47 pages • 1 hour read
Robin Sloan, Rodrigo CorralMr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Tradition versus Technology
The tension between tradition and technology is central to the action in Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore. Traditional forms of knowledge are represented most obviously by the mysterious fellowship, the Unbroken Spine, who have dedicated themselves to deciphering the encrypted manuscript of a fifteenth-century Venetian printer, Aldus Manutius, in order to discover the secret to immortality. At the other end of the scale, contemporary technological approaches to information are represented by Google, whose offices house a high-tech book scanner that can transform the printed page into units of digital data. It becomes the task of Clay to mediate between these two different approaches as he helps his employer, Mr. Penumbra, to try and use advanced technology to decode Manutius’s book. Interestingly, Kat, a Google employee, is similarly interested in immortality and reveals the existence of a project called Google Forever, which works on “life extension” (163). In this respect, the two camps have more in common than it first appears. Furthermore, the fact that the Unbroken Spine was founded by Manutius who was, in his own time, at the forefront of technical innovation, undercuts the fellowship’s rejection of technology.
The novel, then, is interested in disrupting the supposed distinction between tradition and technology and uses books to do so. Books represent, in the words of Kat’s Google colleague, Raj, “old knowledge” (86).At the same time, the way we read books is changing: over the course of the novel, Clay uses an e-reader and listens to an audiobook, suggesting that books and technology are not, as the Unbroken Spine would have it, mutually exclusive categories. Kat’s failed attempt to harness Google’s resources to decipher Manutius’s book also suggests that new technology is not the answer to every problem. The power made available by Google is immense, but using that power without direction or understanding produces no more results than does Corvina’s adherence to “traditional” methods. Sloan’s novel raises interesting questions about the role of technology in modern life and both its potential and is limitations when it comes to organizing the vast amount of information available to us.
Immortality
The prospect of everlasting life motivates both the Unbroken Spine’s and Kat’s attempts to decipher Manutius’s codex vitae, although they take very different approaches to the task. Despite its centrality to the plot, however, the novel’s narrator, Clay Jannon is consistently skeptical about the concept of immortality. While the Unbroken Spine understand immortality to be the reward for a lifetime of work and Kat perceives it as the opportunity to increase technological progress, Clay wonders about the sacrifices that are made in pursuit of immortality. For Clay, life is more than the physical fact of being alive; it is about the quality of your experience of living, about happiness and friendship. It is particularly telling that Kat’s professional ambitions—which are intricately tied to her desire for immortality—are achieved at the expense of her relationship with Clay. Edgar Deckle, on the other hand, manages to balance his membership of the Unbroken Spine and having a family. In fact, Clay implies that by having a family, Deckle achieves “immortality by blood” (239); he creates a particular kind of legacy that will ensure his memory lives on even after his death. Clay himself would prefer to live one ordinary life to the best of ability, than to sacrifice that opportunity to chase the dream of immortality. For him, the opportunity to create a legacy that will survive his death is the most attractive form of immortality. As well as philosophical questions about what constitutes “life” or “living”, the novel asks how the investment in technology’s potential to extend life—as in Google’s "Forever" project—might influence the role it plays in society.
Fellowship
Friendship is a central concern of the novel and what Deckle calls Clay’s resourcefulness is firmly rooted in his ability to draw on the help and expertise of his friends. Kat, Neel, Mat, Oliver and even Penumbra all play an important role in enabling Clay to decode the codex vitae. The theme of friendship is also connected to that of immortality in the novel. Griffo Gerritszoon’s final message, decoded by Clay, thanks Manutius for his friendship, which “has been the key to everything” (277). Not only was their friendship key to deciphering Manutius’s book, but as Gerritszoon’s message suggests, their friendship was also key to Gerritszoon’s life and his ability to create a typeface that would become his legacy to the world. Interestingly, the Unbroken Spine is frequently referred to as a “fellowship” and this provides allows for an interesting comparison between the kind of fellowship that exists in that organization and in Clay’s “quest party”. The leader of the Unbroken Spine, Corvina was once a close friend of Penumbra’s but their relationship has deteriorated to the point that Corvina threatens to burn Penumbra’s codex vitae and expel him from the fellowship. Members of the Unbroken Spine are brought together by a shared interest in books and a desire for immortality and this seems to leave them vulnerable to internal conflict. The members of Clay’s party, on the other hand, are brought together by true friendship which ultimately, the novel suggests, contributes to their success, both in solving the mystery of Manutius’s book and after.
