Of Sleeps and Cycles

Digital Disruptions and the Myth of Awakening

Robert Harris’s dystopian novel, The Second Sleep (2019), follows Father Christopher Fairfax to a remote village in England to conduct the funeral of an elderly clergyman. Initially on a simple mission, soon the young priest finds clues that suggest the deceased priest had been conducting forbidden research into the past. As the investigation evolves, Fairfax finds evidence of a lost civilization, which we discover is our current digital era.