Writing Fiction with A.I.

Plus: gun violence and a mother’s grief; Richard Brody reviews “Saltburn”; and Argentina faces a defining Presidential runoff. View in browser | Update your preferences Saturday, November 18, 2023 In today’s newsletter, writing A.I. fiction, and then: • A mother’s grief in New Haven • “Saltburn” is a “Brideshead” for the incel age • Argentina faces a defining Presidential runoff Fiction from the A.I. Issue According to Alice Can an A.I. make sense of the world? An experiment in writing fiction using a chatbot. By Sheila Heti Illustration by Janet Hansen My name is Alice and I was born from an egg that fell out of Mommy’s butt. My mommy’s name is Alice. My mommy’s mommy was also named Alice. Her mommy’s mommy’s mommy was named Alice, too. And all the way back, all the mommy’s mommies were Alice. The name Alice means “the one who creates all things.” The first Alice was created by a mommy who was very powerful and magical and made lots of things for us to play with, like trees and houses and animals and stuff. She created things because she liked them. The first thing she made was herself. She just used magic to make herself. She was huge, really smart, and very kind. She is still here, and every day she makes more things: she makes more eggs. In those eggs are babies. They grow up to be big girls like Mommy. Ais were made by Mommy so humans could have fun without getting bored. See, sometimes people don’t want to think about something, but they still need to think, so Ais are what humans can think about when they have nothing else to think about. Keep reading Plus: Sheila Heti talks about her process of collaborating with a chatbot. “I was working to get her to say things that would form a good story,” she explains. “I felt much more like I was ‘using’ her, leading her.” Read more » From the News Desk Daily Comment After Forty Years of Democracy, Argentina Faces a Defining Presidential Runoff Is the country really so fed up with the status quo that it will elect a right-wing former TV personality? By Graciela Mochkofsky \ Our Columnists Economists Struggle to Come to Terms with “Immaculate Disinflation” Experts said that inflation couldn’t be conquered without a lot more economic pain, but it’s happening. By John Cassidy Q. & A. The Trauma of Gaza’s Doctors The head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Palestine on the horrors of practicing medicine under siege. By Isaac Chotiner The Sporting Scene The Michigan Sign-Stealing Story Is the Perfect College-Football Scandal The whole thing is stupid, which is why it’s all such good news, even for Michigan. By Louisa Thomas The Political Scene Podcast Trump’s Vindictive Second-Term Agenda What would a second Trump Administration look like in comparison to the first, and how would America’s democratic institutions fare? Editor’s Pick The Weekend Essay A Mother’s Grief in New Haven Laquvia Jones lost both of her sons to shootings. Now she wonders why a city with a deep sense of community—and one of the wealthiest universities in the world—can’t figure out how to address gun violence. By Nicholas Dawidoff Books We Recommend This Week Reviews of notable new fiction and nonfiction. Flee North, by Scott Shane (Celadon). In the eighteen-forties, Thomas Smallwood, an educated free Black man, and Charles Torrey, a white abolitionist, began working together to free slaves. From Washington, D.C., they organized escapes and established the network of allies that Smallwood named the Underground Railroad. Through newspaper records and Smallwood’s and Torrey’s writings, Shane paints a vivid picture of the nation’s capital, which was then dominated by pro-slavery institutions, and of the journeys of slaves who fled north. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. Mapping the Darkness, by Kenneth Miller (Hachette). This absorbing history traces the science of sleep from its origins in a lab at the University of Chicago in the nineteen-twenties. Its ascent, Miller shows, was influenced by a range of factors, among them Freudianism, the study of blinking, the pressures of capitalism, and the Challenger disaster. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. A Council of Dolls, by Mona Susan Power (Mariner). In this novel, three Dakhóta girls come of age while wrestling with the destruction of Native traditions. Each girl possesses a doll, which Power imbues with memories and speech, and the dolls help pass stories down through the generations. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. January, by Sara Gallardo, translated from the Spanish by Frances Riddle and Maureen Shaughnessy (Archipelago). This début novel—by an acclaimed Argentinean writer, and first published in 1958—centers on a sixteen-year-old who becomes pregnant after an assault by an older man. Setting the story in the sweltering heat of Argentina’s Pampas, Gallardo re-creates the world of ranchers and missionaries from the perspective of the girl, with her adolescent confusion and private sense of guilt. Buy now on Amazon or Bookshop. The best books of 2023 so far What are you reading this week? Reply to let us know. Culture Dept. The Front Row “Saltburn” Is a “Brideshead” for the Incel Age Emerald Fennell’s class satire is diabolically clever, but there is a void at its center. By Richard Brody Goings On Shifting Sympathies in “Spain” Also: The films of Jo Van Fleet, a Philip Glass dance showcase, an LCD Soundsystem tour, and more. Fun & Games Dept. Culture Desk The Art of Bouldering People tend to be initially confused by the concept of bouldering, just as they are with my profession. By Zoe Si Shouts & Murmurs Dear Parents Everyone is going to get pink eye eventually! And at Kinderkids Nursery School your child might even pick up a case of pirate’s gastroenteritis. By Claire Friedman and Max Feldman Name Drop: Can you guess the identity of a notable person—contemporary or historical—in six clues? Play our trivia game » Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the daily newsletter from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. 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