American author Dave Egger’s new novel, The Circle, begins by following protagonist and college graduate Mae Holland on her first day at internet company The Circle, a place with an intense similarity with Google or Facebook. Mae’s close friend and prior dorm mate Annie is an executive at The Circle and part of the “Gang of 40”, a exclusive group of high ranking Circle employees, or Circlers. Mae is assigned to work in the Customer Experience department, where she replies to support tickets from Circle customers.
Yet, unlike other sci-fi books, Mae’s first months at The Circle are positive and it’s hard to detect anything wrong. The book’s dystopia, tied with The Circle’s intrusion of privacy, slowly creeps on the reader in subsequent pages. As Mae’s career as a Circler grows, so does her readiness to share information and give away her rights to privacy. Throughout the novel, The Circle introduces products that shave away the fundamentals of privacy, such as the “See Change” camera that provides a video feed to anywhere in the world. Mae supports these innovations by calling them revolutionary.
Eggers takes a big leap in the middle of the novel, by having Mae live stream every single moment of her life, from morning to nighttime, to millions of viewers around the world. She is not allowed to turn off the camera during the daytime besides muting the audio in the bathroom. Mae buys into the concept of a world where the lack of privacy is a reasonable trade for lower crime and easy connectivity. She spends the rest of the novel serving as The Circle’s poster child for “completion”, something Eggers alludes to as when the world no longer has secrets or the right to privacy.
At first glance, Eggers novel looks like the second edition of Orwell’s classic 1984. For example:
1984:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
The Circle:
SECRETS ARE LIES
SHARING IS CARING
PRIVACY IS THEFT
In the middle of the book, Eggers takes a sharp turn from 1984, changing Mae from a character reminiscent of Winston Smith into Big Brother himself. Mae transforms from the victim into the villain, arguing the benefits of trading privacy for peace. She becomes the “Telescreen” by live streaming every part of her life, the “Thought Police” by ratting out one of the founders for going against completion, and the “Ministry of Love” for her close reporting to the Gang of 40.
But calling The Circle a modern day 1984 is either too great a compliment for Eggers or a subtle insult against Orwell. The biggest flaw of The Circle lies in the fact that Eggers chooses not to create a clearly fictionalized world, rather painting one that is closely reminiscent of our current society. This causes readers to closely question whether Eggers’ dystopian assertions are believable in the near future, rather than understanding that realism isn’t a focus of the novel. He also portrays the population of the world like sheep, mindless humans ready to accept new privacy sapping products from The Circle without questioning its consequences. Assertions such as the willingness of the people to trust government voting to a private company makes no sense in a setting so similar to the twenty-first century. Again, this juxtaposition to our current society would have been avoided if the world was more fictionalized. Classic dystopian novels, i.e. 1984 and Brave New World, all portray their characters in a very clearly fabricated world, for a good reason.
Mae’s character, although starting strong, is slowly worn away as the novel progresses. Her nighttime flings with co-worker Francis does nothing to progress the plot, only showcasing a desperate man looking for societies’ approval. When Mae’s ex-boyfriend Mercer dies due to the actions of The Circle, Eggers conveniently skips her grieving and obvious questioning of The Circle’s mission.
Despite this, The Circle raises good points in its illustration of the dangers of mob mentality, seen when millions of people try to track down a photo of a criminal (See Reddit trying to find the Boston Bomber). Eggers’ depiction of peoples’ FOMO (fear of missing out) is also eerily similar to the concerns of the younger generation, more connected to each other than ever.
Regardless, due to the inherent flaws of the novel, The Circle seems more like Mark Zuckerberg’s wet dream than a renowned dystopian novel. Eggers’ novel held a lot of potential to become a great dystopian book, but in the end falls short of completing the circle.
j
