Hello friends,
The other day, I saw a disturbing series of screenshots claiming that global publishing house Harper Collins is letting AI be trained on authors’ books without their consent. The thought of this made me feel ill. It is hard enough to be discovered as an author and to make a living. An AI-written novel would offer something that no author could - it would not need an advance or royalties, thereby leaving all the profits to the ‘industry’ of publishing.
I have been doing a lot of thinking on what AI and humans can offer. I wrote an entire novel contemplating what sets us apart, and this year, I hope to study AI Ethics at the London School of Economics. In terms of creativity, I believe that AI deals in patterns and the expected, while humans thrillingly defy expectation. Often our emotional reactions are complex and unscripted. We surprise ourselves with our strength and humour in difficult times, and unearth kindness and magic in the most ordinary places. Most of all, our experience, our voice, is unique to ourselves. This is why, after centuries of literature, we can still find new ways to express our most human experiences: love, longing, loneliness, despair, joy.
In my AI novel, the robot character cannot feel emotion when she hears music at a concert, but she understands that music is meaningful through the facial expressions of the humans surrounding her. AI is a mimic, while we as humans reflect the richness and nuance of the world we live in.
And so, I am responding to the growing prevalence of the artificial world but leaning into the real one. I am walking in nature often, I am nurturing my vegetable garden. I turn 40 at the end of the month, and I managed to go on a bucket list trip to see turtles laying their eggs. Around the time of my birthday, those eggs will hatch and new turtles will take halting steps across the sand to begin their lives in the ocean. Earthly cycles continue and seasons pass. I draw strength and hope from this, no matter what the future holds. As Mary Oliver so wisely says in her poem I worried:
“Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.”
Some recommendations:
Reading
I have
‘s Conversations on Love on audiobook and revisit it often. It is a warm, inclusive, sometimes heartbreaking portrayal of all aspects of love and I feel as if every person should read it. Her newsletter is just as wonderful, and her interview with Cheryl Strayed is just as special. ‘You constantly have to stay open to seeing and accepting the story as it is, rather than as you would have written it.’I am visiting the library more and more these days, and am enjoying discovering books I missed. One book I particularly enjoyed was The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls, a striking and heart-rending memoir of one woman’s unconventional childhood. I was absolutely gripped.
I am also late to the party with Meg Mason’s Sorrow and Bliss. A simply stunning portrait of mental health and its impact on the sufferer and those that love them.
In listening to Meg Mason’s interviews I discovered the works of Barbara Trapido (and realised I am a bad South African for not knowing her!). I was really enjoying Brother of a More Famous Jack before my Kindle had an unsalvagable encounter with the ocean. I then discovered that Readers Warehouse stock most of her backlist, and treated myself to Sex and Stravinsky. It is such a chaotic, funny chaotic story that resolves itself in a satisfyingly neat fashion. After my holiday in Mozambique and KZN, it was also wonderful to read a novel set partially in these places.
Speaking of Durban, my current read is a magical, gothic story written by local author Shubnum Khan. The writing is lush, emotionally rich and evocative of its tropical setting. In SA the book is called The Lost Love of Akbar Manzil, while internationally it is called The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years.
Listening
I have almost exclusively been listening to the Past Present Future podcast, especially the episodes analysing famous essays and relating them to modern day politics. My favourite episodes included the one on Virigina Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own and Zadie Smith talking about Dickens, Hypocrisy and Justice.
That is enough from me. I hope you are easing gently into this new year.
Speak soon xx
Amy
Oh thank you so much! XX