The Circle by Dave Eggers
This is a good novel about technology’s deconstruction of privacy. In the near future, Mae goes to work for the Circle (a sinister smiling Google like company). Soon she is a brainwashed drone, part of a fearsome tech revolution that will dictate the future. The troublingly dim Mae has a sincere interest in the eroding of social rights and the trauma and shame she inflicts on her family and friends as she obliterates their privacy whilst demoralising and degrading them doesn’t register with her. Everything must be known by everyone in Mae's ideological quest for clarity and a virtuous future. The world is going to crap but Mae has no remorse. The Circle is a tool of surveillance and purification and in the view of the superficial self-absorbed hyena pack who work for and use the Circle, this is a good thing. This witty dystopia will shiver the bones and The Circle has no conceptual end-point.
Best Lines:
“They suddenly become ensnared in some terrible sex-porn-witchcraft controversy.”
“Secrets are lies. Sharing is caring. Privacy is theft.”
“She was liberated from bad behaviour.”
“We’ve sent over 180 million frowns from the U.S. alone, and you can bet that has an effect on the regime.”
“How dare they disconnect cameras!”
“You have a right to know who lives on your street.”
“The criminality of privacy.”
“Release the drones!”
