The narrative unfolds in the form of excerpts from HR interviews with the unnamed workers, a mix of humans and artificial “humanoids” (think Replicants à la Blade Runner). Orbiting the distant planet New Discovery on a mission to harvest fleshy alien “objects” for scientific purposes, the crew of the Six-Thousand Ship know they will not survive the long return voyage to Earth. Set aboard a deep space research vessel, Olga Ravn’s The Employees is a parable about what happens when you can never leave the office. “I’m starting to feel disloyal toward the organization and it pains me because there’s no place for me other than inside the organization.” If you’ve ever worked for a company that insists on worming its way into your personal time, you know how difficult it can be to maintain a sense of self that’s independent of your role as a worker. Olga Ravn (translated by Martin Aitken), 150 pgs, Book*hug, bookhugpress.ca, $20
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |