The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer
Autor Janelle Monáeen Limba Engleză Paperback – mai 2023
Vocea narativă a acestui volum este una colectivă și polifonică, o extensie literară necesară a viziunii artistice pe care Janelle Monáe a prezentat-o inițial prin muzică și film. În The Memory Librarian, ne-a atras atenția modul în care tehnologia nu este doar un decor, ci un instrument opresiv de inginerie socială: într-un viitor totalitar, amintirile sunt tratate ca date ce pot fi editate sau șterse pentru a asigura conformitatea. Apreciem curajul cu care textele disecă prețul libertății într-o societate unde „calculatoarele murdare” (Dirty Computers) — cei care refuză standardizarea — sunt vânați pentru unicitatea lor.
Construcția lumii este una de tip afrofuturist, unde tradiția se împletește cu tehnologia avansată. Sistemul de control al gândurilor funcționează ca o barieră în calea auto-determinării, transformând actul de a-ți aminti într-o formă radicală de rezistență. Merită menționat că, deși volumul amintește de Black Speculative Feminisms de Cassandra L. Jones prin explorarea memoriei ca strategie de eliberare, se diferențiază prin estetica sa vizuală vibrantă și prin legătura ombilicală cu mitologia pop creată în jurul personajului Jane 57821. Ritmul povestirilor variază de la cel al unui manifest politic la cel al unei explorări intime a iubirii și identității queer, oferind o experiență de lectură senzorială, aproape muzicală, în care tehnologia devine o metaforă pentru traumele și speranțele colective.
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Specificații
ISBN-10: 0008512442
Pagini: 316
Dimensiuni: 138 x 198 x 37 mm
Greutate: 0.23 kg
Editura: HarperCollins Publishers
Colecția HarperVoyager
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De ce să citești această carte
Recomandăm această carte cititorilor care caută un science fiction social profund, ancorat în realitățile contemporane ale identității. Veți câștiga o perspectivă unică asupra modului în care tehnologia poate fi folosită atât pentru control, cât și pentru eliberare. Este o lectură esențială pentru fanii lui Janelle Monáe și pentru oricine a apreciat proza lui Octavia Butler sau Nnedi Okorafor, oferind un amestec rar de futurism, activism și poezie.
Despre autor
Janelle Monáe este o artistă multitalentată — cântăreață, compozitoare, actriță și icon al modei — a cărei carieră a fost definită de o viziune afrofuturistă neclintită. Cunoscută pentru albume conceptuale precum „The ArchAndroid” și „Dirty Computer”, Monáe folosește science fiction-ul ca pe un instrument de explorare a condiției umane și a drepturilor civile. În acest prim volum de proză, ea colaborează cu scriitori emergenți pentru a da viață literară universului său vizual, demonstrând că este o povestitoare la fel de puternică pe pagină precum este pe scenă sau pe ecran.
Descriere
In The Memory Librarian music, fashion, film and futurist icon Janelle Monae returns to the Afrofuturistic world of her critically acclaimed album, Dirty Computer, to explore how different threads of liberation - queerness, race, gender plurality, love - become tangled in a totalitarian landscape... and to discover costs of unravelling them. Whoever controls our memories controls the future.
Janelle Monae and an incredible array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monae such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts - as a means of self-conception - could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated by those who'd convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate.
That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free. Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it's like to live in such a totalitarian existence... and what it takes to get out of it.
Building off the traditions of speculative writers such as Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor-and filled with the artistic genius and powerful themes that have made Monae a worldwide icon in the first place - The Memory Librarian serves readers tales grounded in the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, but also reaching through to the worlds of memory and time within, and the stakes and power that exists there.
Recenzii
— Washington Post
“A poignant commentary on the power of technology, the preservation of queer identity and the commodification of time. . . The Memory Librarian shows us the future can be an unnerving reflection of our unexamined vices, but we can also plant the seeds for a brighter tomorrow.” — USA Today
“In her book, Monáe offers us a warning, but also a way out. . . Flawed, dirty, proudly glitching, the queer robots of Monáe’s vision refuse to be so easily boiled down into 1s and 0s. The Memory Librarian might not be the answer to the social and political upsets of our time, but it is an answer, and a fiercely inspiring one: a deepening of Afrofuturism’s potential to weaponize our dreams for a freer, more joyous world.” — Wired
“Each story in this collection is a searing but ultimately hopeful glimpse into how marginalized groups can hope and create in a world set against them. Written with a group of collaborators, including award-winning authors and sociologists, this book is reminiscent of the anti-racist and community-building themes present in N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor’s work, as well as the utopian philosophy of Ursula K. Le Guin and the dystopian technological vision of Philip K. Dick. It’s a stunning collection of stories.” — Buzzfeed
“Blistering, hopeful, and richly written. . . All readers will finish the book craving more of these extremely queer, bold stories that battle gatekeeping and erasure, digging into both the worst potential of a surveillance state and the gritty glimmer of the rebellion that can defeat it.” — Booklist (starred review)
"A moving, triumphant collection...This is a knockout." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Monáe’s collection speaks to both the sf tradition of mind-control tyranny and the way that the powerful marginalize individuals in order to control the whole. Highly recommended for readers of conspiracy and thought-control sf or of Afrofuturist works by the likes of Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, N.?K. Jemisin, and Nnedi Okorafor." — Library Journal (starred review)
"Emotionally raw and with a wholehearted love for people, these stories will make readers long to forge deeper human connections by sharing and holding one another's memories...A celebration of queer and Afrofuturist science fiction saluting creativity in difference." — Kirkus Reviews
“Janelle Monáe is a creative superstar who has tackled everything from music to fashion to film. And with The Memory Librarian, she enters the literary world, proving that there’s truly nothing she can’t do. . . Echoes of classics like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind mix powerfully with explorations of genderqueerness, love, race, and more. . . True to the science fiction genre, The Memory Librarian is an assemblage of hope; liberation emerges when our memories and histories are used as educators. This one is sure to leave an impression.” — Bust Magazine
“With her first book. . . [Janelle Monáe] proves that she can continue being just as electric with the written word, even when it’s not set to a beat. . . The characters in this book are a glorious representation and celebration of a spectrum of sexuality and gender, each written with pure empathy and not a whiff of tokenism.”
— Tor.com
“Celebrity writing projects can be an iffy prospect. Writing is a particular craft, one that doesn’t necessarily translate from acting or songwriting, and the results can sometimes feel less like an act of creativity and more like a vanity project. That is absolutely not the case with The Memory Librarian. Monáe and her contributors – Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Eve L. Ewing, Yohanca Delgado, and Sheree Renée Thomas – have produced a vivid, visceral text with as much of a hook as the album the stories were inspired by.”
— Locus
"The Memory Librarian is full of memorable and believable characters struggling valiantly against forces of oppression. It confirms Monáe’s incredible power of imagination and creativity whatever medium she’s working in, and the ability and talent of her co-writers in bringing her vision alive on the page." — Fantasy Hive