Date of Award
8-2016
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Fine Arts
Department
English
Program
Creative Writing (MFA)
First Advisor/Chairperson
Matt Frank
Abstract
An Imaginary, Average Sun is a novel about J, a computer programmer and data analyst, who discovers an algorithm that can predict her future. The book is composed of sections and fragments that investigate the lead up to and fall out from J’s discovery and the effect it has upon her work, her marriage, and her sense of self. The book skips back and forth between characters as well as forward and backwards in time so that the creation of unity and meaning in the novel will to some extent necessitate the active participation of the reader, interrogating how technology disjoints, fragments, and complicates concepts of self and meaning. From this central premise and through this formal experimentation, the novel explores questions about free will, representation and reality, and our relationship with computer technology. Are we the ultimate source of our ideas and actions? To what extent are we influenced, or even determined, by social and technological systems out of our control? And how do such questions shape our sense of reality and of ourselves?
Recommended Citation
Weinkam, Matthew, "An Imaginary, Average Sun" (2016). All NMU Master's Theses. 107.
https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/107
Access Type
Open Access