December 1, 2023
In this cautionary tale, the world is made of plastic: easily broken, superficial, and unnatural. Written in a mix of screenplay action lines and first-person narration, Guild's debut novel concerns a group of plastic women and men, Barbie and Ken dolls in all but name, living and working under the thumb of a glitzy technodystopia. History for these figures is chiefly the epic tragedy of 50 million dead in the "big nuke war" of the last generation. What has it brought figure-kind? Someone like Erin, a sensitive young woman with a wealth of problems, who works at Tablet Town and spends most of her time moving through virtual worlds in her Smartbody, seeking solace from the pressures of a society that interacts with itself largely through phone apps and other social media. Self-consciousness is the order of the day here. Sad Erin is a voracious consumer of a television program called Nuclear Family, which at times directly parallels the action of her life, specifically the story of her well-meaning but struggling father, and features among other concerns a look at the political divide between the liberal plastic people and the conservative waffle people--who are made of, yes, carbohydrates and rubber appendages. Yet she also is inside not only a self-policing surveillance state but, seemingly, her own TV series, surrounded twice over by the unflinching glare of the camera lens. Insert into this Technicolor nightmare an eco-terrorist organization known as Sea Change, which assails civilians with guns and bombs to fight the apathy of the status quo, and you have a meta-tale of human emotion and agency gone more than awry: It's in danger of burning off a dying planet from a once-and-for-all nuclear holocaust. Guild works the parody and pathos well in this thoughtful entertainment, expertly managing to extract concern and sympathy for the plights of these plastic characters, as human as we are despite their occasionally squeaking leg hinges. An amusing, kindhearted tale of a troubled alt-world.
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December 11, 2023
Guild’s zany debut depicts a near future reshaped by a devastating war, climate disaster, and virtual reality. After people resort to burning chicken bones as an energy source, the consequent “HeatLeap” prompts eco-terrorists to stage violent attacks on businesses. When the terrorists strike a tech retail outlet, an employee named Erin who is a “figurine” made of plastic comes to the aid of Jacob, a customer and fellow figurine who is blind. The two begin a tentative relationship, both in the “real” world and in the simulated “Smartworld.” Meanwhile, Erin starts receiving warnings of impending attacks on her in Smartworld from avatars. Guild styles the story of Erin’s life as a television series, with chapters framed as synopses of “episodes” and occasional monologues to the audience. Alongside Erin’s “show” are descriptions of a sitcom called Nuclear Family, set in the first year after the war and depicting a Romeo and Juliet–like teenage romance between a plastic figurine and a waffle. Though the novel’s considerations of such weighty issues as terrorism and the despoliation of the planet are generally skin-deep, Guild shines in his impressions of a speculative world where waffles are viewed with suspicion in the plastic community for “crav the syrup of power above all else.” It’s great fun watching Guild arrange the pieces of this inspired allegory. Agent: Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency.
December 1, 2023
From ecoterrorism to virtual reality romances, Guild's first novel is reminiscent of sticking one's hand inside a mystery goody bag, except the ""goods"" are fragments of a dystopia. Exploring timely topics of technological (dis)connection, the prison-work complex, and extremist ideologies, Plastic follows Erin--a figurine born to a gay father via surrogacy--through her work, family, and romantic lives. In a postnuclear war environment, ecoterrorism is as rampant as state surveillance, and virtual reality is a problematic Band-Aid. Structurally, Guild's novel is cinematic. With tones of Black Mirror's ethical acuity and the quirkiness of Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, it mixes first- and third-person narrations with song lyrics, scenes from a TV show, and Erin's flashbacks to her sister's betrayal. Plastic's figurines also communicate in destandardized English and play with religious imagery, challenging the boundaries of an already experimental genre. Despite its uncensored descriptions of violence, there remains a tenderness that is at times whimsical in the figurines' demonstration of how trauma and grief are still entrenched in the human need for connection.
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