📚🧑🏻💻 Let’s Read and Discuss Several People are Typing by Calvin Kasulke 🧑🏻💻📚
Calling all horror lovers! In May, we will read Several People Are Typing by Calvin Kasulke. Gerald, a mid-level employee at a public relations firm in New York City, wakes up one morning and finds that his consciousness has been uploaded into his company's Slack channel. Most of his co-workers think this is an elaborate prank to exploit the firm's work-from-home policy, and his productivity is skyrocketing; his bosses are happy to let him keep working from... wherever he is.
Gerald and his co-worker Pradeep try to help him escape Slack and discover what happened to his body, so they enlist Slackbot (Slack's AI assistant) to help navigate his digital life. But what will happen if Slackbot discovers Gerald's vacant body? Will Slackbot try to escape into the real world using Gerald's body? Calvin needs to get back into his body before Slackbot may try to do so, but the longer Gerald stays in the Slack network, the more alluring it is to stay there...
In this humorous and horrifying tale, Kasulke explores themes of digital life, online identity and connections, blurred boundaries, American workplace culture, and privacy and surveillance. Come follow along as Gerald navigates this new normal.
📅 Date: May 31st
⏰ Time: 11 AM-1 PM
📍 Location: Qahwah House, 2869 Broadway, New York, NY 10025
💻🧑🏻💻⌨️🖱️🖨️🖱️⌨️🧑🏻💻💻
See you all soon!
