Episode notes
What happens when the state, with the pretext of protecting public safety, can detain indefinitely certain individuals whose dreams seem to indicate they may be capable of committing a crime? Set in a precarious world where sleep-enhancing devices and algorithms provide the tools and formulae for making one’s unconscious a witness to one’s possible waking life, this novel touches on a myriad of political, philosophical, and moral concerns as they particularly connect to issues of gender, race, ethnicity, privacy, and the security state.
In this episode of Speaking Out of Place podcast Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with award-winning novelist
Keywords
Laila Lalami, The Dream Hotel, novel, books, writing, sci-fi, science fiction,state surveillance, public safety, detention, risk assessment, algorithms, privacy, security state, gender, race, ethnicity, surveillance capitalism, dreams, insomnia, tech