For decades now, Berg has been observing the present with laconic distance, amusedly conducting bonding analyzes of shapeless figures who struggle through a world that has degenerated into a neoliberal fitness event that has little sympathy for them.
Already in her debut “A few people are looking for happiness and laughing themselves to death” (1997) a character asked himself “if there are people who don’t have to distract themselves most of the time in order not to die of boredom”. With “GRM. Brainfuck”, their surprise bestseller with more than 100,000 copies sold.
Bitterly evil history of the present, part two
“It was the time when Facebook was getting big. Where a lot of older people thought the internet was just this idiot platform. It was the time of the massive spread of false reports, of mass manipulation,” one read there and was presented with the bitterly angry story of the present, wrapped in a vision of the future about new slums in England and angry young people from this sinking world: “People became addicted to it incredibly quickly the likes of their strangers. The youth became even more addicted to an arousal created by a mixture of bullying, violence, sex and bullshit. It was the time when human cruelty was added to virtual cruelty.”
Like “GRM”, “RCE”, which stands for “Remote Code Execution”, consists of a series of highlights on dozens of figures. These are each introduced with a short profile outlining their usefulness in the exaggerated “new age when consumers were hardly needed anymore”. “State of health: less than 200 steps a day, sexual behavior: no reproduction planned, life cycle assessment: power consumption above the permitted maximum level,” it says, for example.
“How can I save this damn world?”
The almost cynical gaze, which repeatedly forces you to wake up loudly, is Berg’s narrative capital. “Actually, everyone agrees that it’s too late,” said the author in an ORF interview about the current situation.
Ultimately, however, her literature is a subtle thought experiment that asks how such pessimism can be overcome: “The state in which we find ourselves is a bit powerless and paralyzed because you have so many sources of fire that you don’t know as a single person where should I delete. So how can I save this damn world?” Berg explained her starting point.
doom everywhere
In addition to the observation of the fetishization of “exclusive brands from Walmart, Nike, Starbucks, ExxonMobil, Lidl and Amazon, Amazon, Amazon” there is a trick that develops an enormous pull when reading: Any idea, no matter how progressive, be it feminism, ecology or postcolonialism , is integrated into the surveillance system, every revolution eats its children, and disasters lurk everywhere.
The “new age” seems familiar and uncanny due to these negatively prophesied set pieces. For example, when it is told how the “residents of the formerly richer north-west of Europe” behaved in the face of unspecified major upheavals: they waited “in silent disbelief for a miracle” and streamed series.
tell data
“RCE” is composed of a long stream of text that assembles rather than tells impressions of the few winners – those who benefit from the big banks, investment firms and arms manufacturers – and many losers. Anyone looking for finely developed psychological figure drawing will certainly not find what they are looking for here, rather Berg is attempting a literary project that unwinds data sets one after the other.
The fact that in the middle of this heap of data a group of six young hackers opposed the system could be described as the actual action of this page turner – if it were an action in the traditional sense. Who actually overlooks this story and tells it turns out to be the question in “RCE” that leads to the trail of what Berg is actually showing: This could be the story of an artificial intelligence that is being fought by people and telling about it in order to find a solution. You shouldn’t expect a solution in “RCE” either – the sequel to “GRM” is designed as the middle part of a trilogy, the final part of which you will probably have to wait some time for.