A review by emkoshka
Harmony by Project Itoh, Alexander O. Smith

4.0

Concurrent with a desire to read more books by female authors (to redress the normativity and ubiquity of the white male writer) is a desire to read more books by non-Western writers. It's not just about their ability to offer up different perspectives on life; it's also about being taken out of my comfort zone (though travelling extensively achieves that too, albeit more expensively!). Although I don't know much about Japanese society, I feel like this book was an excellent if savage indictment of its social pressures for conformity, social unity and propriety. It also harked back to Nietzsche's concept of the Übermensch, the embodiment of the end of human progress wherein people are self-actualised to the point of perfection. But Joss Whedon in Serenity demonstrated the fatal flaw of such a super society: the elimination of basic and instinctive characteristics of humanity, like aggression and fear, can lead to the loss of any impetus towards survival. Harmony is frightening precisely because it seems prophetic: as we outsource more of our daily living to technology and the state, we start to lose our individuality. From there, it's a slippery slope to the ceding of all consciousness; when we can flip a switch to become truly rational and logical beings, then there's no need for independent thought anymore and we become automatons. But would we still be human?