Peter Carey's new novel, Amnesia, opens just as a computer virus is unlocking the cells of Australian prisons from Alice Springs to Woomera. And because those computer systems were designed by an American company, the virus also worms its way into thousands of U.S. prisons, from dusty towns in Texas to dusty towns in Afghanistan. Around the world, security monitors flash with this message: "The corporation is under our control. The Angel declares you free."
Carey won the Booker Prize twice for his novels Oscar and Lucinda and the True History of the Kelly Gang. He tells NPR's Scott Simon about how WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange inspired Amnesia and how his characters navigate a world where anything can be hacked.
Interview Highlights
On Gaby, the "Angel" who made the virus
She's a mere child, from my perspective. ... She's probably about 30. She's a political activist. She's a hacker. She is at war with corporations and the state in all sorts of ways. She happens to also be the child of '60s-era sort of social democrat idealist activists. And a lot about this story is about generational disappointment in the performance of one's elders, or her elders.
On the real-life Australian who inspired the character of Gaby — Julian Assange
Julian Assange really was the reason I started writing the book, but I didn't want to write about Assange. ... I live in New York and I've lived here for 25 years, and the thing that really struck me was it didn't seem to occur to anyone that he was Australian. Because, of course, if he was Australian then he couldn't be a traitor, could he? But he was a traitor. So no one was really thinking that he was from another country.
And because I am from Australia, I felt I knew his accent. I felt I knew a lot about his history. I read a little bit about his mother, who had clearly been a supporter of the 1975 Whitlam government, which was later deposed by the CIA. So I had all sorts of feelings about somebody like that.
On Felix Moore, a veteran journalist who sets out to tell Gaby's story, using a typewriter
Well, if you use a typewriter you really can't be hacked. And so that's about as off-line you can possibly get. You then have the problem afterwards about how are you going to get the words that you typed to somebody else without emailing them. Well, we know how we used to do that.
So Felix is back using the sort of technology that he started with. And you know Gaby's friends drive an old model truck that doesn't have an onboard computer because we know that an outsider can take control of a motorcar and crash it and accelerate it and turn it over if they want to. So I think it's terribly porous. We're all very vulnerable.
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Transcript
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Peter Carey's new novel opens as the worm turns. In this case, an Internet worm turns the locks on the cells of Australian prisons from Alice Springs to Woomera. Because those computer systems were designed by an American company, the worm worms its way, if you please, into thousands of U.S. prisons, too, from dusty towns in Texas to black site prisons run by Americans in dusty towns of Afghanistan. Security monitors flash with a message, which we will ask the author to read.
PETER CAREY: (Reading) The corporation is under our control. The angel declares you free.
SIMON: Peter Carey has won the Booker Prize twice for the novels "Oscar And Lucinda" and "The True History Of The Kelly Gang." His new novel is called "Amnesia." And Peter Carey joins us from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
CAREY: Well, thank you, Scott.
SIMON: And who is this angel, Gabrielle or Gaby?
CAREY: She's a mere child from my perspective, but she's probably about 30. She's a political activist, she's a hacker. She is at war with corporations in the state in all sorts of way. She happens to also be the child of a '60s-era sort of Social Democrat idealist activists. And a lot about this story is just about generational disappointment in one's - the performance of one's elders or her elders.
SIMON: And is any resemblance to Julian Assange coincidental?
CAREY: Julian Assange really was the reason I started writing the book. But I didn't want to write about Assange. And because I am from Australia, I felt I knew his accident. I felt I knew a lot about his history. I read a little bit about his mother, who'd clearly been a supporter of the 1975 Whitlam government, which was later deposed by the CIA. So I had all sorts of feelings about somebody like that.
SIMON: You have a character named Felix Moore - if I might call him an old rummy of a reporter who's enlisted to try and tell Gaby's story - the angel's story. At one point, when Felix is writing, he resorts to using a typewriter.
CAREY: Well, if you use typewriter, you really can't be hacked. And so that's about as offline as you can possibly get. Felix is back using the technology that he started with. And Gaby's friends drive an old model truck that doesn't have an onboard computer because we know an outsider can take control of a motor car and crash it and accelerate it and turn it over if they want to.
SIMON: Do you think it's possible that younger people have a different understanding or maybe even lack of understanding of this hazard or a different idea of privacy?
CAREY: Well, it's without doubt that a lot of younger people are really, you know, happy to carelessly display all the details of their private lives on Facebook and live in this sort of naked, vulnerable - the naked playground. I don't know what you call it, but they're starting to learn that this is not a good idea, so I don't know what's happening in the general world. Certainly, Facebook's doing very well. I don't know what their shares are today, but I'm sure they continue to prosper.
SIMON: Yeah. I have to ask you, Mr. Carey, what reaction you might have to the assassination of people in Paris this week who worked for a satirical magazine?
CAREY: Well, what can one say? I was just as sickened, afraid, really aware of the perilous nature of the conflicts in the modern world in big multinational capitals. What will this trigger from right? What will it trigger from the fanatical religious people? I don't know. It's just terrifying. The first time I felt like this was when the fatwa arrived in the world and Salman Rushdie was sentenced to death for what he could reasonably write in our society. You know, I thought at the time we've been invaded. We were at war with these people and what can we do about it? So this is awful.
SIMON: Do writers, anybody who makes their living through self-expression, have a particular moral obligation to speak out, be counted now?
CAREY: Oh, I think absolutely. I mean, I - yesterday, I signed a letter from Penn, together with, you know, I'm sure every other writer who is asked to do so. And I think it is absolutely important. What have I done apart from that? Not a thing. I'm talking to you today, and that's it.
SIMON: When you sit down to write a novel - when you sat down - well, perhaps maybe stand up.
(LAUGHTER)
SIMON: When you were writing "Amnesia," were you trying to balance current events in the world with something that people will be reading in five years?
CAREY: Oh, a hundred, I think.
SIMON: Two-hundred, why not?
CAREY: Well, you know, it is what we are trying to and probably failing continually, but we are really trying to play the big game. You know, and if you're trying to do that, then you are trying to do something that will last. And you're trying to every second make something that's true and beautiful that never existed on the earth before. I want to make you laugh lot. I think the book's probably quite funny. I'm trying to make characters, I'm trying to make people and I'm trying to make people that you love or hate and maybe this is a funny book.
SIMON: Yeah. Peter Carey - his new novel "Amnesia." Thanks so much for being with us.
CAREY: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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