(a copy of my Amazon.com review of the book)
Hank Green’s A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor — a sequel to An Absolutely Remarkable Thing — is a unique and thought-provoking commentary on power, the internet, fame-culture, and tech-bro worship, all wrapped up in a complex, fast-paced story that uniquely captures the zeitgeist of today’s social media-obsessed world. I suspect that it will divide readers, leaving some absolutely loving it (especially those who already gravitate toward Green’s work and ideas), some frustrated, and some just plain confused. But none of this takes away from the importance of what Green has created here.
On its surface, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor is a fast-paced story of alien tech and complicated people in a complex society that will appeal to readers who are immersed in todays social media culture. But the story is just the start. Green’s book is very much a medium through which he explores important questions around power, responsibility, and autonomy, and through which he both reveals the things that keep him up at night (I suspect – I’m speculating), and his thoughts on building a better future.
There are clear reflections of the current state of the world in Green’s writing – at least, as they relate to the US-centric. The power and responsibility of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are challenged, as is the power wielded by their founders and leaders (although interestingly, YouTube gets a bit of a free pass); gender and race politics, ethics and ideologies infuse the narrative; and the ethics and responsibility surrounding emerging tech – including privacy, control and autonomy – are touched on. There are flashes of perspective here that seem particularly relevant to highly influential entrepreneurs like Elon Musk – especially as he strives to build society-changing brain-machine-interfaces through his company Neuralink. And through everything, there is an ongoing debate in the book about the nature of fame and influence in a fame-obsessed world.
Readers familiar with Green’s work will recognize a lot of this – A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor wrestles with issues that Green touches on often in his online content. But the book provides him with space to dive deeper into his ideas and thoughts, and to connect more fully with his readers. There’s a delicious irony of sorts in this, as one of the central plot lines in the book is about using alien tech to provide users with an intimate taste of what others feel and experience; yet this is precisely what Green sets out to do with a much older, non-alien tech – the written word.
In setting out to give readers a glimpse into his own mind (and again, I may be over-speculating here), Green has developed a unique and compelling voice as an author. It reminds me a little of Cory Doctorow – another writer who weaves story telling with social commentary and tech concerns – but Green’s voice is his own, and he’s worth reading for this.
I enjoyed A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor – to a point. But I was particularly intrigued by the ideas and the questions it presents – especially as my own work focuses on the nexus between society and the future. There were aspects of the book that I found myself frustrated by, and not agreeing with. But This is a novel made me think. It made me ask questions that I may not otherwise have asked, and it encouraged me to see the world around me in new ways. And because of this, it gets a full five stars.
