Below is a literary infographic on the most important aspects of Binti made by me. For anyone unsure if the book would be up their alley, this image may help contextualize some things. But, of course, *spoilers ahead*.

The title of this post is not entirely honest. The academic validity of a tirade against one author is questionable; the humor value might be higher, but that is beside the point. No, in reality, I am proposing a project concerning the message of The Circle, David Eggerss 2013 novel about an overreaching technology company slowly encroaching upon all systems of society, cultural and governmental. The book covers social media influence, the new digital age, the rise of groupthink, and an ever-advancing surveillance state.

Eggers’ message can be described as a tad hamfisted but is otherwise well-characterized: the inherent flaws and harm of an increasing presence of social media. This message is conferred through a series of Orwellian motifs and homages. This comes through in the increasing ubiquity of the eponymous tech giant, the nonconflict other characters have to decreasing levels of autonomy, and the eventual acceptance of this regime by the main character.

While the message delivered by Eggers is not entirely inapt, it confers a certain ineptitude to the operation of technology companies in a true post-capitalist hellscape. On top of that, the heavyhanded homages to Orwell’s 1984 don’t directly apply to the Circle, with the various differences between scale (a world-scale government versus a US-based tech company), motivation (total control versus “total surveillance”), and realism. As such, my project is to compare Eggers’ work with Orwells, determine if the parallels benefit Eggers’ intended message, and implement my own tweaks to better suit the previously mentioned three points of comparison. Through this comparison, I hope to show my own frustrations with Eggers’ work.

While a paper could easily accomplish this goal, I find that audiovisual formats have a few unique benefits. As a child of the Internet and YouTube, I find that they are easier for me to work with, given how often I not only consume multimedia content, but also help others make it, critique it, and find out new ways to make my own work better. I also find videos easier to consume, since it isn’t limited by a person’s reading ability or speed, and it ensures that a message is delivered in a more uniform way regardless of the viewer. Finally, videos are able to confer certain ways of thinking better, such as the inner workings of the mind, or demonstrating large-scale organizations. I also just find they are fun to make and work with. I hope this idea is as enticing to you to view it as it is to me to make it.

Dave Egger’s novel-length technology rant The Circle contains a lot of information, much more than necessary given the intellectual depth of the book. Most of this information overload takes the form of overly specific figures and numbers relating to Mae’s performance at the Circle. However, this also comes in the form of the various characters that seem to apparate into Mae’s periphery during her initial time at the Circle as a person working company relations. These relationships and interactions change as Mae’s integration and indoctrination by the Circle persists. With Mae being the protagonist of The Circle, these interactions come up very often, almost numbingly so in the beginning as her setup is created before her at her desk. A visual aid for these relationships can be used to help keep track of all the names Eggers has decided to inundate the reader with in order to make up for his lack of actual story.

(a) Before the events of The Circle, Mercer and Mae had already broken up.

(b) Francis was one of a cavalcade of Circle employees to help Mae get her Customer Experience office space set up. He also later made an attempt at making advances at Mae.

(c) All of the Circle employees later attended a presentation put on by Bailey. Ty was not mentioned.

(d) Francis later attempted to apologize for his advances and meddling in her life, much to Mae’s annoyance.

(e) Ty, under the alias of Kalden, set up communications with and later sexual rendezvous with Mae.

(f) Mercer and Mae still communicate through the course of the book, but find themselves further at odds as Mercer’s anti-technology sentiments grow.

(g) After Mae’s incident with the Kayak, Bailey spins this into his SeeChange project by having Mae be the first Circler to go transparent. He remains close at hand for the remainder of the novel due to his input on Mae’s actions and daily goings-on.

(h) Mercer’s sentiments are brought to a head as Mae puts his artwork on stage for the world to see. He becomes more reclusive, completely cutting himself off from the digital world.

(i) Kalden and Mae have another sexual encounter, but as Kalden is attempting to convince Mae of the Circle’s possible evil intent, Mae is attempting to surmise of Kalden is a spy of some kind.

The most pivotal relationship detailed in this timeline is without a doubt Mae’s relationship with Kalden, otherwise known as Tyler Alexander Gospodinov, the technological founder of the Circle and one of the Three Wisemen. Each of the Wisemen interacts with Mae at some point in the book, but Ty’s dual identity contributes to having a much closer relationship with Mae than an executive would otherwise have with one of their underlings. As Kalden, Ty contributes to Mae’s development as a person. He occupies much of her thoughts upon encountering her, and aside from that ends up contributing to what one could call a sexual awakening for Mae. While the implications of a CTO having a sexual relationship with a PR representative is dubious at best, the obliviousness of Mae to this fact means that Mae’s character develops rather than recedes in fear. Beyond this particular aspect of their relationship, after Ty reveals himself to be Kalden, he attempts to bring Mae out of the steady spiral of indoctrination she became subject to under the watchful influence of Eamon Bailey, the public face of the Circle. This ends up contributing to something instead called the backfire effect, in which Mae goes whole-hog into the new ‘infocommunist’ totalitarian future presented by the Circle, but this is still a very significant marker in Mae’s character caused by Ty.

A network graph is a concept useful across multiple fields, ranging from sociology to comparative literature. It can be used for showing an exchange of resources, multiple plotlines, the location of important objects or characters, or even the interpersonal relationships of the characters themselves. The below graph fulfills the latter purpose for the first section of Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.

1. Clay Jannon, the protagonist of the story, is hired by Mr. Ajax Penumbra to pick up the night shift at his mysterious bookstore.
2. As is later revealed to Clay, the various “member” patrons of the bookstore are students of Ajax Penumbra within the Unbroken Spine, an order of academics and bibliophiles dedicated to locating the secret to eternal life within a particular book.
3. This information is all laid out in greater detail to Clay by Rosemary Lapin, a novice of the Unbroken Spine and one of Penumbra’s frequent patrons.
4. Clay, Ajax, and Oliver Grone make up the clerical staff of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.
5. As seen in a photo, the current proprietor of the bookstore, Ajax, the former proprietor, Mohammad Al-Asmari, and the mysterious Corvina are shown to have been in a student-teacher relationship, with Al-Asmari as the professor.
6. The man known only as Eric is sent by Corvina to both collect evidence of then-unspecified transgressions by Ajax…
7. … and deliver a package later revealed to be a new book for what Clay calls the Waybacklist.
8. “North Face” is one of the few normal customers that Clay takes note of while on duty. She works at the restaurant next door, and likes biographies.
9. Clay, Mat, and Ashley are roommates in San Francisco.
10. Mat pursues romantic interests with Ashley, eventually succeeding.
11. “Grumble” is a mysterious activist who scans hard-to-get-to books. He also hosts a forum on which an individual can come across various pirated content. So, in a way, “Grumble” inadvertently helps Clay create a copy of the stolen logbook by providing a pirated copy of the Gerritzoon Display font.
12. Clay and Neel are childhood friends, bonding over a mutual love of the Dragon-Song Chronicles in 6th grade. Neel eventually becomes a wealthy tech mogul who finances Clay’s pursuit of Ajax to NYC.
13. Igor is one of Neel’s many young geniuses working at his computer engine and animation company.
14. Kat starts the story as a random customer that comes across the 24-Hour Bookstore, who Clay takes an immediate liking to. Eventually, Kat becomes Clay’s friend and comrade in the pursuit of the secrets of Penumbra’s, as well as his entry point to Google and its power. She also becomes Clay’s romantic interest (I hesitate to call them “dating” or a “couple” based on events that occur further in the story, as well as the sudden escalation of their relationship in the context of the story in this section alone).
15. Raj and Finn are Kat’s coworkers at Google, the former of whom introduces the idea of Old Knowledge and Traditional Knowledge to Clay.
16. Jad is another Googler, who runs the book scanner on Google’s campus, which Clay uses to digitize the stolen logbook.

Admittedly, I came into this assignment thinking it would be easier. While Ted Chiang’s “Story of Your Life” is a non-traditional narrative, the intricacies of which are not entirely clear until the very end of the story, a timeline, from the outset, does not seem all that complicated. This assignment has proven such assumptions inaccurate. That said, I believe I made the whole thing at least marginally readable. Enjoy.