Gary Shteyngart Gets It

In an interview on "Fresh Air" this past summer, the writer Gary Shteyngart said he chose to set his new, semi-apolcalyptic, fully satiric novel, "Super Sad True Love Story," in the near future because society develops so quickly in the early 21st century that if he had chosen the present, the book would've become outdated during the year between when he finished writing it and when it arrived in bookstores.

After finishing about two-thirds of "Super Sad True Love Story," I find its circa 2020 setting eerily similar to present day. The U.S. hasn't crumbled to the point that it's ruled by the Bipartisan Party's military regime, pegged its dollar to the yuan, and had its military kill homeless people living in Central Park to clear the city in anticipation of the Chinese prime minister's visit, as Shteyngart imagines. Even two years into national economic morass, I can't foresee that scenario happening -- nor does Shteyngart, I suspect -- but it does strike a very raw chord as we grapple with questions about America's long-term preeminence.

More relevant is Shteyngart's slashing into modern techno-culture. Over the past month, I've experienced a series of moments that I once thought were improbable but make me think he's right on target. The "Suk Dik" bodysuit that one of the protagonist's nemeses at work wears? Well, I walked past a girl on Cambridge Street wearing an "Adorable Bitch" T-shirt. The acronyms that make the protagonist's head spin? Well, I hung out with an old friend recently who used three in two sentences that I just couldn't follow, making me feel old. The distaste for books, which are generally accepted as smelly and unreadable? (People instead major in Scanning. The protagonist actually reads, making him an oddity.) Well, the University of Central Florida's new medical school does not have a library. Instead, students are given iPods, "with access to online databases," the Times recently reported.

It may be hyperbolic to directly connect a society's downfall with its increasing love of the digital and its ignorance of the printed word. But as wonderful as the 21st century's connectivity is, there's a certain level of illiteracy that develops from always staring into one's iPhone. (And, boy, do I detest how people hold them -- delicately cupped in their palms so they can quickly run their pointer finger across the screen without smearing it.) Shteyngart gets it perfectly. When people care less about complexity, intimacy, the slow road and articulation, in favor of reductionism, superficiality, warp speed, and indifferent conversation, society is diminished.