We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine by Deni Ellis Béchard
Reviewed by Naomi MacKinnon
We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine started as a thought experiment on how humans might adapt to being put into individual rooms and given anything they desire, according to the author in an interview with Trevor Corkum at 49th Shelf. This idea grew from the author’s “perception that technology is increasingly shaping our realities to reflect our desires and beliefs, and that AI will accelerate this process of individuation.” As a result, he has penned a mind-bender of a novel that stretches the imagination further than you thought it could go.
“The characters in the novel are introduced one by one as they wake up in a blue room with no doors or windows. They come to learn that they are being held inside a machine that was created to protect humans at all costs.”
The characters in the novel are introduced one by one as they wake up in a blue room with no doors or windows. They come to learn that they are being held inside a machine that was created to protect humans at all costs. Not only will it keep humans safe until the end of time, but it will also “ensure their happiness;” they are free to go where they want, see what they want, do what they want, and be with who they want. But none of it is real. Can a life that is artificial be rewarding or satisfying? Can there be happiness without freedom or purpose?
“Over the course of the day, her impulses arise again and again. To check on Jonah. To plot a future. To worry about food. To ready the farm for the summer monsoons. There’s no need for any of that now. The sunlit sky outside requires nothing of her.”
The book alternates between characters. Ava and Michael are elderly and looking back on the past as they experience their new present. They had led fulfilling lives: art, engineering, and ideas filled their days. They lived through the “Partition” when America split in two and life in the Americas changed forever. Jae and Simon are young adults living in the remains of the restructuring after “Partition.” Jae has spent her life studying hard to get a spot at one of the universities while Simon has spent his life scavenging for scrap metal to help feed his family. As their new circumstances become clear to them, they examine the past and what it means for their future.
The characters experience life in “the Machine” uniquely: Ava looks at it with an artist’s eye, the endless possibilities; Michael with an eye to the inner workings of the Machine, wondering if there is any way he can shut this thing down; Jae with frustration as she tries to solve the mystery of her existence; Simon with determination to try living out as many experiences as he can in order to forget the one he left behind. None can escape reliving their memories.
As the characters visit their memories to try to make sense of the present, they wonder about their purpose; they wonder if there’s a way out.
And what of Jonah, the two-year-old son of Jae and Simon, who is now in a “blue room” of his own? Jonah, and others who are born inside the machine, are not so wrapped up in memories, they don’t feel as purposeless; the machine has been all things to them for as long as they can remember.
“He imagines the terror of living in a world that ignores questions and desires.”
“Unlike the gods humans once worshipped, the machine serves him. Suffering, terror, injustice, and death on Earth have been replaced with order, safety, beauty, and life.”
We Are Dreams in the Eternal Machine is thought-provoking speculative fiction unlike any you have read before.
A favourite line: “Eternity will be long. He might as well sit.”
About the Author
DENI ELLIS BÉCHARD is the author of eight previous books of fiction and nonfiction, including Vandal Love, winner of the 2007 Commonwealth Writers Prize, and Into the Sun, winner of the 2016 Midwest Book Award for literary fiction and selected by CBC/Radio-Canada and one of the most important books to be read by Canada's political leadership. His work has received the Nautilus Book Award for Investigative Journalism and has been featured in Best Canadian Essays. He has reported from India, Cuba, Colombia, Iraq, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan, and his writing has been published in dozens of newspapers and magazines, including Salon, the Los Angeles Times, the Paris Review, Pacific Standard, and Foreign Policy.
Book Details
Publisher : House of Anansi (Jan. 28 2025)
Language : English
Paperback : 424 pages
ISBN-10 : 1487013353
ISBN-13 : 978-1487013356
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