In The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer,
singer-songwriter, actor, fashion icon, activist, and worldwide
superstar Janelle Monáe brings to the written page the
Afrofuturistic world of one of her critically acclaimed albums,
exploring how different threads of liberation—queerness, race,
gender plurality, and love—become tangled with future possibilities
of memory and time in such a totalitarian landscape…and what the
costs might be when trying to unravel and weave them into freedoms.
Whoever controls our memories
controls the future.
Janelle Monáe and an incredible
array of talented collaborating creators have written a collection of
tales comprising the bold vision and powerful themes that have made
Monáe such a compelling and celebrated storyteller. Dirty Computer
introduced a world in which thoughts—as a means of
self-conception—could be controlled or erased by a select few. And
whether human, A.I., or other, your life and sentience was dictated
by those who’d convinced themselves they had the right to decide
your fate.
That was until Jane 57821 decided to
remember and break free.
Expanding from that mythos, these
stories fully explore what it’s like to live in such a totalitarian
existence…and what it takes to get out of it. Building off the
traditions of speculative writers such as Octavia Butler, Ted Chiang,
Becky Chambers, and Nnedi Okorafor—and filled with the artistic
genius and powerful themes that have made Monáe a worldwide icon in
the first place—The
Memory Librarian serves
readers tales grounded in the human trials of identity expression,
technology, and love, but also reaching through to the worlds of
memory and time within, and the stakes and power that exists there.