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Jul. 3rd, 2022 08:59 pmI spent most of this morning reading The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, in order to finish it before book group this afternoon, and then belatedly remembered I'd never actually seen the whole of Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer and made Beth watch it with me as well.
This book is the Creative Vision of Janelle Monáe in collaboration with five different sci-fi authors to build out the Dirty Computer world; it's an interesting project both as individual pieces and as a collection, though some of the pieces feel much more in conversation with each other than others. I wasn't sure how much it would feel like a cohesive whole versus an anthology -- in the end I think it ends up somewhere in between the two, in a way that mostly worked for me.
The Memory Librarian is an Alaya Dawn Johnston story and, like most of Johnston's stuff, I found it occasionally bumpy but extremely compelling with some profoundly brilliant moments that landed so well they made me forget the stuff that didn't work for me. The story focuses on a high-level administrator in the Dirty Computer dystopia and posts an economy that runs to some degree on voluntarily donated memories, which is a fascinating concept that completely disappeared after this first story, somewhat to my sorrow -- the rest of the book is simply not interested in memory manipulation, which is sad as I am interested in it deeply. (( totally irrelevant spoiler )
Nevermind (is the most direct sequel/follow-on to the Dirty Computer film and literalizes the location in "Pynk" as an actual hotel slash rebellion enclave slash lesbian separatist artist's collective; the action plot is about the villains sending emotion-sensing hunters to the hotel to track down the escaped Dirty Computer protagonist and the actual plot is about trans & nonbinary gender experiences in lesbian separatist spaces; an enthusiastically progressive take on a classic feminist sff theme although book group mostly agreed that we wouldn't mind more nuance and definitely wanted more depictions of leftist infighting over veganism and chore charts.
Timebox is about a young lesbian couple who move into a new apartment that has a secret extra room that exists outside of time, which is an interesting anti-capitalist philosophical experiment (if you are the leftist artist from a wealthy background) and a really desperately needed lifesaver (if you are holding down a full-time job while putting yourself through nursing school). This was a really grounded and thoughtful story about class, responsibility, and time, and it did not surprise me to be reminded in reading the bios at the end that author Eve Ewing is also a sociologist focusing on racism and urban inequity. That said, though it was one of my favorites considered as a standalone, it absolutely did not care about the assignment; you could remove it from the collection entirely and put it in any other book and nothing about my experience of this story or of the rest of the collection would be different.
Save Changes was another favorite for me, and this one actually did also land the assignment -- it focuses on a pair of sisters living under constant surveillance with their formerly rebellious but now memory-altered mother, the elder of whom has been given a necklace that will give her one and only one chance in her life at turning back time to undo Something Bad Happening, and the day they decide to try and attend an underground party. Yohanca Delgado is a new to me author and I am definitely going to be looking for more of her stuff; this was a really solid balance of worldbuilding, character-building, and compelling exploration of a concept. Also it did a good job weaving in enough references from the other stories and Dirty Computer to feel cohesive without being overwhelmed by them, and, also also, the party sounded banging.
Timebox Altar(ed), the shortest and final piece, is about a group of kids in Present Dystopia who are granted visions of their roles in bringing about Possible Future Utopia -- definitely felt very deliberately placed as an Energetic and Uplifting way to close out the collection, also definitely felt much less concrete narrative and much more Vibes.
This book is the Creative Vision of Janelle Monáe in collaboration with five different sci-fi authors to build out the Dirty Computer world; it's an interesting project both as individual pieces and as a collection, though some of the pieces feel much more in conversation with each other than others. I wasn't sure how much it would feel like a cohesive whole versus an anthology -- in the end I think it ends up somewhere in between the two, in a way that mostly worked for me.
The Memory Librarian is an Alaya Dawn Johnston story and, like most of Johnston's stuff, I found it occasionally bumpy but extremely compelling with some profoundly brilliant moments that landed so well they made me forget the stuff that didn't work for me. The story focuses on a high-level administrator in the Dirty Computer dystopia and posts an economy that runs to some degree on voluntarily donated memories, which is a fascinating concept that completely disappeared after this first story, somewhat to my sorrow -- the rest of the book is simply not interested in memory manipulation, which is sad as I am interested in it deeply. (( totally irrelevant spoiler )
Nevermind (is the most direct sequel/follow-on to the Dirty Computer film and literalizes the location in "Pynk" as an actual hotel slash rebellion enclave slash lesbian separatist artist's collective; the action plot is about the villains sending emotion-sensing hunters to the hotel to track down the escaped Dirty Computer protagonist and the actual plot is about trans & nonbinary gender experiences in lesbian separatist spaces; an enthusiastically progressive take on a classic feminist sff theme although book group mostly agreed that we wouldn't mind more nuance and definitely wanted more depictions of leftist infighting over veganism and chore charts.
Timebox is about a young lesbian couple who move into a new apartment that has a secret extra room that exists outside of time, which is an interesting anti-capitalist philosophical experiment (if you are the leftist artist from a wealthy background) and a really desperately needed lifesaver (if you are holding down a full-time job while putting yourself through nursing school). This was a really grounded and thoughtful story about class, responsibility, and time, and it did not surprise me to be reminded in reading the bios at the end that author Eve Ewing is also a sociologist focusing on racism and urban inequity. That said, though it was one of my favorites considered as a standalone, it absolutely did not care about the assignment; you could remove it from the collection entirely and put it in any other book and nothing about my experience of this story or of the rest of the collection would be different.
Save Changes was another favorite for me, and this one actually did also land the assignment -- it focuses on a pair of sisters living under constant surveillance with their formerly rebellious but now memory-altered mother, the elder of whom has been given a necklace that will give her one and only one chance in her life at turning back time to undo Something Bad Happening, and the day they decide to try and attend an underground party. Yohanca Delgado is a new to me author and I am definitely going to be looking for more of her stuff; this was a really solid balance of worldbuilding, character-building, and compelling exploration of a concept. Also it did a good job weaving in enough references from the other stories and Dirty Computer to feel cohesive without being overwhelmed by them, and, also also, the party sounded banging.
Timebox Altar(ed), the shortest and final piece, is about a group of kids in Present Dystopia who are granted visions of their roles in bringing about Possible Future Utopia -- definitely felt very deliberately placed as an Energetic and Uplifting way to close out the collection, also definitely felt much less concrete narrative and much more Vibes.
