Ian McEwan’s latest novel is a sophisticated dystopian work of climate fiction. What We Can Know is a philosophical reflection on the future of our species and could even be read as a treatise on our humanity.
It seems McEwan is preoccupied with the question of what will happen next? His main concern is the loss of humanity, history, wisdom and knowledge.
When something is lost, what is the possibility of recovering that knowledge?
What happens when we humans lose the knowledge of the past and all the gains of civilisation. What sort of crises might we face in the near future?
The novel explores all these questions. That’s why it is set 100 years in the future, in 2119.
We follow academic Thomas Metcalfe’s quest for a famous poem written by Francis Bundy, A Corona for Vivien. The poem was never published, only being recited at a 2014 dinner party and has since been lost. In this regard, it evokes AS Byatt’s Possessions.
Metcalfe and his wife become deeply absorbed in the search for the lost poem, in understanding the people behind it, the relationships that shaped it and the human values it reflects.
The story of Francis Bundy and his wife Vivien, is revealed indirectly through Vivien’s journal and fragments of Francis’s poetry. Through these sources, readers gain insight into their marriage.
Vivien’s observations, Francis’ personality and the dynamics of their household are revealed even though the story takes place more than a century before Metcalfe’s time.
Francis is portrayed vividly as “vain, opinionated, self-important, careless of others, ungenerous, mean-spirited, dependent and entitled; and a great poet,” highlighting the tension between artistic brilliance and moral flaw.
Although Francis and Vivien are long gone in Metcalfe’s time, the past continues to shape the present. Vivien’s journal presents her as more passive, her voice often overshadowed by the dominating presence of the celebrated poet.
She comes across as someone almost serving the demands of a genius, while the narrator reflects on the broader implications of engaging with history: “The past would have to be sensitised,” meaning it must be interpreted carefully because it carries both obstacles and aspirations that continue to affect humanity.
Obsessing over the past, McEwan suggests, has consequences: “A million historical movies, novels and serious histories expressed our yearning to keep the past with us. Kind or cruel, it haunted us and its ghosts, unlike most, were real.”
In this way, the novel uses the search for the lost poem as a lens through which to explore the enduring influence of history, memory and human relationships on our understanding of ourselves and the world.
Through this mysterious odyssey we are introduced to a world ravaged by catastrophic events, including nuclear wars, famine and natural disasters like tsunamis, leading
to a significant loss of life and societal collapse.
The nuclear war between Pakistan and India erupts, the sea rises and disasters lead to a catastrophic present. In this scenario, all internet and digital network systems are stored and controlled in Nigeria’s Lagos, drawing parallels between the Nigerian empire’s control of Atlantic cables, ancient European politics and modern conflicts in North America and China.
McEwan laments the decay of the humanities towards the end of the 22nd century and it has a lot to do with the past.
“Most of our history and literature students care nothing for the past and are indifferent to accretions of poetry and fiction that are our beautiful inheritance. They sign up to the humanities because they lack mathematical or technical talent.”
What We Can Know has moral implications too. It is an urgent call for humanity to understand what we are to face. It is a strong call for moral responsibility for the world to rethink what we have caused by violating nature. It is a cautionary tale against imminent climate disaster.
It is not a novel that proposes prophecies. Instead, it demonstrates the possibilities of wrongdoings in a near future as well as the monstrous nature of power and warlordism.
The novel invites us to rethink the present via our future because the future is implicated in both the present and the past. It is somehow a retrospective and futuristic novel.
Although it centres on the lost poem, it also speaks for humanity, human values that have been lost.
What happens if we lose the internet?
Here is the answer: “We might one day lose our internet or be reduced much further to become subsistence peasants, or dissolve into widely separated bands of hunter-gatherers eking a hard life from a degraded biosphere.”
Though it is dystopian, McEwan is not pessimistic. As the narrator says: “Each time we fail, we will come back from a slightly higher place”
What We Can Know is published by Jonathan Cape.