ND Stevenson discusses how her Monster Blood Tattoo trilogy explores rule by division and fear of the other, connecting those themes to modern anxieties about surveillance and being watched, from Ring doorbell footage to becoming a meme.
This time on books that changed my life.
Kind of the role of the fear of other plays a part in this. Can you kind of talk to that?
Rule by division, divide by rules, the everyman creed, the fear of the other and the way that that lets those in control sort of keep the rest of the population under control. That is the core theme of these books.
Why do you have fear now?
My theory is that there's a bit more self consciousness from everyone, from all of us together. Part of it is that surveillance has increased so much in the world. The other day I was taking out the trash and I fell down. I did this like hilarious prat fall down the driveway. My first thought wasn't that I was hurt, it was that what if someone's ring doorbell caught me and I end up a meme on TikTok. And I never thought about that kind of thing before.
