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the complete review - fiction

The Singularity

by
Dino Buzzati

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B+ : somewhat flawed in its conception, but very good in its execution

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "To come to the point quickly, Dino Buzzati's new novel, Larger than Life, is not quite of the order of his memorable and beautifully fashioned The Tartar Steppe, though it does possess the same atmosphere of something threatening, frightening and mysterious. This does not mean that the new story is not a good one. It is, surpassingly so, with an ingenious idea and impressive climax that will keep you rooted to your chair until the end. It is, in a way, a better told story than The Tartar Steppe." - Thomas Lask, The New York Times
  
  
• "(It)t's science fiction, kind of, con amore. There's also a touch of the Frankenstein tradition with a brilliantly original twist." - Martin Levin, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "Gradually, Buzzati threads together several themes: lost love (similar to that in Rodenbach’s novel), the nature of identity, muted eroticism and the development of what we would now call artificial intelligence. The book climaxes in a scene that recalls the ancient myth of the prophetic Sibyl of Cumae, who was granted immortality but not perpetual youth." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       The Singularity begins in April 1972 -- not the past but, when the novel was written (it was first published in 1960), the near-future, as it is a work of speculative fiction -- one whose premise happens to be very current and topical again.
       The novel begins with a professor of electronics, Ermanno Ismani, getting an offer from the Ministry of Defense, "to participate in a mission of vital national interest, as well as extraordinary scientific value". He'd have to relocate to an isolated military zone and commit to at least a two year-stay -- but he'd be well compensated, and could bring along his wife. The catch is that they can't tell him what the project he would be working on is -- they literally can't: it's so top secret that no one in the ministry even knows .....
       Ermanno is too curious to pass up the opportunity -- and his young wife, Elisa, is gung-ho -- so off they go, to military zone 36. It's very well-protected, with a clear divide with the rest of the world -- and with no one outside having a clear idea of what's going on there: "A mystery. Everything is a goddamn mystery". It's a lovely setting -- idyllic, even -- though, of course, rather isolated. And it is very well-guarded -- though the patrol dogs they used to have had to go: "They didn't bark at all, no, that's what's curious. Instead they wailed. They were itching to go up there".
       Ismani assumes that the project has to do with atomic power or weapons --perhaps it's an atomic plant, an obvious thought in those nuclear-arms-race times. But it's not.
       The title of the new English translation is an appropriate one -- even if the term 'singularity' would only come to get its current widespread usage much more recently. (The earlier translation was titled Larger than Life, and both differ from the Italian original, Il grande ritratto ('The great portrait' or 'likeness'); the French had trouble with it, too (L'image de pierre; 'The stone image').)
       Buzzati's story is of an experiment -- on the grandest scale -- in Artificial Intelligence. The scientists definitely do not take a large language model-approach to AI; indeed, among Buzzati's most interesting choices is that, despite wanting to make: "A machine made in our likeness":

It doesn't know any languages. On that score we've been categorical. heaven helps us if we had taught it a language. Language is the worst enemy of mental clarity. In his desire to express his thought in words at all costs, man has ended up making such messes.

     "What I mean," Endriade said, "is that life would be unbearable, even in the happiest conditions, if we were denied the possibility of suicide. No one thinks about it, you understand. But can you imagine the what the world would be like if one day we knew that no one could dispose of his own life ? A terrifying prison. Crazy, we'd become."

- M.A.Orthofer, 26 May 2024

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Links:

• New York Review Books publicity page
• Oscar publicity page
• Gadir publicity page

• Das Bücherregal (Spanish)
• C (Spanish)
• Cleveland Review of Books
• CriticaLetteraria (Italian)
• Le dernier des blogs (French)
• imperfezioni (Italian)
• Jot Down (Spanish)
• Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings
• La profondità delle cose (Italian)
• Reading in Translation
• Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations*
• Le Sirene di Titano (Italian)
• Speculative Fiction in Translation
• Strange Horizons
• Terre di Confine Magazine (Italian)
• 3:AM
• Universo de pocos (Spanish)

• IMDb page

• Poem Strip
• The Tartar Steppe

• See Index of Italian literature
• See Index of Science Fiction and Fantasy books
• Other books from New York Review Books

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About the Author:

       Italian author Dino Buzzati lived 1906 to 1972

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© 2024 the complete review

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