Virtuality
Extrapolating consumerism’s effects on society to their most extreme ends, Virtuality is an intricate speculative novel.
A broadcast outage threatens to lead to a global economic crisis in Derek Cressman’s speculative novel Virtuality.
In a time when society depends on constant consumption at all times, and entertainment, education, and socialization can be had at the literal blink of an eye using implants and virtual reality helmets, a glitch occurs. Oscar is knocked offline during a skiing misadventure; Caspian has a technical issue in the middle of projecting into a work social; Chase, while gaming, becomes aware of his body and near-sterile environment for the first time in years; and Aneeka’s feed freezes while she’s projecting into a hearing. With no one able to shop or stream, the world economy almost crashes.
The central foursome are followed as they navigate the world with their eyes opened to natural wonders, contending with the effects of constant streaming and ubiquitous technology. For Aneeka, doubt creeps in, uprooting her heretofore staunch belief in heightened consumerism as a public good and spurring her to seek information about Chase, who resides in an entertainment living home, and to meet Caspian, who uses his consumption to game the system in favor of the disadvantaged. But her fundamental shifts of belief are not experienced by the others; their immediate growth is more limited, though the future ramifications of the events may yet be felt in their lives.
Extrapolating consumerism’s effects on society to their most extreme ends, the book’s worldbuilding is extensive. Government infrastructures are attended to, as are trade agreements, various sundries, and the conventions of naming corporations and their trademarked brands. Indeed, the branded barrage is exhaustive, mirroring themes of constant consumption being a threat to physical and mental well-being. Social media messages, newscasts, and other writings are used as vehicles for exposition, doling out history and foreshadowing events. However, the book’s overreliance on these devices diminishes their effectiveness.
Further, the prose is inhibited by sometimes awkward phrasing and discomfiting physical descriptions, as of Caspian staring at “his light melanin palm” when focusing on a virtual projection. At one point, the limited point of view zooms out to explain that, unbeknownst to Caspian, he has exited a private navigation session; it then zooms in on his confusion as to how his location is known to others. Further, Oscar’s and Chase’s observations of women include off-putting comments about their body shapes, and they and Caspian overfixate on women’s movements, taking special note of the way they step out of vehicles or adjust their hair.
Setting up an ultimate ideological showdown between the technological elite and near-Luddite humanists who eschew frivolous consumption and extraneous technology, the satirical science fiction novel Virtuality is about the society-wide effects of rampant consumerism and unchecked corporate greed.
Reviewed by
Dontaná McPherson-Joseph
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