The social media train wreck–and the totalitarianism that it presents–is eerily credible. And yet, at the same time, I’m in the car, as well. But you cringe anyway, because: it’s coming, and it’s going to be bad. As Mae leaps the corporate ladder from customer service rep to become a spokesperson for the “transparent” future the company is building, it becomes apparent that all may not be as it seems.Īs I listened to the last chapter of Dave Eggers’ cautionary tale The Circle, I couldn’t help but feel like I was watching the replay of a video of a really bad car accident and you see it coming, but you know the people in the accident don’t, but the accident has already happened, and there’s nothing you can do.
Mae Holland is so fortunate as to have found a job at the burgeoning company, and she soon becomes a true believer in the company’s vision for a new age of kindness and civility. As the Circle becomes the central driver of content, the engine for 90% of searches on the World Wide Web, and the holder of patents for a whole host of future internet-based technologies that link email, searches, payment systems, and more, the world shrinks, transparency grows, and Utopia appears in reach. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.In the not too distant future, the Circle has replaced Google, Facebook, and Amazon to become the dominant information technology of the Internet. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world-even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. best-selling author of A Hologram for the King. The Circle is the exhilarating new novel from Dave Eggers.
0 kommentar(er)
