The Humans is a fiction book by one of the authors I enjoy most, like many of Matt's adult-oriented fiction books, it has far more to it than a simple story for the reader to enjoy. It gets right to making you think about what we value as humans in the first page.

Oh, and let's not forget The Things They Do To Make Themselves Happy That Actually Make Them Miserable. This is an infinite list. It includes - shopping, watching TV, taking the better job, getting the bigger house, writing a semi-autobiographical novel, educating their young, making their skin look mildly less old, and harbouring a vague desire to believe there might be a meaning at all.1

The TV thing stuck out to me most this time around as I'm currently in the middle of renovations and don't have my TV setup at all. I don't miss it. When we do want to watch something we've put it on a tablet and got the same amount of enjoyment from it we would have had from the TV.

The main thing my wife and I have enjoyed about no TV is that it's not the focus of the room on the main floor. Neither of us enjoys it being the focus of family life. While it will likely go back up currently, it will eventually move to the basement when we finish it off and we'll have a single TV down there away from the bulk of family life.

Like many people when the TV is available we often default to putting it on. This also means other devices are in our laps since what we're watching really isn't that interesting and boredom is uncomfortable. We must of course keep ourselves entertained with those other screens.

So are we really just using TV to distract ourselves from the boredom that may cause some interaction with the person sitting next to us. Do I feel disconnected from my wife sometimes because we never let that boredom come to us so that we stumble into a meaningful conversation?

On The News

On Earth, social networking generally involved sitting down at a non-sentient computer and typing words about needing coffee, while forgetting to actually make a coffee. It was the news show they had been waiting for. It was the show where the news could be all about them.2

Earlier in the book our alien who has taken up residence on earth assuming the identity of a human was watching the news and realized that the news was mostly about guns and money. Further the closer to home it was the more people were interested in it, while at the same time doing nothing because it didn't directly affect the watcher because it wasn't about them.

Later on, he finds social media and comes to the conclusion that this is the ultimate form of news because it involves the person directly. At the same time, he's puzzled by it because it has nothing to do with actual networking, it's just a screen you're looking at. You're not interacting in any meaningful way with the people on the other side.

Worse, like TV it takes away any chance of boredom and thus deeper interaction with those people that are right in front of you.

Parting Rules

Near the end of the book, our not-human is leaving his human family because he has caused so much hurt it's the best thing to do for the moment. As he does this he leaves some rules to the teenage son he's come to love. Here is a selection of them from pages 271 - 277.

  • Shame is a shackle. Free yourself.
  • Sometimes, to be yourself you will have to forget yourself and become something else. Your character is not a fixed thing. You will sometimes have to move to keep up with it.
  • Don't worry about being angry, Worry when being angry becomes impossible. Because then you have been consumed.
  • Happiness is not out there. It is in there.
  • Don't aim for perfection. Evolution, and life, only happen through mistakes.
  • A paradox. The things you don't need to live - books, art, cinema, wine and so on - are the things you need to live.
  • Alcohol in the evening is very enjoyable. Hangovers in the morning are very unpleasant. At some point you have to choose: evenings, or mornings.
  • It's not the length of life that matters. It's the depth. But while burrowing, keep the sun above you.
  • If you think something is ugly, look harder. Ugliness is just a failure of seeing.

It's not just a story

Overall, this isn't just a story about an alien coming to earth and taking over a human life. It's about humans frenetically moving through their worlds not realizing what's important. It's about how we spend so much time focused on the "right" things while neglecting the parts of life that matter.

I'd recommend reading The Humans.