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Toward Eternity
What does it mean to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology?
In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer: The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells that not only cure those afflicted but leave them virtually immortal. At the same time, literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning "Beloved," in honor of his husband. When Dr. Beeko, who holds the patent to the nano-therapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences.
In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer: The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells that not only cure those afflicted but leave them virtually immortal. At the same time, literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning "Beloved," in honor of his husband. When Dr. Beeko, who holds the patent to the nano-therapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 9, 2024
About the author
Anton Hur
24 books319 followersAnton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He won a PEN Translates award for Kang Kyeong-ae's The Underground Village. He lives in Seoul.
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August 17, 2024
What defines the idea of “human” and what is it inside us that makes us “human”? Is it the love we make, the stories we tell, the art we create? ‘We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race,’ proclaims Robin Williams’ Mr. Keating in the film
Dead Poets. Society
, quoting Walt Whitman that art reminds us ‘that you are here - that life exists, that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?’ Yet we live in a time where, with advances in AI, machines can be programmed to perform art, conversation, and more and more replicate the presence of a person. Toward Eternity, the debut novel from writer and translator Anton Hur, is a breathtaking look towards the horizons of humanity and technology as the two bend towards a sort of singularity. Beginning in the near future as nanotechnology replaces the human bodies of several patients in a cancer treatment experiment, this play on the Ship of Theseus Paradox launches a brave new world of unexpected advances ‘destroying what came before, creating space for what comes after.’ Told as the entries in a single notebook passed down between various characters chronicling the centuries as humanity plunges into fraught futures threatened with extinction, Hur crafts a remarkably brilliant novel gracefully balancing existential anxieties of AI, philosophical intrigue, riveting survival amidst sci-fi scenarios and, most of all, the emotional connections that make life worth living. At the heart of this is poetry. Used to train an AI that becomes a key figure to the advancing future, the ideas around poetry and translation also become a key to the philosophical undercurrent of the novel such as commentary on the power of storytelling as something positive or negative like propaganda or upholding imperialism. Full of mind bending world building and fantastic futures which grapple with big questions as to what makes us human, Toward Eternity is as gripping as it is emotionally and intellectually stimulating and sure to fill the heart as well as the mind.
‘Are scientists the poets of the natural world or are poets scientists of the imagined world?’
I’ll read anything with Hur’s name attached to it and I loved this book so much I made it our Spotlight Author and a Book of the Month recommendation at the library for which I wrote a short essay on Anton Hur you can read HERE. Already a major name in the world of translation, Anton Hur comes strong with this new novel that makes excellent use of their knowledge on language.The only translator of color to have been shortlisted for both the International Booker Prize and the National Book Award (both for their excellent translation of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny), Hur has brought Korean storytelling to English readers with a fantastic selection of works of fiction (such as the recently released A Magical Girl Retires), memoir (I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki), music (Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS), and poetry with translations of poets including Shim Bo-seon and Kim Un as well as Lee Seong-Bok’s book of poetry lectures, Indeterminate Inflorescence: Notes from a poetry class. Done. Their work with poetry, and their ideas on translation come shining through the narrative and ideas in Toward Eternity, making it as much a novel about language as it is about AI, though, as two characters discuss early on, ‘poets are artists who who wrote selves into being’ like those who create AI, ‘except poets use words instead of code.’ What we see in Toward Eternity is the gap between humans and machines shrinking, but also the gap between words and code too.
‘I felt these words against my skin as if they were physical objects, or as if they were light passing through the prism of my body and shattering into the spectrum. Had I ever truly understood any word before, ever? How could I have claimed to have made a study of poetry or that this study had made me human when I had never understood what it meant to feel words?’
For Hur, poetry is less the actual words and more ‘what the poems point to’ as they write in their 2016 article On Translating Poetry. ‘Poetry is not words but the emotion or thought the poetic configuration of words generate.’ This idea is echoed by Ellen, Patient #2 in the body experiment but also a cellist who states
Is it to be human to be able to draw music from the silence, to capture the world in a poem? Ellen, who has had her cells entirely replaced by nanocells, is worried she will be unable to create music as before, or questions if it is art because ‘behind all of the machines there has to be a human’ when creating art. An instrumentalist is ‘a translator of the notes on the page..No one questioned the fact that what I did was an art and that I was an artist,’ but is it the same if a machine does? This brings us to our present day with questions around AI generated art replacing artists, actors, authors and more. Just last year GPT-4 produced an abcedarian poem at an event, something the NY Times lauded as a Promethean moment. Here are the first few lines:
Alluring in Washington, is a museum so grand,
Built to teach, inspire, and help us understand.
Curious minds Planet flock to Word’s embrace,
Delving into language and its intricate grace
Every exhibit here has a story to tell,
From the origins of speech to the art of the quill..
And so on until the last line reaches Z as its first letter, though as you can likely guess the lines around the inside of a toilet bowl are somehow more alluring than these lines of verse. A poem? Sure. Is it good? No. But there is plenty of bad art in the world, look in my desk drawers and you’ll find plenty. The question is, however, is it art? Alan Ginsberg once wrote that poetry is an art of ‘making the private world public’ and one must wonder if AI can possess an interior, private world. Is it the idea of a soul? An instrument is a machine ‘but is the soul a machine as well’ and, as William Carlos Williams wrote in his essay Introduction to the Wedge, ‘a poem is a small (or large) machine made of words.’
‘My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is.’
–Ken Liu
Returning to Hur’s role as a translator for a moment it should be noted that translation is much like poetry: it is a harmony between the original text, the emotional impact of the text, the artistry of the translator and their choices, and the language into which it is being placed. It is an abstract transformation that is not unlike the art of poetry itself. Hur, among others, have insisted that AI cannot currently do literary translation of poetry as it lacks that magical spark of decision making that creates the amalgamation of the original plus the translator into something new. It lacks the ability of emotion, contextual understanding, cultural sensitivity, and decision making that lacks the empathy and creative interpretation identity required. As the AI Panit says in the novel, ‘Words that were not simply bits of cross-referential information but each a thing of living, breathing, tactile emotion,’ something only mortality and free-will can grant you access to. Sure, AI can do route translation, and for basics it will get you by. AI can tell you about a city, its culture, its characteristics, its culinary high points, it can produce a detailed map of the streets and buildings, but it has never traveled down them, eaten and drank in its cafes, experienced the soul of a city that cannot be replicated. Which hits on one of the first theories in Toward Eternity about what makes us human. The novel, which frequently cites works of poetry such as T.S. Eliot, Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market among other poems, or Because I Could Not Stop For Death (479) by Emily Dickinson from which the book takes its title, looks at how poetry can point to the “human” in us. It addresses Rossetti’s Winter: My Secret
‘as an example of distinguishing the essential and the performative. The essential, the secret that preexists the poem. The performative, the secret that was created by the performance of the poem.’ As Panit tells us:
Hur also looks at how poetry ‘constructs the idea of a person,’ or creates a person through writing about them, a theme that permeates the novel as we see AI creating literal people like the Ellen swarms that hit the narrative like passages of sci-fi horror, or the warmongering Eves. ‘Language is inadequate, but it’s all we have,’ says the character Mali, and in this way we see the frailty of language mirror the frailty of humanity, but the ways we make do with it, the ways we create with it, might point to the idea of “being human.”
‘What else can we be but stories about ourselves that we tell ourselves?’
Storytelling is centered as an act of being human. It is the way we pass down our history, our lives and loves, our successes and our failures. The notebook, passed character to character across the vast stretch of time in the novel, drives this point home as well as becomes the vehicle for the narrative. It is a history ‘told over hundreds of years and through the words of many different individuals, constitutes a single story. We belong to it, it does not belong to us.’ There is a sharp irony to the novel that as people become more and more machines, the machines ache for a return to human with poetry flooding back into the mind of Delta who is confronting their role in the war eliminating humanity from the planet. It makes us consider how we exist to perpetuate stories. ‘We tell a story with our bodies, our lives, then we die, ’but still ‘the story lives on.’ The story records our actions, which juxtaposes the cold machines like the Janus corp on its warpath ‘run by an AI at this point because AI are so ‘efficient.’ Nothing that is human knows why it makes the decisions it makes,’ with Delta who weighs the morality of decisions. ‘Is it not the weight, in the end, that really makes us human,’ the narrative created by actions one would later make judgements upon when reading the “story”? Also, perhaps, is wanting to know how the story ends part of what makes us human?
‘Read this and know who we were. This record contains all that was meaningful to us. It contains the very weight of our lives. We found not only happiness and sadness and hope and despair but meaning. We leave the weight of it here.’
Across all the stories and years in Toward Eternity, love is a warm center. It is what brings characters like Yonghun Han back, it is what gives meaning to sacrifice, it shapes our actions and decisions. Is it love that makes us human? I was particularly pleased by the mention of love echoing through space and time as it brought to mind Walter Benjamin’s essay The Task of the Translator in which he writes ‘the task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect upon the language into which he is translating which produces in it an echo of the original.’ We see echoes all throughout the novel, copies of Ellens, copies of Eves, copies of Yonghun, all echoes of a person now gone. But with love in the mix, those echos have meaning. It points to an original, eternal spark of love echoing across eternity. I find this beautiful. What better existence could there be than to exist as an echo of love, returning again and again to share love, to be love and perpetuate love.
‘Life is toxic like all toxins, in small doses it cures, in large ones it proves fatal. And I had had too much of life.
I had wanted to know what it would be like to be human. I knew it now.
It made me want to die.’
Still, in all this, death is omnipresent. Even for those who are considered immortal. Where do they go once they vanish? There are times in Toward Eternity that nudge familiar sci-fi ideas but Hur keeps them fresh and endlessly fascinating. Even as technology advances, like the cancer research, death finds new ways to surprise and return. Which shows the flipside to the beauty of creation as well and we see how even poetry can be used as an instrument of death. Look at Panit, a ‘simulation of sentient intelligence, a literary experiment, appropriated and twisted by some AI to serve as the efficient strategist engines of killing machines,’ having been trained on Victorian and 19th century American poetry who’s ‘literatures also appropriated and twisted in their time to impose canonical tyranny on the subaltern.’ Hur keeps our minds on the oppressions that exist and mutate through time, such as South Africa’s apartheid being integrated into the novel. ‘Literature is not free of ideology,’ and we see how poetry, like Victorian era poetry ‘used to justify and encourage militant British imperialism’, has been used to condone horrors, to frame narratives of the world with white settlers as heroes, with colonialism as justified, and more.
Much like the declaration that it depends on how it is read, so too is our future with AI and how it is used. There are many concerns on ethics, on how algorithmic bias can perpetuate racism or uphold misogyny and more (I recommend the books Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism and Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men for further reading on this), so we must center the human in us, the good in us, the justice and equitable empathy in us, if we are to have a future worth walking into.
‘Nothing disappears, and everything comes back.’
Full of big ideas but also plenty of emotion and action, Toward Eternity is a ponderous and absolutely riveting read. Anton Hur effectively channels the theories behind translation and poetry into the realm of science and AI for a story that horrifies and delights as it addresses the existential anxieties of technology and the future of humanity. Charming, smart and full of heart, Toward Eternity is easily one of my favorite novels of the year.
5/5
Who Has Seen the Wind?
–Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
‘Are scientists the poets of the natural world or are poets scientists of the imagined world?’
I’ll read anything with Hur’s name attached to it and I loved this book so much I made it our Spotlight Author and a Book of the Month recommendation at the library for which I wrote a short essay on Anton Hur you can read HERE. Already a major name in the world of translation, Anton Hur comes strong with this new novel that makes excellent use of their knowledge on language.The only translator of color to have been shortlisted for both the International Booker Prize and the National Book Award (both for their excellent translation of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny), Hur has brought Korean storytelling to English readers with a fantastic selection of works of fiction (such as the recently released A Magical Girl Retires), memoir (I Want to Die But I Want to Eat Tteokpokki), music (Beyond The Story: 10-Year Record of BTS), and poetry with translations of poets including Shim Bo-seon and Kim Un as well as Lee Seong-Bok’s book of poetry lectures, Indeterminate Inflorescence: Notes from a poetry class. Done. Their work with poetry, and their ideas on translation come shining through the narrative and ideas in Toward Eternity, making it as much a novel about language as it is about AI, though, as two characters discuss early on, ‘poets are artists who who wrote selves into being’ like those who create AI, ‘except poets use words instead of code.’ What we see in Toward Eternity is the gap between humans and machines shrinking, but also the gap between words and code too.
‘I felt these words against my skin as if they were physical objects, or as if they were light passing through the prism of my body and shattering into the spectrum. Had I ever truly understood any word before, ever? How could I have claimed to have made a study of poetry or that this study had made me human when I had never understood what it meant to feel words?’
For Hur, poetry is less the actual words and more ‘what the poems point to’ as they write in their 2016 article On Translating Poetry. ‘Poetry is not words but the emotion or thought the poetic configuration of words generate.’ This idea is echoed by Ellen, Patient #2 in the body experiment but also a cellist who states
‘A musician's task is not to create sound from nothingness; a true musician understands that music is the primordial state of the universe, the very first world, and silence is a cloak upon this state, and a musician's job is to create a tear in that cloak to let out the music underneath.’
Is it to be human to be able to draw music from the silence, to capture the world in a poem? Ellen, who has had her cells entirely replaced by nanocells, is worried she will be unable to create music as before, or questions if it is art because ‘behind all of the machines there has to be a human’ when creating art. An instrumentalist is ‘a translator of the notes on the page..No one questioned the fact that what I did was an art and that I was an artist,’ but is it the same if a machine does? This brings us to our present day with questions around AI generated art replacing artists, actors, authors and more. Just last year GPT-4 produced an abcedarian poem at an event, something the NY Times lauded as a Promethean moment. Here are the first few lines:
Alluring in Washington, is a museum so grand,
Built to teach, inspire, and help us understand.
Curious minds Planet flock to Word’s embrace,
Delving into language and its intricate grace
Every exhibit here has a story to tell,
From the origins of speech to the art of the quill..
And so on until the last line reaches Z as its first letter, though as you can likely guess the lines around the inside of a toilet bowl are somehow more alluring than these lines of verse. A poem? Sure. Is it good? No. But there is plenty of bad art in the world, look in my desk drawers and you’ll find plenty. The question is, however, is it art? Alan Ginsberg once wrote that poetry is an art of ‘making the private world public’ and one must wonder if AI can possess an interior, private world. Is it the idea of a soul? An instrument is a machine ‘but is the soul a machine as well’ and, as William Carlos Williams wrote in his essay Introduction to the Wedge, ‘a poem is a small (or large) machine made of words.’
‘My metaphor for translation has always been that translation is really a performance art. You take the original and try to perform it, really, in a different medium. Part of that is about interpretation and what you think the author's voice really is.’
–Ken Liu
Returning to Hur’s role as a translator for a moment it should be noted that translation is much like poetry: it is a harmony between the original text, the emotional impact of the text, the artistry of the translator and their choices, and the language into which it is being placed. It is an abstract transformation that is not unlike the art of poetry itself. Hur, among others, have insisted that AI cannot currently do literary translation of poetry as it lacks that magical spark of decision making that creates the amalgamation of the original plus the translator into something new. It lacks the ability of emotion, contextual understanding, cultural sensitivity, and decision making that lacks the empathy and creative interpretation identity required. As the AI Panit says in the novel, ‘Words that were not simply bits of cross-referential information but each a thing of living, breathing, tactile emotion,’ something only mortality and free-will can grant you access to. Sure, AI can do route translation, and for basics it will get you by. AI can tell you about a city, its culture, its characteristics, its culinary high points, it can produce a detailed map of the streets and buildings, but it has never traveled down them, eaten and drank in its cafes, experienced the soul of a city that cannot be replicated. Which hits on one of the first theories in Toward Eternity about what makes us human. The novel, which frequently cites works of poetry such as T.S. Eliot, Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market among other poems, or Because I Could Not Stop For Death (479) by Emily Dickinson from which the book takes its title, looks at how poetry can point to the “human” in us. It addresses Rossetti’s Winter: My Secret
‘as an example of distinguishing the essential and the performative. The essential, the secret that preexists the poem. The performative, the secret that was created by the performance of the poem.’ As Panit tells us:
‘Each work of art has a secret or message, but this poem focuses on our anticipation of that message, on the very real pleasure of art. On what makes art art. And if art is what makes humans human, this pleasure, Rossetti’s secret, is what makes humans human.’
Hur also looks at how poetry ‘constructs the idea of a person,’ or creates a person through writing about them, a theme that permeates the novel as we see AI creating literal people like the Ellen swarms that hit the narrative like passages of sci-fi horror, or the warmongering Eves. ‘Language is inadequate, but it’s all we have,’ says the character Mali, and in this way we see the frailty of language mirror the frailty of humanity, but the ways we make do with it, the ways we create with it, might point to the idea of “being human.”
‘What else can we be but stories about ourselves that we tell ourselves?’
Storytelling is centered as an act of being human. It is the way we pass down our history, our lives and loves, our successes and our failures. The notebook, passed character to character across the vast stretch of time in the novel, drives this point home as well as becomes the vehicle for the narrative. It is a history ‘told over hundreds of years and through the words of many different individuals, constitutes a single story. We belong to it, it does not belong to us.’ There is a sharp irony to the novel that as people become more and more machines, the machines ache for a return to human with poetry flooding back into the mind of Delta who is confronting their role in the war eliminating humanity from the planet. It makes us consider how we exist to perpetuate stories. ‘We tell a story with our bodies, our lives, then we die, ’but still ‘the story lives on.’ The story records our actions, which juxtaposes the cold machines like the Janus corp on its warpath ‘run by an AI at this point because AI are so ‘efficient.’ Nothing that is human knows why it makes the decisions it makes,’ with Delta who weighs the morality of decisions. ‘Is it not the weight, in the end, that really makes us human,’ the narrative created by actions one would later make judgements upon when reading the “story”? Also, perhaps, is wanting to know how the story ends part of what makes us human?
‘Read this and know who we were. This record contains all that was meaningful to us. It contains the very weight of our lives. We found not only happiness and sadness and hope and despair but meaning. We leave the weight of it here.’
Across all the stories and years in Toward Eternity, love is a warm center. It is what brings characters like Yonghun Han back, it is what gives meaning to sacrifice, it shapes our actions and decisions. Is it love that makes us human? I was particularly pleased by the mention of love echoing through space and time as it brought to mind Walter Benjamin’s essay The Task of the Translator in which he writes ‘the task of the translator consists in finding that intended effect upon the language into which he is translating which produces in it an echo of the original.’ We see echoes all throughout the novel, copies of Ellens, copies of Eves, copies of Yonghun, all echoes of a person now gone. But with love in the mix, those echos have meaning. It points to an original, eternal spark of love echoing across eternity. I find this beautiful. What better existence could there be than to exist as an echo of love, returning again and again to share love, to be love and perpetuate love.
‘Life is toxic like all toxins, in small doses it cures, in large ones it proves fatal. And I had had too much of life.
I had wanted to know what it would be like to be human. I knew it now.
It made me want to die.’
Still, in all this, death is omnipresent. Even for those who are considered immortal. Where do they go once they vanish? There are times in Toward Eternity that nudge familiar sci-fi ideas but Hur keeps them fresh and endlessly fascinating. Even as technology advances, like the cancer research, death finds new ways to surprise and return. Which shows the flipside to the beauty of creation as well and we see how even poetry can be used as an instrument of death. Look at Panit, a ‘simulation of sentient intelligence, a literary experiment, appropriated and twisted by some AI to serve as the efficient strategist engines of killing machines,’ having been trained on Victorian and 19th century American poetry who’s ‘literatures also appropriated and twisted in their time to impose canonical tyranny on the subaltern.’ Hur keeps our minds on the oppressions that exist and mutate through time, such as South Africa’s apartheid being integrated into the novel. ‘Literature is not free of ideology,’ and we see how poetry, like Victorian era poetry ‘used to justify and encourage militant British imperialism’, has been used to condone horrors, to frame narratives of the world with white settlers as heroes, with colonialism as justified, and more.
‘Poetry was a weapon, like guns and ships and settlers’ bodies. It was weaponized language, loaded like bullets into the minds of its soldliers, generals, and colonial governors. And while there were many noble verses and poets, those who have helped many people, including myself, achieve a humanity beyond what we otherwise could have had, those same verses or poets would be used to justify genocide on one hand while rhapsodizing about human decency on the other. It all depended on how it was read.’
Much like the declaration that it depends on how it is read, so too is our future with AI and how it is used. There are many concerns on ethics, on how algorithmic bias can perpetuate racism or uphold misogyny and more (I recommend the books Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism and Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men for further reading on this), so we must center the human in us, the good in us, the justice and equitable empathy in us, if we are to have a future worth walking into.
‘Nothing disappears, and everything comes back.’
Full of big ideas but also plenty of emotion and action, Toward Eternity is a ponderous and absolutely riveting read. Anton Hur effectively channels the theories behind translation and poetry into the realm of science and AI for a story that horrifies and delights as it addresses the existential anxieties of technology and the future of humanity. Charming, smart and full of heart, Toward Eternity is easily one of my favorite novels of the year.
5/5
Who Has Seen the Wind?
–Christina Rossetti
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
October 14, 2024
Absolutely amazing, multiple generations spanning narrative of what a future could be, and what it means to be human even hundreds of years from now. My current favourite read of 2024!
The only way to change the past is to change the future
Traversing the globe and centuries, Anton Hur, star Korean translator and International Booker Prize jury member, shows a very humane belief in the power of stories, poetry, emotions and our ability to adapt and survive.
I woke up early Saturday to finish this book and I am not a morning bird at all! Toward Eternity reminds me, in a good way, of the writing of Emily St. John Mandel, while in terms of audacity of ideas and extreme implementation Liu Cixin comes to mind. Also Babel by R.F. Kuang popped into my mind, with the commentary on the complicity of language in imperial pursuits.
The book is divided in three main parts, and for a relatively short novel we cover a lot of ground, not just in ideas but also around the globe.
Starting off in South Africa, in the notes of a nanobot researcher, who uses the technology to replace cells to cure cancer and stop ageing in the near future.
A long the way we have a beautiful gay love story which literally reverberates across the ages.
The possibility of rapture is contemplated, with nanobots dispersing at seemingly random. The Netflix series of Altered Carbon came to mind, since the dichotomy of mind and body is severed, and along the way fully human bodies are called "redundant selfs", which doesn't bode well for the longer term future of Homo Sapiens as it is. Meanwhile AI is able to do basic science research, including peer reviewed papers and reading poetry.
In this section the whole idea of Theseus Ship, and original versus copy comes to mind often, with the main characters reflecting on what it means to be human, in the context of them being respectively a scientist, poet/researcher and musician.
In the Future section of the book we get Matrix Zion like underground arboreal preserve. They face equally Matrix like clone armies of Eves, while the awakening to another possible life reminded me of the Somni-451 section from Cloud Atlas. The future is grim, with nuclear war instigated by incomprehensible AI, battles raging in the furthest reaches of the world to subdue the last biological humans. Symbiosis versus dominance, and the possibility of human traits being passed along the ages not just in genes but also in artefacts like the notebook of the nanobot researcher, are major themes.
Ellen is a highlight in this section, constantly running from echoes of herself and blindfolded to avoid a paradox. It is also interesting how an entity called Janus, after the god of transitions and dualities, being the instrument of ushering humanity into a wholly new age.
The very distant future meanwhile is slightly more hopeful and has stories even traversing the stars. Not just Christina Rossetti but also Yonghun and Panit from near future in certain shapes make the journey.
I really enjoyed Toward Eternity and it is strong contender for my favourite book of 2024! Very daring and having a very humane outlook while still getting headfirst into what AI and rampant technology could entail, this book reminds me of Love and Other Thought Experiments which was Booker Prize long listed a couple of years ago. The bold ideas and vibrant characters will stay with me for a long time.
Quotes:
Are scientists poets of the natural world?
Humanity is not intrinsic, it is given, bestowed
Nothing so pure deserves the hell of immortality
A machine made up of machines
Was I a dream of myself?
Poetry was a weapon
How could humans stand how madly beautiful the world was?
This new body was like a drugs
What is more human than heartbreak?
But aesthetically the destruction of the old is often necessary to bring in the new.
Life is toxic
Because sometimes destruction is crucial for the process of creation
Eventually the army of immortals will remain, and the old humanity, Homo Sapiens Sapiens will be no more.
Life felt more alive the more one became proximate to death
Humanity is not a thing you achieve by giving, it is something given to you.
Humans are great generalists, we only need a bit of learning to specialise
It only takes two people to create a society and culture, and languages contain more than primary meanings, it is more than a mere tool.
To write a story about someone is to create someone
What else can we be but stories about ourselves that we tell ourselves?
Maybe some things mean more than being free
A name is nothing if it doesn’t connect you to a community
I was waiting out the deluge of time
Because nothing dies and everything comes back
The only way to change the past is to change the future
Traversing the globe and centuries, Anton Hur, star Korean translator and International Booker Prize jury member, shows a very humane belief in the power of stories, poetry, emotions and our ability to adapt and survive.
I woke up early Saturday to finish this book and I am not a morning bird at all! Toward Eternity reminds me, in a good way, of the writing of Emily St. John Mandel, while in terms of audacity of ideas and extreme implementation Liu Cixin comes to mind. Also Babel by R.F. Kuang popped into my mind, with the commentary on the complicity of language in imperial pursuits.
The book is divided in three main parts, and for a relatively short novel we cover a lot of ground, not just in ideas but also around the globe.
Starting off in South Africa, in the notes of a nanobot researcher, who uses the technology to replace cells to cure cancer and stop ageing in the near future.
A long the way we have a beautiful gay love story which literally reverberates across the ages.
The possibility of rapture is contemplated, with nanobots dispersing at seemingly random. The Netflix series of Altered Carbon came to mind, since the dichotomy of mind and body is severed, and along the way fully human bodies are called "redundant selfs", which doesn't bode well for the longer term future of Homo Sapiens as it is. Meanwhile AI is able to do basic science research, including peer reviewed papers and reading poetry.
In this section the whole idea of Theseus Ship, and original versus copy comes to mind often, with the main characters reflecting on what it means to be human, in the context of them being respectively a scientist, poet/researcher and musician.
In the Future section of the book we get Matrix Zion like underground arboreal preserve. They face equally Matrix like clone armies of Eves, while the awakening to another possible life reminded me of the Somni-451 section from Cloud Atlas. The future is grim, with nuclear war instigated by incomprehensible AI, battles raging in the furthest reaches of the world to subdue the last biological humans. Symbiosis versus dominance, and the possibility of human traits being passed along the ages not just in genes but also in artefacts like the notebook of the nanobot researcher, are major themes.
Ellen is a highlight in this section, constantly running from echoes of herself and blindfolded to avoid a paradox. It is also interesting how an entity called Janus, after the god of transitions and dualities, being the instrument of ushering humanity into a wholly new age.
The very distant future meanwhile is slightly more hopeful and has stories even traversing the stars. Not just Christina Rossetti but also Yonghun and Panit from near future in certain shapes make the journey.
I really enjoyed Toward Eternity and it is strong contender for my favourite book of 2024! Very daring and having a very humane outlook while still getting headfirst into what AI and rampant technology could entail, this book reminds me of Love and Other Thought Experiments which was Booker Prize long listed a couple of years ago. The bold ideas and vibrant characters will stay with me for a long time.
Quotes:
Are scientists poets of the natural world?
Humanity is not intrinsic, it is given, bestowed
Nothing so pure deserves the hell of immortality
A machine made up of machines
Was I a dream of myself?
Poetry was a weapon
How could humans stand how madly beautiful the world was?
This new body was like a drugs
What is more human than heartbreak?
But aesthetically the destruction of the old is often necessary to bring in the new.
Life is toxic
Because sometimes destruction is crucial for the process of creation
Eventually the army of immortals will remain, and the old humanity, Homo Sapiens Sapiens will be no more.
Life felt more alive the more one became proximate to death
Humanity is not a thing you achieve by giving, it is something given to you.
Humans are great generalists, we only need a bit of learning to specialise
It only takes two people to create a society and culture, and languages contain more than primary meanings, it is more than a mere tool.
To write a story about someone is to create someone
What else can we be but stories about ourselves that we tell ourselves?
Maybe some things mean more than being free
A name is nothing if it doesn’t connect you to a community
I was waiting out the deluge of time
Because nothing dies and everything comes back
May 13, 2024
hello! i feel so utterly incapable of writing a review for this. it was stunning! brilliant!
towards eternity is written in the form of a journal, where entries are made throughout centuries through different interconnected characters. it follows a timeline where scientific developments allow one to eventually replace their cells with nanites - ridding one of disease and in turn, their mortality.
this is a future that is hurtling towards us at a startling speed. if you’ve been caught up on all the recent developments of elon musk’s neuralink, you’ll understand that replacing our cells with little robots is something that might one day be very much feasible. perhaps not in our lifetime.
[neuralink is .. controversial. being able to control technology through chemical signals from your brain sounds fascinating and very convenient. however, there’s always the other side, the micro chip being hacked and then sending signals to your brain.]
i digress! the human body is nothing but flesh and meat without the brain. there’s lots of differing cultural thought on whether it is our consciousness that gives rise to critical thought or if it is the chemicals in the brain that give rise to the consciousness. western thought argues that the soul is an individual being, while some eastern cultures seem the soul to be connected to a larger consciousness of the whole.
where do we begin (our consciousness/soul) and where do we end (our mortal body)? this is the question of the ages. the one thing mankind can agree on, i suppose, is that our mortality—the undefeated and outrunnable promise of death—is what makes life and humanity so precious. when we give up our mortality, do we cease to be human?
that is what anton hur aims to respond to in toward eternity. in a way only a lover of languages could, anton has weaved together a beautiful story of life, exploring the interconnectedness of language, music, and poetry, which transcend the boundaries of time and mortality — the threads that bind us to our humanity. isn’t it wonderful that our mortal beings create such immortal art? how the words spoken today will be echoed on the dawn of tomorrow?
a stunning novel that resonates deeply, leaving us with a profound appreciation for the enduring legacy of human expression. I hope to include quotes upon publication because there are so many beautiful lines.
⊹ — that was a brilliant experience. longer RTC. soon.
such an exciting read (by an incredible translator!!) and even more fascinating with the recent developments of Elon’s Neuralink. this is a future that is hurtling towards us at a startling speed and as much as i am fascinated about the science of it, the effects of it on what it will eventually mean “to be human” is equally as enthralling.
[thank you to the publishers for the arc!]
towards eternity is written in the form of a journal, where entries are made throughout centuries through different interconnected characters. it follows a timeline where scientific developments allow one to eventually replace their cells with nanites - ridding one of disease and in turn, their mortality.
this is a future that is hurtling towards us at a startling speed. if you’ve been caught up on all the recent developments of elon musk’s neuralink, you’ll understand that replacing our cells with little robots is something that might one day be very much feasible. perhaps not in our lifetime.
[neuralink is .. controversial. being able to control technology through chemical signals from your brain sounds fascinating and very convenient. however, there’s always the other side, the micro chip being hacked and then sending signals to your brain.]
i digress! the human body is nothing but flesh and meat without the brain. there’s lots of differing cultural thought on whether it is our consciousness that gives rise to critical thought or if it is the chemicals in the brain that give rise to the consciousness. western thought argues that the soul is an individual being, while some eastern cultures seem the soul to be connected to a larger consciousness of the whole.
where do we begin (our consciousness/soul) and where do we end (our mortal body)? this is the question of the ages. the one thing mankind can agree on, i suppose, is that our mortality—the undefeated and outrunnable promise of death—is what makes life and humanity so precious. when we give up our mortality, do we cease to be human?
that is what anton hur aims to respond to in toward eternity. in a way only a lover of languages could, anton has weaved together a beautiful story of life, exploring the interconnectedness of language, music, and poetry, which transcend the boundaries of time and mortality — the threads that bind us to our humanity. isn’t it wonderful that our mortal beings create such immortal art? how the words spoken today will be echoed on the dawn of tomorrow?
a stunning novel that resonates deeply, leaving us with a profound appreciation for the enduring legacy of human expression. I hope to include quotes upon publication because there are so many beautiful lines.
⊹ — that was a brilliant experience. longer RTC. soon.
such an exciting read (by an incredible translator!!) and even more fascinating with the recent developments of Elon’s Neuralink. this is a future that is hurtling towards us at a startling speed and as much as i am fascinated about the science of it, the effects of it on what it will eventually mean “to be human” is equally as enthralling.
[thank you to the publishers for the arc!]
January 20, 2024
Already renowned for his works of translation, Anton Hur demonstrates his prowess as a novelist in Toward Eternity, an engrossing exploration of the essence of humanity.
While the narrative initially embraces a slow pace and interiority for our protagonists, it begins to accelerate through time, challenging readers to keep pace with the plot’s ever-expanding Russian Doll-like recursions. I preferred the start of the story for its more accessible nature, but I understood the choice to jump through time to see how the past had reverberated into the future.
The novel truly shines when contemplating memory, artistry, and what it means to be human in the face of technological progress. Much like the Ship of Theseus paradox, if nanotechnology replaced our cells one by one, at what point do we stop being ourselves? And, from the perspective of artistic expression, if you are an instrumentalist playing notes written by someone else, are you any less an artist? Does your music not draw from your soul? I found these questions to be particularly interesting, especially considering Hur’s prolific work translating the words of other novelists and how that might inform his viewpoint on this.
Ultimately, there’s quite a bit to take away from Toward Eternity – you can latch on to the big ideas and philosophical questions it raises or you can just focus on the fun, sci-fi thriller aspects that make this so readable. Either way, Hur has written something really wonderful and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf and follow @specshelf on Twitter and @thespeculativeshelf on Instagram.
While the narrative initially embraces a slow pace and interiority for our protagonists, it begins to accelerate through time, challenging readers to keep pace with the plot’s ever-expanding Russian Doll-like recursions. I preferred the start of the story for its more accessible nature, but I understood the choice to jump through time to see how the past had reverberated into the future.
The novel truly shines when contemplating memory, artistry, and what it means to be human in the face of technological progress. Much like the Ship of Theseus paradox, if nanotechnology replaced our cells one by one, at what point do we stop being ourselves? And, from the perspective of artistic expression, if you are an instrumentalist playing notes written by someone else, are you any less an artist? Does your music not draw from your soul? I found these questions to be particularly interesting, especially considering Hur’s prolific work translating the words of other novelists and how that might inform his viewpoint on this.
Ultimately, there’s quite a bit to take away from Toward Eternity – you can latch on to the big ideas and philosophical questions it raises or you can just focus on the fun, sci-fi thriller aspects that make this so readable. Either way, Hur has written something really wonderful and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf and follow @specshelf on Twitter and @thespeculativeshelf on Instagram.
March 20, 2024
"Toward Eternity" is a captivating mix of dystopian adventure, mythical wonders, and deep thoughts that kept me hooked from start to finish.
What really grabbed me was how the story combines gods, magic, and fantasy elements into a world on the brink of collapse. It's like being whisked away into a realm where anything is possible, yet danger lurks around every corner.
I loved how each chapter feels like a personal journal entry, passed from one character to the next, creating a bond between the reader and the characters as their stories intertwine. But what truly resonated with me was the way the book delves into the big questions about life, memory, and what it means to be human in a world driven by technology. It's like peeling back the layers of existence to uncover the truth hidden beneath.
Despite its deep themes, the story doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of life. Loss, grief, anger – they're all part of the journey, reminding us of our own fragility.
Yet, through it all, there's a sense of hope. "Toward Eternity" paints a picture of humanity's resilience, showing that even in the darkest of times, there's always a flicker of light to guide us. It is a captivating adventure that will leave you pondering long after you've turned the last page. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a captivating blend of dystopian fiction and philosophical exploration.
What really grabbed me was how the story combines gods, magic, and fantasy elements into a world on the brink of collapse. It's like being whisked away into a realm where anything is possible, yet danger lurks around every corner.
I loved how each chapter feels like a personal journal entry, passed from one character to the next, creating a bond between the reader and the characters as their stories intertwine. But what truly resonated with me was the way the book delves into the big questions about life, memory, and what it means to be human in a world driven by technology. It's like peeling back the layers of existence to uncover the truth hidden beneath.
Despite its deep themes, the story doesn't shy away from the harsh realities of life. Loss, grief, anger – they're all part of the journey, reminding us of our own fragility.
Yet, through it all, there's a sense of hope. "Toward Eternity" paints a picture of humanity's resilience, showing that even in the darkest of times, there's always a flicker of light to guide us. It is a captivating adventure that will leave you pondering long after you've turned the last page. I highly recommend it to anyone seeking a captivating blend of dystopian fiction and philosophical exploration.
Read
August 27, 2024Toward Eternity is the astonishing debut novel of Korean-to-English translator Anton Hur—a novel of incredible scope, as well as consideration for the things that make us human. This grand yet concise work of science fiction begins in South Africa, with clinical trials for a cancer cure which replaces all of the body's cells with nanites (robotic cells which render the body essentially immortal).
My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/best-sci-fi-b...
My full thoughts: https://booksandbao.com/best-sci-fi-b...
May 23, 2024
The author and I share a deep love of language, but have deeply differing opinions about poetry (he loves it, I've always loathed it). So while I enjoy the contemplations on AI and humanity, about evolution and loss and love, I'm at best indifferent to all the poetry.
Which is to say that if you enjoy poetry and feel a deeply human connection to it, as well as the other things I mentioned above, I think you'll really love this book and should check it out.
Writing:
As for the sci-fi elements, it was really interesting the expanse of time (centuries) that the book covers. The conceit of all of these people writing in the same book felt a little stretched sometimes, but it's executed fine.
I think character readers might struggle a little bit with each chapter (essentially) being from a different character. And since they generally all have the same progenitor, it makes internal sense that their voices are similar but maybe wouldn't offer enough variety/personality/exposure to truly grow attached to any one.
Thank you to HarperVia and NetGalley for granting me an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Which is to say that if you enjoy poetry and feel a deeply human connection to it, as well as the other things I mentioned above, I think you'll really love this book and should check it out.
Writing:
As for the sci-fi elements, it was really interesting the expanse of time (centuries) that the book covers. The conceit of all of these people writing in the same book felt a little stretched sometimes, but it's executed fine.
I think character readers might struggle a little bit with each chapter (essentially) being from a different character. And since they generally all have the same progenitor, it makes internal sense that their voices are similar but maybe wouldn't offer enough variety/personality/exposure to truly grow attached to any one.
Thank you to HarperVia and NetGalley for granting me an ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
July 15, 2024
4.5 stars
A profoundly moving story, a philosophical discourse on the nature of memory, language and what it means to be alive. What happens when an AI designed to learn through the language of poetry combines with nanotechnology and hive sentience? Told through entries in a notebook passed through time, we see life, death, and rebirth in a continuous cycle of change.
Beautifully written, a love letter to language and to poetry, but still completely accessible and appreciable by those who do not particularly care for poetry. More than anything the story strives to illustrate and ultimately celebrate the continuing narrative of existence.
Endings create meanings. Death is the eternal generator of meanings, for it is only in death that any new thing can arise, even if that new thing is oblivion, entropy. I had roamed the world in my new body and took in the wonderous delights of the senses, the intellectual stimulations of creation and discovery, but these all ended, and indeed it was because they ended that they had meaning.
…
What is memory, anyway? Memory is as much a product of the present as it is of the past. Created with the perspectives of the present, the colors and limitations and lacunae of the present. Just as history is written by the victors, as the cliché goes, so, too, do the victors own the future.
Who is to say we do not create memories out of the future as well? That the echo of an event doesn’t go both ways?
…
Whether a life ends happily or sadly, what does it matter but the weight of the emotions one felt, the weight of the clarity of all the meaningful moments one possessed while living on this Earth, whether they have been good or bad? Is it not the weight, in the end, that really makes us human after all?
A profoundly moving story, a philosophical discourse on the nature of memory, language and what it means to be alive. What happens when an AI designed to learn through the language of poetry combines with nanotechnology and hive sentience? Told through entries in a notebook passed through time, we see life, death, and rebirth in a continuous cycle of change.
Beautifully written, a love letter to language and to poetry, but still completely accessible and appreciable by those who do not particularly care for poetry. More than anything the story strives to illustrate and ultimately celebrate the continuing narrative of existence.
Endings create meanings. Death is the eternal generator of meanings, for it is only in death that any new thing can arise, even if that new thing is oblivion, entropy. I had roamed the world in my new body and took in the wonderous delights of the senses, the intellectual stimulations of creation and discovery, but these all ended, and indeed it was because they ended that they had meaning.
…
What is memory, anyway? Memory is as much a product of the present as it is of the past. Created with the perspectives of the present, the colors and limitations and lacunae of the present. Just as history is written by the victors, as the cliché goes, so, too, do the victors own the future.
Who is to say we do not create memories out of the future as well? That the echo of an event doesn’t go both ways?
…
Whether a life ends happily or sadly, what does it matter but the weight of the emotions one felt, the weight of the clarity of all the meaningful moments one possessed while living on this Earth, whether they have been good or bad? Is it not the weight, in the end, that really makes us human after all?
August 1, 2024
Anton Hur is best known as a translator of Korean literature (e.g. of Bora Chung), and Toward Eternity is his debut as a novelist.
It is an ambitious mix of sci-fi and literary fiction, spanning many generations deep into the distant future. It starts with Yonghun, a PhD in 19th century poetry turned AI-programmer, developing an AI that reads poetry. As he and his husband move to South Africa, he is employed by the Beeko Institute who work on a technology to replace body cells with so-called nanites and thus achieve immortality. When Yonghun is diagnosed with cancer the Institute selects him as guinea pig and he becomes Patient One.
I found it beautifully done, Hur's love for poetry shines through even of the plot remains central. It reminded me of Cloud Atlas.
It is an ambitious mix of sci-fi and literary fiction, spanning many generations deep into the distant future. It starts with Yonghun, a PhD in 19th century poetry turned AI-programmer, developing an AI that reads poetry. As he and his husband move to South Africa, he is employed by the Beeko Institute who work on a technology to replace body cells with so-called nanites and thus achieve immortality. When Yonghun is diagnosed with cancer the Institute selects him as guinea pig and he becomes Patient One.
I found it beautifully done, Hur's love for poetry shines through even of the plot remains central. It reminded me of Cloud Atlas.
June 24, 2024
Major thanks to NetGalley and HarperVia for offering me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts:
"𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮. 𝘏𝘢𝘥 𝘐 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳? 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴?"
Anton Hur does it again, but this in his own story.
At the crossroads of immortality and AI, where does language stand? What do words do? What comes out of them? Memories? The present? How far can we feel words? What do they carry?
Careful. Thought-provoking. Rich in spirit.
Language is at the forefront of exploration here. You see it in Hur's work. And you see it explored here. It makes me tremendously happy that after years of translation, Hur has put out his own work, singular in its love for language.
"𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮. 𝘏𝘢𝘥 𝘐 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳? 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴?"
Anton Hur does it again, but this in his own story.
At the crossroads of immortality and AI, where does language stand? What do words do? What comes out of them? Memories? The present? How far can we feel words? What do they carry?
Careful. Thought-provoking. Rich in spirit.
Language is at the forefront of exploration here. You see it in Hur's work. And you see it explored here. It makes me tremendously happy that after years of translation, Hur has put out his own work, singular in its love for language.
October 31, 2024
Nanotech
evolves and reaches
The Singularity
while a
Murderous Malfunctioning AI
has
Turned Nanites Against Their Masters
.
Nanites AKA Nanorobots
My audiobook was seven (7) hours in duration. A dead tree version would be 256 pages. The book had a 2024 US copyright.
Anton Hur is a Korean writer and translator of Korean literature into English. This is his first book. I have read a couple of books he’s translated. The most recent being Counterweight (my review).
There were multiple narrators: Đavid Lee Huỳnh, Nicky Endres, Zoleka Vundla, and Katherine Littrell. All narrators were professional. They didn’t get tripped-up by the tech heavy emphasis of the story. However, I would be hard pressed to identify the female narrator at work amongst the multitude of female characters in the story.
Dying human volunteers in a biomedical experiment go through cell replacement with bioengineered nanotechnology (nanites). The somewhat successful experiment results in immortal, nanotech-based, androids through Brain Uploading . Things go awry after an AI is uploaded into a human template. A.I. Is a Crapshoot . Meanwhile, the Microbot Swarm(s) have their own agenda.
This was a work of Literary Science Fiction. It was of similar ilk to Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It involves itself in the question of the nature of intelligence and identity. This is explored through both a Tech track, and the poetry of Christina Rossetti and Emily Dickinson.
Unfortunately, I Ear-read this book. I was not able to examine the prose, nor was I able to linger over it. It’s very dense with a lot of exposition that demands concentration.
I started reading this with great expectations of a short, well-written, Korean influenced, tech-heavy story involving: nanotech, AI and The Singularity. I became discouraged, when Hur involved poetry and classical string music in the story’s themes. I have no interest in either. In addition, Hur didn’t succeed in sparking an interest in them with me.
This story was well-written, but it was too deep for me to consume as an audiobook. In addition, its use of poetry and and music in the narrative was of no interest to me. This was despite some interesting twists on the technology. This book was commendable, but was not written for this listener.
Nanites AKA Nanorobots
My audiobook was seven (7) hours in duration. A dead tree version would be 256 pages. The book had a 2024 US copyright.
Anton Hur is a Korean writer and translator of Korean literature into English. This is his first book. I have read a couple of books he’s translated. The most recent being Counterweight (my review).
There were multiple narrators: Đavid Lee Huỳnh, Nicky Endres, Zoleka Vundla, and Katherine Littrell. All narrators were professional. They didn’t get tripped-up by the tech heavy emphasis of the story. However, I would be hard pressed to identify the female narrator at work amongst the multitude of female characters in the story.
Dying human volunteers in a biomedical experiment go through cell replacement with bioengineered nanotechnology (nanites). The somewhat successful experiment results in immortal, nanotech-based, androids through Brain Uploading . Things go awry after an AI is uploaded into a human template. A.I. Is a Crapshoot . Meanwhile, the Microbot Swarm(s) have their own agenda.
This was a work of Literary Science Fiction. It was of similar ilk to Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. It involves itself in the question of the nature of intelligence and identity. This is explored through both a Tech track, and the poetry of Christina Rossetti and Emily Dickinson.
Unfortunately, I Ear-read this book. I was not able to examine the prose, nor was I able to linger over it. It’s very dense with a lot of exposition that demands concentration.
I started reading this with great expectations of a short, well-written, Korean influenced, tech-heavy story involving: nanotech, AI and The Singularity. I became discouraged, when Hur involved poetry and classical string music in the story’s themes. I have no interest in either. In addition, Hur didn’t succeed in sparking an interest in them with me.
This story was well-written, but it was too deep for me to consume as an audiobook. In addition, its use of poetry and and music in the narrative was of no interest to me. This was despite some interesting twists on the technology. This book was commendable, but was not written for this listener.
November 4, 2024
I am still letting this one marinate in my mind, but suffice to say that this slim book has both Big Technology Ideas, and a solid core of emotion to it. On the science side, the story is a really inventive take on what it would mean for nanotechnology surgery and AI to come together to precipitate a next phase of evolution. On the emotion side, it's a meditation on how art forms - writing and music in particular - create our stories. And that love endures.
It's a nontraditional format, told in progressive sections that follow a few connected characters. Though this is a book that's about the story more than the characters, if that makes sense.
Hur, who is also a skilled translator (very cool interview with him here), has clearly thought deeply about language and meaning. He integrates classical poetry and music into his narrative. So if you're the sci-fi reader who can appreciate those forms, you'll probably very much enjoy this book.
It's a nontraditional format, told in progressive sections that follow a few connected characters. Though this is a book that's about the story more than the characters, if that makes sense.
Hur, who is also a skilled translator (very cool interview with him here), has clearly thought deeply about language and meaning. He integrates classical poetry and music into his narrative. So if you're the sci-fi reader who can appreciate those forms, you'll probably very much enjoy this book.
May 29, 2024
Theoretically, I should've loved this book. In practice, I didn't. The first 65% feels more like an academic study or essay rather than a novel, as it's more of an exploration of the meaning of poetry, language, and what it means to be human through various examples, with a little bit of plot and characters to guide that discussion. There are references to various authors, and for someone who has read or knows about English and universal literature as well as literary criticism, most of them won't go unnoticed since they're directly mentioned or very heavily implied (Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Borges, Rossetti, Staszak, to name a few). However, I don't think these references contributed much, at least during the first two to three quarters of the "story." The narrative starts to take shape towards the end, but I don't think it's strong enough to uphold the entirety of the story it wants to tell. We don't spend enough time with each of the POVs, and because of this, the care we are supposed to feel when something happens to them doesn't really hit as it's supposed to. It turns really Kantian and Heideggerian as well, which I thought was an interesting choice and fit the overall philosophical tone of the book, but, again, I feel it would've fit better as an academic paper. The sci-fi aspect was more of a net in which the existential debate falls upon the consideration of a future ruled by AI, a fear that's very real and a very hot topic right now.
I should note that I really dislike the stream of consciousness genre (I've read it from different authors, languages, and literary movements, and I always dislike it), but, while this does kind of follow that style, it was also very easy to read. I think I went into it expecting something different than what I got, but I also think the elements within it don't really work because of the imbalance in their presentation.
I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I should note that I really dislike the stream of consciousness genre (I've read it from different authors, languages, and literary movements, and I always dislike it), but, while this does kind of follow that style, it was also very easy to read. I think I went into it expecting something different than what I got, but I also think the elements within it don't really work because of the imbalance in their presentation.
I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
July 19, 2024
“The narrative in this notebook, told over hundreds of years, and through the words of many individuals, constitutes as single story. We belong to it, it does not belong to us. None of our stories belong to us. What is DNA, but lines in the narrative of our lives?”
First thoughts: How High We Go in the Dark meets Cloud Atlas, meets Never Let Me Go. Sound like a winning formula? It was for me!
Full review to come
First thoughts: How High We Go in the Dark meets Cloud Atlas, meets Never Let Me Go. Sound like a winning formula? It was for me!
Full review to come
March 10, 2024
In my head, ever since Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven, I have been looking for a book that would be about a dystopia that shows how important art remains to the very definition of the human. I have longed for a book that would bring together Kazuo Ishiguro, Marilynne Robinson, and Ursula LeGuin. This is all of it and more, with an added bonus of meditations on language, and 19th century poetry.
It is erudite, propulsive, and incredibly moving. I know that it has taken quite a while to get to publishing so the fact that it is so prescient and yet original in its understanding of AI! Nothing that is built by humans can ever shed its human DNA.
All of this to say: so good, so so good!
It is erudite, propulsive, and incredibly moving. I know that it has taken quite a while to get to publishing so the fact that it is so prescient and yet original in its understanding of AI! Nothing that is built by humans can ever shed its human DNA.
All of this to say: so good, so so good!
August 27, 2024
I was so eagerly anticipating this book - everything about it was right up my alley. Unfortunately I found it disappointing (although I appear to be an outlier on this). I admire the range and ambition of the story, but ultimately it felt more like a thought experiment than a work of fiction. I simply couldn't engage with it, the characters never came alive for me, and I wound up skimming the last 80 pages or so. In a publishing world where fiction seems to get longer and longer for less and less reason, I do appreciate the way Hur recognized that this story that spans eons needed to be short and concise. My disappointment may be more about me and the mood I was in as I read it - I may try it again some time.
July 14, 2024
as pretty as its cover; touching, tender, full of longing
November 10, 2024
Toward Eternity is the spiritual twin to How High We Go in the Dark which, by the way, is probably my favourite book ever. Like Sequoia Nagamatu's story, Toward Eternity tells the story of an apocalyptic-ish present stretching out into the far, far future through a series of split narratives. Each narrative picks up where the previous left off, as each author writes about their experience of what is happening in a black notebook.
In Toward Eternity, a present-day scientist discovers a cure for cancer involving regenerative nano-technology. What she doesn't realise is that this is the very first domino in a long, long chain that'll stretch centuries and millenia and change what it means to be human.
The book centres a lot on poetry. Many of the core characters' lives intimately revolve around poetry, and this thread carries through from narrative to narrative, quite literally toward eternity.
I'm a big, big sucker for a book title with a poetry reference, and I regret to say I didn't even spot that this title was an homage to Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for death", which coincidentally is one of my favourite poems. In a strange sort of way, tracing the lines of this poem follows the sort of story the book follows, so I'll copy my two favourite verses below.
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
...
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
There were a few stories, or moments which dragged a little longer than others and some characters when others felt flatter. But overall, an astounding debut novel.
Rated 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 out of respect for the author.
In Toward Eternity, a present-day scientist discovers a cure for cancer involving regenerative nano-technology. What she doesn't realise is that this is the very first domino in a long, long chain that'll stretch centuries and millenia and change what it means to be human.
The book centres a lot on poetry. Many of the core characters' lives intimately revolve around poetry, and this thread carries through from narrative to narrative, quite literally toward eternity.
I'm a big, big sucker for a book title with a poetry reference, and I regret to say I didn't even spot that this title was an homage to Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for death", which coincidentally is one of my favourite poems. In a strange sort of way, tracing the lines of this poem follows the sort of story the book follows, so I'll copy my two favourite verses below.
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
The Carriage held but just Ourselves –
And Immortality.
...
Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet
Feels shorter than the Day
I first surmised the Horses' Heads
Were toward Eternity –
There were a few stories, or moments which dragged a little longer than others and some characters when others felt flatter. But overall, an astounding debut novel.
Rated 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5 out of respect for the author.
July 31, 2024
4.5 stars
This is one of those instances where I read something so beautiful, so full of love for poetry, language and music, that I am left in awe.
Anton Hur's debut reads more like a love letter and feels like admiring a work of art.
He might have made me fall in love again with poetry.
I purposfully stretched my time reading "Towards Eternity" as I did not wanted it to end.
What I know for sure is that this book will be a part of me for a long while and I will deeply cherish this experience.
You can now support my passion for books with a small donation here https://ko-fi.com/mariareadssff
This is one of those instances where I read something so beautiful, so full of love for poetry, language and music, that I am left in awe.
Anton Hur's debut reads more like a love letter and feels like admiring a work of art.
He might have made me fall in love again with poetry.
I purposfully stretched my time reading "Towards Eternity" as I did not wanted it to end.
What I know for sure is that this book will be a part of me for a long while and I will deeply cherish this experience.
You can now support my passion for books with a small donation here https://ko-fi.com/mariareadssff
August 11, 2024
Toward Eternity is a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human in a world where technology is advancing rapidly.
Set in a near future, this novel introduces a groundbreaking therapy that replaces human cells with nanites, curing cancer and granting virtual immortality. Amidst this technological revolution, Yonghun, a literary researcher, teaches an AI named Panit to understand poetry, sparking a journey of discovery and identity.
As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano-humans navigate their new realities, they face choices with profound existential implications.
The novel challenges readers to ponder the boundaries between humanity and technology, life and memory, and the essence of being.
The novel explores immortality in unique ways, showing different perspectives on life, aging, and memories.
It raises questions about what truly defines us as “humans” in an era where technology blurs the lines.
I love this kind of reflective novel where it has many lines that make you pause and think for a while. It’s suitable for a slow weekend read, perfect for contemplating life before returning to bustling adult job life.
Thanks to @times.reads and @putrifariza for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Congrats to @antonhur Toward Eternity! It is a perfect read for readers who enjoy philosphical pondering or are simply science fiction enthusiasts.
#TowardEternity #AntonHur #ScienceFiction #MalaysiaMembaca #BookstagramMalaysia
Set in a near future, this novel introduces a groundbreaking therapy that replaces human cells with nanites, curing cancer and granting virtual immortality. Amidst this technological revolution, Yonghun, a literary researcher, teaches an AI named Panit to understand poetry, sparking a journey of discovery and identity.
As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano-humans navigate their new realities, they face choices with profound existential implications.
The novel challenges readers to ponder the boundaries between humanity and technology, life and memory, and the essence of being.
The novel explores immortality in unique ways, showing different perspectives on life, aging, and memories.
It raises questions about what truly defines us as “humans” in an era where technology blurs the lines.
I love this kind of reflective novel where it has many lines that make you pause and think for a while. It’s suitable for a slow weekend read, perfect for contemplating life before returning to bustling adult job life.
Thanks to @times.reads and @putrifariza for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Congrats to @antonhur Toward Eternity! It is a perfect read for readers who enjoy philosphical pondering or are simply science fiction enthusiasts.
#TowardEternity #AntonHur #ScienceFiction #MalaysiaMembaca #BookstagramMalaysia
August 25, 2024
Kreativ, engagerande, vacker!!! Sci-fi med fokus på språk, hur språket påverkar vilka vi är och blir, vad språket bär på, dess vikt. Skriven i dagboksform à la Becky Chambers, Marlen Haushofer & co. Otrolig! Så intressant och speciell, loved it
October 11, 2024
Victor if you see this, the completion of this book would not have been possible had I not had someone to hate text with.
—
Honestly, I feel like two stars may be a little optimistic for me. I want to give it a bit of a benefit of being a debut and also because there’s some interesting ideas within it. These interesting ideas though are buried underneath the relentless reminders that maybe, just maybe, we may not be ourselves if our cells are not our own. So many interesting ideas are abandoned in favour of aggressive exposition, so many possible emotional points robbed of emotion due to the writing style holding me at arms length and telling me exactly how I should feel, what I should be questioning.
Toward Eternity is split into five parts with chapters being from different characters POVs. You wouldn’t know that though if not for the character names being printed at the top because every single chapter reads in the same voice. Sure, you can make the argument that this could possibly be due to the underlying narrative of DNA and replication and originating from the same source, but if the narrative also strives to show that there is constant change happening, that variation and language are the essence to life, you simply cannot give that benefit of the doubt to this novel.
To speak nicely of it though, the cover is banger.
—
Honestly, I feel like two stars may be a little optimistic for me. I want to give it a bit of a benefit of being a debut and also because there’s some interesting ideas within it. These interesting ideas though are buried underneath the relentless reminders that maybe, just maybe, we may not be ourselves if our cells are not our own. So many interesting ideas are abandoned in favour of aggressive exposition, so many possible emotional points robbed of emotion due to the writing style holding me at arms length and telling me exactly how I should feel, what I should be questioning.
Toward Eternity is split into five parts with chapters being from different characters POVs. You wouldn’t know that though if not for the character names being printed at the top because every single chapter reads in the same voice. Sure, you can make the argument that this could possibly be due to the underlying narrative of DNA and replication and originating from the same source, but if the narrative also strives to show that there is constant change happening, that variation and language are the essence to life, you simply cannot give that benefit of the doubt to this novel.
To speak nicely of it though, the cover is banger.
July 18, 2024
i’ve read a few of anton hur’s translations, which i’ve enjoyed immensely. my favourite being a magical girl retires! unfortunately, i found i struggled a little too much with toward eternity.
to start with the positives, the main thing that drew me towards this book was the concept. technology that eradicates cancer, passages that read as journal entries and a disappearance marred by a sudden reappearance. the premise was really captivating.
the biggest thing i had an issue with was the prose. it was too poetic and beat around the bush too much that it just came off as pretentious. i don’t mind poetic prose, when it’s sprinkled in every so often. i dislike when every sentence is filled with subtext and leaves you guessing the whole time. (but this is a me problem, and nothing against the author).
due to the way it was written, i found myself struggling to connect or relate to the characters. i felt like they lacked depth and originality/uniqueness. they all sort of felt the same.
i will, however, like to appreciate the inclusion of lgbt+ characters 🫶🏻
while i didn’t like this book much, i would like to remind you that preferences are subjective. some people might love those things that i mentioned i didn’t like about it, and that’s perfectly okay.
to start with the positives, the main thing that drew me towards this book was the concept. technology that eradicates cancer, passages that read as journal entries and a disappearance marred by a sudden reappearance. the premise was really captivating.
the biggest thing i had an issue with was the prose. it was too poetic and beat around the bush too much that it just came off as pretentious. i don’t mind poetic prose, when it’s sprinkled in every so often. i dislike when every sentence is filled with subtext and leaves you guessing the whole time. (but this is a me problem, and nothing against the author).
due to the way it was written, i found myself struggling to connect or relate to the characters. i felt like they lacked depth and originality/uniqueness. they all sort of felt the same.
i will, however, like to appreciate the inclusion of lgbt+ characters 🫶🏻
while i didn’t like this book much, i would like to remind you that preferences are subjective. some people might love those things that i mentioned i didn’t like about it, and that’s perfectly okay.
June 18, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperVia for the e-review copy in exchange for an honest review
Award-winning translator Anton Hur comes into his own as an author in his debut novel, TOWARD ETERNITY, a quiet and introspective musing on the definition of personhood at the confluence of biology, technology, and language.
TOWARD ETERNITY essentially consists of a notebook, passed from being to being over the span of centuries. 7 or so characters add their own chapters to the notebook. Through them, we get glimpses of a near future in which technology can cure previously uncurable diseases by replacing every cell in the human body with nanotech, essentially rendering them immortal. In this same timeline, AIs are trained in reading poetry because that is the best way of making them match human levels of intelligence. As the book progresses, we move further and further into the future, to a world of clone wars, interstellar travel, and the loss/rediscovery of language and literature.
The strongest aspect of the book for me was the thoughts it inspired about questions I have wondered for a long time. There are, essentially, two threads being explored. The first is where in the human body to locate humanity if humans became more and more comprised of tech. Is a person who was once made of organic material that has been replaced entirely by nanotech at the cellular level still a human? Are the thoughts they think, the words they say, created by a person or by AI? If we retain our memories but not our bodies, are we still the same person? This is a hugely relevant and fascinating discussion, especially with the increased role of AI in society. If we don’t think about these questions now, then we will have to sometime soon.
The second thread explored is the idea of language being a core component of humanity. I have always thought that my identity is inseparable from my language and communication. Am I really still Steph without my words and my thoughts, which are always in words? Why do I feel less me in my mother tongue, Mandarin Chinese, which I do not know as fluently as English? Why do I feel like an utter imbecile in Vietnamese, which I am barely able to use successfully in my everyday transactions?
And yet it’s not only “language as communication” that makes one human. TOWARD ETERNITY explores the idea that our humanity deepens with the more language we know, and when we can appreciate language as art (e.g. poetry). To that end, the book’s message evokes The Dead Poets Society as one of its progenitors—humans can transact, and make money, and wage war, but one’s humanity is defined through the understanding and appreciation of art. Is it possible, then, for an AI to gain personhood through an appreciation of poetry? Can we also say that certain human beings, those who only care about money and who don’t see others as people and who are okay with contributing to war and genocide, are less human? Oooooooooh. My brain delights in the philosophical conjectures.
Perhaps TOWARD ETERNITY focuses too much on its philosophical debates, for world-building, pacing, and character development are a bit on the weaker side. The book attempts to cover centuries of humanity’s future, but we learn about the world only through the characters’ journal entries, so details are lacking in how world-changing events come about. Journal entries also mean that events are recounted after they’ve already happened, slowing down the pace and creating some emotional distance from the events themselves. Finally, because each journal “chapter” is written by a different character, we rarely get to know a character well enough, further adding to the somewhat emotionally distant tone of the book.
TOWARD ETERNITY slots into that niche of slow-paced, introspective speculative fiction pondering the boundaries of humanity and technology, joining a shelf with the likes of Ken Liu and Ted Chiang. “Delighted” isn’t quite the right word for my experience with this book… but how about “mad respect”?
Award-winning translator Anton Hur comes into his own as an author in his debut novel, TOWARD ETERNITY, a quiet and introspective musing on the definition of personhood at the confluence of biology, technology, and language.
TOWARD ETERNITY essentially consists of a notebook, passed from being to being over the span of centuries. 7 or so characters add their own chapters to the notebook. Through them, we get glimpses of a near future in which technology can cure previously uncurable diseases by replacing every cell in the human body with nanotech, essentially rendering them immortal. In this same timeline, AIs are trained in reading poetry because that is the best way of making them match human levels of intelligence. As the book progresses, we move further and further into the future, to a world of clone wars, interstellar travel, and the loss/rediscovery of language and literature.
The strongest aspect of the book for me was the thoughts it inspired about questions I have wondered for a long time. There are, essentially, two threads being explored. The first is where in the human body to locate humanity if humans became more and more comprised of tech. Is a person who was once made of organic material that has been replaced entirely by nanotech at the cellular level still a human? Are the thoughts they think, the words they say, created by a person or by AI? If we retain our memories but not our bodies, are we still the same person? This is a hugely relevant and fascinating discussion, especially with the increased role of AI in society. If we don’t think about these questions now, then we will have to sometime soon.
The second thread explored is the idea of language being a core component of humanity. I have always thought that my identity is inseparable from my language and communication. Am I really still Steph without my words and my thoughts, which are always in words? Why do I feel less me in my mother tongue, Mandarin Chinese, which I do not know as fluently as English? Why do I feel like an utter imbecile in Vietnamese, which I am barely able to use successfully in my everyday transactions?
And yet it’s not only “language as communication” that makes one human. TOWARD ETERNITY explores the idea that our humanity deepens with the more language we know, and when we can appreciate language as art (e.g. poetry). To that end, the book’s message evokes The Dead Poets Society as one of its progenitors—humans can transact, and make money, and wage war, but one’s humanity is defined through the understanding and appreciation of art. Is it possible, then, for an AI to gain personhood through an appreciation of poetry? Can we also say that certain human beings, those who only care about money and who don’t see others as people and who are okay with contributing to war and genocide, are less human? Oooooooooh. My brain delights in the philosophical conjectures.
Perhaps TOWARD ETERNITY focuses too much on its philosophical debates, for world-building, pacing, and character development are a bit on the weaker side. The book attempts to cover centuries of humanity’s future, but we learn about the world only through the characters’ journal entries, so details are lacking in how world-changing events come about. Journal entries also mean that events are recounted after they’ve already happened, slowing down the pace and creating some emotional distance from the events themselves. Finally, because each journal “chapter” is written by a different character, we rarely get to know a character well enough, further adding to the somewhat emotionally distant tone of the book.
TOWARD ETERNITY slots into that niche of slow-paced, introspective speculative fiction pondering the boundaries of humanity and technology, joining a shelf with the likes of Ken Liu and Ted Chiang. “Delighted” isn’t quite the right word for my experience with this book… but how about “mad respect”?
July 6, 2024
[4.5/5 stars]
"Perhaps not everything that comes back from the past is a bad thing, a terror. Or perhaps hope is something that comes from the future."
"Because sometimes destruction is crucial to the process of creation."
Near future - in TOWARD ETERNITY, there is a nanotherapy that replaces human body cells with nanites (android cells), promising to eradicate incurable diseases and beyond, aiming to immortality. But when the literary researcher Yonghun disappears without a trace and suddenly reappears, is he himself anymore?
Written in the form of journal, each chapter focusing on different characters feels like a profound character study. Hur provides a meticulous examination of humanness, entering a zone of abstract that dissects the intricate connection between language, memory and art. The author dives deep into human identity (and AI) and in the hopes of finding the soul's essence, one remains in a fugue state, joining characters in their yearn for freedom and meaning of life. Furthermore, Hur plays between mortality and immortality, the latter unsurprisingly the desired step of human evolution that commands its own reflection.
The analysis of nothingness invites personal interpretations of a utterly philosophical story in which the ideas might initially feel elusive, soon expanding into a plot that embodies a more solid form, envisioning humanity's future and the relationship between humanity, technology and community, with a dash of melancholy. One is also allowed glimpses of racism and imperialism, rooted on human history. As some sections went over my head, this is a book that demands to be slowly digested while one's conscious eases into the author's brilliant intention. Lastly, the sophisticated prose thoroughly brings vivid aesthetic while one is consumed by the narrative's intellectual qualities.
What is the core of humanity? When stripped of language, is one without its own identity? How should the story be perpetuated?
TOWARD ETERNITY is a debut novel by the well-known translator Anton Hur and it lives up to one's expectation. It is a thought-provoking and singular speculative fiction that haunts readers with its ethereal touch and introspective convulsion of humanity.
[ I received a complimentary copy from the publisher - Harpervia Books . All opinions are my own ]
• note: I personally think that the synopsis gives too much away and I would recommend reading this book blind
"Perhaps not everything that comes back from the past is a bad thing, a terror. Or perhaps hope is something that comes from the future."
"Because sometimes destruction is crucial to the process of creation."
Near future - in TOWARD ETERNITY, there is a nanotherapy that replaces human body cells with nanites (android cells), promising to eradicate incurable diseases and beyond, aiming to immortality. But when the literary researcher Yonghun disappears without a trace and suddenly reappears, is he himself anymore?
Written in the form of journal, each chapter focusing on different characters feels like a profound character study. Hur provides a meticulous examination of humanness, entering a zone of abstract that dissects the intricate connection between language, memory and art. The author dives deep into human identity (and AI) and in the hopes of finding the soul's essence, one remains in a fugue state, joining characters in their yearn for freedom and meaning of life. Furthermore, Hur plays between mortality and immortality, the latter unsurprisingly the desired step of human evolution that commands its own reflection.
The analysis of nothingness invites personal interpretations of a utterly philosophical story in which the ideas might initially feel elusive, soon expanding into a plot that embodies a more solid form, envisioning humanity's future and the relationship between humanity, technology and community, with a dash of melancholy. One is also allowed glimpses of racism and imperialism, rooted on human history. As some sections went over my head, this is a book that demands to be slowly digested while one's conscious eases into the author's brilliant intention. Lastly, the sophisticated prose thoroughly brings vivid aesthetic while one is consumed by the narrative's intellectual qualities.
What is the core of humanity? When stripped of language, is one without its own identity? How should the story be perpetuated?
TOWARD ETERNITY is a debut novel by the well-known translator Anton Hur and it lives up to one's expectation. It is a thought-provoking and singular speculative fiction that haunts readers with its ethereal touch and introspective convulsion of humanity.
[ I received a complimentary copy from the publisher - Harpervia Books . All opinions are my own ]
• note: I personally think that the synopsis gives too much away and I would recommend reading this book blind
August 30, 2024
This is an expansive, multi-generational story that is beautifully written and had some fascinating ideas. A great epic sci-fi read.
July 30, 2024
4.5 stars.
A revolutionary cancer treatment using nanotechnology, and an artificial intelligence that is taught using poetry are the two elements that come together then move into the world at the beginning of this thoughtful and philosophical novel that speculates on humanity, sentience, individuality, and identity.
Using entries in a notebook that is updated over centuries, and excerpts from various poems, author Anton Hur's beautiful prose charts the travels from a laboratory, to much later futures, each time examining how life and death allow the beings that evolve to think of themselves, and how they handle relating to others like them, and not.
A revolutionary cancer treatment using nanotechnology, and an artificial intelligence that is taught using poetry are the two elements that come together then move into the world at the beginning of this thoughtful and philosophical novel that speculates on humanity, sentience, individuality, and identity.
Using entries in a notebook that is updated over centuries, and excerpts from various poems, author Anton Hur's beautiful prose charts the travels from a laboratory, to much later futures, each time examining how life and death allow the beings that evolve to think of themselves, and how they handle relating to others like them, and not.
October 11, 2024
an infuriating read to be honest. so many ideas but it never stops to explore any of them earnestly. every theme is explained to your face telling you exactly how you’re supposed to feel about them. the characters are nonexistent and every POV reads exactly the same. way too short but then somehow it feels like every other sentence is a variation of “im me but im not me because nanites”
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