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A review by cattytrona
Infinite Ground by Martin MacInnes
4.0
So far a third of the books I’ve read in 2022 have correlated contemporary work environments with a descent into sickness. What a weird coincidence which surely doesn’t reflect any issues in modern day society!
This is a weird little book, that encompasses a whole lot. The first part (probably my favourite), definitely shared some connection with Dr Edith Vane, the other work=madness novel I just read. There’s a Jeff Vandermeer testimonial on the front cover, which is what got me to take the book home from the library with me, and which delightfully makes sense, because the second half shares the same kind of terror of the bursting possibilities of flora as his Southern Reach trilogy. Both Vandermeer and MacInnes are also concerned with what corporate entities do when up against nature, and seem to conclude that annihilation sometimes is the most satisfying ending you can get —into the sea go our nameless protagonists.
They are both totally conspiracy stories, although it actually was a totally different text that brought the theme out in Infinite Ground for me. I couldn’t stop thinking about Moonfall, Roland Emmerich’s new film whilst reading. And partly that’s because I just saw Moonfall and, given I mostly watch slow arty films, it was kind of a shock to the system, but it’s mostly because Moonfall’s treatment of conspiracy theories is very bad and Infinite Ground’s is very good.
See, Infinite Ground is all paranoia and no answers, whilst Moonfall is all answer, no paranoia. Vague spoilers for Moonfall here, but it’s a film which confirms a whole bunch of big conspiracies — without wanting to ruin the film’s big surprises, I’ll just mention that there are allusions to moonlanding faking and elites holing up in a secret bunker — and then says, no worries. It’s not being done maliciously, the people in charge are just a bit silly but ultimately, pretty nice. If you ask politely, there’s space in the bunker for you. Which ignores the whole thrust and fear behind those kind of conspiracy theories, which are (if interpreted kindly and non-racistly) fundamentally anti-capitalist. Fundamentally concerned with the fact that the wealthy have no qualms about seeing the world and its inhabitants burn (out), so long as there’s profit to be made. Infinite Ground, on the other hand, is just creeping unease, invented and confusing theories, and no answers. There’s no time for answers when there’s money to make, no place for real connection with others because everyone around you is hired. What if your suspicions are true, and that’s not okay, and you have to go forward anyway because there’s no explanation beyond realisation, and no cover-up from above, only bureaucratic complicity. “He at least, if he concentrated, could condition how he walked, go faster or slower as he chose, and could stop it entirely – although always temporarily”. Onwards.
There's a section, pages 145 to 151, which has one of the best uses of a conspiracy theory in fiction. Even more than the unhelpful theories that come up in relation to the missing person case this book is (theoretically — note this is my first mention of it) investigating, this is extra irrelevant to the solving of the mystery. It’s just 6 pages of conspiracy, reading into links between airplane crashes, none of which involved any characters in the story. We’re told it’s been invented by online forums, and it’s also detailed and peopled and written in the same voice as the ‘reality’ of the rest of the text. It is totally absurd and it’s also a metaphor for, or microcosm of, or, in some way, is, society. Capitalist society. Which is absurd. But also deeply normalised, just like the invented world lived in by this conspiracy’s inhabitants. And it made me realise, ah. This is how surreal conspiracy theories should be deployed in fiction. This is how it can be useful and intelligent and not just, like, The Mothman Prophesies or something. This is why I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Moonfall — because it’s the evil twin of whatever this is, which makes it also thought generating, but in a bad way. (This is not an anti-Moonfall account btw, please go see Moonfall it is so stupid.)
There’s a lot more going on than conspiracy theories in the novel, but I read most of it the day after watching Moonfall and so that was what stuck out to me. I’d be interested in a post-colonial reading and dissection of both the story and its motivations, which I don’t feel qualified to do here and now, but which I’m sure would be rich.
I should say that the prose is deliberately alienating (which is fine with me) and sometimes a little tell don’t show when it comes to its more philosophical point (which is necessary for the approach but also alienating in a less deliberate, less fine feeling way). The ending lost me a bit, but I think that was also appropriate to a novel whose ending (whose whole?) is about being deeply lost.
If I had to sum up Infinite Ground in one sentence it would be: we live in a society. Because we sure do.
This is a weird little book, that encompasses a whole lot. The first part (probably my favourite), definitely shared some connection with Dr Edith Vane, the other work=madness novel I just read. There’s a Jeff Vandermeer testimonial on the front cover, which is what got me to take the book home from the library with me, and which delightfully makes sense, because the second half shares the same kind of terror of the bursting possibilities of flora as his Southern Reach trilogy. Both Vandermeer and MacInnes are also concerned with what corporate entities do when up against nature, and seem to conclude that annihilation sometimes is the most satisfying ending you can get —
They are both totally conspiracy stories, although it actually was a totally different text that brought the theme out in Infinite Ground for me. I couldn’t stop thinking about Moonfall, Roland Emmerich’s new film whilst reading. And partly that’s because I just saw Moonfall and, given I mostly watch slow arty films, it was kind of a shock to the system, but it’s mostly because Moonfall’s treatment of conspiracy theories is very bad and Infinite Ground’s is very good.
See, Infinite Ground is all paranoia and no answers, whilst Moonfall is all answer, no paranoia. Vague spoilers for Moonfall here, but it’s a film which confirms a whole bunch of big conspiracies — without wanting to ruin the film’s big surprises, I’ll just mention that there are allusions to moonlanding faking and elites holing up in a secret bunker — and then says, no worries. It’s not being done maliciously, the people in charge are just a bit silly but ultimately, pretty nice. If you ask politely, there’s space in the bunker for you. Which ignores the whole thrust and fear behind those kind of conspiracy theories, which are (if interpreted kindly and non-racistly) fundamentally anti-capitalist. Fundamentally concerned with the fact that the wealthy have no qualms about seeing the world and its inhabitants burn (out), so long as there’s profit to be made. Infinite Ground, on the other hand, is just creeping unease, invented and confusing theories, and no answers. There’s no time for answers when there’s money to make, no place for real connection with others because everyone around you is hired. What if your suspicions are true, and that’s not okay, and you have to go forward anyway because there’s no explanation beyond realisation, and no cover-up from above, only bureaucratic complicity. “He at least, if he concentrated, could condition how he walked, go faster or slower as he chose, and could stop it entirely – although always temporarily”. Onwards.
There's a section, pages 145 to 151, which has one of the best uses of a conspiracy theory in fiction. Even more than the unhelpful theories that come up in relation to the missing person case this book is (theoretically — note this is my first mention of it) investigating, this is extra irrelevant to the solving of the mystery. It’s just 6 pages of conspiracy, reading into links between airplane crashes, none of which involved any characters in the story. We’re told it’s been invented by online forums, and it’s also detailed and peopled and written in the same voice as the ‘reality’ of the rest of the text. It is totally absurd and it’s also a metaphor for, or microcosm of, or, in some way, is, society. Capitalist society. Which is absurd. But also deeply normalised, just like the invented world lived in by this conspiracy’s inhabitants. And it made me realise, ah. This is how surreal conspiracy theories should be deployed in fiction. This is how it can be useful and intelligent and not just, like, The Mothman Prophesies or something. This is why I haven’t been able to stop thinking about Moonfall — because it’s the evil twin of whatever this is, which makes it also thought generating, but in a bad way. (This is not an anti-Moonfall account btw, please go see Moonfall it is so stupid.)
There’s a lot more going on than conspiracy theories in the novel, but I read most of it the day after watching Moonfall and so that was what stuck out to me. I’d be interested in a post-colonial reading and dissection of both the story and its motivations, which I don’t feel qualified to do here and now, but which I’m sure would be rich.
I should say that the prose is deliberately alienating (which is fine with me) and sometimes a little tell don’t show when it comes to its more philosophical point (which is necessary for the approach but also alienating in a less deliberate, less fine feeling way). The ending lost me a bit, but I think that was also appropriate to a novel whose ending (whose whole?) is about being deeply lost.
If I had to sum up Infinite Ground in one sentence it would be: we live in a society. Because we sure do.