EinFach Deutsch Unterrichtsmodelle : Dave Eggers : Der 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.

It's the first book I DNF'd because it was just so bad. The main protagonist has just no agency, stuff simply happens to her. The writing feels so self-aware too, as if the author felt so incredible smart about themself because they could see the writing on the wall that social media companies are evil.

There's a solid amount of imagination in The Circle, but it never manages to offer more than a well-developed premise. That's not bad in itself- - it's something I enjoy in comics and films - - but it seems like such a wasted opportunity given the medium and the relative ease with which this novel could have escaped its sophomoric quality . Right now it's just not literature, despite its clever plot and decent but dry style (I refer to the many other negative reviews on this site for a discussion about that).

This is the kind of work that could get people into reading, though, so I'd heartily recommend it as such. If you're looking for something with depth, food for thought or impressive style, you'd better go elsewhere.

Edit: I find myself in perfect agreement with Brad's review, so I will be lazy and just link you there:

Here is the review by Brad: www.goodreads.com/review/show/752010315

"don’t presume the benevolence of your leaders"

This is actually a terrifyingly realistic depiction of what could so seriously happen. A few years ago, people worried that Facebook could dominate in the way of the Circle as shown in this book, and there are still concerns about Google's monopolistic tendencies. Apple had an extreme share of the mobile market at one stage, and it only takes one company with enough pull and vision to tilt us into a single provider world.

This is explored superbly here, and although the reactions from people like Alistaire, Nanci, and Helena and Edward are utterly out-of-proportion and neurotic, they show the absolutism of the social world. The Circle's insistence that out-of-hours "social" activities aren't optional yet are so necessary is a dichotomy brilliantly juxtaposed, and the final paragraph, those hundred words or so, are chilling to the marrow.

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.

Maybe a little more on the nose than it needed to be, still, an engaging story. If Michael Crichton were still living and chose to turn his writing skills toward the topic of social media, this is the type of story we'd get. An entertaining read.

I found this book to be incredibly disturbing, probably because I'm afraid that it might be prescient. It's '1984 for the modern era' where all the surveillance is self inflicted, and enabled by corporations. I do recommend it, but I'd imagine you'll feel icky when you're done, especially if you work in the industry...