The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer

by Janelle Monáe

Overview

New York Times bestseller!

In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, futurist, and worldwide superstar Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums, exploring how different threads of liberation—queerness, race, gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms.

Whoever controls our memories controls the future.

Janelle Monáe and an incredible array of talented collaborators have crafted a collection of tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And whether you were human, AI, or other, your life and sentience were dictated by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide your fate.

That was until Jane 57821 decided to remember and break free.

Expanding from that mythos, these stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian society . . . and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the tradition of speculative fiction writers such as Octavia E. Butler, Ted Chiang, Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with powerful themes and Monáe’s emblematic artistic vision—The Memory Librarian serves to readers tales that dissect the human trials of identity expression, technology, and love, reaching through to the worlds of memory and time, and the stakes and power that pulse there.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063070882
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/31/2023
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	119,652
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

JANELLE MONáE is widely celebrated as an American singer/songwriter, actress, producer, fashion icon, and futurist whose globally successful career spans over a decade. With her highly theatrical and stylized concept albums, she has garnered eight Grammy nominations and has developed her own label imprint, Wondaland Arts Society. Monáe has also earned great success as an actor, starring in critically acclaimed films including Moonlight, Hidden Figures, Harriet, The Glorias, and the 2020 horror film Antebellum. She will star in the highly anticipated sequel Knives Out 2. The Memory Librarian is her debut book.

Editorial Reviews

A reminder for those who’ve ever been told they don’t fit in that there’s a world beyond this harsh one and a set of tools that can help them get there. . . The Afrofuturist collection feeds both Monáe’s fan base, who will be hungry to delve deeper into her work, and sci-fi fans looking for another book in the burgeoning Black speculative fiction genre.”
— Washington Post

“A poignant commentary on the power of technology, the preservation of queer identity and the commodification of time. . . The Memory Librarian shows us the future can be an unnerving reflection of our unexamined vices, but we can also plant the seeds for a brighter tomorrow.” — USA Today

“In her book, Monáe offers us a warning, but also a way out. . . Flawed, dirty, proudly glitching, the queer robots of Monáe’s vision refuse to be so easily boiled down into 1s and 0s. The Memory Librarian might not be the answer to the social and political upsets of our time, but it is an answer, and a fiercely inspiring one: a deepening of Afrofuturism’s potential to weaponize our dreams for a freer, more joyous world.” — Wired

“Each story in this collection is a searing but ultimately hopeful glimpse into how marginalized groups can hope and create in a world set against them. Written with a group of collaborators, including award-winning authors and sociologists, this book is reminiscent of the anti-racist and community-building themes present in N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor’s work, as well as the utopian philosophy of Ursula K. Le Guin and the dystopian technological vision of Philip K. Dick. It’s a stunning collection of stories.” — Buzzfeed

“Blistering, hopeful, and richly written. . . All readers will finish the book craving more of these extremely queer, bold stories that battle gatekeeping and erasure, digging into both the worst potential of a surveillance state and the gritty glimmer of the rebellion that can defeat it.” — Booklist (starred review)

"A moving, triumphant collection...This is a knockout." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Monáe’s collection speaks to both the sf tradition of mind-control tyranny and the way that the powerful marginalize individuals in order to control the whole. Highly recommended for readers of conspiracy and thought-control sf or of Afrofuturist works by the likes of Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, N.K. Jemisin, and Nnedi Okorafor." — Library Journal (starred review)

"Emotionally raw and with a wholehearted love for people, these stories will make readers long to forge deeper human connections by sharing and holding one another's memories...A celebration of queer and Afrofuturist science fiction saluting creativity in difference." — Kirkus Reviews

“Janelle Monáe is a creative superstar who has tackled everything from music to fashion to film. And with The Memory Librarian, she enters the literary world, proving that there’s truly nothing she can’t do. . . Echoes of classics like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind mix powerfully with explorations of genderqueerness, love, race, and more. . . True to the science fiction genre, The Memory Librarian is an assemblage of hope; liberation emerges when our memories and histories are used as educators. This one is sure to leave an impression.” — Bust Magazine

“With her first book. . . [Janelle Monáe] proves that she can continue being just as electric with the written word, even when it’s not set to a beat. . . The characters in this book are a glorious representation and celebration of a spectrum of sexuality and gender, each written with pure empathy and not a whiff of tokenism.”
— Tor.com

“Celebrity writing projects can be an iffy prospect. Writing is a particular craft, one that doesn’t necessarily translate from acting or songwriting, and the results can sometimes feel less like an act of creativity and more like a vanity project. That is absolutely not the case with The Memory Librarian. Monáe and her contributors – Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, Eve L. Ewing, Yohanca Delgado, and Sheree Renée Thomas – have produced a vivid, visceral text with as much of a hook as the album the stories were inspired by.”
— Locus

"The Memory Librarian is full of memorable and believable characters struggling valiantly against forces of oppression. It confirms Monáe’s incredible power of imagination and creativity whatever medium she’s working in, and the ability and talent of her co-writers in bringing her vision alive on the page." — Fantasy Hive

From the Publisher

★ 01/31/2022

In this moving, triumphant collection, singer Monáe returns to the dystopian world of her Dirty Computer concept album and short film. These five sci-fi shorts, each written with a different coauthor, explore the consequences of a totalitarian regime that, in pursuit of a pure society, monitors its citizens’ identities, thoughts, and relationships and scrubs clean the memories and personhoods of those who are labeled deviant. In “Save Changes,” written with Yohanca Delgado, a young woman has one chance to change the past and worries how to use it. “Timebox,” written with Eve L. Ewing, sees a couple fight over how to use a pantry removed from time, while in “Timebox Altar(ed),” written with Sheree Renée Thomas, a gaggle of children get a glimpse into a solarpunk future. The longest entries are the standouts: the title story, written with Alaya Dawn Johnson, and “Nevermind,” written with Danny Lore, are both odes to queer Afrofuturism, illuminating the importance of love, community, and human connection in the darkest of times. Though a special treat for Dirty Computer fans, readers won’t need to be familiar with the album to marvel at the big ideas, riveting action, and hopeful message here. This is a knockout. Agents: Eve Atterman and Suzanne Gluck, WME. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Memory Librarian is full of memorable and believable characters struggling valiantly against forces of oppression. It confirms Monáe’s incredible power of imagination and creativity whatever medium she’s working in, and the ability and talent of her co-writers in bringing her vision alive on the page."

Fantasy Hive

Janelle Monáe is a creative superstar who has tackled everything from music to fashion to film. And with The Memory Librarian, she enters the literary world, proving that there’s truly nothing she can’t do. . . Echoes of classics like Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Michel Gondry’s Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind mix powerfully with explorations of genderqueerness, love, race, and more. . . True to the science fiction genre, The Memory Librarian is an assemblage of hope; liberation emerges when our memories and histories are used as educators. This one is sure to leave an impression.

Bust Magazine

Each story in this collection is a searing but ultimately hopeful glimpse into how marginalized groups can hope and create in a world set against them. Written with a group of collaborators, including award-winning authors and sociologists, this book is reminiscent of the anti-racist and community-building themes present in N.K. Jemisin and Nnedi Okorafor’s work, as well as the utopian philosophy of Ursula K. Le Guin and the dystopian technological vision of Philip K. Dick. It’s a stunning collection of stories.

Buzzfeed

Blistering, hopeful, and richly written. . . All readers will finish the book craving more of these extremely queer, bold stories that battle gatekeeping and erasure, digging into both the worst potential of a surveillance state and the gritty glimmer of the rebellion that can defeat it.

Booklist (starred review)

★ 09/01/2022

Singer-songwriter Monáe narrates her anthology that expands on the universe she created in her Dirty Computer album. She collaborated with other science fiction writers—Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, and Sheree Renée Thomas—to write the overarching story about the rise of the totalitarian regime, New Dawn, in its search for Dirty Computers, deviant thinkers in need of New Dawn's corrections. Monáe's narration paints a bleak yet vivid world, while Bahni Turpin voices the many who seek the strength to stand up to New Dawn and their ideals. This collection celebrates those Dirty Computers's fight for individuality in a world where memories can be adjusted, decimated, and used as capital. These bold, innovative stories use magical realism to tackle themes like the value of memories, the scarcity of time, and the celebration of differences, particularly as it pertains to the LGBTQ community. VERDICT This is no mere, dark reflection of the world. This audiobook offers the listener stories with the timely and timeless message that appears repeatedly in great science fiction: the world may seem dark now, but everyone can strive to make the future better.—James Gardner

Library Journal - Audio

★ 04/01/2022

DEBUT In the Afrofuturistic world of musician/actor Monáe's Dirty Computer (inspired by her album of the same title), people are computing machines, and tyrannical "thought police" control dirty memories—eliminating all recollections of desires or behaviors that are believed to be deviant or aberrant. It's totalitarianism that maintains itself by eliminating any memory of being different, as a way of creating a kind of utopia. Monáe's collection of stories revolves around one queer woman, Jane 57821, who escapes the world of Dirty Computer and looks for a place where she can be who she wants. Jane 57821 becomes an inspirational figure whom the "clean" computers of New Dawn must capture, cleanse, and rehabilitate before others question the sanitized version of the greater good. VERDICT Monáe's collection speaks to both the sf tradition of mind-control tyranny and the way that the powerful marginalize individuals in order to control the whole. Highly recommended for readers of conspiracy and thought-control sf or of Afrofuturist works by the likes of Octavia Butler, Nalo Hopkinson, N. K. Jemisin, and Nnedi Okorafor.—Marlene Harris

Library Journal

Musician and actor Janelle Monáe adds author and narrator to her considerable list of accomplishments with this story collection based on the themes of her 2018 album DIRTY COMPUTER. In this Afrofuturist dystopia, the totalitarian entity New Dawn seeks to hunt down and strip away all perceived deviance from humanity. Monáe’s narration of the eponymous first story is softly menacing as she introduces listeners to Seshet, a bureaucratic memory thief who longs for love and connection. The rest of the stories are engagingly voiced by Bahni Turpin, who uses her crisp and flexible tones to portray characters at odds with Seshet’s mission, would-be victims turned rebels against conformity. Together, they create a memorable experience for listeners seeking classic science-fiction themes with new horizons. N.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

MAY 2022 - AudioFile

Musician and actor Janelle Monáe adds author and narrator to her considerable list of accomplishments with this story collection based on the themes of her 2018 album DIRTY COMPUTER. In this Afrofuturist dystopia, the totalitarian entity New Dawn seeks to hunt down and strip away all perceived deviance from humanity. Monáe’s narration of the eponymous first story is softly menacing as she introduces listeners to Seshet, a bureaucratic memory thief who longs for love and connection. The rest of the stories are engagingly voiced by Bahni Turpin, who uses her crisp and flexible tones to portray characters at odds with Seshet’s mission, would-be victims turned rebels against conformity. Together, they create a memorable experience for listeners seeking classic science-fiction themes with new horizons. N.M. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine

MAY 2022 - AudioFile

2022-02-09
In her debut collection, musician and actress Monáe collaborates with a different writer for every story to explore a world defined by some people's resistance to a dangerous surveillance state in which memories are currency.

An introduction, "Breaking Dawn," lays out the collection's guiding thought experiment: In a world with cameras everywhere, most people have accepted the idea that "an eye in the sky might protect us from...ourselves, our world"—and soon, not content with seeing the surface of things, the New Dawn found ways "past the encrypted walls of our minds," into people's thoughts and memories. This constant surveillance divides the nation into those who are safe and clean and those who are "deviant, complex"—the dirty computers. The title story, written with Alaya Dawn Johnson, explores the life of Seshet, the Director Librarian of Little Delta, the New Dawn's highest-ranking position. Interested in the contradictions of bureaucracy and the conflict within someone with the power to enforce rules who doesn't abide by them, Seshet investigates the curious background of her new lover. “Nevermind” is both a memory-enhancing drug and a story (written with Danny Lore) set in an off-grid community where women and nonbinary people can exist free from “people trying to force so much on [them]. Capitalism for one; monogamy for another.” The theme of collective resistance continues in some of the other stories. In "Timebox," written with Eve L. Ewing, a couple discovers extra time hidden in their pantry, pushing them to grapple with inequities in the way time is distributed. The last story, “Timebox Alta(red),” written with Sheree Renée Thomas, has a group of children create an altar that transports them through time and space, showing that you can’t build the future if you don’t dream it first. Studded with references to Monáe's album Dirty Computer (2018), the book is a clever adaptation of music to a new form. Emotionally raw and with a wholehearted love for people, these stories will make readers long to forge deeper human connections by sharing and holding one another's memories.

A celebration of queer and Afrofuturist science fiction saluting creativity in difference.

Kirkus Reviews