Burnout

Novelistic pamphlet about the life of humans in a world of cars

Oscillating around the axis of polemic—novel—allegory, this text argues against fetishization of the car as a symbol of progress, independence, power and privatization of the world. All cars have an allegorical undercurrent. The narrator is a courier who delivers food around town, pedals too much, thinks as much as he pedals, and spends much of his day exchanging insults with other road users. Our delivery boy stands on one side of the barricades in the civil war of the streets. His harrowing travels through enemy territory and his implacable fight for justice (whether real or imagined) lead towards callousness and hatred.     

The follow-up to Petr Šesták’s memorable novel Continuity in the Park is another work that defies the reader’s expectations. A cross between a polemic and a novel, it presents its opinions with unabashed clarity. Why should literature address a matter from all sides when this matter is unambiguous? This story of a delivery boy who brings food to the luckier and less considerate among us really gets a move on!

This work is about growing irreconcilability of antagonisms in society and its systems, amplified by technology. Are we users of technology’s tools or the tools themselves?