Hachette UK
OUR worries about what the internet is unleashing on society frequently have a tinge of horror. Is Google stealing our memories? Are social media companies selling our data to the highest bidder? Will corporate instant-messaging apps like Slack ultimately suck your soul out of your still-living body?
That鈥檚 the premise of Calvin Kasulke鈥檚 , a techno-horror-comedy that begins when Gerald, a mediocre office drone, has his consciousness uploaded into the company Slack against his will. Because he is working remotely, his colleagues take his cries for help as an attempt at comedy. Worst of all, the Slackbot that initially seems to be trying to help may have more sinister motives.
Gerald鈥檚 attempts to get out of Slack before his body dies are reminiscent of H. P. Lovecraft鈥檚 classic sci-fi horror stories, but with Cthulhu 鈥� Lovecraft鈥檚 cosmic, sanity-destroying monster 鈥� reinvented for the 21st century.
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Some of the most effective horror in Several People Are Typing derives from the mirror it holds up to our own behaviours. As Gerald spends more time inside Slack, he is increasingly unable to resist sliding into automated Slack-speak. 鈥淚鈥檓 just a bot, though!鈥� and other inane phrases emerge from him against his will, and slowly overwhelm his ability to express himself in his own words. Raise your hand if you can relate.
鈥淲ith no need for sleep or other corporeal distractions, Gerald鈥檚 productivity goes through the roof鈥�
Like all good horror, Several People Are Typing also carries an undertone of political critique. One major impediment to Gerald getting help is that his bosses are thrilled with his situation. With no need for sleep or other corporeal distractions, his productivity goes through the roof. His superiors ignore his pleas for assistance and instead fob him off with plaudits 鈥� which is a pretty good jab at corporate attempts to take over every waking hour of our lives.
When he was writing the book in 2019, that it would be old news by the time it was published. But the pandemic made online communication an even more encompassing part of workplace existence.
After the initial productivity burst that ensued, the balloon deflated 鈥� and kept deflating. if this was a fundamental shift in our relationship with work. In an article titled 鈥淲hat if people don鈥檛 want 鈥榓 career鈥�?鈥�, technology writer Charlie Warzel complained of 鈥渉ow warped our conceptions of work have become. Only in a truly broken system could working the agreed upon hours be reframed as erecting a rigid, dangerous set of boundaries.鈥�
The jury is still out on whether this trend is here to stay, but it seems as though many people are tired of the status quo of dead-end jobs, precarious gig work and exploitation.
If Several People Are Typing leaned all the way into its Lovecraftian premise, it might have been the kind of art that captures a defining generational moment in culture. Instead, though, a slightly ill-fitting conventional ending leaves the book feeling too tidy, trailing loose ends that you aren鈥檛 sure were meant to be left unresolved.
No matter, though 鈥� Several People Are Typing is so much fun. If you don鈥檛 think you would read an entire book of Slack chat transcripts, prepare to be wrong. My eyes burned late into the night 鈥� and I might never again look at the Slackbot without flinching.
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