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3.36 AVERAGE
3.36 AVERAGE
I am scared. This book terrified me. The whole concept was scary and it was awful to see Mae, the main character, falling so deeply into the ever growing influence of the Circle. The worst part is that I was pro-Circle during the first halve of the book. I only realized something was wrong when the “incident” between Frances and Mae happend.
This shocked me.
*Read it for school, wouldn’t have chosen it myself but I’m glad I read it.*
This shocked me.
*Read it for school, wouldn’t have chosen it myself but I’m glad I read it.*
Long story short, I've read this book so you don't have to.
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Creepy and fascinating and creative. I feel Google and Facebook are heading in this direction already where everything is monitored and connected and you're forced to share everything and participate in things you might not want to. You'll have zero privacy. maybe we're already nearly there minus the gadgets that record our emotions and heart rate and every move.
Important concepts to think about in this tech age. It's interesting because I'd agree with some of the "transparency" ideas to be implemented, but I see how it can go too far. Plus, no one needs to check feeds all day and respond to 100+ comments, etc. I'm fairly off the grid and am content to remain this way. I'd recommend this book for sure.
Life in The Circle is familiar. It is easy for readers to imagine the combination of real tech giants Google, Facebook, Apple, etc. that makes up The Circle--a fictional tech company that slowly extends its reach further and further into consumers' lives. Housed on a sprawling Google-esque campus in California, The Circle employs 10,000 of the best of the best in any given field to develop user-friendly, efficient technology that is supposed to make peoples' lives better and advance the goals of transparency and true democracy. Drawing on real technologies that do already exist, or are being worked on, and going even further, it's easily within the bounds of imagination to see modern social media and technology going the direction of The Circle. The characters and momentum of The Circle offer a resonating, but ultimately flat, social commentary on the role of social media and technology in modern life, and what could happen if we let it get out of hand.
The story focuses on Mae, a young woman who leaves a dead-end job in her hometown to work at her dream job in The Circle. Mae starts out in the basic Customer Experience department, and is quickly introduced to more and more of the technology and ideas behind The Circle. Each day it seems she has another screen added to her workspace as her co-workers introduce feature after feature of life at The Circle (work and social), all of which she is expected to monitor and maintain her digital presence on regularly. Multitasking is basically a requirement here. Perfection is the goal--perfection in work and ultimately perfection in humanity. Not only does The Circle encourage top-notch work, it highly encourages social interaction to the point of near obsession. Early on, Mae is frequently chastised for her lack of participation in the many non-mandatory social functions that occur daily on The Circle campus, with her co-workers expressing serious concern for her mental health and self-worth because of this. Despite her apparent lack of social involvement, Mae has spent time with her parents and gone on kayaking trips by herself, and seems to be content. But at The Circle, every single human experience is expected to be shared and documented, or it as good as didn't happen. People at The Circle are genuinely and personally offended by any desire for time alone or "off-grid." These moments are considered (literally) stealing experiences and knowledge from others and Mae is reprimanded accordingly. However, Mae catches on to the social culture of The Circle pretty quickly and soon soars to the top of the "Participation Ranks (PartiRank)" in an obsessive quest of superficial social interactions including "zings" and comments on social media. While she may have started out seeing this as just an expectation from her employer, she is soon lost in the never ending swirl of social media that has her spending hours and hours at a time maintaining her social rank (an actual score she must maintain). Aside from the actual tech involved in the story, this part of the plot reflects pretty clearly real criticisms of what many have called an overuse and obsession with social media and status, particularly among the younger generations today, that is leading to increasingly superficial human interactions and poor emotional adjustment. Mae shows the extreme outcome of such a lifestyle. At times it feels like a dig at millennials, as Mae and many of her Circle colleagues are young tech-obsessed millennials themselves. Many of these people feel like parodies, caricatures of today's young people as seen by older generations. Mae started out as a somewhat relatable character in this sense when she moved back home and worked a job utterly unrelated to her college education, feeling like a failure. But as she became more and more intertwined in the Circle and its technology, she became less of a person and more of a Circle drone, a willing vehicle to move the story along. Many other characters seemed to be written this way as well--representing a particular stereotype of (especially young) technology users as plot devices without depth. They didn't feel like real people--and maybe in a world where one's life is their social media in all senses, that's not so off base.
Mae's time at The Circle takes us through the increasingly more extreme invasions of privacy that The Circle embarks on as trailblazing acts of "transparency" and "democracy." They operate on Orwellian catchphrases like "secrets are lies" and "privacy is theft" (I wasn't kidding before). These Circle innovations should raise all kinds of red flags to the reader (they especially did to me, working with domestic violence survivors). And yet to our naive, somewhat unreliable narrator Mae and the rest of the Circlers these are laudable achievements, implemented with the highest of praise and excitement. Stripping people of more and more privacy in the name of "democracy" -- yay! Sounds a little familiar as well; of course, taken to extremes for the story. The unquestioned loyalty to technological progress isn't totally foreign to me, but the level of mass acceptance and, in fact, cheering of the loss of privacy and individuality that Circlers show over and over seems a bit exaggerated, though not impossible. This might have been more believable had the story explored more the progression of how technology became so present and ruling in peoples' lives (perhaps instead of the pages and pages and pages spent describing the Circle campus).
Even our main character, Mae, shows almost no inner struggle about what all this technology and transparency could lead to, not even when it starts to destroy her personal relationships. Any glimmer of doubt Mae experiences (few as they are) quickly disappears to no further mention. Even Mae's relationships with her parents and friends deteriorate as she is blindly sucked further into the cult-like Circle. These relationships provide the only glimpse into the negative impact omnipotent technology might have, and only in regards to interpersonal relationships. Yet Mae seems to have no sense of this impact as she continues to believe she can persuade the skeptics and show them the power of the technology she blindly worships, not stopping to reflect. There's little to no exploration of the wider social impact such technology could have--only vague warnings of monopoly and totalitarianism. These things are implied to the reader, but not given the attention they seem to warrant. I would have been more interested in exploring those possible effects, but the story never quite gets there. In fact, the clearly alarming technology implemented with seemingly no opposition and the vague drama and warnings seem to be building up to something much more significant and substantial than what the story actually reaches. The concept and storyline of The Circle had such potential, but the story ultimately fell a bit flat for me. It feels as though The Circle starts many points which it does not finish. It hints at the possible impact of The Circle's technology and then never shows those effects with any substance. The plot never quite goes anywhere, and the ending doesn't resolve the many loose ends left untied. Ultimately, it feels like an amateur exploration of a tech dystopia. It's an appealing concept in today's digital age, and that's what held the story up for me. I liked the book for the thought and reaction it provoked in me, rather than the actual story and execution.
The story focuses on Mae, a young woman who leaves a dead-end job in her hometown to work at her dream job in The Circle. Mae starts out in the basic Customer Experience department, and is quickly introduced to more and more of the technology and ideas behind The Circle. Each day it seems she has another screen added to her workspace as her co-workers introduce feature after feature of life at The Circle (work and social), all of which she is expected to monitor and maintain her digital presence on regularly. Multitasking is basically a requirement here. Perfection is the goal--perfection in work and ultimately perfection in humanity. Not only does The Circle encourage top-notch work, it highly encourages social interaction to the point of near obsession. Early on, Mae is frequently chastised for her lack of participation in the many non-mandatory social functions that occur daily on The Circle campus, with her co-workers expressing serious concern for her mental health and self-worth because of this. Despite her apparent lack of social involvement, Mae has spent time with her parents and gone on kayaking trips by herself, and seems to be content. But at The Circle, every single human experience is expected to be shared and documented, or it as good as didn't happen. People at The Circle are genuinely and personally offended by any desire for time alone or "off-grid." These moments are considered (literally) stealing experiences and knowledge from others and Mae is reprimanded accordingly. However, Mae catches on to the social culture of The Circle pretty quickly and soon soars to the top of the "Participation Ranks (PartiRank)" in an obsessive quest of superficial social interactions including "zings" and comments on social media. While she may have started out seeing this as just an expectation from her employer, she is soon lost in the never ending swirl of social media that has her spending hours and hours at a time maintaining her social rank (an actual score she must maintain). Aside from the actual tech involved in the story, this part of the plot reflects pretty clearly real criticisms of what many have called an overuse and obsession with social media and status, particularly among the younger generations today, that is leading to increasingly superficial human interactions and poor emotional adjustment. Mae shows the extreme outcome of such a lifestyle. At times it feels like a dig at millennials, as Mae and many of her Circle colleagues are young tech-obsessed millennials themselves. Many of these people feel like parodies, caricatures of today's young people as seen by older generations. Mae started out as a somewhat relatable character in this sense when she moved back home and worked a job utterly unrelated to her college education, feeling like a failure. But as she became more and more intertwined in the Circle and its technology, she became less of a person and more of a Circle drone, a willing vehicle to move the story along. Many other characters seemed to be written this way as well--representing a particular stereotype of (especially young) technology users as plot devices without depth. They didn't feel like real people--and maybe in a world where one's life is their social media in all senses, that's not so off base.
Mae's time at The Circle takes us through the increasingly more extreme invasions of privacy that The Circle embarks on as trailblazing acts of "transparency" and "democracy." They operate on Orwellian catchphrases like "secrets are lies" and "privacy is theft" (I wasn't kidding before).
Spoiler
From the creepy SeeChange cameras, hidden anywhere without detection; livestreaming peoples' every waking moment; putting tracking chips in children; forcing people to utilize The Circle and mandating civic participation through The Circle platform; to creating software that can find any person in the world in under 20 minutes, even (and maybe especially) when they don't want to be found....Even our main character, Mae, shows almost no inner struggle about what all this technology and transparency could lead to, not even when it starts to destroy her personal relationships. Any glimmer of doubt Mae experiences (few as they are) quickly disappears to no further mention. Even Mae's relationships with her parents and friends deteriorate as she is blindly sucked further into the cult-like Circle. These relationships provide the only glimpse into the negative impact omnipotent technology might have, and only in regards to interpersonal relationships. Yet Mae seems to have no sense of this impact as she continues to believe she can persuade the skeptics and show them the power of the technology she blindly worships, not stopping to reflect
Spoiler
until her pursuit actually kills someone
I loved Zeitoun and Heartbreaking Genius but this book did not feel right to me. It felt like a YA book but a bad one. It felt like a dystopian book but a bad one.
I think my problem is I did not believe the storyline. Working in data warehousing, I felt I could easily explain why many of the technical aspects of the book were highly improbable. The power of all that data is not to look at a granular level but to look at trends, just the opposite of this book.
I think my problem is I did not believe the storyline. Working in data warehousing, I felt I could easily explain why many of the technical aspects of the book were highly improbable. The power of all that data is not to look at a granular level but to look at trends, just the opposite of this book.
SO. MUCH. MADNESS. It gets to the heart of a near and dear matter and it's creepy as can possibly be. The ending is insanely maddening and I'm shuddering just thinking of it.
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I hated every moment I was reading this book. It was simplistic, boring, flat, and unnerving in how easily it threw around moments of sudden and violent trauma to try and force-feed its moral (rather that putting in the effort to build true emotional connection and nuanced dread)
This is partially my own fault - I had avoided the book for a long time because of its bad reviews. Within the first few pages I knew I would dislike it. Yet I decided to read it anyway, as instruction on how not to write a modern dystopia. I suppose I got that.
It’s always more disappointing when a book with a strong premise doesn’t deliver. There were some strong concepts (see a touch of them below), but Eggers DID NOTHING WITH THEM
Quotes:
“We are not meant to know everything, Mae. Did you ever think that perhaps our minds are delicately calibrated between the known and the unknown? That our souls need the mysteries of night and the clarity of day?”
"Most people do. Most people would trade everything they know, everyone they know—they'd trade it all to know they've been seen, and acknowledged, that they might even be remembered. We all know we die. We all know the world is too big for us to be significant. So all we have is the hope of being seen, or heard, even for a moment."
This is partially my own fault - I had avoided the book for a long time because of its bad reviews. Within the first few pages I knew I would dislike it. Yet I decided to read it anyway, as instruction on how not to write a modern dystopia. I suppose I got that.
It’s always more disappointing when a book with a strong premise doesn’t deliver. There were some strong concepts (see a touch of them below), but Eggers DID NOTHING WITH THEM
Quotes:
“We are not meant to know everything, Mae. Did you ever think that perhaps our minds are delicately calibrated between the known and the unknown? That our souls need the mysteries of night and the clarity of day?”
"Most people do. Most people would trade everything they know, everyone they know—they'd trade it all to know they've been seen, and acknowledged, that they might even be remembered. We all know we die. We all know the world is too big for us to be significant. So all we have is the hope of being seen, or heard, even for a moment."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence