Everyone’s watching you: The future of society in Dave Eggers’s The Every
Everyone’s watching you: The future of society in Dave Eggers’s The Every

Summary/Abstract: This article explores Dave Eggers’ s 2021 dystopian novel The Every from the perspective of philosopher Roberto Esposito’s intertwined concepts of community and immunity, as put forward in his books Communitas (1998), Immunitas (2002), Bios (2004), and Common Immunity (2023). In Eggers’ s novel, The Every is a gigantic, world-dominating corporation which, through soft totalitarian means, seeks to create a utopian, peaceful, politically correct, and environmentally friendly world. It thus aims to immunise the world from the violent void at the heart of community by encouraging surveillance (of self and others) through a wide variety of apps. However, in its attempt to create a homogenous, peaceful world, The Every arguably suffers from an excess of immunisation from Esposito’s perspective. This results in an autoimmune crisis, leading to both the exclusion of large swathes of the population, such as the poor or the technophobe Trogs, and to increased mental illness and even suicide among those subjected to constant surveillance and self-censorship.

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