Women Change the World in 'A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor'
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Hank Green’s new novel, A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, is being lauded for its uncanny portrayal of the world today even though it was written before, you know, 2020 happened. The novel captures present concerns with precision, pointing to the dangers of ceding power to just a few internet media companies and demonstrating how our current economy is set up to spiral downward in the face of a worldwide disaster. Beyond the scary accuracy, the novel offers a refreshing portrayal of women that is often lacking in literature. In the face of certain doom for humanity, a diverse group of young women (and a few men) is at the center of saving the species.
While the first book is told from the perspective of April May, who becomes an instant internet sensation when she’s the first person to appear on camera with a giant robot that suddenly turned up in New York City, the sequel tells the story from various perspectives. We get to hear from Maya, a young, Black, queer woman who co-founded The Som, a huge internet community that works together to solve problems; Miranda, a scientist, Ph.D. student, and the other founder of The Som; and Andy, who is left to manage April’s internet fame and fortune and struggles with leveraging it in a thoughtful, moral way.
Let’s get out of the way that, of course, we should be reading complex portrayals of diverse women written by such women themselves. But that doesn’t mean that middle-aged white male writers are exempt from having to do better when it comes to creating female characters who come off like actual, complete humans (hi, Jonathan Franzen). One of the main tenets of Green’s two-book series is that it takes collaborative efforts to effect impactful change on the world, and the central group in A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor reflects the diversity of experiences and opinions that, when combined, can make a positive change in the world.
It’s rare that we get to see a group of people in their twenties tasked with saving humanity while also dealing with all the complications of that age, like defining their sexuality or struggling with impostor syndrome. This is well exemplified when April and Maya learn about the world-collapsing problem they’re faced with, and April’s first reaction is, “In what universe does this have anything to do with two soft-bodied, entirely mortal twenty-somethings with art degrees?” (234). The question is a fair one -- for a long time, we’ve looked to politicians, which in America means mainly white men above a certain age, to solve the major problems that affect the entire world. And how has that worked out?
Green’s novel proposes that we don’t need to delegate solutions like that anymore. Young people who are passionate about solving the world’s problems and are willing to enter the discourse and share ideas should absolutely be included in the conversation. Especially when it comes to technology and its effects on society, it’s the younger generations who have a firmer grasp on and personal experience with how platforms like YouTube shape our lives. If they’re willing to think and act critically when it comes to the amount of power given to these multi-billion-dollar companies, like Green’s characters do, they could mold what the future looks like.
It’s refreshing to see characters who think carefully about power and their own ability to make a difference. In A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor, Miranda finds herself in a position where she can have a direct impact on how an advanced form of technology is introduced into the world. That comes with the very realistic baggage of having to navigate a work culture dominated by men (an issue which, as we know, is rampant in the tech industry), where she has to adopt what she describes as frat-boy attitudes like using silly nicknames to fit in with her coworkers. However, Miranda is not only incredibly intelligent and determined, but she also has a great role model in her advisor Dr. Lundgren. Her strong will and her support system allow Miranda to see problems clearly and find solutions.
One of the main reasons the representation of women in media matters is because it has an effect on who girls get to identify with and what they think they can be when they grow up. This is summed up well in this passage from “The women missing from the silver screen and the technology used to find them,” a report put together by Google and the Geena David Institute on Gender in Media:
The characters we see on-screen play a significant part in determining the roles we occupy off-screen. In a recent study, only 15% of K-12 students remember seeing women performing computer science tasks "most of the time" in film or TV. This is reflected in real life where women make up only 17% of computer science majors – a steady decline from a peak at 37% in 1984. There are many reasons for this decline, but stronger female representation in programming, coding, and engineering roles on the big screen can help everyone envision women filling those roles in real life.
In the case of Green’s book series, the characters he created play a similar role. By placing young women in science, technology, and communications, he allows us to envision a world in which people who make a difference can look like this. They can be real, fleshed-out women with idiosyncrasies, insecurities, and individual strengths who are involved in making decisions that will affect the future of our planet. Green gives us hope for a future in which, if we work toward true inclusion, if we take into account a variety of voices beyond those that have always been heard, we can change the course of humanity.