In 2011, Ben Lerner stormed onto the scene with his debut novel, Leaving the Atocha Station, a winning blend of low comedy and high art. He has since firmly established himself as one of America’s most acclaimed novelists and is a leading voice in so-called autofiction. Now he returns with his fourth novel, and it may be his most profound yet.
In Transcription, Lerner turns his mind to the nature of art, and of ageing. It’s a novel about generations, of growing children, and dying forebears, and the way the secrets and gifts of life and art move from one era to the next.
It’s also a novel about technology, and our increasing reliance on it, the way it shapes our speech, our thoughts, our memories and even our conceptions of ourselves.
In this episode, Tanjil Rashid sits down with Ben Lerner to talk about how we record our conversations, why novels may matter even more in the age of AI, and – in his words – the bankruptcy of political speech.
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