So, I've gotta be a librarian and look up some more information about the themes in this book.
- One thing I've thought about is the concept of the "company town" in which a company creates a whole town for its employees to shop at the company store, live company housing, etc. The Joads live in a company town for a while in The Grapes of Wrath, and the social scientists seem to call this concept paternalism. Yes, I would say that The Circle is a paternalistic entity! - Remember Michel Foucault from college... the panopticon in Discipline and Punish? Foucault explored the vision of society in which we all watch one another and we check our behavior accordingly. Seems like one of Egger's goals is to extend that exploration to the age of Google and Facebook. - Obviously, privacy is a huge theme in the book and a huge question for those of us living in 2014. Two concepts that don't get named explicitly are solitude and intimacy but which I think are tied to privacy. Sherry Turkle is a scholar who is writing about all of these issues, particularly in Alone Together and in a very good interview on On Being. One of the more alarming aspects of the issues that Eggers is exploring is this loss of the ability to be alone and confident in solitude, and Turkle is worth reading to get a grasp on why that is so.
FYI, I linked to some library resources here. You may have to put in your library card number. :-)
- One thing I've thought about is the concept of the "company town" in which a company creates a whole town for its employees to shop at the company store, live company housing, etc. The Joads live in a company town for a while in The Grapes of Wrath, and the social scientists seem to call this concept paternalism. Yes, I would say that The Circle is a paternalistic entity!
- Remember Michel Foucault from college... the panopticon in Discipline and Punish? Foucault explored the vision of society in which we all watch one another and we check our behavior accordingly. Seems like one of Egger's goals is to extend that exploration to the age of Google and Facebook.
- Obviously, privacy is a huge theme in the book and a huge question for those of us living in 2014. Two concepts that don't get named explicitly are solitude and intimacy but which I think are tied to privacy. Sherry Turkle is a scholar who is writing about all of these issues, particularly in Alone Together and in a very good interview on On Being. One of the more alarming aspects of the issues that Eggers is exploring is this loss of the ability to be alone and confident in solitude, and Turkle is worth reading to get a grasp on why that is so.
FYI, I linked to some library resources here. You may have to put in your library card number. :-)