The Circle

Skillfully done, occasionally brilliant, at other times superficial, The Circle extends some of the trends of our society to their logical conclusion.

In the real world, the president and congress find themselves deadlocked. Who was it that came up with this separation of powers idea? It's very inefficient. If everyone worked together, instead of at cross purposes, so much more could be accomplished. Privatization is often suggested as a better way, with the voting of the marketplace to enact the will of the people.

Books like Sam Harris's Lying argue that all lies are bad, though it allows for the truth of "I refuse to tell you" as a possible way out of revealing everything. People on the Internet willingly forgo their privacy in the interests of community. Even I let my emails be scanned for keywords allowing targeted ads in return for free Google email. After all, isn't their slogan "Don't be evil?"

The Circle, resembling Google the most, but including Apple and Facebook and Twitter and many other private companies as their inspiration, shows how it could all go wrong. But most of us already knew this, and often in much more nuanced ways than are addressed in this book. And since we know in advance it will lead to disaster, we read this book as one would watch a youtube video of a circus performer who we just might want to see fall off the tightrope, or of a grizzly auto accident videoed as it happened. We are the choir being preached to and we enjoy our point of view being expressed with a nice story line that would make a great movie.

But I don't go to those movies. I prefer those with more subtlety. I like stories that address internal conflict and unconscious motivation. I would like my main character to recognize early on that her "transparency" is a lie. I'd like her to recognize that being watched doesn't make her "her best self" but only her most devious, not because of the times she cuts her video or audio feed, but because her every action is designed to hide her real thoughts and feelings in preference for how she "should" be. People lie to themselves to protect their self-image but most of them, at least, suspect they're lying. And why not show them in the bathroom? Is it something to be ashamed of? Lyndon Johnson would hold meetings as he sat on the toilet. These arguments aren't taken far enough and it mars the believability of the book.

Also, we don't hear enough about the poor, who, presumably deserve their poverty--because if we actually spent any attention on them, we'd turn on The Circle at a point when when Eggers wants us to give the company point of view more of a chance. And when it's time to show the company at it's worst, we watch defenseless animals, who we know are innocent, not humans who are always morally ambiguous.

Mercer could have merely gotten in an accident. Not even fatally. A suicide is too cartoonish. It was hard to believe that Mae believed he'd laugh about it with her, but most of the relationships seemed based on the exigencies of plot. Kaldon/Ty may have been socially inept, but why he'd choose Mae and expect her help (or expect the help she could provide to make any difference) has no other explanation. Similarly Mae, a celebrity, returning to Francis when she would have many other choices is unconvincing. Similarly, her not understanding that her parents might need privacy makes sense ideologically but not emotionally.

I gave it 3 stars because I never got too bored, but didn't raise it to 4 on followup.

If Facebook and Google were to get married, The Circle would be their direct result of their procreation. The Circle takes the social aspects (and lack of privacy) of Facebook and combines it with the innovation of Google to create a dominant social media platform. Their success was a result of TruYou, a tool that requires people to use their real identity to sign up (including their social security number making it impossible for anyone outside of the US to sign up), many web based companies jumped on board with this innovation, wanting direct access to real data. The effect of TruYou saw the end of internet trolling, identity theft and so much more.

Mae Holland is a woman in her early 20’s that has just landed a job with the Circle thanks to her friend Annie. While she has to start in Customer Experience, a place well below her qualifications the idea of working at the Circle was enough for her. The offices (or campus) of the Circle mimic that of Google, and Mae founds that this is the place to work; everyone is friendly and she will be on the fast track to a promotion in no time. However the Circle; while it demands transparency (hiding nothing from the public) in everything they do, their attempt to close the circle (their mission statement) will result in complete control over everything. Secrets Are Lies, Privacy Is Theft.

Let’s face it, Dave Eggers’ The Circle is less of a social satire and more a horrifying prophecy of the direction social media is going. They days where people can be a curator of their lives online are fast ending and every part of our lives will be accessible. This may have some positive effects in life but when one company or person has too much power, human rights tend to take a back seat. Do people see this? Are they aware just how much of their information is being shared or sold? The Circle forces the readers to ask these questions and take a deeper look what is happening online.

The Circle serves more as a motif; even a homage to Dante if you will. Dave Eggers is the Virgil of this story and both Mae and the readers travel deeper into the circles of hell. Mae learns just much of a tyrant the Circle is, while the reader has a look at social media. While I see this as a homage to Inferno, this totalitarian nightmare is obviously influenced by Nineteen Eighty-Four (as most dystopian novel are) more than anything else. Eggers, like Orwell wants to look at society and see the direction we are heading.

The Circle is headed by the “Three Wise Men” each of them with their own ideas for the direction of the company. These three men seem to be modelled after real life innovators; Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs and Julian Assange. I’m not going to go into the effects three big personalities would have on a company, but I’m sure you can imagine. I’m not going to go too much further into the plot or themes but with a company slogan like “All that happens must be known”, I probably don’t need to spell it out.

This is my first Dave Eggers novel and I’ve often heard that this is one of his weaker novels, however I think this was a perfect place to start for me. I found this dystopian satire to be directly influenced by the works of Jonathan Swift and George Orwell. I have no idea what Eggers other novels are like but I’m convinced to read more; even if they are not social satires. I loved how he incorporated pop-culture into the novel but I worry that this will mean it won’t age well, so you might want to pick this one up soon.

I have been reading novels that critique society but the majority have been classics, so it is nice to step into a modern day setting and see how the age of high-tech innovation and technoconsumerism could be harmful. I see some mixed reactions to this novel and I can understand that, my only hope is that people are understanding satire and are not marking it down for that. Of course I am a big fan of satire and will always be preaching about its value within literature. I found The Circle to be a very impressive novel and it did a great job at critiquing society, I hope people will give it a chance but I suspect this book will be a popular pick. I would like to do this one as part of a book club.

This review originally appeared on my blog: literary-exploration.com/2014/10/17/the-circle-by-dave-eggers/

This was a quick read - took me about two days (granted, one was a sick day). Some initial thoughts:

• 1984 meets Office Space


• Would pair nicely with 1984 in high school assigned reading programs

The novel does a nice job illustrating the importance of maintaining balance in information technology and asking the question of what that balance is. Where is that line between secrecy and privacy? Who owns information? What information is best kept personal and what private information is worth sharing in exchange for a better quality of life or greater efficiency? What information is better left unknown? What happens when we no longer have to wonder about things - when all questions can be answered with a simple web query - how does this affect the human brain and behavior? When does communication cease being meaningful?

While many of the characters and situations are cliches and the storyline isn't particularly original (1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Space Merchants, elements of The Semplica Girl Diaries, The Firm), Eggers has done a reasonably good job applying those themes to modern day issues. I truly think the cliches are intentional - The Circle is meant to be recognizable - Facebook, Google, ClearChannel, YouTube, Twitter, and COX all rolled up into one. And the characters are meant to be cliched representatives of their demographic - the way individuals are to marketers.

What I found a bit hard to swallow was the relationship between Mae and Kalden/Ty. She was clearly not a strong-willed or deep-thinking character, easily led and manipulated - therefore a perfect choice as a representative of The Circle and for that reason, it makes her an exceptionally poor choice for Ty as the one to help him blow the lid off things. Her character is one of someone who needs to be part of the "in-crowd" - needs constant external validation; not someone who thinks deeply about her actions or her newfound influence as a celebrity. Presumably, this would have been at least somewhat apparent to Ty - so why would he choose her; someone who sold out her own parents to remain in good standing with The Circle? I realize it was necessary for the book to be what it was, but it almost seems as though Annie would have been a better choice as his ally, since she at least showed some signs of distress about the direction in which things were headed. I think Eggers wanted to keep things on the simple side, so I can forgive this lack of logic - after all, humans don't always behave logically, right? And it was never really clear what his emotional state was, including his perception of his relationship with Mae.

Overall, I found this to be a worthwhile and interesting read. There's a lot of symbolism here and since this is a book club read, I may actually give it a second read to take notes as I anticipate an interesting discussion.