Ben Lerner’s new novel, “Transcription,” is less than a hundred and fifty pages long. It is slim and sly—“quieter” than his three previous novels, as he puts it—but, like all of Lerner’s books, it teems with erudition and artistic ambition, exploring the instability of memory, the mediating powers of language, and the “new-old” complexities of technological change. Lerner is an accomplished poet, ...
Ben Lerner’s *Transcription* and the accompanying interview offer a rich exploration of how technology mediates human experience, particularly in the realms of memory, art, and communication. The novel’s premise—a failed recording of an interview—serves as a metaphor for the broader tensions between presence and absence, authenticity and artifice. Lerner’s reflections on the novel’s themes reveal a deep engagement with the ethical and aesthetic challenges of transcription, whether through litera...