Sanford Moxley

There’s an idea that the ability to connect – to the natural world, ourselves, each other – becomes more synthetic and vacuous with each passing level of technological advancement.  Certainly, from one perspective, technology brings us together and makes it easier to communicate; however, does that communication, one that resides prominently in the palm of our hands, foster increased connection?  I would make the not so profound argument that today’s “posting” and “scrolling” heavy interactions do not improve our connections with the world or each other.   In many ways they facilitate and grow relationships that perpetuate our armor – our inauthentic identity as an artificial connection – that we plaster to the electronic world around us.  This type of cover didn’t start with technology, but its construct combined with our capitalistic engines foster an exponential increase in its power and control on our society.  What, then, does it mean for the world when the only characters in Rachel Kushner’s new novel, Creation Lake (Scribner), that shake free from the shackles of artificial identity are doing so only because of other untenable external forces? 

One such person is our protagonist, Sadie Smith (or at least that what we know her as), who, as an undercover secret agent, infiltrates extremist groups to prove out wrong doing.  Her mandate is to facilitate the authorities’ ability to catch her marks in the act; however, rather than mere observer she comes to realize that in many cases she serves as the actual catalyst for breaking the law.  Sadie, who’s craft has made her not only an expert at forging her own identities, also sees through the diaphanous shells of identity in others.  She reveals her belief that people’s principles, their beliefs, do not represent the core essence of a person rather they are a way of shoring up one’s identity as a protective layer around “The truth of a person, under all the layers and guises, the significations of group and type, the quiet truth, underneath the noise of opinions and ‘beliefs,’ is a substance that is pure and stubborn and consistent.”

At the same time, Bruno Lacombe, a former leftist, that is providing guidance to the current group of leftists that Sadie has infiltrated, has rejected current society to live in isolation in the caves of southern France (his book is titled Leaving the World Behind).  Bruno made his way to the caves in the aftermath of the death of his youngest child (he was watching her play on a tractor that overturned and crushed her) and subsequent desertion by the rest of his family.  In a resulting reaction of extreme trauma and guilt, he found himself believing that only in going back to an ancestrally pure existence could one solve for the current woes of society.  I.e., confronting society was a fool’s errand and to live a true life one had to go back to our human roots.

Sadie, who has hacked Bruno’s email account as part of her reconnaissance, reads Bruno’s messages to her leftists and slowly begins to identify with the way he sees the world.  However, only when Sadie’s past eventually catches up with her (one of her former jobs has blown up in a lawsuit with the impending possibility that her true identity will be revealed) coupled with the growing guilt of how she may be the actual cause of crime does she feel the need to escape life.  In her isolation, Sadie begins to shed her artificial connections, which ultimately allows her to commune more authentically with the natural world.

Bruno and Sadie walked different paths through the world, but intense traumas and forces ultimately see their arrival at the same end points.  Their escapes, while absolute and resulted in a rejection of society and artificial connection, satisfied different motivations.  Bruno ran from the world after losing his family while Sadie had the practical need to hide from the authorities.  However, regardless of the ultimate events that led to their rejection of society, the seeds of rebellion were sowed to their beings.  Bruno had rejected the violent and base behavior of his upbringing and subsequent leftist ties while Sadie saw through the guise of identity for ego’s sake.  Their total abandonment of society serves as a foil to the leftists’ head on fight with the current capitalist constructs, which Kushner paints as both counterproductive and hypocritical.

If we are to believe that some correction in humanity’s relationship with technology is required, the Sadie and Bruno route, while achieving idyllic purity in their results, does not leave a smooth road for society to follow.  Extending their experiences – traumatic and forced – to the masses conjures apocalyptic catalysts as the inciting moment of change.  Kushner’s omission of another way forward could leave us with a doomed and defeatist reaction to the culmination of Creation Lake.  I believe, though, that there is hope in the infinite possibility between these extremes.  I find myself galvanized to find progress that is more practical than Sadie and Bruno’s head in the sand approach and more authentic than the leftists’ criminal contradictions.  Put the phone down and seek out your neighbor, listen to the wind, look at the stars, and shed the armor.