The Circle

Dystopian fiction is a popular subgenre of speculative fiction that imagines an alarming or dysfunctional future. These stories employ speculative elements to critique contemporary social problems or structures, using exaggeration and elements like violence and terror to shed light on existing problems. Famous examples of dystopian literature include George Orwell’s 1984, Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Susanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, all of which critique totalitarianism through different lenses.

As computers and technology began playing outsized roles in the late 20th century, more fiction works have focused on technological dystopias. In contrast to utopic ideas of technology, which envision a future free of suffering thanks to technology, technological dystopias envision a future in which technology becomes a tool some humans use to oppress others or becomes sentient and oppresses humanity altogether. These stories often interrogate what it means to be human, arguing that technology alienates people from each other and brings out the worst in humanity. Cyberpunk novels like Snow Crash (1992) and Neuromancer (1984) depict societies where technology’s spread has made life cheap—in both novels, workers have technological modifications that track their productivity and kill them if they fall behind or fail. In novels like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), humans and robots are virtually identical, and Philip K. Dick asks whether there is a meaningful distinction between the two if androids become sentient. Stories like “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” (1967) use rogue AI to critique an increasingly militaristic society.

Published in 2013, The Circle explores the potential consequences of both social media and post-9/11 surveillance culture. Eggers not only critiques governmental and corporate surveillance practices but also people’s willing participation in self-surveillance by posting their lives online. While Mae’s decision to go “transparent” and have her life broadcast 24/7 was extreme for 2013, Eggers anticipated the sort of marathon live streaming that now exists on platforms like Twitch. He uses Mae’s storyline to ask whether being constantly observed undermines someone’s authentic and human nature, as reflected in her muted reaction to causing Mercer’s death. As mass surveillance technology becomes more prevalent, The Circle is one of many novels raising the alarm about these practices like Little Eyes by Samantha Schweblin (2018), Zed (2020) by Joanna Kavenna, and Followers (2020) by Megan Angelo.