As they
talked about the book, the two Dutchwomen seemed disturbed.
It was the
latest book by Dave Eggers titled ‘The Circle’ – and they were going to discuss
it at their book club meeting that week.
I looked on as they expressed concern, worry, and fear in their native
language. Sensing my curiosity, one of the ladies kindly offered to lend me her copy
to read.
The book was
unputdownable.
...
Tell me,
dear reader, would you like to be watched every moment?
What if
there were little cameras everywhere and your every moment recorded?
What if you
wore a camera like a pendant in a necklace and your interactions with others
recorded?
What if
these recordings were broadcast all over the world?
What if
people or watchers all over the world sent you smiles/frowns depending on these
recordings?
What if you
could never delete all these recordings?
...
This is a
story of a young woman, Mae Holland, who joins ‘The Circle’ – a big internet
company which allows a campus culture and the freedom to explore dream ideas.
Mae is overwhelmed as she considers herself extremely privileged to be an
employee of such a company. Soon she gets tangled into the web of info-hungry
internet ideology. As the story progresses, she ends up becoming ‘transparent’ –
her every moment is recorded on camera and her every interaction is visible to
millions around the world who send her immediate comments and smiles/frowns.
The only privacy she is allowed is when she goes to the bathroom and when she
goes to sleep. The Circle resembles an enormous greenhouse where humanity is observed and any unacceptable behaviour quickly weeded out.
Mae is a hardworking
girl and has an accelerated growth in the corporate hierarchy. She has a spirit
of adventure which is tapped by the bigwigs at The Circle. They lead her to
believe in the importance of transparency and how it would lead to reduction in
crime and encourage more accountability. They convince her that to have secrets
and to hide facts from the world is to lie. Their own secret agenda, however,
is to bring the world under the Circle scanner so that they have knowledge
about the past and present of every individual. And knowledge, as we all know, is power.
Mae’s best
friends and parents warn her about her quest for transparency and refuse to
cooperate with her. The events that unfold as she adamantly continues to be The
Circle’s famous face are quite dramatic. She has sexcapades with a mysterious
character who warns her about The Circle’s policy and the risks it poses to
humankind, a friend is cornered, another collapses.
...
The reason that the book is disconcerting to most readers is that one day, in the
near future, this may come true. Eggers has succeeded in making fiction
resemble future reality.
The language
is clear, precise, not laden with jargon as one would expect from such a
novel.
Eggers makes
effective use of Socratic dialogue to present various viewpoints about the
underlying issue of the debate between privacy and transparency.
To those of
us who use social media and have lived on the threshold of the internet boom, the novel is not only
a thriller-entertainer, but also an eye-opener.
Thank you,
Mr Eggers.
...
The Circle
by Dave Eggers
Knopf/McSweeney's, 491pp.
