The Glass Bees

“This pitch-black ending [of The Glass Bees] shows that Jünger offers more to the modern reader than perverse echoes of German history. The Glass Bees captures with uncommon precision the psychology of acquiescence and abjection on which the sickening miracles of technology depend. The Venus flytraps of social media are a case in point; so is the heedless embrace of artificial intelligence.…In the end, the technical almost inevitably wins out over the human.” —Alex Ross, New Yorker

“In scenes as harrowing and thought-disturbing as any created by Karel Capek, George Orwell or Aldous Huxley, [Jünger] contributes not only to prophetic and nihilistic literature but also to an understanding of the inner and outer forces that shape many a man’s attitude toward tyranny.” —The New York Times

“Jünger’s language shimmers with icily brilliant cynicism. He masters a style as hard and transparent as the insects of the story’s title.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

“A fantastic, tightly compressed novel…a wonderfully provocative fusion of fiction and philosophy.” —The Atlantic

Ernst Jünger (1895-1998) was born in Heidelberg and early on developed a fascination with war. As a teenager, he ran away to join the French Foreign Legion, then enlisted in the German Army of the first day of World War I. Jünger’s first book, Storm of Steel, provided a graphic account of his experiences. Jünger kept his distance from the Nazis, and his 1939 novel On the Marble Cliffs presented an allegorical account of the destructive nature of Hitler’s rule. One of the most controversial of twentieth-century German writers, Jünger was the recipient of numerous literary prizes, and continued his career as a writer until his death at the age of 102.

Elizabeth Mayer (1884-1970) was a German-born American translator and editor. In the 1940s her homes in Long Island and New York served as artistic salons for many emigre writers.

Louise Bogan (1897-1970) served as poetry editor of The New Yorker for nearly 40 years and was appointed United States Poet Laureate in 1945. Her Collected Poems won the Bollingen Prize in 1955.

Bruce Sterling is a science-fiction writer and pop-science journalist. He lives in Austin, Texas.

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