As they try to get by in a neighborhood dominated by intrusive policing drones (“NDRs”) and suspicious neighbors who now avoid them, they clash over what comes next for their family. The sisters each have their own ways of dealing with their anger and rebellion after the loss of the mother they remember. She’s now under house arrest and periodic New Dawn observation. After being identified as a radical, Diana was taken by New Dawn and “cleansed,” which left her with apparent brain damage and erratic behavior. In this story, two sisters, Amber and Larry, live with their mother Diana. The Memory Librarian is available now in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook editions.īelow, read an excerpt from Memory Librarian story “Save Changes,” written with author Yohanca Delgado. The five stories in Memory Librarian extend the ideas that have always fascinated them, bringing in new characters and new perspectives to further define the world suggested in Dirty Computer. They’ve been part of their film work as well, in movies like Hidden Figures and Moonlight. Those questions of identity, memory, self-discovery, and the struggle to bridge multiple conflicting worlds reach throughout the stories Janelle Monáe tells in their music. In these five stories, outsider characters navigate the spread of the New Dawn regime, while a Black, queer woman named Seshet - the memory librarian of the title - tries to hold onto a position of power within New Dawn, even though she understands that she herself is at risk because of her identity. The narrative expands further in the new book The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer, a collection of short stories credited to Monáe and various collaborators.
Monáe further fleshed out Dirty Computer’s story in a 48-minute YouTube video starring Monáe as a victim of that regime, having their memories of their lovers (played by Tessa Thompson and Jayson Aaron) erased as part of their conversion to a “Torch,” a regime facilitator.
Their Grammy-nominated 2018 album Dirty Computer launches a new story, about a dystopic future where marginalized citizens - especially Black, female, and queer people - are likely to be identified as “dirty computers” and taken away to be reprogrammed by an oppressive regime.
SEA OF DARKNESS ALBUM ANDROID
Their debut EP, Metropolis, and their first two albums, The ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady, are all segments in a long Afrofuturist arc about a far-future android alter-ego character, Cindi Mayweather, who falls in love with a human, becomes an outlaw, and rises to messianic status. Sprawling, ambitious science fiction stories have been part of Janelle Monáe’s music since the beginning of their career.
0 kommentar(er)
