Globalization, Ghostwritten and Zookeeper

Each of us live unique lives with distinctly different experiences.  Sometimes (like when we're in class together), we share an experience, but in infinite subtle ways, the shared experience is different for each individual.  This is how I tend to think of globalization.  We are all here, on this planet together, and we all share this common experience--in highly subjective ways.  Personally, my unique life experiences have allowed me to live in other parts of the world, and make friends with people who belong to vastly different (and similar) cultures.  I'm not really all that special though--I'm not materially rich (for the society I live in), nor am I famous or politically important--yet I have had these experiences.  That I can have these experiences suggests to me that becoming a global citizen, as I like to think of myself, is not outside the realm of possibility for most people (at least where we live).  We, those of us alive today, are the first generation to have nearly unfettered access to instantaneously communicate with each other across the globe.  Naturally, our literary texts have begun to evolve along with our communications abilities.

Ghostwritten, having been published in 1999, seems to be one of the earlier examples of how our evolving global culture is expressed by the interconnectedness of stories and characters within a novel.  Interconnected stories may not be a  new trope, but it is how texts like Ghostwritten use the interconnectedness that is interesting.  Before the "Information Age," I would suggest that the interconnectedness of stories or characters in texts seemed much more like divine providence, or characters brought together somehow by a common event.  In texts like Ghostwritten, these connections seem much more subtle and (often) banal, but this accomplishes creating a more natural, human connection.  Even though the connection in Ghostwritten is not necessarily human (the Zookeeper), it is eminently concerned with the humanity of the subjects it has been charged to "keep."  We see this on display when the Zookeeper grapples with the "problem of evil," as he debates killing a band of village-burning marauders in Africa.  Killing the marauders would go against Zookeeper's directives to protect "the visitors," yet failing to act would also violate Zookeeper's directives by allowing the marauders to kill the inhabitants of another village.  Whatever Zookeeper's true motivations, the effective result is that it is concerned with preserving life--and, by extension, humanity.