Intermezzo: My Interview in The European Conservative
Plus "Who we are depends on who is watching us" and a great discount
The European Conservative is running my written interview with Jonathon Van Maren, where we touch on everything from my novel Exogenesis to the collapse of civilization to tech use in the home. That’s a wide range, I know, but it’s smooth and stimulating reading, a double-espresso cup of reflections for your day.
Commenting on Exogenesis , Van Maren describes it as
“A pointed cultural critique, but not a simplistic morality tale.”
Meanwhile, you can also check out Joel J.
for an excellent review of Exogenesis. In the review—titled “Who We Are Depends on Who’s Watching Us”—Joel cites a passage in which a pivotal character laments having to live in a technological dystopia where children are raised in institutions rather than homes, and everything is monitored by surveillance “Eyes”:Who we are depends on who is watching us…It used to be, long ago, that a child was watched and therefore known by his mother, his father, by the gods or the spirits that oversaw life, by all those who mattered to the child, mattered because the child’s purpose and existence depended on them. Now we give our children to caregivers…The caregivers do not watch over our children with the sacrificial commitment of a mother or father, or of a god. So who watches over them? Who watches over all of us? Who watches with lifelong vigilance and concern for who we are and what we do, every moment of the day? The Eyes. The Eyes are everywhere, judging every word. Every action…The Eyes watch and reward and punish. And the worst of it, Maelin, is this: the Eyes on the outside become the eyes on the inside, and the eyes on the inside become our true judges. Our moral conscience. The ones we seek to please. Our God.
The publisher Ignatius Press is currently offering 25% off on the novel. Use the code EXOGENESIS25 during checkout at bit.ly/3rVDL58. I don’t know how long the discount will last, so grab your copy today while you can.
Exogenesis: A Dystopia with Hope
Out of the collapse of Old America rises Lantua, a glittering thousand-mile metropolis where drones patrol the sky and AI algorithms reward social behavior. The most compliant citizens enjoy the greatest privileges, the poorest struggle to rise up the echelon system, and criminals are subjected to brain modification. Birthing and genetic quality are con…
Unfortunately I couldn’t get a physical copy of the book (Euro zone) without likely incurring a big Portuguese customs duty (Amazon Spain only had it via a UK reseller, and Germany’s Amazon wouldn’t ship it here...) so I got the Kindle version via Amazon Canada. All I could think was, “the Machine doesn’t care...” - it all rather underlined the necessity of understanding our times. Started reading it last evening and am thoroughly enjoying it!
Just bought Exogenesis for my Kindle and will read it next!