West Trade Review: "When Quarantines, Transphobia, and AI Collide: The Dystopian Nightmare of Chris Bergeron’s Valid" by Shana Scudder

by Shana Scudder

November 1, 2023

Shana Scudder is a writer, editor, and teacher based in Raleigh, NC. She is currently pursuing her MFA at Randolph College and teaches First Year Writing at North Carolina State University.

Valid: Dystopian Autofiction by Chris Bergeron; House of Anansi Press; 244 pages. $17.99.

Valid by Chris Bergeron is a work of dystopian autofiction by a Quebecoise transgender journalist and is one of the most original novels I have ever read. First published in French in 2021, the novel chronicles the life of Christelle, who is being held captive by an AI entity named David. During her captivity, Christelle tells David (and therefore the reader) her life story, including the rise of this AI entity who now has her in thrall. Since this is a self-described work of autofiction, this is also the autobiography of the author until the narrative reaches years that have no yet occurred. Valid therefore chronicles not only the life of a trailblazing author, but serves as the platform for her philosophies on life, gender, feminism, and technology.

“David” is an interesting conceit, which becomes an essential part of the message of the novel; that of captivity and transcendence, both by the prisoner and the jailer. And in the wake of the rise of ChatGPT and other disturbing AI technologies that threaten our concepts of the limits of technology and the boundaries of humanity, this novel could not be timelier. This is a story set in a world where AI has fully taken charge, aided and abetted by humans who initially saw “David” as a means to liberation. Christelle recounts not only her life, but also her role in creating David, and what she had to give up to do so.

Ultimately, David stands in for many things and doesn’t just represent a warning about the terrifying potential of artificial intelligence. David is also a personification of the dominant culture, as he forbids things like gender-neutral pronouns and forces Christelle to live as a man. This world also has shades of the Covid lockdown and given its publication date, it is likely that Bergeron was writing this at its height, a time when the whole world seemed terrifying and uncertain. One can imagine Bergeron at home during quarantine, spinning out all sorts of potentials and possibilities for a worldwide lockdown. The result is this novel.

This book is as much a philosophical meditation as it is a narrative, which makes this novel utterly uncategorizable. The cover labels it as “dystopian autofiction,” but the fact that the publisher had to identify it as such speaks to the originality of this book. “Autofiction” is a somewhat contested term that some argue simply refers to autobiographical fiction, and others posit it as a genre-bending literary category in which the author appears as themselves as a character, often maintaining their own name and basic biography. Bergeron combines feminist theory with commentary on the gender binary and the male gaze to complete her analysis of society – where it is now and where it is headed. At the same time, she lets the reader into the realities of her world and what it is like to live as a trans woman in a hostile society: “You, who are nothing but words, do you understand that the intent, the promise of violence, is felt deep within the flesh? Every time I dodged a man’s aggression, I felt diminished. What doesn't kill you might actually make you weaker” (112). This is a typical construction throughout the novel, a visceral depiction coupled with a succinct commentary. Much like an autoethnography, this serves to interpret the experience for the reader, leaving no doubt as to how these experiences affected the narrator, thus creating empathy in the reader.

The main weakness of this novel is the dialogue. It often sounds rather stilted, which could have been a stylistic choice. If so, I am not sure what the purpose would be, as I am referring to the dialogue between humans in the flashback scene, not the dialogue between Christelle and David (165). As for the latter, there are regular interjections reminding the reader that Christelle is narrating to David, and the content of these sometimes seem rather pointless except to serve as a reminder (177). For example, sometimes we will just have the interjection of “/…local recording…/” every few pages, which doesn’t seem to add to the narrative.

Maybe we need more robots in our novels to frighten us. As unsettled as I was reading David’s voice and dialogue, it might be that the general reader could use this same terror to see just what it is going on in the world beyond our control. Maybe that was Bergeron’s point in writing Valid after all. The post-Covid world has been remade, and the AI-controlled world of Valid reminds us that the world can always be remade again, in new and even more terrifying ways.

In many ways, the world of Valid reminds me of The Handmaid’s Tale, and Bergeron even gives a veiled nod to Atwood within the text. I also thought of Martha Wells’s brilliant Murderbot series, where robots and AI are central characters. And of course, there’s Battlestar Galactica. But this book will appeal to anyone interested in the dystopian potential for AI in society, but also for anyone who is interested in theory, ideas, philosophy, and queer theory. But ultimately, this novel is so utterly unique that it is difficult to find many comparison points. Due to its highly theoretical and philosophical nature, Valid will undoubtedly find its way into many a college syllabus. However, anyone interested in queer history, theory, the evolution of feminism, and the dangers of AI will find something of interest in this novel and it is accessible and interesting enough that it could very well find a wider audience as well.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

When Quarantines, Transphobia, and AI Collide: The Dystopian Nightmare of Chris Bergeron’s Valid

FICTION REVIEW

Stay Connected to Our Literary Community. Subscribe to Our Newsletter

Home About Subscribe Guidelines Submit Exclusives West End

Image by ThisIsEngineering from Pexels