Concerned about the rise of books adulterated by AI, our book club’s theme for our April session was to present a book that could not have been written by AI.
First published 99 years ago, and awarded the Pulitzer the following year, it makes one certain that The Bridge of San Luis Rey could not have been written by AI. Let people say what they want to say about classics, but the rise of AI has only increased the value of literary works written prior to its advent.
My pick was rather redundant, for it was already chosen by another Ex Libris member for our February session when we were asked to present a book that talked of love in any form. That same recommendation led me to read it, and reading it made me realize how it was the most clever pick for the theme of Love. Despite such a slim volume, it unexpectedly contains and expresses the Four Loves (Storge, the love we have for family; Philia, the love between friends based on shared values and interests; Eros, romantic love; Agape, the altruistic and self-sacrificing kind of love) without overstating it.
How the story is framed is impressive. The chapters end with the bridge collapsing, but it is a different character’s story that’s presented in each one. How Wilder ties these different characters together conveys how everything is connected, and how our actions create ripple effects that are broader than we think.
And yet, the story or the publishing date is not the reason why I chose this. It is because this book contains a line that, for me, hits the bullseye as to why AI should have no place in literature. In a long sentence from the first chapter, Thornton Wilder writes, “…the whole purport of literature, which is the notation of the heart.”
And here lies our whole argument against AI in literature: Why entrust it to something that does not have a heart?
The Book-Butterfly 