In the opening pages of Ben Lerner’s novel Transcription, the unnamed narrator mentions his mobile phone more than 25 times. He is on a train to Providence in the US to visit a German intellectual called Thomas, who has just turned 90. The narrator worries that he will fail to record the interview on his phone; he texts his wife; the guard scans his ticket; he takes a photo; he FaceTimes his daughter; he uses Google Maps for directions to his hotel. He even dreams about his phone. Then he accidentally drops it in the sink.
The novel is set during Covid, but there is no mention of Donald Trump or Joe Biden. Last month Transcription was awarded the Orwell prize for political fiction. “The question of how certain forms of media flatten or monetise our attention – I do think that’s political territory,” the author said of his win. With its shiny black cover and stark white typeface, this slim novel is designed to remind to us that the book is also a handheld portable device. It invites us to consider the relationship between art and technology. The smartphone has rewired us. “I was glitching, craving my cellular phone on a cellular level,” the narrator confesses.
