Janelle Monáe on her Afrofuturist literary debut and why she identifies as a 'dirty computer'
In a Q interview, the Grammy-nominated musician discussed her first collection of short stories
Click the play button below to listen to Tom Power's full conversation with Janelle Monáe on the latest episode of The Q Interview podcast.
Janelle Monáe's fascination with science fiction is at the centre of almost every aspect of her creative output, from her music and videos to her literary debut, The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, which was released in April.
The anthology builds on the themes of her 2018 album and accompanying short film (both titled Dirty Computer), featuring five stories that explore a totalitarian state where queer people, people of colour and nonconformists are persecuted for their "dirtiness."
"Dirty computers are individuals who refuse to assimilate," Monáe said in an interview with Q's Tom Power. "They refuse to, you know, wipe away their queerness, wipe away their Blackness, and because of that, they are a threat to the status quo.… I guess the best way to describe them is they are free-ass motherf--kers."
Monáe collaborated on The Memory Librarian with five co-authors — Yohanca Delgado, Eve L. Ewing, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Danny Lore and Sheree Renée Thomas — whom she considers to be dirty computers like herself.
I'm an android. So I'm half human, half computer.- Janelle Monáe
Beyond identifying as a dirty computer, Monáe said she sees herself as being part machine. "I'm an android. So I'm half human, half computer," she told Power. "That's literally how I feel in my body."
Ray Kurzweil's 2005 non-fiction book The Singularity Is Near piqued Monáe's interest in the merging of machines and human bodies, which she already sees happening all around us.
"I mean, just when you have your phone in your hand, like, that is very cyborg-ish, just looking like it is an extension of your arm," she said. "It might not look how it looks in, you know, Total Recall or in some of the sci-fi movies, but it is literally technology attached to your human arm."
As a kid, sci-fi was one of Monáe's favourite genres, which she largely credits for the kind of work she's making today. "The big kid that I am now never lost touch of my imagination, never lost touch of otherworldliness and never lost touch of world-building," she said.
It wasn't until she released her first album, The ArchAndroid, that she became aware that her work was considered Afrofuturist, a subgenre of science fiction that explores the past, present and future of the Black experience.
"To me, Afrofuturism just is Black folks defining our futures, telling stories about us, for us, showing us thriving, unapologetically," she told Power.
Monáe said a line from Fritz Lang's 1927 German expressionist film Metropolis sums up how she sees her artistry serving the world: "The mediator between head and hands must be the heart."
"That is exactly where I feel most, you know, when I'm thriving and in my purpose — is when I am bringing people together, I'm bridging the gaps, I'm allowing folks to have conversations who wouldn't necessarily even give each other the time of the day in the real world," she said.
"Through music and through art and through storytelling, we get these architects of these experiences. An experience architect is what I like to consider myself. As we curate these experiences, we bring so many different walks of lives together. And we get an opportunity to use our hearts … to really have a little more compassion for our brothers and sisters."
Written by Vivian Rashotte. Interview produced by Jessica Low.