February 2025: “The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer" by Janelle Monáe
Book Blurb
New Dawn is a society that prioritizes keeping its citizens “clean” through rigid definitions of gender identity and expression reinforced by aggressive memory manipulation, among other methods. If a person simply does not remember who they were, then they can be “cleaned” to meet New Dawn’s heteronormative standards dictating who people should be and how they should live their lives, right? With contributions from other authors, Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian features five tales of cyberpunk Afrofuturism addressing institutional racism, misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia.
In The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monáe and Alaya Dawn Johnson, Seshet becomes the first Black woman to achieve the position of Memory Librarian within New Dawn. But it comes at a price: Seshet was subject to memory deletion in order to become the lead enforcer of New Dawn’s aggressive policies of memory manipulation on its own citizens. She is also forced to hide an authentic aspect of herself as a queer woman, or what the homophobic New Dawn society labels a “dirty computer.”
In Nevermind by Janelle Monáe and Danny Lore, Jane 57821 has escaped New Dawn and sought refuge in the Pynk Hotel, a sanctuary for women and women-aligned individuals who could no longer live under New Dawn’s oppressive norms. But not everyone residing at the Pynk Hotel shares the belief that identifying and living as a woman is what makes you a woman. And a traitor among the refugees leads New Dawn’s “blush hounds” right to their doors.
In Timebox by Janelle Monáe and Eve L. Ewing, Raven and Akilah have just moved into a new apartment together. Raven—a nursing student from a humble background who is always in a rush to work or school or elsewhere—is a realist. Akilah—an artist/activist from a neighborhood where adults left the doors unlocked and kids played in the streets without supervision—is an idealist. The young Black couple love each other but are at odds about priorities highlighting their differences. These differences are only further underscored when they discover something unbelievable in their new shared space.
In Save Changes by Janelle Monáe and Yohanca Delgado, sisters Amber and Larry are the caretakers of their mother Diana, who was left mentally disabled after subjugation to New Dawn’s experimental mind manipulation. Before their father’s death, he gifted Amber a rare larimar stone that may be able to reverse time. But it may only be used once, and there is no guarantee of how much time will be reversed or if it will reverse time at all. After attending an illegal party, Larry is arrested by New Dawn authorities for being a “dirty computer.” Will activating the larimar stone give Amber enough time to help her sister, save her mother, or give her more time with her father?
In Timebox Altar(ed) by Janelle Monáe and Sharee Renée Thomas, seven-year old Bug lives in the nearly abandoned town of Freewheel, located in the periphery of New Dawn’s authority. Bug has been effectively orphaned due to New Dawn policies determining that people like their parents—those who are not heterosexual and/or not cisgender—are “dirty computers” that must be detained and “cleaned.” While playing with friends among the town’s debris, a stranger named Mx. Tangee appears and offers Bug and the other children an opportunity they cannot refuse.
Click on the book cover image to see what people are saying about The Memory Librarian on Goodreads. Check out my review of The Memory Librarian in the Science Fiction bookshelf.
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Publisher: Voyager
Published: 14 April 2022
