book review The Book of Strange New Things; Michel Faber
First personal observation: how much do people think?
My hobby is text analysis. For me this not feel as something boring, it feels like architecture: to dive in old texts like in a pyramid for hidden information, something that is very old but still undiscovered.
In 2022 I discovered that John 1-2-3-4 is basically a copy of Genesis 1-2-3-4, no not original. For example, if in Genesis 3 “the snake, the cunning of all animals” comes at the scene, in John 3 “Nicodemus, the leader of the Jews”.
Everything from the natural world is copied to the world of humans. This is strange, why did they hide this information. And why nobody thought of it: in which level do people think?
It was striking to me, that this is also the experience of Peter in The Book of Strange New Things: he wonders at the people of USIC, always hard working and the Oaseans too: how much do they actually think?
Second personal observation: hard working
In 2025 but basically during my life, I wondered why people are so “busy” all the time: they work so hard, and if they have a coffee break they also talk about work.
It was striking to me, that this is also the experience of Peter: he wonders at the people of USIC, always hard working. And in the lunchroom they read rather boring magazines about mechanics, is there nothing else than about work.
And the people on the ground busy busy busy with war. Why they all seem so hyperactive?
Third observation: this seems connected, and did the writer, Mr. Faber: notice the same?
When I read about Peter’s observations, I think Mr. Faber make the same observations: why all this almost mindless activity.
And I don’t know if the writer intended this, to be the focus of his work, but I think so. Because in the novel he invented the Oaseans
The Oaseans reminded me of what in psychology is called NPC behavior, Non-Player Characters: metaphor to describe someone who works hard, but thinks little: blindly following trends, or other people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NPC_(meme)
On the internet people joke about NPC, and use the term as sort of downplaying other people “a little”: they have half half understanding of this “NPC behavior”
But if people really understand how big is this problem, than you’d be shocked. And I think that Mr. Faber is one of the (very) few who understand this not just partially but to full extent
And for a very very long list of reasons, including:
- he gave the Oaseans a sort of “empty face”; people with traits of NPC have a sort of “empty gaze” because there is not much going on behind the eyes
- they love Jesus; now Jesus might seem supersmart, but wrong: precisely Jesus is also a person with such an “empty gaze”
- it is unknown if they have humor, ever see Jesus make jokes? Never! As Peter said “you might “surmise” it, but not sure; and if they laugh, it is by shaking “externally”; not so much “internally”
- they love Bible stories: if you look for one place to see NPC behavior, you need to check the Bible
- if in the O.T. Abraham is called to murder his son, he does not protest, but next day “gets up early”, “otherwise you might be late at the place of sacrifice”
- if Joseph is called to the census of Quirinius, he does not say: sorry we have other priorities, my wife is about to give birth: nope, they “blindy” get on the donkey an go go go
- if they arrive in Bethlehem, none of the other hotel guest think: lets offer my bed to this lady, as she is pregnant, nope, they do not seem to think at all
- main characters: total NPC robots; Eve mindlessly picking from the tree of knowledge of good and evil even when previously warned that she would die
- Jesus mindlessly carrying out what God demands even when you get in all sorts of trouble until the very fact of crucifixion
- very limited time consciousness, always talking about eternity, for any sensible human that would be boring or just appalled by the prospect of going to hell, but also heaven, “to eternally sing songs for the throne of God”; only a subject with the consciousness of a record player would like that
There are various other indicators, that I could perhaps call secondary, but the book is full of it:
- low sexuality; in NPC culture sexuality is a problem rather than a treat; Peter has a “good working sexuality, and keen eye for nice ladies” like Grainger; but Jesus would say: cast your eye out, when you see another nice lady (Matthew 5) and sexuality among the Oaseans is also a question: you don’t know much even to the point that it is unclear who is a man and who is a woman
- problems with privacy: giving birth in Oasean culture is a public thing: what a twisted sense of logic
- agriculture: the land is in the middle of the village, “how handy” that is: of course not, twisted sense of logic; they cannot imagine to turn it around: very low thinking capacities
- the Oaseans talk in a somewhat robotic style, in ultra short sentences: there seems not much thinking capacity behind it
- they often sit inside their houses, and wear hoodies; not very “open” people: you don’t even know how much of them are there
- their clothing shows extremely little variation, the only variation is color; not very creative people
- the writer might have intended something about not being able to speak “s” and “t” but this I do not understand; perhaps the most easy syllables? And strange they cannot use precisely these?
Fourth observation: the writer seems to know the solution!
Mr. Faber’s novel is possibly the only novel in the entire world, that sincerely addresses this problem, understands how serious it is, and also contains the solution for this.
By this I think he outclasses by far any other novels, like War and Peace or Crime and Punishment, that only seem to display “useless bravado” and “NPC stupidity”.
If in Crime and Punishment Rodion Raskolnikov walks through Sint Petersburg and complains “how ugly everything is” I reacted: you must be blind, that city is one of the most beautiful in the entire world.
But in Mr. Faber’s novel I found an intelligent person, thank goodness. Plus, and that was very surprising, also an analysis how to cure NPC behavior. Because compare this:
A1 Bible OT; total madness NPC behavior; Eve mindlessly picking from the tree of knowledge of good and evil even when previously warned that she would die
A2 Bible NT, same stuff NPC behavior mindlessly carrying out what God demands even when you get in all sorts of trouble until the very fact of crucifixion : also strange that NT writers thought NT would outdo OT: of course not, you just copy it and it is the same story
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A3 solution: none
A4 result: humankind in despair
But look at this:
A1 The Book of Strange New Things: Peter in the first phase of his life: busy busy busy always looking for liquor and drugs
A2 The Book of Strange New Things: Peter in the second phase: busy busy busy bring the Gospel to the furthest place possible, which was wearing him out too
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A3 OMG, would he also not get the solution: yes he did. He was bitten by a strange animal, and he thought he would die soon, but he did not.
A4 This opens the idea: to understand that you do not have to die prematurely. And that idea (to not have to die prematurely) is way better, more friendly, than all this stuff about to live an eternity.
So easy. I think if people are very scared that they can die any moment, and possibly in a violent way, that keeps them in a grasp of fear, and “freezes their thoughts”.
“Cure” them from this, and religion becomes obsolete, people understand their own self, “relive” so to speak
Summary:
I have also written a few of what I call “haikus” that are related to The Book of Strange New Things; these ones are also on the blog, but also here below.
There are always to positions A1 and A2 to reflect NPC thinking, or rather the absence of it, and two A3 and A4 of “reawakening”, “clear thinking”:
The Fall of Man
A1 Adam and Eve miss the tree of knowledge of good and evil and fall for appearances, they fall for worldly desires.
A2 Jesus says: you mustn't do that, you must follow God!
— — — — — — — — — — — — — —
A3 Nietzsche says: you are both slow thinkers, NPCs, you run after something like a robot; first you are a slave to your desires, and then you are a slave to God; slave culture.
A4 If you set your own goals, then you are the master of yourself.
The Fall of Man
A1 Robot NPCs run into walls; with Eve: if you eat this, you can live forever: wrong, of course; forever is far too long; then you'll die.
A2 Robot NPC Jesus: if you go all out, you'll get the Kingdom of God: wrong, of course, you'll end up on the cross.
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A3 Nietzsche: if you calm down a bit with all that wild talk, you won't get into trouble with other people.
A4 Luymes: and then you won't have to die prematurely; because you can influence natural processes (for us, it's more about not dying prematurely than living forever, because no human can sustain that; but then you're not humans, you're robots.)
Jesus
A1 Jesus: You will have eternal life.
A2 I'll be back in one generation to deliver it!
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A3 Eternal? Hallelujah, you're bored to death.
A4 By the way, you're late. I don't think you're very accurate with time. If one thing is wrong, the other is certainly wrong either.
God
A1 God says to Adam: On the day you eat from this tree, you will surely die.
A2 The devil says: If you eat from this tree, you can live forever.
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A3 Here it is again: the one about that one day is wrong; they lived for a while longer.
A4 And that other thing was indeed wrong too.
Errors in the text
A1 It seems the writers were writing purely "robotically." That is to say: they don't write their own texts; that's not possible if you can't think for yourself. When robots create texts, they copy another text.
A2 If you copy texts well, you "naturally" consciously copy the errors along with it; you think that's the best approach! So if the Old Testament says "a day" and that's incorrect, then they put the equivalent in the New Testament, "a generation"; that's also incorrect, but then the New Testament is at least "consistent" with the Old Testament.
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A3 Nietzsche: aha, NPCs at work! When you copy a text, you shouldn't copy the errors along with it, you should remove them! If you use your head, that is.
A4 If you don't, the errors just keep getting bigger. You could interpret that one-day thing as a bit of a "bluff": scare those children, then at least they'll stay away from the candy. But that "within one generation" thing is presented as a literal fact, and then you know for sure that it's incorrect.
Michel Faber, The Book of Strange New Things
A1 The main character, Peter, goes to sell the Gospel to aliens; he sells them eternal life.
A2 At one point, he's bitten by an animal, and they think he'll die within a day.
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A3 It does seem that way for a moment; but it doesn't happen; the strange thing is: after that event, he loses his faith in a single day (!).
A4 I don't know if the author intended it that way, but you can assume that if you know you don't have to die just like that, not prematurely, and not violently, then you suddenly no longer need eternal life as a "hold"; perhaps you'll "wake up" and thus be able to "shake up" people who are currently behaving like NPCs. I should really contact Faber to let him know that this does indeed exist.
General
A1 Western, woke, feminine; slow, therefore lagging behind the facts; likes to pursue their own pleasures, like Eve eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
A2 Eastern, bravado, masculine; slow, therefore lagging behind the facts; follows God, to do His will; Jesus who allows himself to be crucified.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
A3 Nietzsche, down-to-earth, down-to-earth; thinks quickly, therefore lagging behind the facts; can anticipate; can determine for themselves whether something is good or not, can set their own goals; not the tree, or the cross; but sets their own goals.
A4 Luymes, who observes: if you think ahead, natural processes follow your thinking; so if you're in a car and it almost goes off the road, but you think faster, the car follows your thinking and stays on the road.
