Life Beyond Their Computer

The Memory Librarian: and other short stories of Dirty Computer is a collection of short stories by Janelle Monae that help to worldbuild the universe that is shown within the album Dirty Computer, and gives a more in depth look into the actual operations of this society. I believe that it is an amazing addition to the already amazing album, as far as letting the audience know how this world works and it’s rules, and sort of… the state of their society. The album itself does give a well rounded view of what society probably is like; if you’ve ever consumed science fiction you know what a totalitarian dystopia looks like. However, I do appreciate that these short stories are more through the eyes of the average person in this world. While in the album we saw what happens to the dirty computers main characters, we have no idea what life is like outside of the facility beyond the main characters “deviant” lifestyle. It’s sort of how like when we watch a Marvel movie like Infinity War, we wonder what the average office worker is dealing with while all of the nonsense happens in the background. And the Memory Librarian is like the MCU TV universe; it puts us where the stakes are not nearly as serious and more “grounded.” One thing I really appreciate (meta-wise, not like… the bigotry itself) about these stories is that they do confirm certain biases that society has that mimic our own. Something like homophobia and transphobia can be inferred from the material of the album itself, but to have more concrete confirmation that this society is as restrictive as our own down to things such as race, gender, and sexuality does make the world feel more fleshed out. Oftentimes with certain science fiction, there will be an abstraction of bigotry to feel more fantastical, but to know that the troubles these characters face are ones that we also face does feel more meaningful. (Week 12)