As part of my coursework this semester, I completed an independent study. Working under the close supervision of a professor in the English department, I read these five novels in an attempt to examine the sacralization of AI/technology in contemporary society as part of my larger thesis work about God, posthumanism, and American postmodernist literature.
You definitely do not need to be an academic or even vaguely interested in my lofty ass topic to enjoy these works. Each of them crafts a unique yet unsettlingly familiar world helmed by a particular kind of technology. If you're interested in AI (or just...a human online), these works will speak to you.
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson (2019)
Personal note: I was first introduced to Frankissstein by my lovely friend Katherine when we taught high school English together in Manhattan—she's always been much smarter and more worldly about books than I am. She raved about this one after she read it, and loaned me her copy to read! I finished it ravenously and have not stopped thinking about it since. Revisiting it with my scholarly (aka critical) eyes on did update my perception of certain parts of it. (Also: throwback to my subway reading photos :') I got back into reading during the pandemic because of the magic that was recognizing book titles other subway riders were reading.)
Spanning multiple worlds at once, Winterson merges the world of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein, with our contemporary world of AI, sexbots, and cryogenic suspension. She has not only updated Frankenstein for the digital age, she broke each character down into its most essential core and re-fitted it with a contemporary match. All are obvious parallels, and most are quite successful! Mary Shelley becomes Ry Shelley, a trans doctor and journalist while Dr. Frankenstein becomes Victor Stein, a (slightly mad) visionary bio-tech bro.
The story is incredibly unique and lively, though I found the ending rather lukewarm. In a recurring theme throughout each of these texts, the authors are remarkably measured in their portrayals of AI and technology. Dystopian, Internet user beware!, fear-mongering texts these are not. Winterson is a master at grounding her story firmly within our current reality. She even references current figures and companies that make sense within the bounds of her tale.
Trigger warning: While the fact of Ry's transness is essential to the story and functions as a critical part of Winterson's critique of AI and the hyper tech boom, there is an assault scene that I found extremely unnecessary. It occurs towards the middle-end of the novel, and can be skipped without losing anything essential to the plot, IMO.
An updated classic with some fascinating ideas and rather half-baked premises. Cautious recommend.
3.5/5
Zero K by Don DeLillo (2017)
Zero K is a novel that follows Jeffrey Lockheart, son of a billionaire named Ross, to The Convergence—a mystery-shrouded compound in a tucked-away part of the world where rich people are, well, converging to voluntarily donate their bodies to a new scientific order that will revive them at some point in the future. Jeffrey, the voice of the average Joe in this haunted hall of disembodied mannequins and random art installations, doesn't buy it, but Ross does, and what the two experience together upon the occasion of Jeffrey's stepmother's assisted death and cryogenic suspension will change them both forever.
Zero K is definitely the most brutalist work of the list, but the form really serves to amplify the central message. DeLillo doesn't provide a strong enough raison d'etre for believers in The Convergence, but that also could be the entire point, so I'm not docking him for it.
Recommend if you like to dip your toe into existentialism.
4/5
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro (2021)
Klara serves as an AF for Josie, a lifted child who suffers from a mysterious chronic illness that seems to stem from the genetic modification she underwent as a baby. Josie's mother, Chrissie, is both overbearing and emotionally distant, and it quickly becomes apparent that she has more insidious plans for Klara. Klara's emotional investment in Josie only grows as time goes on, and Klara becomes determined to stop at nothing to help Josie, even if that means assuring her own self destruction.
Klara and the Sun is a very moving portrait of friendship and love. At the same time, the novel is a grim warning of the dangerous lure of technology and an ever-evolving, highly-exclusionary social class system.
My standout favorite of the novels I read this semester. Enthusiastically recommend!
5/5
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan (2022)
The Candy House is another parallel universe that is remarkably similar to ours, only helmed by a tech billionaire named Bix Bouton whose company, Mandala, has created technology that allows users to upload their entire consciousnesses to a cloud. Through doing this, they can browse the (anonymous) memories of others, allowing them to solve crime and cure diseases like Alzheimer's. This technology also leads to the development of "weevils"—spyware that can be implanted within people to monitor their thoughts and perceptions.
Egan is an author who creates an entire web of characters in her work. Each chapter of Candy House focuses on a new person, from Bix to Chris Salazar to Lulu, the spy, and the daughter of Miranda Kline, the anthropologist who developed the algorithms that powered Mandala's technology in the first place and has since "eluded" from the society her work unknowingly helped create. I think The Candy House is a very smart work about the potential risk of relying on technology to replicate human behavior—behavior that is inherently biased and flawed.
I am not sure that message was intentional on Egan's part, but that's another story.... There are some gimmicky chapters and moments, but I think the work as a whole stands out.
Recommend if you're fascinated by the potential dark side of technology, and the introspection that comes from a variegated cast of characters.
4/5
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood (2021)
I have never felt more exposed as an Internet user than I did while reading Lockwood's No One Is Talking About This. Truly her mastery of Internet vernacular and the act of committing the cyber moment to paper is a true mindfuck for someone who feels pretty regularly entrenched in the digital culture Lockwood describes.
The book is split into two halves, really. The first half reads like a perpetual live Tweet event—a stream-of-consciousness style for the digital age—that readily establishes a) the in-group of those among us who belong to the tribe of #PerpetuallyOnline (even if you don't categorize yourself this way, you will recognize yourself multiple times over in Lockwood's words) and b) the absolute depth of the protagonist's Internet persona.
The second half of the book is a harsh removal of both protagonist and audience from the online-world to the all-too-real world when something goes terribly wrong and strands the protagonist firmly within the realm of the four dimensional people instead of "the portal." This work was honestly not that relevant to the rest of the work I was doing with the other novels, but it was still a monumental read.
Recommend if you're looking for a relatively quick sucker punch.
4/5
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