The Affinities - Robert Charles Wilson
I've heard sociologists bemoan the phenomenon of the internet in general and of social media in specific. Many are concerned that society, rather than being enhanced by this alleged interconnection, is actually harmed as society devolves into self-identified fractions and factions. One need only consider the conservative and liberal “echo chambers” to know that many people now choose to – at least online – associate only with others who share their beliefs and values. As speculative fiction writers so often do, Robert Charles Wilson has decided to comment on such fractionation; the result is The Affinities.
Adam forked over his $200, took a battery of tests, and found himself a new family – the Taus, one of twenty-two different “affinities.” Members of the same affinity shared an undefinable something, something beyond values and beliefs and even blood, something that went to the core of being. Taus could almost read each others’ minds; could end sentences for each other even though complete strangers, and shared much more than any “accident of nature.” His fellow Taus became far, far closer to him than his blood kin.
Not everyone was a Tau; not everyone even qualified for one of the twenty-two affinities. And what’s worse, though Adam and his fellow Taus were by all accounts admirable folks, some of the other affinities were… not. Adam found himself on the leading edge of a movement that might take society somewhere completely new; and since he was a Tau, Adam believed it the right direction. The only problem left for him was the matter of his family – specifically his brother Aaron, who held a key to Tau plans. As the different affinities flirted with a state of war, Adam left for a secret mission behind enemy lines. Would he be successful? And what if he did succeed…
Like Dave Eggers before him (The Circle), Robert Charles Wilson takes a critical look at the way society is being changed by social media. Where Eggers concentrated his fictional powers on the ways social media provides endless reinforcement for trivial acts, Wilson instead carries to its logical conclusion the manner in which people gravitate toward those with whom they share “values,” be those values in the arenas of politics, religion, or some other field.
Unlike The Circle, The Affinities isn’t a particularly engaging read. The action is slow, the characters are – though thoroughly described – still somewhat flat. It is as if Wilson deliberately wrote them to be incomplete humans, perhaps because of affinity members' tendency to wall themselves off from the rest of humanity. What is undeniably a fascinating conceptualization of the near future comes off, as a result, as somewhat slow and even pedantic.
| Wilson’s future vision of a segmented society remains deeply instructive, however. As we observe Adam and his fellow Taus, we learn what they feel sets them apart from the members of other affinities; particularly the Het (with whom they have long been in conflict). Many, many times Adam and his affinity-mates repeat what it is that makes them special, superior even, and what traits make their enemies evil. One need only read a few online comment sections to see a far less subtle, equally divisive, tone at work. Though there’s no overt name-calling such as one might find on Facebook or Twitter, there remains an undercurrent of the conversation that serves to demonize the opponent and reduce him to stereotype and caricature. |
Not having read Robert Charles Wilson's work before, I glanced at the book’s reviews at Amazon. In a return visit not long ago, I found several to be amusing for their blunt irony. Among the one-star reviews, there are several that castigate Wilson for identifying a member of the Republican Party as a quasi-villain. This attitude of “protect my fellow travelers” served well to illustrate that, to some extent, the online world has already separated into The Affinities. No wonder sociologists are concerned…
No comments:
Post a Comment