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Little Eyes

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A visionary novel about the collision of technology and play, horror and humanity, from a master of the spine-tingling tale.

They've infiltrated homes in Hong Kong, shops in Vancouver, the streets of Senegal, town squares of Oaxaca, schools in Tel Aviv, bedrooms in Ohio. They're following you. They're everywhere now. They're us.

In Samanta Schweblin's wildly imaginative new novel, Little Eyes, "kentukis" have gone viral across the globe. They're little mechanical stuffed animals that have cameras for eyes, wheels for feet, and are connected to an anonymous global server. Owners of kentukis have the eyes of a stranger in their home and a cute squeaking pet following them; or you can be the kentuki and voyeuristically spend time in someone else's life, controlling the creature with a few keystrokes. Through kentukis, a jaded Croatian hustler stumbles into a massive criminal enterprise and saves a life in Brazil, a lonely old woman in Peru becomes fascinated with a young woman and her louche lover in Germany, and a motherless child in Antigua finds a new virtual family and experiences snow for the first time in Norway.

These creatures can reveal the beauty of connection between farflung souls - but they also expose the ugly humanity of our increasingly linked world. Trusting strangers can lead to unexpected love and marvelous adventure, but what happens when the kentukis pave the way for unimaginable terror?

256 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2018

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About the author

Samanta Schweblin

44 books2,910 followers
Samanta Schweblin was chosen as one of the 22 best writers in Spanish under the age of 35 by Granta. She is the author of three story collections that have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Juan Rulfo Story Prize, and been translated into 20 languages. Fever Dream is her first novel and is longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize. Originally from Buenos Aires, she lives in Berlin.

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5 stars
3,372 (17%)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 3,112 reviews
Profile Image for Franco  Santos.
483 reviews1,428 followers
October 14, 2018
En una parte del libro, una madre se pregunta, refiriéndose a los kentukis, si su hijo prefería tener uno o ser uno. Me parece que en esta pregunta se centra el libro, y lo que divide a la sociedad de la novela en dos mitades: los que son y los que tienen, los que invaden y los invadidos, los que acompañan y los acompañados. En la sociedad de Kentukis, las relaciones entre estos robots vestidos de animalitos de peluche y sus dueños son mucho más profundas de lo que uno cabría suponer al principio, porque los personajes de Kentukis no solo son o tienen kentukis por curiosidad, sino por necesidad, por su soledad y una búsqueda de un vínculo puro y sin demasiados matices. Esto creo que es el punto más fuerte del libro. Las interacciones entre los personajes y las máquinas están correctamente construidas, y el relato me entretuvo hasta el final.

Pero acá entramos al punto negativo: opino que a Kentukis le juega en contra la cantidad de personajes. Jamás pude conectar con lo que Schweblin me estaba contando. La idea es buena, quizá no innovadora, pero cómo la autora la trató es llamativo. No obstante, esta polifonía provocó que el libro se concentrara más en la idea que en sus personajes, lo que a mi parecer le juega muy en contra. Kentukis, en vez de ser una obra sobre una relación compleja entre una persona con un robot remotamente manejado por otra, terminó siendo una premisa extendida por más de doscientas páginas sin ningún sentido, porque esta premisa queda clara en las primeras veinte. Hay en algunos arcos argumentales, como en la trama de Enzo o en el 60 % de la de Alina, esbozos de lo que hubiera sido una gran historia, pero esta quedó sofocada entre muchas otras subtramas que no dejaban que las mejores se formaran y liberaran todo su potencial.

De todos modos, Kentukis es un buen libro para pasar el rato, ameno y rápido. Un par de conclusiones me gustaron mucho y la escritura de Schweblin, si bien a veces me resultó un tanto cortada y simplificada, se deja leer. Recomendado.
Profile Image for Orsodimondo.
2,265 reviews2,135 followers
July 2, 2021
IL PICCOLO GRANDE FRATELLO PELUCHE


La foto di copertina di Anastasiia Vaninen.

Finalista al Premio Gregor von Rezzori, che magari non sarà molto importante, ma c’è dietro il gusto e la sensibilità di Andrea Bajani, che lo ha presentato dialogando con Samanta Schweblin in una diretta streaming su Facebook durante il lockdown. E io i consigli di Andrea Bajani finora li ho trovati sempre interessanti.



All’inizio ho faticato: non sono un fan della letteratura fantastica. E anche questa sorta di distopia ha faticato a catturarmi.
Anche perché inizialmente sembrava più una raccolta di racconti sullo stesso argomento, i kentuki, e mi ha fatto venire in mente quella serie televisiva antologica di successo, Black Mirror, della quale non sono appassionato.



Ma poi, la qualità della scrittura, i personaggi che si ripresentano, e crescono via via, il fatto che si finisce a empatizzare sia per gli umani che per le macchine, la cura sottile con cui Schweblin entra nella psicologia sia dei kentuki che di chi li acquista che di chi li manovra… Tutti aspetti che mi hanno fatto godere e amare la lettura.



Ma in fondo, se uno non sceglie i propri genitori, né i fratelli, e nemmeno i propri cani e gatti, perché dovrebbe avere la libertà di scegliere da che parte di un kentuki stare?

Da che parte di un kentuki stare: chi lo compra ne diviene il “padrone” – può affezionarsi al peluche come a un animale domestico. E infatti, non per niente, i kentuki si presentano in sembianza animale: oca, corvo, drago, coniglio, topo, eccetera.
Ma per esistere un kentuki ha bisogno sia del “padrone” che di un’altra persona all’altro terminale: la persona che diviene il kentuki, l’essere kentuki, che lo aziona, gestisce, segue, umanizza.


Nel bel film “Her” di Spike Jonze del 2013 Joaquim Phoenix s’innamora del suo sistema operativo che ha la voce irresistibile di Scarlett Johansson.

”Essere” kentuki è una condizione molto più intensa. Se l’anonimato in rete rappresentava la massima libertà di ogni utente – e per di più un privilegio al quale ormai era quasi impossibile aspirare -, che effetto poteva fare essere anonimi nella vita di qualcun altro?

Chi è kentuki, oltre al fascino dell’anonimato, ha il privilegio (privilegio?) di poter assistere e seguire la vita di un altro essere umano in un’altra parte del mondo. La vita del padrone del kentuki.
E quindi, titilla il voyeurismo che è in noi. Guardati e guardoni.
E quindi, il fascino delle vite degli altri. Vite che non sono le nostre.
Nell’epoca dell’interconnessione c’è sempre qualcuno che spia e qualcun altro che recita. Come i vetri-specchi degli interrogatori di polizia.


Nel bel film “Ex Machina” di Alex Garland del 2014 il robot ha le magnifiche sembianze di Alicia Vikander.

Non poi così distopico, non poi così fantasy, se si considera la mania collettiva di qualche anno fa per i tamagochi o i pokémon. E poi, in fondo, i kentucki sono umani alle due estremità: c’è un essere umano che li acquista e li accoglie in casa propria, e ce n’è un altro che siede al terminale, vuoi cellulare vuoi tablet, e lo manovra. Bene o male è un bel progresso.


A.I.”, il film sull’intelligenza artificiale che Kubrick non è riuscito a fare, ma Spielberg sì.
Profile Image for Henk.
919 reviews
February 7, 2021
A bleak mix of Chat Roulette, webcams, Furby and Big Brother

More interesting as a concept/blurb than in execution in my view. The concept of Little Eyes revolves on fictional Kantuki's, a kind of mobile Furby's that have a build in internet connection and camera's. These gadgets (that are packaged as iPhones and retail at USD 280) have profound, and universally negative in this book, effect on both the people they are present with and the observers at the other side of the camera's.
All the woman in the first chapters have tenuous relations with men, be it sons, unknown observers in the Kentuki or artistic boyfriends.
The new technology is a vessel to project things upon, a legal grey zone to make money from, something to combat loneliness but also a device to enforce entrenched privileges of the young and interesting. The reaction remind me off the giddiness surrounding social media and the smartphone when I grew up in the early 2000's, but the negative payoff that any technology has inherently are clearly the focus of Samanta Schweblin.

There are some odd uncommercial side terms, like a link being severed after the battery running out once and I had the general question how people could have the time to use their Kentuki, especially if the timezones are different. Why are people so crazy by anonymously being a voyeur to people they don’t even know? And so cruel in some cases? I mean, just disconnect (easier said than done when I reflect on my relation with a smartphone) and get on with your own life you'd want to screen to the characters.

Maybe this book would have worked better if the stories are told in one flow after each other instead of in over 30 small chapters, making you forget the earlier parts before they return. The theme is clearly the same as The Circle of Dave Eggers, but the fragmented approach, combined with the bleakness that hits every character in the book (on par with the strong eat the weak world of Oryx and Crake of Margaret Atwood) made me not very much enjoy this book. Somewhere halfway a character reflects why no one uses the Kentuki for a terrorist attack but the collateral damage in all of the narratives is already hard to stomach in some ways. Another objection I had was the limited couleur locale, with Zagreb, Antigua, Erfurt, Lima just being cardboard backgrounds to bored characters who want to escape their lives in a globalised cyber world.

In the end Schweblin has a clear, but unappealing, if probably true, message on the relation between human longing for contact versus our exploitative streak.
Profile Image for s.penkevich.
1,141 reviews8,985 followers
April 7, 2023
[F]or the first time she wondered, with a fear that threatened to break her, whether she was standing on a world that it was ever possible to escape.

Dr. Sherry Turkle has an anecdote she likes to tell about the moment she went from advocating for technology as an advancement for socialization to distrusting its benefits. Turkle escorted her class to a local long-term care facility where robotic pets that could react to human emotions were assigned to the elderly residents to provide company. As she watched people confiding their life stories and having an intimate friendship with these pets, she realized in horror that this was a disservice to people and that they deserved authentic emotions and care. Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin (wonderfully translated by Megan McDowell) feels like the natural progression in electronic pets from what Turkle describes with her newest novel comprising of a dozen or so narratives all surrounding a new invention: the Kentukis. The kentuki is an electronic pet with two ways to play. An owner can purchase the robot and allow it to live with them but on the other side of the camera eyes is a dweller: a person who purchases an activation account that allows them to control a kentuki. Nobody can pick who they are assigned and so now there is a social network of human on their computers dwelling as pets in homes all over the world. The concept is simple and rather believable. Where her earlier novel Fever Dream was a tension-building triumph of eco-horror, Little Eyes tackles the psychological traumas of technology in a way akin to something like the series Black Mirror. The horror in Little Eyes comes from how grounded in reality it seems as she examines all the ways this can, and inevitably will, go poorly and how this all plays into human psychology of loneliness and social media addiction when one opens themselves up to trust another person they do not know. Schweblin makes you feel like this is plausibly already happening all around you.

Technology is seductive when what it offers meets our human vulnerabilities,’ writes Turkle in her book Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, ‘and as it turns out, we are very vulnerable indeed.’ The way technology affects our mental health and well-being is a topic of frequent study as humanity plunges itself deeper into social reliance on the connectivity offered by technology. In the past few months of 2020 we’ve seen an abrupt global reliance on video conferencing in order to continue functioning as a society and reports have trickled in around the world about the privacy risks associated with use and the vulnerabilities we open up existing in a social media network.

Despite the warnings and frequent news of stalking, bullying, catfishing and other dangers when we engage in digital communities, people continue to become more invested in online platforms and are sharing more personal information at an exponential rate. This is the perfect realistic setting for Schweblin’s world of the kentukis. Opening with a stand-alone anecdote where three teen girls in South Bend, Indiana are blackmailed by their kentuki who has recorded footage of them nude as well as of their parents and sister, Schweblin launches into an array of stories all rotating in short bursts of people’s experiences with the new toy. We see locations all over the world to remind us of the vastness of social media we welcome into our homes whenever we share personal information online, and here are people quite literally inviting strangers into their homes to live with them. The stories are well nuanced and varied, such as a lonely, aging woman given an account by her son, a woman who purchases one as a companion as she feels increasingly distant from her artist boyfriend, a man hoping to use kentuki’s as a get-rich-quick scheme, a young boy who simply wants to touch snow or a recently divorced dad instructed by a therapist to get a kentuki for the well-being of his son. Schewblin keeps the narrative focus on only one side of each kentuki, leaving the reader to dwell within the same mysteries of what is occurring on the other side of the camera as each character. In turn, she probes the psychological state of each character and the way their experience with the kentukis can affect their lives.

There have been studies that do promote technology as a way to benefit our lives and well-being, such as a 2013 study at the University of Auckland in New Zealand that found electronic pets--such as the PARO therapeutic robot described by Turkle--have shown to assuage loneliness in elderly patients in long-term care facilities. Other studies have show that playtime with a digital pet shows an increased level of empathy and responsibility in children. Turkle herself was originally a big proponent for increased technology use as a benefit to socialization. However, there have been numerous studies, such as one conducted at the University of Michigan and others around the world showing that increased social media use leads to both less moment-to-moment happiness and less life satisfaction. Moderation might be key here, as the more a user, for example, scrolls Facebook per day, the more it exacerbate mental health problems such as anxiety and depression and leads to a feeling of perceived-isolation despite being more connected with others. This perceived-isolation is almost like self-gaslighting and increases stress hormones that can cause illness and premature death.

Much like the short stories of Ted Chiang (who also has a novella, The Lifecycle of Software Objects, dealing with the psychology of digital pets and attachment), Schweblin never takes anything to an extreme but instead plays out each narrative like a thought experiment to it’s natural conclusions. Most of what occurs for the first half of the novel is fairly mundane but really grips the reader in the mental states of each character and constructs very realistic scenarios. Horror stories and wonders about kentukis mostly occur as snippets of information people hear on the news or tell each other, which helps to build a feeling for each character that “these are things that happen to other people, not me,” which is a very natural stance to take in the real world when we hear about social media traumas yet continue to use it as normal. 'Why were the stories about kentukis so small, so minutely intimate, stingy, and predictable' one character wonders, so desperately human and quotidian.' We hear about pedophiles using them for mischievous purposes and one character even discovers there are online pornography communities revolving around kentukis. An interesting theme Schweblin plays with is one of boundaries and how establishing them or not has an effect on each narrative. We see some people who create ways of communication (kentukis have no way of communicating beyond yelps and purrs) such as ouija boards or simply writing down their email/phone number for the kentuki and establishing a further connection. There are some, such as the young girl in Germany we watch through the eyes of a kentuki dweller, who prefer to have as little contact opportunities as possible.

These boundaries are great natural examples of the way people set parental controls or may limit what they share on social media, but while some of the book concerns how lack of boundaries can turn tragic, other aspects show how even despite boundaries a person can come to be violated. Additionally, Schweblin looks at the ways we let our guard down as more and more becomes normalized in our lives. When things begin to go bad--and they very much do--it is easy to shake your head and say they invited that in. 'If there were abuses by some kentukis,' a character muses right before she realizes how deep she herself is in, 'it was only because of their keepers' negligence. Boundaries were really the foundation of these relationships.' But that is exactly the point, we slowly slip until we’ve become trapped in a cage of our own making. The progressions in each narrative feel natural and earned, and we watch the ways kentuki use can become addictive, lead to feelings of isolation or questioning of self-worth and the ways the toy becomes otherwise invasive toward personal space and mental health.

The last segment of the novel is deeply disturbing and Schweblin makes good on her promises of terror that she established in her earlier work. You will genuinely feel for these people and come to question how society so easily walks into these snares. On ending in particular is extraordinarily shocking. Not quite a twist ending as much as catching you off guard by subverting what you think you know, Schweblin unveils a small detail that left me gasping. The brilliance is that as you read it you can only trust the information given to you (she doesn’t even pull an unreliable narrator trick) and the twist makes you realize how misconceptions or assumptions can have tragic outcomes. Who is on the other side of these toys and for what purpose? I found myself saying out loud “oh fuck, no no no no” when the moment hit. Schweblin expertly strings the reader along into a feeling of complicity and the effect is pulled off remarkably well.

While not as white-knuckle gripping as Fever Dreams or quite as elusive and surreal as Mouthful of Birds: Stories, Little Eyes is a successful examination of social media and the ways it consumes our life and leads us to the slaughter. Trigger warnings here include stalking, sexual assault, pedophilia, and child abuse, so reader be warned this book gets into some uncomfortable material. The real magic and terror is the way this book is so completely believable, so much so that if you saw a kentuki at the store tomorrow it wouldn’t even surprise you. Little Eyes is an addicting psychological horror that will leave you questioning your own complicity in social media.

3.5 / 5

'How did this nightmare disconnect?'
Profile Image for julieta.
1,210 reviews28.2k followers
October 10, 2018
Me encanta Samantha Shweblin, y no debe ser fácil, con tanta expectativa por un libro nuevo suyo, hacer algo que guste a todo el mundo. El problema es que hizo un libro como de Todo El Mundo. En otras palabras, una historia global, que abarca gente desde Oaxaca, hasta Hong Kong, hasta Alemania, y Croacia. No es fácil hacer eso y salir airosa me parece, y el resultado es algo un poco superficial, que tiene algo de suspenso, (ella es tremenda con el suspenso!!), pero con tonos de Black Mirror, que parece querer abarcar tanto, que se queda en la idea. No entiendo lo que está queriendo hacer (es ciencia ficción? es suspenso?), y el problema es que pasé gran parte del libro tratando de entenderlo, ya sé! es error mío, no lo digo en contra del libro, sino en contra mío.
No puedo decir que hay algún personaje que me haya gustado, o con el-la que haya conectado, en realidad tampoco es que ella sea una escritora de grandes personajes, pero sí me faltó aterrizar en alguna parte, no en tantas ciudades, personajes, que veías por un momento y pasaban, siguiendo a la Idea.
Lo bueno es que esta novela parece ser un paso más en su búsqueda, y ella me sigue pareciendo una escritora interesante, pero este libro llega con mucho peso por la expectativa, así que el próximo lo leo más tranquila.
Profile Image for El Librero de Valentina.
297 reviews22.7k followers
April 5, 2019
Este es el primer libro que leo de esta escritora y ¡wow! He escuchado comentario increíbles de sus obras anteriores y estoy segura de quererlas leer, pero este libro plantea un problema real, nuestra relación con la tecnología y todo lo que esto con lleva.
Me gustó mucho, disfruté todas las historias, sin embargo, me hubiera gustado conocer más a fondo a ciertos personajes y su relación con los kentukis, aún así devoré el libro y lo disfrute enormemente.
Profile Image for Lark Benobi.
Author 1 book2,634 followers
April 10, 2021
I was crushed by this story. Every reasonably nice person in the story--every person who has a shred of faith in humanity--gets humiliated, disillusioned, abused, or put in danger, and in the most repulsive way possible.

I love books that don't hold back, but with a caveat: I need these books to hold out a thread of hope, somewhere in the story, that people are worth caring about. Otherwise what's the point? Why read? Why anything?

And now inside my head I'm arguing with myself and thinking of the mean, cynical, or hopeless reads that I don't feel repulsed by. Take for instance The Stranger by Camus. But in that novel, you see, I can hold myself apart from the novel's harsh judgments about humanity, and I can see the narrator Meursault as a hideous outsider rather than a typical person. Little Eyes doesn't let me escape the conclusion that all human beings are either sadistic torturers or worthless victims.

Schweblin's former novel Fever Dream is a masterpiece of suspense horror precisely because of the goodness of the mother at its center: she is trying her best to save her child from danger, in a chaotic and horrific world, and precisely because she's a good person her failure is horrific, and I feel deeply connected to her terror and her humanity. An incredible novel.

Little Eyes is just as well written--there are so many scenes of exquisite discomfort and actual horror--but the premise of the book is empty and cynical.
Profile Image for Meike.
1,658 reviews3,503 followers
February 28, 2020
Now Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020
Split in short chapters set in different parts of the world, "Little Eyes" is a techno dystopia just one step away from our current world of smart devices that are potentially spying on us (like Alexa and other electronic gadgets that record and process language and images). In Schweblin's text, the new craze is called kentukis, small electronic animals that look cute and are equipped with a camera and a long-distance control option so they can roll around and utter sounds. The crux: The owner of the physical kentuki, the "keeper", is monitored by and interacts with the person who owns the control option and steers the kentuki, the "dweller" - thus strangers are randomly connected, and the dweller learns about the most intimate habits of the keeper.

The novel plays out this scenario in different countries, illustrating different motivations and situations of keepers and dwellers, young and old, male and female. As readers, we witness (not unlike kentukis) scenes in Croatia, Ohio, Hong Kong, Senegal, Peru, Brazil, Oaxaca, Antigua, Norway, Germany, Tel Aviv, Vancouver - a panopticum of places we visit and re-visit, of plotlines that emerge, converge, diverge. As the kentukis become more and more popular all over the world, they are put to different uses, and business-savvy individuals start to sell customized connections where people can choose who they will be connected with - for better or worse, with or without the consent of the keeper. The themes of the book are apparent: Surveillance, the atomization of society, digital counterlives, all the things we are talking about today.

So the basic idea of "Little Eyes" is certainly good and I also enjoy disparate texts, but after the elaborate exposition, I expected a more exciting, more challenging story arc and more narrative drive. Schweblin takes us through rather predictable developments and constellations, and the outcome isn't bad, but it's also not particularly exciting. Compared to, let's say GRM: Brainfuck which also discusses the repercussions of surveillance and digital alienation, the novel remains tame.

All in all, a good book, but nothing groundbreaking.
Profile Image for Gala.
420 reviews1 follower
October 15, 2018
1.5
Cero profundidad en la trama. Cero profundidad en los personajes.
Dice Schweblin que pensó Kentukis "desde el principio como una novela".
Como novela, se queda corta.
Como antología de cuentos, más corta aún.
Se queda en una idea inicial (que tampoco es tan buena ni tan original) que intenta desarrollar a partir de muchos (excesivos) personajes. El texto termina siendo un híbrido, porque con ese abanico de voces produce más confusión que empatía.
De hecho, ni siquiera encontré algo de calidad en la prosa. No recordaba que su escritura fuera tan superficial.
Parece un libro escrito porque sí, solo para publicar. Para rellenar ese vacío de cuatro años después de la publicación de Distancia de rescate.
La trama se extiende sin sentido alguno. Se hace larguísima, interminable, aburrida.
Lo terminé sin entender nada.
Me siento estafada.
Me aparecen noticias de Samanta Schweblin por todos lados.
¿Marketing, quizás?
Profile Image for Jennifer Welsh.
271 reviews293 followers
December 7, 2020
3.5

Instead of the dark, hazy atmosphere of Schweblin’s "Mouthful of Birds" and "Fever Dream," her newest work engulfs the reader in the bright white of technology and its packaging. In alternating, episodic threads that are bound by a new social phenomenon, Schweblin explores a world reminiscent of Big Brother’s; but this time we enter knowingly into a dynamic where we choose to be either watched or watching.

I preferred the worlds of her former works, and was therefore disappointed in this one, but she still plays here with tenuous relationships, and feeling unsettled.

If you like speculative fiction, it’s worth the read.
Profile Image for Ana Cristina Lee.
703 reviews291 followers
November 17, 2021
En una época en que las mascotas son una parte importante de la sociedad y en muchos casos substituyen a la relación con otros, los kentukis de Samanta Schweblin son una poderosa metáfora. Esta especie de peluches que siguen al amo por la casa, son especiales porque llevan una cámara a través de la cual otra persona observa, anónima, desconocida. Hay un acuerdo entre ambos, el observador y el observado, pero no se conocen ni pueden – o no deben – entrar en contacto. Sólo contemplar y ser contemplado.

La gente pagaba para que la siguieran como un perro el día entero, querían a alguien real mendigando sus miradas.

Para otros el kentuki era una manera de indagar en el enigma de las vidas ajenas, incluso de conocer el mundo:

Era un sitio humilde, casi al límite de lo aceptable, pero el paisaje era agradable y la familia se veía pintoresca, siempre habría europeos de clase alta dispuestos a circular sus instintos filantrópicos por países demasiado incómodos para ser visitados al estilo tradicional.

A partir de esta premisa, que de alguna manera nos recuerda la constante exposición de nuestra privacidad en las redes sociales, la autora desarrolla todos los aspectos posibles a través de diferentes historias que se van alternando. Y creo que logra explorar todos los rincones con mucha imaginación, a pesar de que el tema pueda parecer ya sabido.

Formas de estar solo y formas de estar acompañado; cuando hay interacción humana de cualquier tipo el amor o el dolor o ambos son la consecuencia inevitable. Hay una variedad de historias, pero siempre subyace una soledad primordial, muy difícil de combatir. En el libro las relaciones entre padres e hijos o entre la pareja generan más soledad que compañía y los kentukis son un objeto de consumo destinado a aliviar el desamparo en las formas más insospechadas.

Me han gustado los personajes: el padre separado, la mujer mayor solitaria, el niño castigado por su padre, la novia del artista… todos ellos están bien dibujados y nos hacen partícipes de su lucha por conseguir afecto. También las situaciones son muy variadas y algunas de ellas nos acercan al terror cotidiano, género en el que Samanta se mueve con destreza. La globalización también está presente en toda la novela, como un espejo de las relaciones aleatorias que establecemos a través de Internet, en que la localización geográfica ha dejado de ser importante.

En conjunto, una obra interesante, original en algunos planteamientos y muy bien escrita.
Profile Image for ally.
87 reviews5,677 followers
Read
August 16, 2022
so unique. so thought provoking. if you like the show ‘black mirror’ you’ll like this book.

i’m convinced that schweblin will never flop!
Profile Image for Mark  Porton.
468 reviews553 followers
January 13, 2024
A Kentuki is a small toy-like appliance. A couple of feet high, looks like a panda, or a mole, or a crow (there are other types). You buy one for a few hundred euros, you take it home and charge it. It has three wheels on its base, some have appendages like wings, they all have eyes – and in my minds eye, they look a bit cute. If you buy one of these you’re called a keeper. But you can’t control it.

Another person, perhaps sitting in a room in another country purchase the licence/software for your device and taps into your kentuki. This person is then able to control your kentuki, they don’t know you and vice versa. They start moving the kentuki, looking through the eyes of your kentuki and even making adorable noises. There is no other obvious way to communicate. The person ‘inhabiting’ your kentuki is a dweller. In effect you have a stranger roaming around your home.

Some keepers get very attached to their kentukis, they love them like pets and everything is cosy. Also, some dwellers, have a whale of a time – they get to see another part of the world, experience the life of someone living in a different country. Happy days.

If you’re reading this review – what would you rather be a kentuki keeper or a dweller. Please choose one. If I had to choose, as both have their issues – I’d probably be a keeper.

This offering by the clever Samanta Schweblin is a riveting read. Chapters are titles as locations (e.g. Beijing – Lyon). Indicating the location of the keeper and the dweller. We follow the stories of the kentukis, dwellers and keepers throughout the book.

Believe me, I became very attached to a couple of these bloody kentukis. To the point of feeling distraught when one was mistreated, even worse when one died. I was also horrified when a dweller ‘had’ to witness something terrible, imagine that!! Made all the worse because of the difficulty to make contact. This was book offers one helluva a ride.

This is a play on social media and the blurring of our personal boundaries when communicating with those we don’t know, this never happens on Goodreads of course, because we all love each other and are all sound people. But, there are dark places and dodgy people on-line as we know (including the occasional ‘Goodreader’ of course), they’re everywhere. The level of interaction and observation offered by kentukis offers something new, something more intimate. It’s also not regulated. How come us humans are so good at implementing new things and then we scramble to regulate the nefarious impacts of these initiatives? Vaping and online gambling come to mind.

I have read only one of Schweblin’s books before, Fever Dream (5 Stars!), that was also an emotional experience, scary. Review here Fever Dream. I really like this author and will certainly read more of her work; she has the ability to make a reader squirm.

4 Stars (almost 5)
Profile Image for Paul Fulcher.
Author 2 books1,468 followers
March 23, 2020
I was a huge fan of Fever Dream , translated by Megan McDowell from Samanta Schweblin's original, which was my favourite book on the 2017 International Booker longlist. And I also appreciated the short-story collection A Mouthful of Birds from the same duo, from the 2019 International Booker.

But to me the strength of these books was the unique sense of unease they created by their skillful navigation of what literary critic Todorov calls the fantastic - the narrow middle ground between a rational explanation of seemingly supernatural events and pure fantasy.

In Little Eyes that sense is absent - there is nothing fantastical, but rather a straightforward exploration of a possible near-term technological evolution: Kentukis, a sort of Furby-like companion except they are controlled by another person, initially a random stranger as the connection between the "keeper" and the "dweller" is assigned randomly when first activated.

The animal’s camera was installed behind its eyes, and sometimes it spun around on the three wheels hidden in its base, moving forward or backward. Someone was controlling the creature from somewhere else, and they didn’t know who it was. The animal looked like a simple and artless plush panda bear, though really it was more similar to a football with one end sliced off so it could stand upright.

The kentuki could decide not to answer
[as to the identity of the dweller], or it could lie. It could say it was a Filipina schoolgirl when it was actually an Iranian oil dealer. But she had to show it her entire life, transparently, as available as she’d been to the poor canary she’d had as a teenager that had died watching her, hanging in its cage in the middle of her room.

The novel explores the potential implications of this via a series of short chapters, with 3-4 parallel stories that recur throughout e.g. one of a person who attempts to corner the market in second-hand Kentukis, aimed at dwellers wanting more choice over their keeper, and another where a Kentuki liberation front develops. Interspersed are some one-off stories.

Slightly disappointingly the parallel stories don't converge, and the back-stories of characters that appears in them (e.g. a divorced father and his son) are not (in the pages available) really developed sufficiently for us to become emotionally invested. That said, I did appreciate that Schweblin does use the Kentuki device to effectively explore personal themes (e.g. loneliness and isolation), rather than trying to write a dystopian future where Kentukis have a society-wide impact.

What was the whole stupid idea of the kentukis about? What were all those people doing rolling around on other people’s floors, watching how the other half of humanity brushed their teeth? Why didn’t anyone collude with kentukis to hatch truly brutal plots? Why didn’t anyone send a kentuki loaded with explosives into a crowded central station and blow it all to smithereens? Why didn’t any kentuki user blackmail an air traffic controller and force him to immolate five planes in Frankfurt in exchange for his daughter’s life? Why didn’t even one single user out of the thousands who must be moving at that very moment over truly important papers take note of some crucial detail and break the Wall Street markets, or hack into some software network and make all the elevators fall simultaneously in a dozen skyscrapers? Why wasn’t there a single miserable morning when thousands of consumers woke up dead from a simple bucket of lithium poured into a Brazilian milk factory?

Why were the stories about kentukis so small, so minutely intimate, stingy, and predictable? So desperately human and quotidian.


3 stars. Worth its place on the longlist but not close to shortlist material.
Profile Image for Eric Anderson.
694 reviews3,492 followers
March 28, 2020
While there have been many think pieces about the potential joys, pitfalls and dangers of our social media age, I haven’t read much fiction which imaginatively and realistically tackles these issues. “Little Eyes” presents a society where mechanical stuffed animals called “kentukis” become a new craze for people around the world – from an idle boy in Antigua to a pensive artist’s wife in Oaxaco to a lonely old woman in Lima. The cute mechanized animals are fitted with a camera which links to an anonymous controller or “dweller” who voyeuristically watches the life of the owner or “keeper”. Samanta Schweblin puts her characteristic dark spin on this story as a series of characters find themselves entangled in connections which spiral out of control and threaten to overwhelm them.

It feels entirely plausible that this is a device which would catch on and become a thing. It's like a cross between reality TV, social media apps and a robotic pet. The characters are initially confused about why they want to either own a kentukis or inhabit one, but they're drawn to it out of curiosity and gradually find themselves addicted. The anonymous connections they create introduce power plays between keepers and dwellers. It's clever how the novel shows hidden aspects of the characters' personalities emerging through their interactions with the devices in surprising and unforeseen ways. Some might become exhibitionistic or needy or amorous or jealous or even sadistic.

Read my full review of Little Eyes by Samanta Schweblin on LonesomeReader
Profile Image for Mon.
284 reviews213 followers
December 12, 2021
y por primera vez se preguntó, con un miedo que casi podría quebrarla, si estaba de pie sobre un mundo del que realmente se pudiera escapar.

Los Kentukis son mascotas a control remoto que tienen la curiosa característica de que, desde la pequeña cámara instalada en sus ojos, un extraño de carne y hueso puede ver todo lo que se le permite ver de la intimidad de tu hogar una vez adquieres uno.

El cuento es distinto a lo que he leído (hasta ahora) de Schweblin, pero no por eso es menos bueno. Su talento al retratar la naturaleza humana, convertir lo cotidiano en algo más y hacerte sentir que no estás entendiendo todo, se mantiene.

El acuerdo es mutuo y claro: todo aquél que se compra un Kentuki sabe que del otro lado de la cámara hay una persona que tendrá acceso a su privacidad. Y los que pagan para ser Kentukis saben que no pueden elegir a su amo, que esto se hará el azar y bien puede ser alguien completamente aburrido como alguien súper interesante. Una vez completado el proceso, la única forma de romper el vínculo es echando a perder el Kentuki (en cuyo caso no hay devoluciones).

Se nos plantea la pregunta de si preferimos poseer o ser poseídos y cómo, pese a lo bonito que puede sonar cualquiera de las dos, al final ambas son igual de destructivas. También experimentamos desde un ángulo más oscuro lo que, en cierto modo, es una realidad: nuestra casi inexistente privacidad.

La historia cuenta con varios personajes, ninguno más importante que otro, están tan bien acomodados en la historia general del cuento que a veces es difícil diferenciar uno del otro. Supongo que tratándose de otro autor este detalle me parecería un defecto, pero en los libros de Schweblin ya lo encuentro como un sello de su autoría, además de que esto (la similitud entre personajes) nos ayuda a ver como aún viviendo situaciones completamente diferentes, seguimos siendo todos tan parecidos, actuando de cierta forma y pensando ciertas cosas.

Tenemos a una anciana que no tenía idea de lo que era un Kentuki hasta que su hijo decidió convertirla en uno; un padre que se obsesiona con el Kentuki de su hijo trayendo terribles consecuencias a su familia; un hombre que se dedica a violar los términos y condiciones de los Kentukis, un niño que solo quiere ver nevar y una mujer joven casada con un hombre distante que adquiere un Kentuki por puro capricho y termina metida en la situación más frustrante de su vida.

Como de costumbre, la autora no se detiene en describir detalle a detalle las cosas feas. En este libro se toca el único tema que odio leer: abuso infantil (nunca me recomienden un libro con esa temática o los odiaré también a ustedes), y sin embargo no me fue tan mal (tampoco tan bien), Schweblin se limita a insinuar las cosas y deja que tú, como lector, imagine hasta dónde quiera o pueda. Esto la diferencia mucho de los autores latinos que he leído hasta el momento, quienes se regocijan en la crueldad humana a tal punto que puedes encontrarte páginas enteras describiendo minuciosamente cada detalle perturbador. Para mí, la falta de descripciones es un punto a favor porque, como seguramente algunos ya habrán notado, soy una lectora vaga, así que tener la tarea de imaginar las cosas por mi cuenta es perfecto para que no se me vayan los ojos lejos de las páginas.

Sin embargo, creo que este es uno de esos libros de los que solo lees una vez y luego recuerdas con buen sabor de boca pero sin ánimos de releerlo (por eso no le doy 5, sino 4.5). Este libro, en gran medida, le debe su encanto al factor sorpresa, leerlo una segunda vez solo serviría para comprender mejor por qué los personajes hacen lo que hacen. Estoy satisfecha con el formato, creo que de haberse alargado más habría perdido gran parte de su esencia, pero en lo personal me quedé con ganas de saber qué sucedió con el personaje que nos introduce al oscuro mundo donde los Kentukis son tan comunes como una Alexa.
Profile Image for Maxwell.
1,235 reviews9,871 followers
May 12, 2021
Imagine you put a webcam on a Furby and let it roam around your house for someone, somewhere else in the world, to control. That's the premise of Samanta Schweblin's odd, disturbing and compelling novel, Little Eyes

The novel mainly follows "keepers" and "dwellers" of a new technology called a 'kentuki.' It retails for $279 and is marketed much like an Apple product.

Keepers are those that keep a kentuki (webcam Furby) in their home. Dwellers access the technology within the kentuki from their own computer, controlling the small creature—some shaped like crows, others like moles, dragons or bunnies.

The catch? Each kentuki only has one life. If it fails to stay charged up or something damages it too severely, the lifeline between the keeper and dweller is cut and can never be restored. These randomized relationships are precious, much like real human connections. But they are limited; the keepers can speak to the kentuki for the dweller to hear, but the dweller has no way of talking back unless the two come up with a particular way for the kentuki to communicate (perhaps through morse code or some other clever invention).

Like her previous two translated works, Little Eyes looks at life from a weird point of view. The novel is told in a unique way; we have around 5 main characters that are consistent throughout the book, as well as some one-off short stories that relate to the larger world but are self-contained chapters. Our main narrators live all across the world: Oaxaca, Zagreb, Lima, Antigua, and Umbertide. Then we have the short interludes that pop up in Sierra Leone, Mexico, Indiana, China, and more.

The novel is a slow burn. For the first half or more I was intrigued by the premise and learning to keep track of all the storylines which definitely kept me a bit outside of the narrative. But as the story progresses and you begin to see the implications this technology has on the world through the eyes of average human beings, it's like a car wreck on the side of the highway—you don't want to stare but can't look away.

While this book has its faults, mainly that the story is quite disjointed at times and doesn't necessarily culminate in the most satisfying conclusion, I was impressed. Schweblin is truly a standout, consistent writer. She raises such interesting questions in her work and is able to give me one of those "what did I just read?!" experiences without being totally lost.

I can see why this book wouldn't work for many people, and honestly I was a bit unsure about it for a while, but it came together for me by the end and will definitely leave me with a lot to think about.
Profile Image for Doug.
2,204 reviews771 followers
September 24, 2020
This is now Schweblin's third book to be translated into English, and most of my GR chums have deemed it the poorest of the three ... so naturally, I have to be the contrarian and say I enjoyed it much more than her previous efforts (both of which got a 3.5 rating from me, the first rounded down, the second rounded up). The book centers around kentuckis, a sort of AI amalgamation, or unholy offspring, of Alexa/Siri and the Tamagotchi craze of a few years back - animate animal-like pets that 'keepers' adopt, but that are controlled by 'dwellers' - strangers living usually halfway around the world, who monitor the kentucki's actions and interact with the owners in rather limited, voyeuristic ways.

The book contains five major storylines, which are chopped up and interspersed throughout the novel, as well as six single chapters that tell more concise snippets - usually just a single scene that shows a different angle on the phenomenon. I really WOULD have preferred if the stories had been separated out and completed at one sitting, as with my 'Mind Like a Sieve', it took me half the book before I could keep the stories straight in my mind, and often had to refer back to reorient myself at each new chapter.

Be that as it may, I found this to be a much more accessible and well-plotted book, than the lauded Fever Dream, which was evocative, but illusive to my understanding, or the more diffuse stories in her collection Mouthful of Birds. More in depth characterization, as well as some judicious pruning would have helped, but I was surprised at how much I really did enjoy this.

{PS - it always surprises me each time I am reminded the author writes in Spanish, since her name, and the fact she lives in Berlin, always makes me think she writes in German.}
Profile Image for A..
372 reviews48 followers
July 1, 2020
Tecnología, incomunicación y voyeurismo. La premisa me gustó ¿Nos reconocemos en esta sociedad de "Mírame y no me toques"? (Claro que sí, no sean mentirosos). El kentuki otorga acceso a la intimidad ajena. Y no sólo eso. Lo hace bajo la apariencia de un tierno peluche que, con dulce mirada (externa, al menos), recorre y ve todo lo que se le permita recorrer y ver. Y a veces, más. ¡Ah! Del otro lado de esos ojitos, hay un completo desconocido que "solo" quiere mirar...

Kentukis planea sobre la novela pero aterriza en el cuento. Es como una novela construida por cuentos sobre un mismo tema intercalados entre sí. Y esta dinámica se vuelve, por momentos, reiterativa y fatigosa. Cuentista al fin, Schweblin muestra que sabe de lo que sabe. Sus textos son una oda a la angustia psicológica pero con un lúcido sentido del humor, capaz de arrancar una carcajada incómoda y sincera.

¿Perturbadora? Sí ¿Lo mejor que leí de Schweblin? Creo que no ¿Un capítulo promedio de Black Mirror? Tal vez. ¿Una realidad muy próxima? ¡Uf! Espero que Samanta haya registrado la idea.
Profile Image for Roman Clodia.
2,592 reviews3,426 followers
March 31, 2020
There's a bold concept at the heart of this book: kentukis are furry surveillance devices that randomly connect the owner with someone somewhere who controls the device, sees through its eyes, and hears what the owner says, though it can't speak back (why not?). It's a shame, then, that such a suggestive scenario doesn't go beyond the easily expected. Like internet devices everywhere, kentukis allow some people to make connections, enable fraud, bullying and sexploitation - all things we're familiar with even if not dressed up in a cute, furry way.

The concerns about interacting with and through technology, privacy, and surveillance are up-to-the minute but the treatment merely skims the surface. We don't even really know why anyone would buy an expensive device that costs $279 when its only function is to let a random stranger from anywhere in the world have eyes and ears in one's home: puzzling, and a limitation that the book doesn't really tackle this as it made me resistant to the set-up.

So great concept but it doesn't really go anywhere - I wanted, and expected, so much more than I got. How great is that cover, though?

Thanks to the publisher for an ARC via NetGalley
Profile Image for Mell Ferraz.
8 reviews870 followers
January 14, 2022
Definitivamente um livro para ferver miolos e questionar tudo a seu redor — já que estamos rodeados por tecnologia invasiva. Qual o limite entre relacionamentos virtuais? Qual o nível de toxicidade no uso da tecnologia no nosso dia a dia, com o objetivo de sanar carências emocionais?
Em “Kentukis” temos o que eu não poderia chamar de distopia, porque é super possível de acontecer. Mas são acontecimentos tão perturbadores que isso pode persuadir alguém a pensar em um mundo distante. Não é. Mas no momento dessa narrativa, existem robôs no formato de animais de estimação, os quais interligam o amo (a pessoa que compra o objeto tecnológico) e o usuário kentuki (aquele que manipula o objeto tecnológico). O kentuki nada mais é do que a materialização de um usuário ANÔNIMO na casa de quem decide comprá-lo. A princípio, eles não conseguem se comunicar porque o kentuki não fala, mas é possível amo e robô desenvolverem meios de se comunicarem. Se ambos quiserem.
Mas será que esse anonimato é saudável?
Pessoas perturbadas e/ou perturbadoras podem se esconder por meio desses robôs com câmeras?
Os governos deveriam intermediar relações por sua vez intermediadas por uma tecnologia possibilitadora da exposição da privacidade e também de atitudes criminosas?
Alguns dos muitos questionamentos que vêm à tona com uma leitura que tem tanto das nossas dinâmicas sociais, em época na qual o virtual parece ser “a vida real”.

4 estrelas pelas discussões valiosas.
Mas na realidade daria 3,5 porque tive dificuldades com a forma — são vários núcleos (não interligados) que se alternam. Não sei se estou cansada disso ou se apenas não funcionou no contexto do livro (imagino que seja a primeira opção).
Profile Image for ☆LaurA☆.
312 reviews129 followers
March 27, 2023
"Essere" o "avere"

A dir poco sconcertante e inquietante.
Un mondo dove puoi scegliere di essere seguito, guardato, ascoltato, insomma una sorta di GF in casa propria, acquistando un kentuki.
Coniglietti, panda, corvi, draghi, animaletti per tutti i gusti per essere dalla parte del "padrone".
Se invece vuoi "essere" un kentuki non hai possibilità di scelta. Nasci, per così dire, in un kentuki che potrebbe essere di proprietà di un bambino a Tokyo, di un anziano a Lima, una donna con problemi di autostima in Italia e così via.
Ma in fondo, se uno non sceglie i propri genitori, né i fratelli, e nemmeno i propri cani e gatti, perché dovrebbe avere la libertà di scegliere da che parte di un kentuki stare?

La cosa che destabilizza è che non è molto lontano dalla realtà. Senza kentuki ovviamente.
Ho un figlio di 15 anni ormai e da quando gioca connesso alla play le mie raccomandazioni sono :"non dare dati personali mai a nessuno".
Quando giocava a clash of clan c'era una chat generale dove tutti, di qualsiasi età, qualsiasi sesso, parlavano ed erano più quelli che cercavano figa o soldi .....non sono bigotta ragazzi, neanche un po', ma a 12/13 anni scrivere "ti mando foto per ricarica cellulare"...quanto cazzo siamo caduti in basso.
Lo dicevo ad un amico ieri "Quasi quasi faccio soldi mandando foto a sconosciuti" e il problema è che li farei sti soldi, c'è gente disposta a pagare per queste cose.
Siamo davvero contenti della piega che ha preso la nostra società? L'utilizzo della tecnologia per determinate cose?
Profile Image for Ajeje Brazov.
775 reviews
August 11, 2021
Ai giorni nostri o forse più in là negli anni, ma nel complesso in un tempo molto vicino al nostro. Nel mondo impazza una nuova moda: i kentuki. Un nuovo feticcio, gli esseri umani amano da sempre i feticci, nel corso della storia delle civiltà se ne sono susseguiti tantissimi, direi infiniti e siamo sempre alla ricerca di uno nuovo, che ci faccia tremare di paura reverenziale o paura per l'ignoto o semplicemente curiosità. E questo nuovo feticcio, il kentuki, è la quintessenza del feticcio: un animaletto che girovaga per la nostra casa, ma non un animaletto qualunque, non un animale vero e in carne ed ossa, ormai il feticcio "animale domestico" in carne ed ossa è acqua passata, ce l'hanno tutti, anche chi non si sarebbe sognato mai di averne uno, ce l'ha e più di uno, ma non basta, non basta mai, perchè la ricerca di un nuovo oggetto di moda, dello status quo della società del consumo, è sempre all'erta, non dorme mai, perchè la società consumistico/capitalistica, dell'apparire, della fama a tutti i costi, non può star ferma, ne perderebbe del suo intrinseco valore. Allora ecco che la suddetta società, tira fuori questo nuovo oggetto del piacere, il kentuki, un animaletto dal cuore robotico, ma non finisce qui, perchè il kentuki ha al posto degli occhi una telecamera connessa a internet che scruta e il padrone non...

Il libro, che ho appena concluso di leggere, mi ha davvero sbalordito, con un inizio folgorante e disorientante, pian piano, attraverso capitoli corti e taglienti, entra di prepotenza nella mente del lettore per fargli riflettere sulle pericolosità delle nuove tecnologie.
Durante la lettura mi è capitato di pensare che ciò che scrive l'autrice siamo già noi, è una distopia, ma talmente tangibile che i raffronti con ciò che viviamo oggi sono innumerevoli. Basti pensare ai vari social network, che ormai occupano una buona parte della nostra vita e agli autodefiniti influencer, di qualsiasi argomento non importa di quale. La domanda essenziale è: vuoi "essere" o vuoi "avere"?

Se l'anonimato in rete rappresentava la massima libertà di ogni utente - e per di più un privilegio al quale ormai era quasi impossibile aspirare -, che effetto poteva fare essere anonimo nella vita di qualcun altro?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_51k...
Profile Image for Rodrigo.
1,232 reviews641 followers
November 17, 2023
Pues he de decir que ha sido una lectura cuanto menos curiosa la verdad es que empecé el libro desde la mas completa ignorancia y me ha sorprendido lo que me he encontrado.
Sinopsis: Casi siempre comienza en los hogares. Ya se registran miles de casos en Vancouver, Hong Kong, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Oaxaca, y se está propagando rápidamente a todos los rincones del mundo. Los kentukis no son mascotas, ni fantasmas, ni robots. Son ciudadanos reales, y el problema —se dice en las noticias y se comparte en las redes— es que una persona que vive en Berlín no debería poder pasearse libremente por el living de alguien que vive en Sídney; ni alguien que vive en Bangkok desayunar junto a tus hijos en tu departamento de Buenos Aires. En especial, cuando esas personas que dejamos entrar a casa son completamente anónimas.

Los personajes de esta novela encarnan el costado más real —y a la vez imprevisible— de la compleja relación que tenemos con la tecnología, renovando la noción del vouyerismo y exponiendo al lector a los límites del prejuicio, el cuidado de los otros, la intimidad, el deseo y las buenas intenciones. Kentukis es una novela deslumbrante, que potencia su sentido mucho más allá de la atracción que genera desde sus páginas. Una idea insólita y oscura, tan sensata en sus reflejos que, una vez que se entra en ella, ya no se puede salir.
Consta el libro de una serie de historias unas desde el punto de vista de los "amos" de los kentukis y el otro desde el punto de vista de los propios Kentukis, es decir personas que manejan dichos "juguetes", vemos premisas curiosas, como la gente que los compra para hacerle compañía, para sus hijos, para sociabilizar (pero es complicado ya que los kentukis no pueden hablar, solo emiten chillidos, ya que son en su mayoría o todos distintos tipos de animales).
Es curioso como al final casi todas las historias acaban mal, para, o bien el amo o bien el kentuki.
Curiosa lectura, Valoración: 6.5/10
#24. Un libro con un conejo en la portada o título. Reto Popsugar 2023
Profile Image for Cosimo.
430 reviews
November 17, 2020
Una tecnica animale

I kentukis sono esseri ingannevoli o autentici? Leggere il romanzo di Samanta Schweblin è una entusiasmante e disturbante esperienza, nella quale il lettore risponde a questa domanda, seguendo prospettive e interpretazioni molteplici e differenti, ciascuna generata da uno dei legami che questa raccolta di storie intesse nell'interezza del testo. I kentukis sono dispositivi tecnologici che connettono esseri umani attraverso la visione: un ”avere” che tiene con sé l'animale peluche e viene quindi osservato per il tramite dei suoi occhi digitali e un ”essere” che è lo sguardo dell'animale e osserva quindi ciò che la telecamera riproduce. Tra questi due esseri umani, proprietario e utente, nasce una relazione comunicativa, fatta di trucchi, segreti, tenerezze, appartenenza, disvelamento, vicinanza, complicità, tradimenti e avversità, che spesso si conclude con un fallimento, una distruzione, una interruzione. Questo appare essere la vita, una serie di interruzioni, di frammentazioni, nella quale sta a ciascuno di noi cercare una continuit��, una discreta consistenza. Tutto a misura del singolo. Infatti l'artista percepisce, come scrive Schweblin, stati di frammentazione esistenziale, nei quali tutto si dissolveva, dentro storie così piccole, così minuziosamente intime, meschine e prevedibili. C'è molto da raccontare nella creatività dell'autrice argentina, c'è un tracimare della narrazione, un proliferare di fantasie che sfiorano il reale e vi si sovrappongono, come se il sé che guarda il mondo si replicasse dentro queste estensioni del sé (McLuhan) che sono i kentukis, e in un universo di borgesiani mondi possibili e doppi e specchi e corpi, l'opera d'arte va a riprodurre l'essere visto nella solitudine, come una individualità che vive del rispecchiamento nell'insieme dei suoi simili. L'autrice in un'intervista ha affermato che a un certo punto, nella genesi del testo, si è trovata sulla pagina molte più storie di quelle necessarie al romanzo; ma il discorso è funzionale così, sulla parabola di fallimento di tutti i dispositivi tecnologici, e quindi il lavoro è stato di attenersi al necessario, di scartare le storie ininfluenti, scegliendo e rifinendo le voci, le connessioni e le trame. È così che anche i kentukis (parola passe-partout) sono sempre più numerosi, continuano ad aumentare, sono fonte di complessità e nodi di una rete nella quale gli esseri umani restano intrappolati, imprigionati, contenuti, perdendo il calore delle relazioni fisiche e in definitiva svuotandosi, con nostalgia, in simulacri erranti e domestici. I personaggi sono mossi da desideri inquieti, il loro lato oscuro viene alimentato da distorsioni emotive e inferenze atipiche, il libero arbitrio viene rovesciato e messo in crisi da un reale che si duplica, si moltiplica, originando un pensiero sempre in fuga, paradossale, contraddittorio. I racconti domandano con energia negativa una soluzione, sperimentando nei personaggi quanto sia possibile sostenere per ciascuno di noi. L'anonimato e la privacy sono un piano sul quale Schweblin costruisce originali composizioni, la letteratura e la tecnologia nel romanzo si intersecano aprendo prospettive inesatte e livelli di conoscenza inattendibile o implicita. La scrittrice ha affermato che la vita virtuale sia così attrattiva perché priva di tutti i pesi e le responsabilità e le necessità della vita reale, con le sue complicazioni, e quindi lei ha voluto investigarne i limiti e le minacce; sono magnetiche le numerose storie che emergono dalla creatività di Schweblin: un'artista di nome Alina da Oaxaca cerca di tornare a casa, rinnovata, dopo che la sua stessa vita è stata trasformata con un abuso in performance; un hacker di Zagabria e la sua assistente sventano un rapimento che forse è finto; un bambino di Antigua scopre prima lo splendore della neve e poi la forza rivoluzionaria della liberazione, sciogliendo le regole del conformismo; un'anziana signora peruviana, Emilia, perde la fiducia nella bontà e nel prossimo; una padre comprende quanto sia preziosa la fiducia e l'amicizia di suo figlio. Gli stessi kentukis sono prodotti, ma anche entità viventi, ibridi umano-macchina (corvo, panda, topo, drago, coniglio, talpa, orso), e si sentono abbandonati, sono tristi, si tolgono la vita, comunicano, provano rabbia e gioia o tenerezza, dimostrano l'amore e l'affetto, a modo loro. Il linguaggio non ha regole, vive di una fatalità morale e ludica. Ecco che sembra non possa esistere comunicazione che non comprometta lo spazio interiore, abitandolo come un luogo estraneo. Un tema molto forte del testo è la connessione e il suo opposto, il crollo della dipendenza; cioè il fatto che i legami umani si attivano e poi finiscono inevitabilmente con lo sciogliersi, in un modo o nell'altro, a volte comico, a volte tragico. E insieme è centrale l'idea che nulla che sia veramente interconnesso, sul piano della comunicazione, possa durare nel tempo, dando così vita a un inestricabile intreccio di cause e effetti, che necessita di uno sviluppo e questo sviluppo presente significa, riguardo alla materia del passato possibile, superamento, perdita, insuccesso, implosione, e in definitiva, estinzione. Un futuro irrealizzato. Un kentukis disattivato.

“E i kentuki...Era questo che le faceva più rabbia. Che cos'era questa stupida idea dei kentuki? Che cosa faceva tutta quella gente che si aggirava sui pavimenti delle case altrui, che guardava come l'altra metà del genere umano si lavava i denti? Perché non era tutto diverso? Perché nessuno ordiva complotti davvero tremendi con i kentuki? Perché nessuno intrufolava un kentuki carico di esplosivo tra la folla di una grande stazione per far saltare tutto in aria? Perché nessun utente di kentuki ricattava un controllore aereo costringendolo a immolare cinque aerei a Francoforte in cambio della vita di sua figlia? Perché nemmeno un utente delle migliaia che in quel momento dovevano muoversi su documenti importantissimi prendeva nota di un dato cruciale e faceva crollare la borsa di Wall Street? O penetrava nel software di qualche sistema e faceva cadere, alla stessa ora, tutti gli ascensori di una dozzina di grattacieli? Perché in una sola misera mattina non morivano migliaia di consumatori per un solo secchio di litio versato per sbaglio nei silos di una centrale del latte brasiliana? Perché le storie erano così piccole, così minuziosamente intime, meschine e prevedibili? Così disperatamente umane?”
Profile Image for Coos Burton.
825 reviews1,387 followers
February 4, 2019
3,5

Tenía tantas ansias por leer esta novela que tan pronto llegó a mí la prioricé como lectura de vacaciones. Debo confesar que el libro no me dejó encantada, hay muchas cosas que aún sigo sin entender hacia dónde iban, qué hilo conector tenían más allá de los Kentukis, siento que por momentos había un poco de relleno para lograr esclarecer las reglas de los bichitos y se tornaba un poco monótono.

No obstante, la historia me resultó entretenida, y a mi entender, refleja un poco las inquietudes y las ventajas/desventajas de la exposición a través de la tecnología. En síntesis, adhiero con la gran mayoría de los que comparan el libro con un capítulo de Black Mirror, porque efectivamente es de ese estilo, cosa que me resultó muy agradable.
Profile Image for Ezequiel.
43 reviews32 followers
October 31, 2018
Schweblin es una autora con la que tengo mis reparos, y sacando Distancia de rescate, ninguna de sus obras me gustó demasiado. Esta falsa novela es la peor de todas. Hace mucho, mucho, MUCHO, no me aburría tanto con un libro. Me sacó las ganas de darle alguna nueva oportunidad.
Profile Image for Olethros.
2,669 reviews491 followers
December 19, 2020
-Las partes, más unas que otras, por encima del todo.-

Género. Novela.

Lo que nos cuenta. El libro Kentukis (publicación original: 2018) nos presenta a los kentukis, unos muñecos de peluche con dispositivos electrónicos que permiten su control en remoto. La moda en el mundo es comprar uno, al azar dentro de varios modelos, y que otra persona compre la conexión al mismo, también al azar, de forma que alguien, desde cualquier parte del mundo, podrá ver a través de las cámaras del kentuki lo que hace su dueño. Seremos testigos de la vida de varias personas relacionadas con los kentukis de diferentes formas y con distintas realidades cotidianas.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

https://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com...
Profile Image for Dagio_maya .
970 reviews295 followers
August 18, 2021
“..complessità bilaterali dei kentuki”


Kentuki è essenzialmente un’applicazione che mette in contatto le persone.
La forma d'animale è rassicurante, adatta ad adulti e bambini: dal drago al coniglietto o (pagando qualcosa di più) si può avere una struttura customizzata.
Qualcosa che ricorda il Furby , tanto per intenderci.


Ognuno sceglie ciò che più lo aggrada perché il Kentuki girerà per casa e seguirà ogni tua mossa, registrerà ogni tua parola.
Poi c'è chi sta dietro la webcam e non ha comprato un Kentuki ma la sua applicazione:
lui o lei è il Kentuki. che entra in case sconosciute.

Essere un Kentuki. o avere un Kentuki.?
Questo è il problema
Quale ruolo giocare?

” Che tipo di persona sceglierebbe di «essere» kentuki invece di «avere» un kentuki? Forse si trattava di qualcuno che si sentiva solo, come sua madre, all’altro capo dell’America Latina. Un vecchio sporcaccione misogino, o un depravato, o qualcuno che non parlava spagnolo.”


Il primo problema che si pone è quello di relazionarsi, conoscersi.
Innanzitutto il K. va ribattezzato. Ognuno darà un nome che metterà le basi di una nuova relazione.
Comunicare, invece, non è facile: non c’è audio o possibilità di scriversi, solo video.
La distanza, l’anonimato, l’apparente impossibilità di comunicare creano l’illusione di essere protetti.

I personaggi mettono in scena differenti modalità di reazione ed azione mentre la dissociazione procede silenziosa e spedita.
In entrambi i ruoli, infatti, c’è il percolo di una totale immedesimazione:
da chi si innamora a chi si toglie la vita.

poi c’è chi, come il giovane Marvin, arriva a confondere i confini stessi della sua identità:

”Marvin non era più un bambino con un drago, era un drago con un bambino dentro. I voti erano l’ultimo dei problemi.”


Le “..complessità bilaterali dei kentuki” sono azioni simultanee a cui nessuno riesce a rinunciare: Vedere/Essere visto - Parlare/Ascoltare - Guardare/essere guardato.

scegliere da che parte di un kentuki stare, in fondo, non è un modo per dichiarare i propri bisogni?

Ad Antigua un ragazzino sogna di toccare le neve.
A Lima una donna sola ha bisogno di esprimere il suo amore materno
In Italia un padre crede nelle cose semplici come il giardinaggio ed è cieco di aver fatto entrare il male in casa
A Zagabria, Grigor non sapendo più come tirare avanti vede nei kentuki . il suo piano B, quello che gli consentirà di pagare l’affitto e mangiare.
In Messico Alina combatte contro la noia ed il vuoto della sua vita.
In Sierra Leone qualcuno si rifugia in un kentuki per non sentire più i rumori della guerra...

”Era così rigida che sentiva il proprio corpo scricchiolare, e per la prima volta si chiese, con uno spavento che avrebbe potuto spezzarla, se quello su cui posava i piedi era un mondo da cui si potesse davvero fuggire.”

Considerazioni random.
Uno : Pensavo fossero racconti slegati invece ci sono personaggi che tornano.
Due: ecco, a volte (spesso?) sarebbe meglio ignorare i tag: sono fuorvianti.
In questo caso specifico 117 utenti hanno catalogato ”Kentuki” come horror ma io non trovo niente di orrendo. Perlomeno non nel senso in cui di solito ci si riferisce a questo genere letterario.
Se qualcosa spaventa è, ancora una volta, la nostra contemporaneità sempre più preda di un declino totale.

Assieme all’aria sempre più irrespirabile, al clima che assume il terrificante spettro di una madre cattiva (quello sì che è horror!!!) scende più in basso anche l’umanità nei suoi comportamenti.
I sogni, i desideri, gli ideali sembrano essersi allineati sul fondo di un cratere già scavato.

Quello che chiamavamo mondo virtuale è diventato un spazio infinito, un universo non più parallelo ma, spesso e volentieri, completo sostituto della realtà materiale.
La velocità dell’evoluzione tecnologica non nasce per rispondere a dei bisogni ma li ha completamente modellati secondo le sue esigenze.

Ecco un’umanità configurata a somiglianza di questo immenso spazio.
E così siamo fatti di esibizionismo, noia, solitudine, insicurezza.
Il sogno di essere altro, di vivere altre vite senza muovere il culo dalla poltroncina davanti allo schermo.
Non un horror ma un’orrenda realtà: ecco di cosa ci parla la giovane autrice.

Questo siamo diventati.
Con un bisogno morboso di incontrarsi senza toccarsi
Di parlare senza avere risposte
Di sentire senza ascoltare …
Profile Image for Ámbar.
52 reviews26 followers
June 24, 2021
Freud escribió en “Lo ominoso” que los términos “unheimlich” y “heimlich” se acercan tanto en sus definiciones que acaban por confundirse. El universo sintáctico de lo heimlich/unheimlich remite al secreto, a lo que se oculta, pero también a lo cercano, a lo familiar. A través de su análisis, Freud demuestra que lo siniestro es aquello conocido que se nos vuelve extraño. Ya los anteriores relatos de Schweblin abordaban mundos siniestros: relatos en los cuales escenarios familiares se desestabilizaban a través de una vacilación, un corrimiento, la sospecha incómoda para el lector de que algo no está del todo en su lugar. Kentukis responde punto por punto a esta caracterización. Como un episodio literario de Black Mirror, el relato aborda el vínculo entre una serie de personajes humanos y los kentukis, una suerte de muñecos tecnológicos que se adquieren como mascotas, sólo que en vez de poseer inteligencia artificial son manejados a distancia por otros seres humanos a quienes los dueños de los kentukis no conocen en absoluto y que les son asignados por azar (o a través de un algoritmo, lo mismo da). Como dice Freud en su análisis de “Sandman”, lo siniestro no está tanto en la ambigüedad que produce la figura del autómata sino en el problema de la mirada. Los kentukis poseen cámaras a través de los cuales los que “son” kentukis pueden observar a aquellos que “tienen” kentukis en su intimidad. Y ahí aparecen una serie de problemas: los límites lingüísticos y geográficos (o lo permeable de los límites), pero también los límites éticos en el trato hacia otro que no es persona ni mascota ni objeto, o que es todo eso al mismo tiempo.

Kentukis es el relato más extenso que ha publicado Schweblin hasta la fecha, de hecho tiene casi el doble de páginas que “Distancia de rescate”, su nouvelle anterior, pero el texto está estructurado de tal manera que la lectura es placentera y ágil. Ya quedó demostrado que Schweblin escribe muy bien y, a pesar del formato más extenso, tiene una capacidad enorme para no demorarse más de lo necesario en cada escena. El texto es compacto y su precisión también colabora a generar la sensación de asfixia o inquietud que uno siente al leer, y a que la tensión se mantenga a pesar de la mayor duración de la novela. El relato está estructurado en una serie de capítulos que siguen a cinco personajes principales, más algunos capítulos sueltos que narran episodios aislados. En este sentido, Kentukis tiene una estructura mucho más convencional que “Distancia de rescate”, que era un trabajo de relojería narrativa. Algunos de los relatos son más interesantes que otros: personalmente disfruté del de Alina, Grigor y Elena más que de los de Enzo y Marvin, que me parecieron mucho más prometedores de lo que terminaron siendo.
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