4.25 - wow this book is so dense, but you can really tell what a master of craft Ellison was.

This book is just absolutely filled to the brim with allusion, folklore, and commentary. The way each of these elements weave together, then wave in and out of the spotlight is so well done, and throughout the novel I was picking up threads that I thought had been lost and finding new discoveries within them. Ellison brings in so many aspects of life, culture, and history to make this novel come to life, and it is truly a pleasure to read along and watch him work.

I’m not going to pretend that I have the right to commentate on the novel’s accuracy in terms of racial oppression, but what I will say is that it brings to light Harlem in the 30s and 40s and explores the rising tensions in a way that feels truthful. It requires you to look. The narrator’s lack of name seems to allow him to stand-in as a more metaphorical representation of the African American experience during this time and Ellison’s choice to include numerous characters who were inspired by (or were unchanged stand-ins for) Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, and Richard Wright brought forth real life history. His inclusion of references to African and African American folklore further adds to the cultural web being displayed and his challenge of racist stereotypes or caricatures truly makes this novel a deeply culturally layered masterpiece. This being said, I think the novel exists a bit more as a thought experiment than a story. Of course, there is a clear narrative, but there are many moments where Ellison’s own thoughts seem to take over our narrator’s personality simply because of how much he was trying to do. I’m not saying this as a bad thing, but just something I noticed.

Our narrator, while sympathetic, is also so aggravating. He constantly goes back and forth on his opinions, and while it could be understandable if he was just a couple years younger, his actual age makes this behavior seem naive and childish. He was on the brink of understanding his grandfather’s words so many times, just in the edge of epiphany, then he’d misconstrue it or turn the other direction. While I understand this is where a major conflict of the novel derives from and it’s important for that to remain ungrasped for his coming of age, it was also so aggravating to read him miss the point so many times. I’m left feeling unsure about our narrator. Do I sympathize with him and feel for him? Absolutely. Were there moments where I thought he was an absolute idiot? Also absolutely. I feel though that this was an intentional choice by Ellison, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.

I feel as though if I wasn’t in a class studying this novel, I would’ve missed out on so much. There are so many layers and elements at play that reading it without educating yourself on all these different threads (cultural and historical) would be doing yourself and this novel a disservice. I know that I’ve become more educated as a result of this work, and I definitely recommend that others give it a read, but perhaps with the knowledge that in order to truly engage with it in the way it was meant to be engaged, you may have to spend some more time with it than normal. Ellison is a master writer and his intellect clearly shines through in this work, and it is no surprise to me that he was a bit anxious about publishing another work after this one. I mean, how do you do something like this again?

3.0 - leaving this feeling pretty neutral overall.

This novelette raises some interesting questions in relation to technology and humanity. For example, it discusses the ideas of AI art, capitalistic control of AI, as well as human/technological modification. While I think these themes fit well into the world that’s been created, I think the piece is too short to really delve into them as deep as the world might allow. This might’ve been the author’s intention, to just pose this questions and not linger, but I would’ve loved just a little bit more world-building.

Ai’s obsession with work and time feels relevant even today, and it created a sort of bleak look at the future. There are already tons of people who work insane hours only to be barely scraping by, and her reality of trading in human parts of herself (literally and metaphorically) to increase production is quite sad. However, with the debt that exists in this world, it’s understandable. This theme makes me think about our own world and how, if the option was there, how many people would do the same if it meant getting them more money? There were already people who are barely human due to their pursuit of greed, but this story takes it to a new level. Of course Ai’s situation is different than a millionaire’s, but the implication itself is quite interesting to think about, especially considering the capitalistic society she’s living in. (Also quite interesting that the name of the city, Emit, is “time” backwards).

The commentary about AI in artistic and creative spaces was also done well. Every time someone left Ai’s service for an actual AI service due to time reasons it hurt my heart. However, I did enjoy the cancellations that explained the reason they were canceling their subscription was because it lost its unique voice and tone—it seemed like some proof that, even in this technologically advanced society, there are still people who appreciate the idiosyncrasies of human writers. I thought that this plotline did a good job of showing both sides of the situation we’re in right now: there are people who only care about the product and are using AI to get it, and those that know that the true art comes from the process and the individual qualities of the person who made it.

I was impressed by the clear image and depth of the characters that we get in such a small amount of time. Even though they might not be complex, the side characters all felt flushed out and like their own unique people, which is an impressive feat considering everything else that’s going on in the story. However, while the Roaches were briefly explained, I wanted more of them. Were they like genetically modified to eat trash? What the hell is going on there?

At the end of the day, this presents a lot of very real questions regarding AI and gives the reader a lot to think about, but I think it’s length prevented it from truly reaching towards those ideas. I don’t know what it needs to be a whole book or novella, but just a few more pages that go a bit more into these elements I would’ve readily enjoyed. Solid, but it didn’t feel like anything special to me personally.