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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
Interesting to read this straight after [b:Station Eleven|20170404|Station Eleven|Emily St. John Mandel|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1451446835s/20170404.jpg|28098716], as they share a few themes (disease wiping out large numbers of people, travelling through apocalyptic versions of the world) but the ideas in Bête are much more intriguing. I was a big fan of the confluence of AI and animal rights and the questions these raise in society. The grumpy old man style satire can start to wear (kids these days glued to their iTabs etc) and I usually find pop culture references grating, but it's also very funny and features some top-tier wordplay as you would expect from Roberts.
Pretty decent read. The concept is genius but sadly doesn't take up the lion's share of the plot, which is conversely comprised with an ex-farmer - a thoroughly unliveable protagonist - contemplating his navel and his place in this new society. But the prose itself reads sublime; it's the literary equivalent of a great vodka, how fluidly and literature Roberts writes. I'm definitely going to give some of his other work a go.
As Graham lifts the bolt, the cow turns to him and asks if he will Turing test him before pulling the trigger. The cow is a Bête, an animal with a AI chip in its brain that means it can converse and think. The law is just about to change, so that the killing of these beasts is now murder.
And so begins a raft of changes in Graham's life, as his farm fails and he hits the road just to survive. The rise of the animal rights movement has empowered the animals in England, and given them some political power. As he drifts in and out of of a dramatically different society, he never really escapes from his past actions. And one day that very past confronts him, and offers him a choice.
Possibly the strangest book I have read in a while, it is a blend of a dystopian future, with a cyber culture sub text. The society was fairly well advanced until the rise of these AI enhances creatures. As I read it I felt that I was reading a modern version of Animal Farm, but rather than a communist overthrow of a farm, this was the rise of the AI animal. Weird and disturbing at times, this was a genuinely original dystopian novel.
And so begins a raft of changes in Graham's life, as his farm fails and he hits the road just to survive. The rise of the animal rights movement has empowered the animals in England, and given them some political power. As he drifts in and out of of a dramatically different society, he never really escapes from his past actions. And one day that very past confronts him, and offers him a choice.
Possibly the strangest book I have read in a while, it is a blend of a dystopian future, with a cyber culture sub text. The society was fairly well advanced until the rise of these AI enhances creatures. As I read it I felt that I was reading a modern version of Animal Farm, but rather than a communist overthrow of a farm, this was the rise of the AI animal. Weird and disturbing at times, this was a genuinely original dystopian novel.
Bete definitely had a nostalgic quality for me, reminiscent of the giants of dystopian literature (which for some reason seem a necessary component of high school and early university lit classes). That said, I think Roberts's book stands on its own as a clever and intimate portrait of not only what a dystopian future might look like, but how that future impacts the novel's central character. Although the back-cover blurb suggested the book was similar to Animal Farm, I have to disagree, for although there are some references to the work in the latter half of the novel, it deals with entirely different subject matter and themes.
Although I enjoyed Graham "Don't call me Graham"'s character, and thought the character development was both beautiful and heartbreaking, elements of the premise didn't quite ring true to me. I don't doubt that there are scattered few who would implant chips (should the technology exist) in animals, but my general impression of other animal lovers and fellow vegans is that they would see such an act as a violation of animal rights rather than its opposite. This doesn't spoil the book, as in many ways it's not the point, per se, for the novel's story is more so a meditation on the nature of consciousness and sentience than anything else. Rather than questioning animal sentience, the novel is interested in A.I. and sentient robots.
A couple of minor quibbles: there were a number of editing slip-ups where a sentence had obviously been rewritten, but verb tenses had remained true to the original phrasing--not a big issue for me, but it was noticeable. The second was that almost all the characters are able and willing to wax lyrical on philosophical matters. This made sense for Graham, and for the Bete characters, but although the other human characters were interesting, I couldn't help but feel they were all just a little too clever. There needed to be a bit more variation for me. I actually have a similar problem when writing, so I sympathize.
All in all, I very much enjoyed this book, which occupied and moved me. In the end I couldn't help but love Cincinnatus, but felt as though perhaps I shouldn't. Indeed, this was the sentiment I feel the book pushes us toward, as it does the accompanying question.
Although I enjoyed Graham "Don't call me Graham"'s character, and thought the character development was both beautiful and heartbreaking, elements of the premise didn't quite ring true to me. I don't doubt that there are scattered few who would implant chips (should the technology exist) in animals, but my general impression of other animal lovers and fellow vegans is that they would see such an act as a violation of animal rights rather than its opposite. This doesn't spoil the book, as in many ways it's not the point, per se, for the novel's story is more so a meditation on the nature of consciousness and sentience than anything else. Rather than questioning animal sentience, the novel is interested in A.I. and sentient robots.
A couple of minor quibbles: there were a number of editing slip-ups where a sentence had obviously been rewritten, but verb tenses had remained true to the original phrasing--not a big issue for me, but it was noticeable. The second was that almost all the characters are able and willing to wax lyrical on philosophical matters. This made sense for Graham, and for the Bete characters, but although the other human characters were interesting, I couldn't help but feel they were all just a little too clever. There needed to be a bit more variation for me. I actually have a similar problem when writing, so I sympathize.
All in all, I very much enjoyed this book, which occupied and moved me. In the end I couldn't help but love Cincinnatus, but felt as though perhaps I shouldn't. Indeed, this was the sentiment I feel the book pushes us toward, as it does the accompanying question.
I really liked the concept of the story, but I still don't understand the ending. Maybe Wednesday's seminar will clear things up for me