The Word Exchange in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Apr 24, 2014 Jeff Scott rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction

Alena Graedon's The Word Exchange is a Sci-Fi romp that combines our near future with some Alice in Wonderland nonsense. In the future everyone will have a Meme, an iPad type device that has eradicated the need for phones, music players, and particularly books. The Dictionary is the last bastion of the written word, a rival of sorts to the technology of the day, a company known as Synchronocity. Anana works with her father Doug at the Dictionary, but when he mysteriously goes missing it coincide Alena Graedon's The Word Exchange is a Sci-Fi romp that combines our near future with some Alice in Wonderland nonsense. In the future everyone will have a Meme, an iPad type device that has eradicated the need for phones, music players, and particularly books. The Dictionary is the last bastion of the written word, a rival of sorts to the technology of the day, a company known as Synchronocity. Anana works with her father Doug at the Dictionary, but when he mysteriously goes missing it coincides with a series of events that will destroy American Society and make them question their over reliance on technology.

The book is a thinly veiled criticism of today's technology. What Dave Eggers' The Circle did for social networking and privacy, Graedon does for tablets and the absence of independent thought. Those who use the Memes never question their authority or usefulness. It comes to a head with vocabulary. Sometimes the right word escapes us, but with the power of the Meme and The Word Exhange, you can download that word for just 2 cents. However, through a game in the system and a malware attack instead of getting the right word, the user gets a made up word. Simple key words have been exchanged for nonsense word making communication extremely difficult and the speaker unaware of the error. Over time, this word flu makes it where people can no longer communicate. Key words are jibberish and those hit the worst go into The Silencing and even death. One can easily make this comparison to today's auto-correct or GPS and other conveniences. This aspect of the book was very clever and she is able conjure some very scary scenes. However, it was very tedious to get through as the reader cannot understand what is being said any more than anyone else.

Generally, this is a very clever read, an ode to a literary past and a foreshadowing of a technology future. Book nerds, lexicographers, and those who prefer print over tech will love this book. Furthermore, those who keep up on how the internet is changing our brains will find a further buttress of their argument with this book.

Favorite passages
Words, I've come to learn, are pulleys through time. Portals into other minds. Without words, what remains? Indecipherable customs. Strange rites. Blighted hearts. Without words, we're history's orphans. Our lives and thoughts erased.p 1
We can fashion our strength from whatever we want...p 71
There's no Athena interceding on your behalf. No guarantee you'll eventually arrive. If there's something you really want in life--especially if it's something that scares you, or you think you don't deserve--you have to go after it and do it now. Or in not very long you'll be right: you won't deserve it. " p 94
By accident, the bound codex taught us sustained focus, abstract thinking, logic. Our natural tendency is to be distracted—to scan the horizon constantly for predators and prospects. Books made us turn that attention inward, to build higher and higher castles within the quiet kingdoms of our minds. Through that process of reflection and deep thinking, we evolved. There was no going back—only ever forward.
P. 233
...more

Like · see review

Jul 19, 2014 Julia rated it really liked it

Shelves: audio-books, distopian, horror

To be blunt, you need to be smarter than the average bear to enjoy this one. In my case, that meant being willing to look up the occasional word (some of which even stymied the dictionary) and to verify the meanings on plenty more. Which, if you read the book, is scarily a propos.

Most of my friends have the brains but not the the patience for this one. I did cheat by simultaneously reading and listening (only in the car, but that seems to be where I spend at least an hour a day, so it adds up q ...more

Like · see review