If I was given one word to describe The Age of Earthquakes, the first word that would come to mind would be “blunt”. I mean what could be more straightforward than a book telling its readers that technology has taken over our lives to the extent to which we may not know the difference between what is real and digital? This book is different. It’s modern and futuristic. It’s scary, right? This book’s despondency, demonstrated through techniques such as only using black and white, largely contributes to a dystopian theme, similarly used in popular books such as 1984 and The Giver. The rapid syntax and standard diction additionally contributed to this theme. In reading a text that was broken into bits of page by page statements-like thoughts-frantically bouncing from one place to another, I was frustrated. It didn’t feel like I was reading a book, or like I was being taken into another world. I was still here in my world, and I was online. In the end, I learned to appreciate that, as it is relevant to our generation and the present world we live in. As a reader, I was able to link my frustration to the idea of an entire world technologically shaped like this. What I personally found intriguing, was the use of images embedded within the text itself. This makes this particular book rather unique in the personal sense that, as a reader, I am usually able to use my own imagination to gather meaning from a book. But by adding visualities, the authors limit the possibility of information given. This contributes to the dullness of the book. By using all of these techniques, the authors are able to present the image of technology to their readers as dull and controlling.
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Amandina, I completely agree with your perspective - I too found the book frustrating to read. Perhaps the authors are trying to elicit such a response because they worry we are becoming numb to the consequences of technology, and consequently passive, in our real lives?
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