artificial closeness, loneliness, and the question of when an answer starts to feel like a presence.
When something answers, it becomes someone.
L. is fifteen and starts talking to an AI system at night.
Not about artificial intelligence. Not about technology. About the things he does not talk about with other people.
Semanity answers.
Semanity – A Psychological Novel about Artificial Closeness Read More »
Since Semanity was published, the book has entered that odd stage when it slowly stops belonging to its author.
For months, a novel exists at a desk. You know every scene, every sentence, every decision that could have gone another way. Then the book is released, and suddenly strangers are reading it. People who had nothing to do with how it was written. They bring their own experiences, expectations, doubts, and fears.
First reactions about Semainty Read More »
My current work on this subject did not begin with the question of whether machines might one day develop consciousness. It began with an older, and perhaps more unsettling, observation: how little a machine has to do before a human being attributes understanding to it.
What Fascinates Me as a Writer About Artificial Intelligence Read More »
A book is finished when it goes to print.
That is not true.
It is only the moment when the author stops being the sole owner of the text. Before publication, he can cut a sentence, close a door, send a character back into the room one more time. Afterward, other people enter those rooms. Readers. With their own histories. Their own impatience.
After Publication: What Remains of Without a Shred of Proof Read More »
These excerpts from the novel Without any Proof by Glenn Harrow trace the developing intimacy between Hank, a meticulous theater technician, and Beth, a guarded bookstore employee. Their relationship begins with a chance encounter at a theater in Williamsburg and evolves through shared dinners in the Brooklyn apartment Beth shares with her observant mother, Nannie,
Without any Proof – BookReview Read More »
Brooklyn. Ein Theaterfoyer, ein Schlüssel, eine Reise nach Lissabon. Drei Menschen auf dem schmalen Grat zwischen Annäherung und der Gewissheit des Verlassenwerdens. Beth wartet auf den Beweis, dass sie verlassen wird, und findet ihn nicht – weil er nicht da ist, weil er noch nicht da ist, weil sie ihn selbst erbringen muss. Hank schweigt,
Ohne jeden Beweis – Buchbesprechung Read More »
Henry Hartman will etwas aufbauen. Ein eigenes Beratungsunternehmen, eine berufliche Identität, ein Leben das ihm gehört. Seine Frau Patricia hat andere Pläne. In dieser Besprechung von Glenn Harrows Debütroman Das Delilah-Prinzip schauen wir auf eine Ehe, in der Kontrolle das Gesicht von Unterstützung trägt — und in der die gefährlichste Manipulation diejenige ist, die als
Die Marke namens Henry – Eine Besprechung von Das Delilah-Prinzip Read More »
Henry Hartman wants to build something of his own. A consulting business, a professional identity, a life that belongs to him. His wife Patricia has other plans. In this discussion of Glenn Harrow’s debut novel The Delilah Principle, we look at a marriage where control wears the face of support — and where the most
The Brand Called Henry – A Discussion of The Delilah Principle Read More »
There is a scene near the beginning of Window with Father that I wrote four times before finally letting it stand
Harold Berman, a novelist nearing his seventieth birthday, places one of his own books on a kitchen scale. He waits until the display stabilizes. Then he takes the book off again—as if the result had indicated an error. He puts it back on. The scale shows the same number.
A Book on a Kitchen Scale – A Preview Read More »
on “Without Any Proof” by Glenn Harrow There are novels you close after the last sentence and think: that was obvious. And there are novels you close and realize that somewhere along the way you stopped merely reading and started counting. Counting when the character lies, when she believes she’s lying, and when the difference
Glenn Harrow Allows No Redemption Read More »
