning.

Examples

• Players can embrace virtual same-sex marriages in Mapletown.
• "Solution" rewards or punishes characters based on whether they question authority.
• EmilyBlaster combines poetry with interactive gaming mechanics.

8: The Fragility of Partnerships

Zevin portrays creative collaboration as deeply rewarding but emotionally taxing. Sam and Sadie’s partnership, while fruitful, is marked by tensions and unspoken grievances.

Sadie resents the credit Sam often receives, while Sam struggles with the public-facing role he never wanted. Their disagreements lead to creative flops like the divided two-storyline game that fails to resonate with players.

These challenges reveal both the strength and fragility of collaborative efforts.

Examples

• Their experiment with two distinct storylines leads to an unsuccessful game.
• Sam’s frustration over public relations work clashes with Sadie’s desire for acknowledgment.
• Despite strains, they rediscover mutual respect, evident in their final game collaboration.

9: The Transformative Power of Play

Zevin underscores the unique intimacy and trust inherent in gaming. For Sam and Sadie, gaming is not just an avenue for expression; it becomes the cornerstone of their bond.

Shared play allows them to reconnect after fights and forge deeper understandings of each other. Beyond that, gaming fosters their creativity, providing a sandbox to test ideas, take risks, and grow.

This idea redefines gaming not as escapism, but as a form of connection and trust.

Examples

• The hospital games room sparks their camaraderie and a lifelong journey.
• Despite misunderstandings, gaming draws them back time and again.
• Sadie handing Sam a hard drive containing a new game signals their creative and personal resilience.

Takeaways

1. Collaborate with others to foster new ideas and push creative boundaries, even when conflicts arise.
2. Seek out creative pursuits or playspaces as avenues for self-expression, healing, and connection.
3. Rethink the role of leisure in your life—value games, play, or hobbies as meaningful and transformative experiences.