https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-memory-librarian-ed-janelle-monae/

Five stories set in the world of Monáe’s Dirty Computer, about women caught up in the near-future totalitarian state of New Dawn, where those who don’t fit in, especially in terms of gender and sexuality, face memory wiping by the powerful state. It’s rooted in her Hugo finalist album and film from a few years back.

All five stories are billed as being co-written by Monáe and a series of other writers. They all take the fictional society in new and slightly different directions; my favourite was the third, “Timebox”, co-written with Chicago activist Eve L. Ewing, in which two women discover a room in their apartment which sits outside time, and react to it very differently. But these are all good and thought-provoking, and recommended. ( )

Janelle Monáe’s The Memory Librarian and Other Stories of Dirty Computer features five short stories that Monáe wrote in collaboration with Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore, and Sheree Renée Thomas. The stories are inspired by Monáe’s 2018 album, Dirty Computer, and the short film of the same name. They focus on a futuristic totalitarian society – called New Dawn – that compels its citizens to think and act like it wants, using technology to erase memories, reprogram individuals, and quash divergence, specifically in gender expression. There is also an element of white technocratic supremacy underpinning everything New Dawn does. The first story, titled “The Memory Librarian” and which Monáe co-wrote with Johnson, focuses on a queer black woman working for New Dawn as a librarian who deletes and manipulates others’ memories. When she learns that her lover is rebelling against these controls, the librarian begins to question her role in New Dawn’s agenda. “Nevermind,” co-written with Lore, focuses on the Pynk Hotel, a refuge for women and fem-aligned people who have escaped from New Dawn and want to be free from New Dawn’s gender controls. Monáe co-wrote “Timebox” with Ewing, focusing on two women trying to make a life together despite their different backgrounds. Raven wants to feel like she isn’t always struggling to keep up and having to budget her time in advance; Akilah is an artist who thinks about community solutions without noticing how Raven needs individual support. They find that the closet in their apartment exists outside of the normal flow of time, but their different ideas on how to use it cause further conflict between them. In “Save Changes,” co-written with Delgado, two sisters take care of their mother, who was reprogrammed by New Dawn and lives under house arrest, showing symptoms of senility following the reprogramming. Amber tries to play things safe, but her sister Larry wants to find ways to live free. Their father gave Amber a pendant that will supposedly allow her to travel back in time, but she can only use it once and won’t know how far back she can go until she uses it. Finally, in Monáe and Thomas’ “Timebox Altar(ed),” a group of children live near the ghost town of Freewheel. They go wandering in the woods, meet an old woman named Mx. Tangee, and construct a fort that allows them to view the future they can create if they enter it with intention.

Monáe’s work touches on themes that are at once current and ongoing in much of dystopian science-fiction, specifically the concept of controlling memories or reprogramming people. While books like Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, George Orwell’s 1984, and Lowis Lowry’s The Giver all focused on similar ideas, Monáe’s work feels particularly prescient as states such as Texas and Florida seek to control what people learn, which books they can read, and whose stories are told. This similarly evokes Philip K. Dick’s focus on memory such as in his novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Like other dystopian science-fiction stories, Monáe’s characters often have names that blend generic identities with numbers, such as Jane 57821 in “Nevermind,” while others take back their power by naming themselves or demonstrate that they live outside of New Dawn’s controls by having their family names intact. This resembles Orwell or even George Lucas’s first film, THX 1138. Monáe’s focus on the intersectionality of race and gender – and how a totalitarian state would target both – highlights the current battles in which conservatives seek to legislate away people whose race or gender does not align with their definition of America. Recent authors with similar focuses include Tochi Onyebuchi, whose 2022 novel Goliath touches on the roles of the surveillance state and which groups are left behind during technological “advancement.” One does not need to have listened to Monáe’s Dirty Computer album or watched her 2018 film to appreciate this short story collection, but the three works do go hand-in-hand to explore these themes and deepen the reader/listener/viewer’s appreciation of the others. ( )

A half star only to indicate that it was a DNF for me. I tried, made it thru the first couple stories, but it just wasn't connecting with me. Too many books, Too little time, time to move on. ( )

Musician, actor, and fashion icon Janelle Monáe adds author to her many skills with this collection of stories rooted in the dystopian future world previously explored in her music. Each story is co-written with another talented Black author. The stories are set in a near-future authoritarian state called New Dawn where people live under constant surveillance, have their memories harvested, and those who don't conform - especially LGBTQ people and people of color - are classified as "Dirty Computers."

These stories include that of Seshet the memory librarian, a high ranking official in New Dawn, who begins to explore life on the "wrong side of town" with a new transgender partner. A commune of women who've found refuge from New Dawn at a place called Pynk Hotel discover a traitor in their midst. A lesbian couple discover a room in their house outside of time with each responding to it differently. And a family are able to travel one by one into a future where they find they've been liberated giving them hope to make it a reality.

It's an interesting collection of sci-fi/Afrofuturist stories that very much parallels our real world struggles. The stories can be didactic in their messaging but honestly sometimes need to be told bluntly. While this type of fiction is not typically something I would enjoy - and I'll confess that some elements went over my head - I am glad that I read this book and would recommend it to people who like this genre and fans of Monáe. ( )

FYI Review - This collection contains the following short stories:
-Introduction: Breaking Dawn by Janelle Monáe
-The Memory Librarian by Janelle Monae and Alaya Dawn Johnson
-Nevermind by Janelle Monae and Danny Lore
-Timebox by Janelle Monae and Eve L. Ewing
-Save Changes by Janelle Monae and Yohanca Delgado
-Timebox (altered) by Janelle Monae and Sheree Renee Thomas