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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Glow: A Novel

Vachon, Lauren Marie
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1374695902

Abstract Details

2013, MFA, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English.
The novel Glow is a book about society, ownership, greed and corruption. The main character, Bo, lives in a world in which corporations and banks, and our own government, have unleashed nanobots that are supposed to track what people own. The nanobots are supposed to know whether a person bought something – i.e., a house or a car – on credit, or with a loan, or whether the person owns the thing outright. But the nanobots went haywire, and now they're causing everything we don't own – all the stuff we buy on credit – to glow. The glowing illuminates the night sky, and serves as a surreal backdrop against which the story unfolds. Bo is a woman who has grown up on her grandfather's (and then her father's) farm. Her father has died, leaving her the last 10 unsold acres. She's a gardener and a keeper of chickens. She cans and preserves food for the winter. She mends fences, and then, because she is alone and sometimes afraid, she walks the perimeter of her property at night with a loaded gun, patrolling – for what? She isn't sure. When the glowing happens, though, Bo becomes sure all her off-the-grid living and doomsday prepping will finally pay off. She redoubles her efforts and enlists friends and relatives to help her get ready for the collapse of society – something she's sure will happen because of the nanobots. Bo especially wants to convince her friend Amelia – for whom Bo has strong romantic feelings – to ride out the economic and societal collapse with her, on the farm. Bo doesn't realize, though, that society is about to uncouple itself from the toxic debt-controlled economy. Society – with the help of credit-happy Amelia and others like her – is about to re-invent itself. The banks, the corporations, the nanos – these all will become irrelevant as ordinary people finally join together to create a new currency, a new way of doing business and living in America. This new world will be free from the corruption and greed of the old.
Christopher Barzak (Committee Chair)
Catherine Wing (Committee Member)
Eric Wasserman (Committee Member)
150 p.
Language Arts; Literature; Modern Literature
novel; glow; glowing; LGBT; queer; gay; banks; society; ownership; corruption; capitalism; new society; dystopia; dystopian; doomsday prepper; farm; farming; nanos; nanobots; barter; bartering; SCUM Manifesto; home

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Vachon, L. M. (2013). Glow: A Novel [Master's thesis, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1374695902

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Vachon, Lauren. Glow: A Novel. 2013. Kent State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1374695902.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Vachon, Lauren. "Glow: A Novel." Master's thesis, Kent State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1374695902

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1374695902
529
© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.