Memory and the World of John Crowley: Technology and the Art of Memory

Stevenson, Jennifer. "Memory and the World of John Crowley: Technology and the Art of Memory." The New York Review of Science Fiction #119, 10.11 (July 1998): 1;8-11.[1]

JS examines the works of John Crowley to compile a catalogue of sorts of the author's prevalent technological concernS: mechanical memory vs. natural memory. Includes "spy-bug" theme (cf. and contrast imagery of invertebrate enforcers in THE MATRIX). Crowley's work illustrates the limitations and benefits of natural and artificial memory systems, respectively. Discusses data integrity; interior/exterior systems. For an annotated biblio. see: <http://home.att.net/~Storytellers/jcrowley.html>.

The human mind is elastic, Crowley seems to say, but machines never lie, and in their harsh mechanical way they are like Truthful Speakers: they "really mean what they say, and [they] say what they really mean." Except that machine really mean nothing; on people can supply meaning for them. (Stevenson 9)

Maly, 01/07/02; RDE, finishing, 13Aug23