We Computers

Centuries of poetic tradition and the possibilities of artificial intelligence animate this dizzying and gorgeous novel from Ismailov (Gaia, Queen of Ants). In the 1980s, Jon-Perse, a French poet and psychologist, becomes enthusiastic about computers: “Hadn’t his mentor Lacan said that the subconscious was a kind of language? Now Jon-Perse realized that a computer’s consciousness could also be seen that way.” He befriends another poet, Abdulhamid Ismail, who introduces him to Uzbek ghazals, Sufi mysticism, and the work of Hafez, a giant of Persian poetry. The novel, narrated in the first-person plural by a program designed by Jon-Perse, encompasses an AI-generated fictional story of Hafez’s life, translations of poems by Hafez and other poets, and an account of Jon-Perse’s relationships with women who may or may not exist: “Unlike people, We reveal who We are with complete transparency. For one example, unlike with human authors, part of Our writing process is to run a comparison of an array of selection options.” The result, ably translated by Fairweather-Vega, is a rich and sensual tableau that makes an implicit argument for the value of human thought. Readers will go all in for this ambitious, genre-defying work. (Aug.)