Speak
Ratings10
Average rating4
15
Ratings10
Average rating4
A thoughtful, poignant novel that explores the creation of Artificial Intelligence—illuminating the very human need for communication, connection, and understanding. In a narrative that spans geography and time, from the Atlantic Ocean in the seventeenth century, to a correctional institute in Texas in the near future, and told from the perspectives of five very different characters, Speak considers what it means to be human, and what it means to be less than fully alive. A young Puritan woman travels to the New World with her unwanted new husband. Alan Turing, the renowned mathematician and code breaker, writes letters to his best friend’s mother. A Jewish refugee and professor of computer science struggles to reconnect with his increasingly detached wife. An isolated and traumatized young girl exchanges messages with an intelligent software program. A former Silicon Valley Wunderkind is imprisoned for creating illegal lifelike dolls. Each of these characters is attempting to communicate across gaps—to estranged spouses, lost friends, future readers, or a computer program that may or may not understand them. In dazzling and electrifying prose, Louisa Hall explores how the chasm between computer and human—shrinking rapidly with today’s technological advances—echoes the gaps that exist between ordinary people. Though each speaks from a distinct place and moment in time, all five characters share the need to express themselves while simultaneously wondering if they will ever be heard, or understood.
Reviews with the most likes.
Turing stole the show
but what happened to Mary?
Not much is resolved.
Part meditation, part fugue–Speak weaves four narratives into an exploration of not only artificial intelligence but of what constitutes our beingness. [I'll admit, following the Turing narrative was made much easier by having read Hodge's Alan Turing: The Enigma].
Beautiful writing, sad subject matter.
Apt for a literary sci fi novel focused on memory,
the format is a mix of epistolary and diary entries, told from a number of voices throughout history.
(Did a tandem read, can highly recommend the full cast audiobook.)
The inclusion of robots/machine intelligence is more a framework to other discussions, but the narrative does involve a possible future wrought by humans who create and interact with robots with varying degrees of human-like capacity.
Much about transitional periods, regrets.
Focus on relationships, not simply communication gaps but the mistakes made when people build the wrong vision of the person they thought they were building a relationship with and the resulting fall out, reflecting on loss. Characters also reflect on their own flaws to a greater or lesser degree, though in Turing's and Bradford's case the flaw feels more in the historical period, the society they were living in, than themselves.
I feel I should point out three things:
1) There's at least one real historical figure (Alan Turing, not sure about Mary Bradford) who's intimate correspondence the book suggests we are reading. On the off chance that makes you feel as uncomfortable as it does me, be forewarned.
2) Part of the relationships and character flaws discussed are two sets of wives putting up with arrogant shitty husbands who either realize their many mistakes too late or are only exposed in the spouse's rebuttal. Again, if that's likely to make your blood boil, be aware.
3) The 1600s narrative involves the wedding of a 13 year old girl to what I gather from his military history is an adult man. At no point in the course of the narrative does she do anything more than hold hands with her new husband. In case you get to chapter five, had an immediate case of the heebie jeebies, and wanted reassurances on that front.
Taking a peek at Hall's backlist, the preponderance of literary novels -contemporary or historical - makes sense, but I think the sci fi elements in this book were what tied it all together for me. If she ventures into this particular genre mashup again, I'll happily pick up more from her. The strong sense of each character's voice, the seamless carrying forward of various motifs, it was a pleasure to read such writing, even if the content bummed me out a little.
⚠️animal death, homophobia, body dysphoria, non consensual hormonal modification, internalized fatphobia, suicide, ableism
