Janelle MonáeCritiques

Five novellas and long short stories explore a dystopia created in the music album "Dirty Computer" (2018). There are some elements that are further explored - such as Pynk - and others that are new. In this dystopia, apparently the U.S. sometime in the future, though the location is never spelled out, there are "clean" and "dirty" people, and the "dirty computers" tend to be Black and queer. The state keeps its power chillingly, altering people's memories with drugs and making them docile and straight, if at all possible. But some resist, and others dream of a better future.

"The Memory Librarian" with Alaya Dawn Johnson
Tells the story of Seshet, who works the people of power in the dystopia where these stories are set. Seshet is a memory librarian who works to keep things going right at New Dawn, making sure that the populations' memories are what they should be. But random things - not memories - start clogging up the system, and she investigates. At the same time, she meets Alethia and starts a romance, questioning if her own memories are suspect and whether she's really done enough good to outweigh the harm.

"Nevermind" with Danny Lore
At the Pynk Hotel, all women and women-aligned are welcome - or are they? Jane and her lover have put down roots here, sometimes quite literally as she puts her hands in the dirt and tries to remember what's been memory wiped by the drug Nevermind. When a trap on the hotel perimeter is found tampered with, enemies from outside are suddenly a threat even while, on the inside, some refuse to accept the trans, non-binary resident, Neer.

"Timebox" with Eve L. Ewing
This one was in a sense the most tame but to me had the most chilling ending. Two women, Raven and Akilah, are dating and get a new apartment together but frays in the relationship soon become apparently, primarily because of class differences where Akilah came from privilege and Raven did not. They discover that their pantry allows them a little extra time, and have very different ideas of how to use it.

"Save Changes" with Yohanca Delgado
Sisters Amber and Larry live with their mother, Diana, who had been part of the Resistance but now after her reconditioning she can't live on her own, doing such things as pickling Twinkies in Windex. When Larry brings Amber to an illegal party, Amber considers using the stone her father gave her that allows her to turn back time - but only once, and then she can pass it on to her oldest child.

"Timebox Altar(ed)" with Sheree Renee Thomas
On their birthday, Bug runs into a ghost town and puts together a sculpture they call an ark with their brother and two friends. Then, Bug disappears for a time. Each of the children have an experience in another time and place, realizing that there is hope for their world, and that each of them have a part to play. A little heavy-handed in its theme, but nice to end on a happier note.

Overall, an intriguing collection.

I have been a massive fan of Janelle Monae since her first EP. Still my favorite. I love how consistently on point she has been with her whole deal, the story of Jane 57821 that inhabits her first ep, three albums and emotion picture. All so good! I was elated that she decided to write a book of stories from this world she has built. I didn't really know what to expect, but was definitely interested to see what the multi-talented Monae could/would write. I didn't expect a Pulitzer prize winning book here... I don't expect her to do EVERYTHING so well. But I was ultimately impressed! Each of the stories in the book has a different collaborator, which I am okay with. This is Monae saying to people who have the experience of writing books: "help me out" which I can appreciate. Bring in other writers to expand her ideas. I love that the stories have little easter eggs to things mentioned in her songs. The stories are black future, dystopia, sci-fi, speculative. I'm definitely a fan of this type of story to begin with, so I was probably going to read and like this even without already being a fan of Janelle Monae. I always liked that Monae has had so many influences. I think all five stories here are equally strong. I think it stands up to other fiction of this type. I'm glad she wrote this, I'm glad I read it, I'm glad I was aware of her music so long ago! Go, Janelle, go!½

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-memory-librarian-ed-janelle-monae/

Five stories set in the world of Monáe’s Dirty Computer, about women caught up in the near-future totalitarian state of New Dawn, where those who don’t fit in, especially in terms of gender and sexuality, face memory wiping by the powerful state. It’s rooted in her Hugo finalist album and film from a few years back.

All five stories are billed as being co-written by Monáe and a series of other writers. They all take the fictional society in new and slightly different directions; my favourite was the third, “Timebox”, co-written with Chicago activist Eve L. Ewing, in which two women discover a room in their apartment which sits outside time, and react to it very differently. But these are all good and thought-provoking, and recommended.

Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer features five short stories that Monáe wrote in collaboration with Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, and Sheree Renée Thomas. The stories are inspired by Monáe’s 2018 album, Dirty Computer, and the short film of the same name. They focus on a futuristic totalitarian society – called New Dawn – that compels its citizens to think and act like it wants, using technology to erase memories, reprogram individuals, and quash divergence, specifically in gender expression. There is also an element of white technocratic supremacy underpinning everything New Dawn does. The first story, titled “The Memory Librarian” and which Monáe co-wrote with Johnson, focuses on a queer black woman working for New Dawn as a librarian who deletes and manipulates others’ memories. When she learns that her lover is rebelling against these controls, the librarian begins to question her role in New Dawn’s agenda. “Nevermind,” co-written with Lore, focuses on the Pynk Hotel, a refuge for women and fem-aligned people who have escaped from New Dawn and want to be free from New Dawn’s gender controls. Monáe co-wrote “Timebox” with Ewing, focusing on two women trying to make a life together despite their different backgrounds. Raven wants to feel like she isn’t always struggling to keep up and having to budget her time in advance; Akilah is an artist who thinks about community solutions without noticing how Raven needs individual support. They find that the closet in their apartment exists outside of the normal flow of time, but their different ideas on how to use it cause further conflict between them. In “Save Changes,” co-written with Delgado, two sisters take care of their mother, who was reprogrammed by New Dawn and lives under house arrest, showing symptoms of senility following the reprogramming. Amber tries to play things safe, but her sister Larry wants to find ways to live free. Their father gave Amber a pendant that will supposedly allow her to travel back in time, but she can only use it once and won’t know how far back she can go until she uses it. Finally, in Monáe and Thomas’ “Timebox Altar(ed),” a group of children live near the ghost town of Freewheel. They go wandering in the woods, meet an old woman named Mx. Tangee, and construct a fort that allows them to view the future they can create if they enter it with intention.

Monáe’s work touches on themes that are at once current and ongoing in much of dystopian science-fiction, specifically the concept of controlling memories or reprogramming people. While books like Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, George Orwell’s 1984, and Lowis Lowry’s The Giver all focused on similar ideas, Monáe’s work feels particularly prescient as states such as Texas and Florida seek to control what people learn, which books they can read, and whose stories are told. This similarly evokes Philip K. Dick’s focus on memory such as in his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Like other dystopian science-fiction stories, Monáe’s characters often have names that blend generic identities with numbers, such as Jane 57821 in “Nevermind,” while others take back their power by naming themselves or demonstrate that they live outside of New Dawn’s controls by having their family names intact. This resembles Orwell or even George Lucas’s first film, THX 1138. Monáe’s focus on the intersectionality of race and gender – and how a totalitarian state would target both – highlights the current battles in which conservatives seek to legislate away people whose race or gender does not align with their definition of America. Recent authors with similar focuses include Tochi Onyebuchi, whose 2022 novel Goliath touches on the roles of the surveillance state and which groups are left behind during technological “advancement.” One does not need to have listened to Monáe’s Dirty Computer album or watched her 2018 film to appreciate this short story collection, but the three works do go hand-in-hand to explore these themes and deepen the reader/listener/viewer’s appreciation of the others.

A half star only to indicate that it was a DNF for me. I tried, made it thru the first couple stories, but it just wasn't connecting with me. Too many books, Too little time, time to move on.½

Musician, actor, and fashion icon Janelle Monáe adds author to her many skills with this collection of stories rooted in the dystopian future world previously explored in her music. Each story is co-written with another talented Black author. The stories are set in a near-future authoritarian state called New Dawn where people live under constant surveillance, have their memories harvested, and those who don't conform - especially LGBTQ people and people of color - are classified as "Dirty Computers."

These stories include that of Seshet the memory librarian, a high ranking official in New Dawn, who begins to explore life on the "wrong side of town" with a new transgender partner. A commune of women who've found refuge from New Dawn at a place called Pynk Hotel discover a traitor in their midst. A lesbian couple discover a room in their house outside of time with each responding to it differently. And a family are able to travel one by one into a future where they find they've been liberated giving them hope to make it a reality.

It's an interesting collection of sci-fi/Afrofuturist stories that very much parallels our real world struggles. The stories can be didactic in their messaging but honestly sometimes need to be told bluntly. While this type of fiction is not typically something I would enjoy - and I'll confess that some elements went over my head - I am glad that I read this book and would recommend it to people who like this genre and fans of Monáe.

FYI Review - This collection contains the following short stories:
-Introduction: Breaking Dawn by Janelle Monáe
-The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae and Alaya Dawn Johnson
-Nevermind by Janelle Monae and Danny Lore
-Timebox by Janelle Monae and Eve L. Ewing
-Save Changes by Janelle Monae and Yohanca Delgado
-Timebox (altered) by Janelle Monae and Sheree Renee Thomas