Poster Girl: A Haunting Dystopia That Will Make You Think Twice About Your Own Use of Surveillance Technology
Despite being a dystopian novel set in the future, Poster Girl by Veronica Roth tells a story that doesn’t necessarily feel all that far-fetched. Roth is, of course, no stranger to dystopian fiction, and Poster Girl ably proves how adept she is at writing in this genre. It’s a story that is far enough removed from our current reality that it feels like escapism, and yet it’s not difficult to imagine the world Roth has built in this haunting, beautifully written novel.
Set in a future post-apocalyptic version of Seattle, Poster Girl centers on Sonya Kantor’s journey as she begins to uncover dark secrets about the government she was once completely loyal to. She was, in a former time, the actual “poster girl” for the Delegation—the regime that required each of its citizens to have an “Insight,” an ocular implant that watched the citizens everywhere they went. Yes, that’s right: an implant in the eye. It provided information, videos, and communication, not unlike a smartphone or smart speaker. The Insight also monitored the behavior of each citizen, awarding or deducting “DesCoin”—their currency—based on their actions.
The Insight was a form of surveillance that Sonya once saw as a comfort, and she was driven, shaped even, by the moral code it forced her to live by. So when given the opportunity to pose for a propaganda poster for the Delegation, she couldn’t say no. She became famous for the poster around the Seattle-Portland Megalopolis, which included the slogan: “What’s Right Is Right.”
Sonya was young when the Delegation fell during the revolution and the current regime, known as the Triumvirate, came into power. Yet she was still imprisoned in the Aperture alongside the most valuable members of the Delegation. However, ten years later, Sonya gets one chance to get out of the Aperture for good when she’s offered a deal: find Grace Ward, a missing girl who was taken from her parents when the former regime was in power.
Poster Girl speaks to the horrors of surveillance technology, which makes its readers question where we draw the line when it comes to how willing we are to embrace these intrusive systems. Our smartphones, smart speakers, and social media accounts really aren’t too far off from the technology used in Poster Girl, which also directly references “the cloud” as a key element. As that kind of technology continues to advance, it’s not difficult to imagine a world with these ocular implants. Reading this book may even make you reconsider your use of some of our current technology altogether.
What’s interesting about this story, though, is that the regime that mandated everyone have an Insight has already fallen. The Triumvirate is against that technology, and in the outside world, outside of the Aperture, citizens are going backward in their use of such devices and systems. Instead, they use “Elicits,” which are much closer to the smartphones we have today, although they are seen by Sonya as a terribly outdated technology.