Transmission (novel)

Transmission is a novel written by British-Indian author Hari Kunzru and published in 2005. It primarily follows the narrative of a naive Indian programmer, Arjun Mehta, who immigrates to the United States in hopes of making his fortune. When he is laid off by his virus-testing company, he sends out e-mails containing a malignant computer virus in a bid to keep his job, unintentionally causing global havoc. Parallel to Arjun's story is that of Guy Swift, the seemingly well-to-do English CEO of an advertising company, and his struggle to keep his business going as the virus spreads.

Transmission was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2005.[1]

Plot summary

Hari Kunzru uses Arjun Mehta to make his book Transmission a dark but funny novel, using the developing use of 1990-2005 era internet. Arjun is an Indian computer programmer from Silicon Valley. He has this idea that if he goes into America he will be successful automatically and live the American Dream. Moving to America he quickly realizes that this success doesn't come so easily, but indicates to his family that he has succeeded. Arjun was promised work by a slick high tech recruiter but when he reached the States, he was in a waiting house for contract employees and lost his enthusiasm. Throughout the book Arjun faces many problems that interfere with him reaching success, but his main blockage seems to be his naivety. The author utilizes several supporting characters to develop the story from their point of view including Guy Swift; a rich highly successful man, Guy's girlfriend Gaby, Leila Zahir, a top Bollywood star, and Chris: a co-worker of Arjun's. The author portrays the differences between both Arjun and Guy in a particular and exciting way without the characters actually meeting each other. The book has Arjun being the foreign poor individual and Guy Swift being the rich and successful Englishman.

Main characters

Themes

Globalization and technology

Transmission deals with how technology, namely computers and the Internet, are rapidly shrinking the world, and addresses both the positive and negative ramifications of this change. The easy transmission of information allows people like Arjun to be virtually self-taught in programming, but the easy transmission of people allows him to be shipped to America as cheap labour and his skills to be exploited. In an interview, Kunzru summarized the dual nature of globalization as presented in his novel, stating that “barriers are broken and people are coming to understand each other better” but “people like [Arjun] pay a big price”.[3] Increasing interconnectedness also provides a means for small problems, like one person losing his job, to affect information across the world. The diversity of the main characters' origins, occupations, social statuses, etc. emphasises the breadth of technology's scope. Arjun, a poor virus tester; Guy Swift, an opulent advertising CEO; Gabriella, a shallow token girlfriend; and Leela, an Indian film star, are all affected by the same virus despite their wildly differing circumstances.

Neocolonialism

Kunzru’s portrayal of an intelligent, skilled young man separated from his family and culture to be essentially sold into corporate slavery in the West implies “a different, but equally lethal, type of empire, that of powerful transnational corporations”.[4] Throughout the novel, Western and/or formerly colonial powers continually have the upper hand over minority characters, not only in the case of the Indian immigrants like Arjun who are taken advantage of by the corporation Databodies, but in the mass deportation plan that Guy encounters in Belgium. Although colonialism as a formal system has ended, three people can still forcefully dislocate millions of foreign immigrants as effectively as if colonialism were still intact. Symbolically alluding to its continuing influence in contemporary society is the bust of Leopold II present as Guy outlines his advertising campaign about "seamless networking and open borders".[5] By juxtaposing neocolonialism and Guy's ideals of an open-bordered global community, Kunzru suggests that, in spite of its benefits, there is a side to globalization that can be compared to the colonialism of the past.

Critical reception

References

  1. "100 Notable Books of the Year". The New York Times. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  2. Kunzru, Hari. Transmission. New York: Penguin Books, Ltd, 2005. Print.
  3. Pais, Arthur J. "The Rediff Interview / Hari Kunzru." "Rediff". 18 June 2004.
  4. Prono, Luca. "Hari Kunzru." British Council. British Council, 2006.
  5. "Relevant Intensity: Review of Transmission by Siddhartha Deb". Hari Kunzru. 2009-08-13. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  6. Maslin, Janet (2004-05-17). "BOOKS OF THE TIMES - Culture Clash on the Messy Trail of Computer Viruses". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  7. Kirn, Walter (2004-05-23). "Dateless in Seattle". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
  8. Amit Chaudhuri. "Review: Transmission by Hari Kunzru | Books". The Guardian. Retrieved 2015-03-08.
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