Every page turn often took me longer than a normal page because I felt a need to take in every picture to its fullest. The story lends an ominous context to everything, not by way of explaining what the reader sees, but setting a mood. The few people left are either not interested in the main cast or are wasting away under the seduction of the Mode 6. Human beings are practically non-existent, leaving the roads and neighborhoods to be populated by cars. Idyllic homesteads are juxtaposed with empty landscapes filled with derelict military equipment.
Stalenhag captures this alternate America with the eye of a cynical Rockwell. Everything is desolate, deserted, and devoid of life.
Readers learn that the Sentre Mode 6 was a breakthrough technological marvel, first developed by the military and eventually marketed to the ordinary American, allowing everyone to live out their individual fantasies in virtual reality.įirst off, the art is haunting. During her journey, the reader is subjected to an empty America, one where virtual reality has become so ubiquitous and so addictive that people are dying on their sofas attached to their machines. Illustrations of the various landscapes she encounters are interlaced with the narrative of her travels to her unknown destination. The Electric State follows a young girl as she travels across the western United States with her robot pal. In The Electric State, Simon Stalenhag writes and illustrates an alternative 1990s America that feels all too similar to roughly the first decade of my life, highlighting the desolation and isolation of suburban America through the eyes of a child. While I still feel ill-equipped to interpret the art and the story, I can not help but think about it, and because I have this platform, you will have to hear about it. Up until recently, I could not tell you how I felt about a piece beyond “I like it” or “what is happening here.” With that in mind, it’s weird to me to find myself needing to talk about this art book and the way it made me feel. While I took art classes in high school, I was never particularly adept at being creative in a visual sense. I have never really felt comfortable talking about visual art.
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