Dear Cyborgs
Dear Cyborgs is a 2017 novel with elements of speculative fiction by American writer Eugene Lim. Lim wrote two other novels before Dear Cyborgs. Critics gave the novel mostly positive reviews.
![]() First edition | |
Author | Eugene Lim |
---|---|
Publisher | FSG Originals |
Publication date | June 6, 2017 |
Pages | 176 |
Preceded by | The Strangers (2013) |
Followed by | Search History (2021) |
Development
Lim wrote the novel before the 2016 presidential election.[1] He nevertheless wrote it in "a state of despair" due to climate change and economic inequality, which he refers to as two “slow apocalypses”.[1]
Lim has said that he believes "...superheroes are the central mythology of our collective global era" on their inclusion in the novel.[1]
Influences
A number of works influenced Lim during while writing Dear Cyborgs.[2] Tan Lin's Insomnia and the Aunt and Yongsoo Park's Boy Genius both influenced the novel's plot as existing works that subvert tropes in Asian American assimilation plots.[2] Robert Creeley’s The Island and Eileen Myles’ Inferno—both "poet's novels"—influenced Lim's authorial presence.[2]
Setting
The novel alternates between several settings, including a "white-bread suburban" town in Ohio during the 1980s, and New York City circa 2011, during a fictionalized version of Occupy Wall Street.[3][4] Lim grew up in small-town Ohio, and later moved to New York.[5]
Publication history
FSG Originals, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, published the novel in 2017.[6]
References
- Cutaia, Sara (5 June 2017). "Eugene Lim Wrote 'Dear Cyborgs' in a State of Despair". The Chicago Review of Books. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- Lim, Eugene (6 June 2017). "Eugene Lim: American classics that influenced Dear Cyborgs, mostly in pairs". Library of America. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- Hassani, Amelia (1 June 2017). "Review: DEAR CYBORGS by Eugene Lim". Ploughshares. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- Lorentzen, Christian (27 June 2017). "Eugene Lim's Dear Cyborgs Engages the Post-Occupy Moment". Vulture. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- Barkan, Ross (15 August 2017). "How Eugene Lim's "Dear Cyborgs" Explores Life, Death, and Asian Identity". The Village Voice. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
- "Dear Cyborgs". Macmillan. Retrieved 3 January 2018.