Introduction
It's hard to determine an author's purpose without actually speaking to him or her. I've read some reviews of the book and an interview with Eggers (click here to go to it) and have determined that he was, in a way, rewriting 1984 or Inferno. Whether this was intended or not, I do not know. It's a timely coincidence that The Circle has connections to Inferno and Heart of Darkness. Eggers attempted to created a sort of "dystopia" to which we can relate. Readers must ask themselves, Is this where technology is taking us? Of course, if the answer could be yes then the average reader (not just a fantasy aficionado) would enjoy the book. But I've found the answer to veer toward no, which to me makes the book too fantastical for my liking. I think it comes down to society and what society values. This is something upon which I've merely touched in my previous blog posts.The Circular World versus Our World
In interpreting the text, it’s easy to get confused by the issue of societal norms and ethics, in that we inherently suppose that the values of the society in The Circle are identical to those of our own society. Of course written by a member of our society, the book lacks any explicit explanation of the values of its society. In our society, we tend to value privacy, we tend to value individualism and independence, and we tend to value freedom. In the society of The Circle, over which The Circle has increasing control, the vast majority favors “freedom” and knowledge over privacy. To us, this is quite paradoxical: isn’t privacy a part of freedom? From an external viewpoint, that is the readers of the book, the society of The Circle is unrealistic and improbable. The thought of “People would never give up their privacy to this extent” is sure to pass through the readers’ heads.That’s where The Circle is lacking. The readers are thrown into a society that they suppose to be a real, futuristic portrait of our world today. The fact that the book’s society is not like ours today, and, more so, the lack of any sort of transition into this world is what limits the book’s impact. We can’t worry about having to give up all privacy if we can’t see it as real. Most characters in the book that value what we value make an unstated, almost magical, transition into being full-blown members of The Circle society. Mae’s parents are the perfect example: they at first resist the privacy eliminating components of the Circle, but with the flip of a page, it seems, they have cameras up around their house to broadcast every second of their lives, just like the rest.
What causes this transition? How does it happen? These are the questions that Eggers fails to address. It’s precisely that which causes readers to think that the book is a harsh exaggeration of what may happen one day, as opposed to that the book is a very real possibility of our future. If the book began with a distant, fantastical society, readers would assume the book to be fantasy, rather than realistic fiction. The book makes the instant transition from realism to fantasy, and that’s unsettling.
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| The New York Times has this illustration for The Circle. I find it fitting. |
Written by Seth
I actually have to disagree. Although I was very unnerved by the technologies impacts on the world, I could see how most people would be enamored by them. Most people see only what they want to see, and I believe that society isn't too far off from our world today, and is could be scarily indicative of the future.
ReplyDeleteEmerson, I have to agree with some of your points. As I was reading, I definitely felt like many of the newly created technologies would actually thrive in today's society. Just looking at how much privacy our generation is willing to give up through current social networking sites, I don't think it's far-fetched to believe that some of Eggers' predictions may become reality in the approaching years.
DeleteThat being said, what I took from Seth's post was a bit different. I think what makes the book cross the line from realistic fiction into fantasy is the fact that Eggers failed to address the gradual habituation that people need in order to make these sorts of transitions. When Facebook was first introduced, it didn't become a booming success overnight, but received criticisms for being unsafe, and a breach of privacy. Every time Facebook makes updates, like the instant "stalker bar," it gets slammed with critiques. But over time, people get used to these changes. That's the step that Eggers completely skipped over in his book. Every new technology was an instant hit, and I think that's what made the book lose some of its realistic impact.