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In Helen Phillips\u2019 dystopian novel Hum<\/em>, AI-based robots known as \u201chums\u201d have made many of today\u2019s jobs obsolete. We follow May as she loses her own job to artificial intelligence and, in desperate measures to pay off her family\u2019s debt, becomes a guinea pig in an experiment that alters her face so that it isn\u2019t recognized by surveillance\u2014a choice she will certainly regret later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In search of relief from her recent challenges and her family’s obsession with their devices, May arranges a three-night getaway in the Botanical Garden, a unique sanctuary where forests, streams, and animals flourish. Her request for her husband and children to leave their devices at home proves more difficult than she imagined, and the garden’s lush surroundings fail to offer the peace she sought. When her children are threatened, May finds herself relying on a hum to restore her family’s harmony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWritten in taut, urgent prose, Hum<\/em> is a work of speculative fiction that unflinchingly explores marriage, motherhood, and selfhood in a world compromised by global warming and dizzying technological advancement,\u201d reads the synopsis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In an interview with LitHub\u2019s Jane Ciabattari, Phillips discussed the inspiration behind the novel and how she drew heavily from the current state of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The name of the machines, hum, holds dualistic meaning: \u201cOn the one hand, \u201chum\u201d can refer to all the noises emitted by the machines that surround us, the low constant hum of activity, a potentially anxiety-producing buzz that might cause us to long for silence,\u201d said Phillips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn the other hand, \u201chum\u201d is a beautiful-sounding word that can call to mind a parent humming a lullaby to a child. And, it\u2019s a form of the sacred sound om. This duality in the word \u201chum\u201d is important to the book, and to the characterization of the hums. They are elegant, sculptural beings. They are instruments of capitalism, of advertising, of surveillance. They have help and wisdom to offer (if one pays to turn off their advertising impulse). They exist in a gray area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Phillips also aimed to explore our relationship, especially children\u2019s relationship, with the natural world as so much of nature is under threat due to climate change. \u201cThe plotlines and complications that develop in the Botanical Garden spring in large part from May\u2019s quest for authenticity\u2014for real nature, for real connection.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s both notable and terrifying is that Hum<\/em> is eerily similar to a once-dystopian reality that we are headed towards in incredible motion. Akin to the stories of Ursula Le Guin, Margaret Atwood, and Kafka, Hum<\/em> follows a line of top-tier speculative fiction. Phillips is currently working on a collection of short stories and in the note-gathering process for her next novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hum<\/em><\/a> is now available to purchase at your local bookstore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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