Gray Matters

by John Webster Gastil

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.

Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org

*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.

Pub Date Jul 31 2020 | Archive Date Jul 30 2020

John Hunt Publishing Ltd | https://www.johnhuntpublishing.com/roundfire-books/

Sci Fi & Fantasy | Science

Talking about this book? Use #GrayMatters #NetGalley. More hashtag tips!

Description

A programmer invents software to forestall dementia, but risks turning a whole generation into 'glitches'.

Can the digital networks that record our footprints hold us steady when dementia threatens to push us off the path?

This question has real stakes for data analyst Charlie Sanders. His best hope for a father succumbing to Alzheimer’s comes from assistive technology that Charlie helps design for a scrappy startup. Despite early successes, Charlie has growing doubts about the motives of each of his colleagues - the eccentric CEO in Seattle, the call center guru in India, and the Trump-loving Aussie transplant who keeps the books. His worries grow when the company takes on a clandestine client who occupies the Oval Office. Will Charlie keep his father and his country on track, or turn a whole generation into glitches?

A programmer invents software to forestall dementia, but risks turning a whole generation into 'glitches'.

Can the digital networks that record our footprints hold us steady when dementia threatens to...

A Note From the Publisher

John Gastil (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a professor in the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences and Political Science at the Pennsylvania State University, where he is a senior scholar at the McCourtney Institute for Democracy. Gastil’s research focuses on the theory and practice of deliberative democracy, especially how small groups of people make decisions on public issues. The National Science Foundation has supported his research on the Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review, the Australian Citizens’ Parliament, jury deliberation, and cultural cognition. His most recent book is Legislature by Lot (Verso, 2019), co-authored with Erik Olin Wright, and Hope for Democracy (Oxford, forthcoming 2019, co-authored with Katherine R. Knobloch.

Advance Praise

Gray Matters creates a dystopia that feels hauntingly close to where we are headed today. Gastil's first novel is a technological and political allegory that is equal parts, Margaret Atwood and Dave Eggers. Rich metaphors, poignant humor, and brilliant writing kept me wiping away tears from laughing, crying, or both.

Genevieve Fuji Johnson, author of Democratic Illusion

Gray Matters is a gripping look at what may become of us as we willingly plug ourselves, and even our minds, into the Internet. Gastil’s writing is hilarious and heartfelt, foreboding and uplifting, a mass of wonderful contradictions.

David L. Williams, author of The Armageddon Dance Party

It's rare that I see a novel that captures how language slides away from us--and how confusing the once-familiar world becomes--as one enters dementia. Rarer still is the imaginative grappling with our desire to stave off Alzheimer's with technology, a feat that often shows more hubris than humanity.

Robert Schrauf, co-editor of Dialogue and Dementia