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Rating: Dave Eggers' The Circle: neither dystopia, nor science fiction, but pure realism
“[…] admitted to Parma for a severe illness.”
[…]: “I’m celebrating the illness of […], and I hope he kicks the bucket slowly, suffering a lot.”
[…]: “Oh finally some good news.”
[…]: “Creeeeeeeepaaaaaaaaaa”
“[…] underwent disc herniation surgery. Regular recovery, will leave the facility in 2-3 days.”
[…]: “A medical mistake? This one doesn’t die!!!”
[…]: “All that time on all fours must have hurt his back.”
[…]: “Let’s hope it complicates and he dies.”
“Today there will be the launch of the new […]. […] says it will be a revolutionary product. It's already a presale record.
[…]: “Only losers would buy such a c….”
[…]: “Aren't you ashamed of how you waste your money!? You’re real nobodies!”
[…]: “Let’s hope the new […] explodes in your hands making you die slowly. The […] is the best, while […] is just a c…!”
“Next month will see the launch of the new book by [...].”
[…]: “But that clown still talks and writes. When will they kill him?”
[…]: “It’s easy to be posh with your bank account, and from the comfort of your penthouse. Die, you clown.”
[…]: “But when will the mafia really kill you!?”
The posts, along with the comments above, are just a few examples of how social media is increasingly taking the place of the good old highway rest stop toilets. They call them haters, but for me, there are many other terms to better describe such individuals.
In 2013 (in Italy in 2014), Dave Eggers published the novel The Circle, which recounted – or so thought the readers and critics who didn’t understand, and perhaps even today don’t understand, the reality surrounding them (and us) – a near future where a web platform insidiously creeps into everyday life and reality, becoming first an extension and then, eventually, reality itself. At the time, Eggers was dismissed as the classic apocalyptic intellectual who didn’t know the web world, nor social media, shelving his novel as the typical case of dystopian and science fiction literature. The critics and readers of that time didn’t understand that Eggers was simply describing reality, warning us (without moralism and apocalyptic tones) of how our existences might become. Well, what can be said, five years later, it's fair to say that the author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (one of the most innovative literary cases of the last twenty years. So branding Eggers as conservative is quite misplaced) was largely a great visionary.
One of the strengths and beauties of literature is its ability to read and sometimes anticipate the socio-historical reality surrounding us. I think of how Dostoevsky in the second half of the 1800s anticipated, with Notes from Underground, the Freudian theories on psychoanalysis. Or how Thomas Pynchon, with The Crying of Lot 49, managed to understand the hallucinogenic, grotesque to parodist drift that late 60s counterculture would take. And again, how Don DeLillo, with Cosmopolis, managed to comprehend, but also predict, the collapse of a society based entirely on wealth and constantly at risk by playing with unreal economic and market numbers.
But let's return to Eggers' The Circle; let’s delve into this social-media container that eerily mirrors or extends (McLuhan is another one who got it right) everything happening every day, from our communications and interpersonal contacts to political communication.
Of course, social media also represents, perhaps primarily, a possibility for knowledge and broadening perspectives. You can learn about an event that interests you, stay in touch or reconnect with distant friends, follow events and personalities you like. But all this, as Eggers warns us, has aspects that are, or can become, unsettling.
If the early works of Eggers, particularly the mentioned A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, are distinguished by strong experimentation and research, placing the author in that postmodernism that saw him along with Wallace, Lethem, Moody, and Antrim as great contemporary heirs of authors like Pynchon, DeLillo, and Barth, with his latest works, the Boston-born author seems to have returned to the more “traditional” paths of the great American social novel. Starting with A Hologram for the King, Eggers attempts to narrate the various aspects, or “ailments” of our era. With Hologram, he narrates – in 2008-09, when the economic crisis began to hit the so-called strong powers – an entrepreneur on the verge of bankruptcy seeking a last chance of redemption, not for himself but to prove something to his young daughter, to leave something in inheritance for the new generations. Because if our generation, like the previous one, has failed, isn’t it perhaps fair to leave something good for the new generations... or at least try?
Then in 2013, The Circle was published, a tale of a sick world lost within a large dictatorial (dictatorial in a subtle, hence accepted, way) social-media container, into which we will soon delve.
A year after The Circle, in 2014, I Vostri Padri, Dove Sono? E i Profeti Vivono Per Sempre? was released, an hallucinogenic recount-rebellion of a young individual not finding answers to the decay of the great dreams and achievements of the previous generations, decides to subject, one by one, to surreal interrogations those he considers responsible for the surrounding apathy.
In 2016 it's the turn of Heroes of the Frontier, where a young mother, left alone with her children, without work or prospects, decides to leave everything and cross the frontier, meeting people and places that will give her hope for personal and social rebirth.
But now let’s delve into the depths of The Circle.
Warning, the following text may contain some spoilers; so if you haven't read the book and intend to, keep all this in mind before continuing to read.
Inside The Circle: the structure
The Circle is a cutting-edge workplace; a true community. The very characters who work and live within the structure are called circlers. The fundamental idea of The Circle is that every little detail of private life, and beyond, can be accessed through a single password, a single account. Every tiny grain composing the knowable world, linked to human actions and beyond, is inserted into one vast, infinite database. No more multiple searches, everything is at hand, using just one access key.
Your medical history, personal history, financial transactions, family stories, the known and unknown world, all are within reach of a single click. The ultimate goal, the final aim of The Circle is to be: “all-seeing, all-knowing. Everything that happens will be known.”
One collective life, a giant “global village” (McLuhan always returns), without secrets, without privacy, and hence without personal emotions. If you have nothing to hide, there’s nothing to fear. But if our lives become completely transparent, our feelings, our intimacy (both physical and mental) become available at a click to large multinational companies, isn’t it perhaps a great and inescapable step towards a subtly accepted dictatorship blindly embraced by all?
“No, Mae, it’s different. It would be easier to understand. Here, however, there are no oppressors. No one is forcing you to do it. You willingly let them put these shackles on you.” (Dave Eggers _ The Circle, page 209)
Mae and the psychological changes within The Circle structure
Eggers leaves it to the protagonist, Mae Holland, the task of unveiling the true identity of The Circle. Through her reflections, her continuously evolving behavior, her emotions and instincts gradually detaching, the principle of subtle self-acceptance imposed by the great “sages” on all circlers becomes clear, culminating in a self-imposed acceptance from above upon everyone.
In Mae’s evolution, the change in her personality first occurs in her private sphere, which loses value in her eyes. The inner world becomes collectivized; there’s a total loss of moments of solitude, meditation, listening to oneself – all actions and moments in each of our lives that allow us to understand our inner motivations. The individual, losing their intimate and secret sphere, becomes a solitary entity, even if they falsely believe they are constantly in company. And this solitude extends even in moments of interpersonal sociality. You don’t go out to meet people anymore, don’t look into others’ eyes to understand feelings and thoughts, don’t seek a real approach with the opposite sex, but choose each other through an algorithm in a virtual room for encounters that remain virtual even in the real. Is all this dystopia and science fiction, or pure reality?
“You no longer pick up on the basic signals of interpersonal communication. You are at a table with three human beings looking at you, all of them, trying to talk with you, and you remain glued to a screen looking for strangers somewhere in the world.” (Dave Eggers _ The Circle, page 209)
The Circle and the world of social media and new technologies
Andy Warhol said everyone is entitled to their fifteen minutes of fame. In The Circle, Warhol's premise expands to infinity and perpetually. On a computer, tablet, or smartphone screen, and through a virtual “room,” everyone can say everything about everyone. Great statesmen, great intellectuals, journalists, and writers become nothing before the “gut” of the populace that unleashes its bile, its grievances, and frustrations on anyone, nullifying-flattening everything and everyone. There is the “triumph” (subtly piloted from above), more than of the common man, of the common thought.
And common thought triumphs not through discussions, the exposition of one’s ideas, or planning; no, common thought asserts itself, or not, through a like or a virtual thumbs down.
“The more you post, the higher you rank. A bunch of people like your post, and you soar. It moves all day. Isn’t it cool? Very, said Mae. (Dave Eggers _ The Circle, page 85)
[…..…….….…….…….………..….….]
“I think that sitting behind that desk makes you believe, between a frown and a smile, that what you do is really a fascinating life. You write comments on things instead of doing them. You look at pictures of Nepal, click the smile button, and think it’s like going there. What would happen if you really went there? Your CircleJerk ratings would fall below an acceptable level?” (Dave Eggers _ The Circle, page 210)
The Time
Time within The Circle loses its connotation of movement, of evolution and growth, being incorporated into a totalizing present, an infinite moment. There’s a memory of time only through the arrogance of believing to be witnesses of the world, guardians of millennial values, synthesizing and entangling a fixed image of the evolution of humanity over time. A simple passage of levels through a purely rational vision, the myth of a rapid climb through different historical periods to the center of The Circle, where time ends. But all this, for the circlers, as well as for the massified society in the novel, remains only an unrealizable myth, the core is granted only to the sages, who need their small particles revolving around their core, feeding and increasing the energy. An atom where time no longer needs to exist.
The Symbolism
If according to semiologist Roland Barthes, in the 50s, 60s, and 70s of the 20th century, the myths of music, comics, cinema, and sports replaced, in the common imagination, divinities (which had already lost social value after the process of secularization), in The Circle, and the society described in it, the role of myths and symbols is taken by so-called “influencers,” who influence and guide society in their behavioral choices and life choices. But such influence does not occur through a song, acting, or sporting feats, but by creating a subtly believable credibility through social marketing strategies, and by pandering and highlighting the aforementioned common thought.
But there are figures, symbols, and/or simulacra even higher than the circlers; figures moving in the shadows, but deciding, planning, building, and influencing within them: the three sages. The three sages, founders of The Circle, promote a universal overdose of algorithms, hidden advertising, propaganda through the platform to realize the utopia of a happy world. A platform where everything is transparent and visible to prevent crimes and various offenses. But this becomes, or could become, a powerful means to control others' minds (once you enter the game, leaving would be equivalent to dying). There’s the utopia of an accepted and shared dictatorship.
Another major symbol-simulacrum within the narrative is the imposing and beautiful San Francisco Bay, which creates a sort of vs between the beauty of the surrounding nature and the “room” of The Circle. The Bay symbolizes and simulates a nature losing the value of its beauty, in favor of its sharing on social media for a fake collective fruition. Mae is reprimanded because she “dared” to get lost in the nighttime beauty of the Bay, without taking and sharing pictures and videos of such beauty. In The Circle, experiences are not lived but shared, and these only have value and meaning based on the number of likes or smiles.
“She thought of moving but saw no reason. It seemed there was no reason to go anywhere. Just being there, in the middle of the Bay, with nothing to do or see was more than enough. And there she remained, drifting slowly, for almost an hour. Occasionally, she would once again catch that smell of dog and tuna, turning to find another curious seal, and they would look at each other, and Mae wondered if the seal knew, like she did, how beautiful this was and how lucky they were to have it all to themselves.” (Dave Eggers _ The Circle, page 72)
The Politics
But after steering the psyche and lifestyle of the circlers, who in turn have sown all this in society, what could be the next step for The Circle – represented by the three sages – if not actually governing everything? And then, if through their databases full of people’s tastes and preferences, by subversively giving voice to their instincts (not ideas or ideals), the moment comes to found a party based on transparency, where everything is visible and nothing is forgiven if hidden. In the party of The Circle, using its powerful archive, the opponent who once showed weakness, maybe an unpaid fine, maybe had a lover, or parked in double file, is annihilated through societal hatred channeled, steered, and organized by a “room,” blog, or site. And if, through precise calculations, you realize you lack a certain majority, you can always compel people to vote by force; as one is compelled to pay taxes and obey the law, the same way they are obliged to express a vote. And it doesn’t matter if one doesn’t identify with any party or candidate.
“Well, we have ten thousand laws. We ask very many things of citizens. So why can’t we ask them to vote? In dozens of countries, they do.” (Dave Eggers _ The Circle, page 308)
Final Considerations
Eggers with The Circle writes neither a dystopian novel nor a science fiction one. The American author simply observes the reality surrounding us in recent years, without harboring apocalyptic visions (as he was accused at the time of the book’s publication).
The author doesn’t endeavor to evoke a completely negative vision of a potential future, nor does he induce clear emotions within the reader; he establishes, at each individual’s unconscious base, a strong emotional ambivalence: we are engulfed and dazzled by the luminous, even blinding vision of life within The Circle, by the “benign” and sharing ideals, by the concept of truth always and in any case, but at the same time stirs an internal state of anguish, indeed terror, aligning us and making us comprehend the protagonist's internal discomfort. We are confused regarding the rational idea of whether that worldview is right or wrong, and this is the strength of the tale. Eggers does not propose false moralism or ideal visions of society, the author correctly describes an enlargement of our reality. And if such an enlargement became the reality itself (assuming it isn’t already)? On such a possibility, perhaps we would have two choices, attitudes or visions, that the novel itself proposes:
1) “What I should communicate to you is that I await the day when a battling minority finally stands up to say that the thing has gone too far, and that this tool is by far more insidious than any other human invention before, it needs to be controlled, regulated, forced to step back, and especially, we need the possibility to opt-out. Today, we live in a tyrannical state where we are not allowed.” (Dave Eggers _ The Circle, page 292)
2) “Another surge of color appeared on the screen monitoring Annie’s brainwork. Mae extended a hand to touch her forehead, marveling at the distance this flesh placed between them. What was going on in her head? Not knowing was really exasperating, she thought. It was an affront, a deprivation, to herself and to the world. She would raise the issue with Stenton and Bailey, and with the Gang of 40, at the first opportunity. They needed to discuss Annie, her thoughts passing through her mind. Why shouldn’t they know them? The world deserved no less, and she didn’t want to wait.” (Dave Eggers _ The Circle, page 389)
Francesco Saglioccolo, Jenny Giordano
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