The Circle

De discussie over de mogelijke gevolgen (en gevaren) van tech/data monopolies is niet bepaald nieuw en zelfs een behoorlijke open deur. Het boek is dan wel 10 jaar oud, alhoewel deze discussie volgens mij toen ook al gevoerd werd. De discussie over privacy en democratie en de rol van techbedrijven hierin is vandaag de dag zeker niet minder relevant, en gezien de recente waarschuwingen voor AI lijkt het me nog steeds van belang om kritisch naar deze positie te kijken.

Het boek had me stevig in zijn greep. Het geeft een accuraat beeld van de gevaren van monopolies in tech als ook de redenen waarom we bewust moeten zijn van de informatie die wij delen en toevertrouwen. Het is een meeslepend, dystopisch verhaal dat laat zien hoe makkelijk men zich door mooie beloftes kan laten inpakken.

De naïviteit van Mae en de gebruikers van de Cirkel is overdreven en er had wat mij betreft wat meer weerstand mogen zijn.

Hierom 4,5 ster.

The way Dave Eggers can adopt different writing styles is something I find impressive. Since The Circle is a cautionary tale about a dystopia caused by an all-encompassing social-media gone wild, it seems appropriate that Eggers write in a simplistic style. Unfortunately, I couldn't help but find this annoying, but then, I also did not like the main character, Mae Holland.

Mae is a couple years out of college, still living at home and reporting to a job that is drudgery. Conveniently, she has a friend, Annie, who suddenly gets her a dream job, a job that seems to be surprisingly simple. The glamor and benefits of this position, which involve covering her parents on her health insurance, make this job an asset that Mae is loathe to lose. She needs to fit in, and this means spending more and more time online, at work, and eventually swallowing the idea that she has no right to any privacy. There are a couple people in her life who try to be voices of reason, but Mae has already been rendered unable to hear and converse in person, or so it would seem.

The Circle is not just a job, it's a cult, and that might explain why Mae Holland becomes such a swiftly rising star--she wants to be liked so badly that that becomes her life's work. Whatever the leaders want from her, she will do and she will find a way of justifying it. In the end, she cannot fathom that she has actually hurt her parents and destroyed a couple friends. This bright person has been rendered vacuous.

Without revealing too much about the plot, I would say that there were some aspects of this story that seemed too far-fetched to me (such as the idea of total transparency), and other parts that were dropped (no backlash about what happened to poor Mercer? Really? And what really happens to Kalden?). What were the worldwide implications of completing the circle? This novel seems to focus on life on The Circle's campus, since Mae so seldom leaves it.

Of course, this all makes for interesting and important discussion. Overall, even though I was a little disappointed, I still liked this tale.