Transmission (novel)

Transmission is a novel written by British-Indian author Hari Kunzru and published in 2005. It primarily follows the narrative of a naïve Indian programmer, Arjun Mehta, who emigrates to the United States in hopes of making his fortune. When he is laid off by his virus-testing company, he sends out e-mails containing a malignant computer virus in a bid to keep his job, unintentionally causing global havoc. Parallel to Arjun's story is that of Guy Swift, the seemingly well-to-do English CEO of an advertising company, and his struggle to keep his business going as the virus spreads.

Transmission was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 2005.

Hari Kunzru uses Arjun Mehta to make his book Transmission a dark but funny novel, using the developing use of 1990-2005 era internet. Arjun is an Indian computer programmer from Silicon Valley. He has this idea that if he goes into America he will be successful automatically and live the American Dream. Moving to America he quickly realizes that this success doesn't come so easily, but indicates to his family that he has succeeded. Arjun was promised work by a slick high tech recruiter but when he reached the States, he was in a waiting house for contract employees and lost his enthusiasm. Throughout the book Arjun faces many problems that interfere with him reaching success, but his main blockage seems to be his naivety. The author utilizes several supporting characters to develop the story from their point of view including Guy Swift; a rich highly successful man, Guy's girlfriend Gaby, Leila Zahir, a top Bollywood star, and Chris: a co-worker of Arjun's. The author portrays the differences between both Arjun and Guy in a particular and exciting way without the characters actually meeting each other. The book has Arjun being the foreign poor individual and Guy Swift being the rich and successful Englishman.

Transmission deals with how technology, namely computers and the Internet, are rapidly shrinking the world, and addresses both the positive and negative ramifications of this change. The easy transmission of information allows people like Arjun to be virtually self-taught in programming, but the easy transmission of people allows him to be shipped to America as cheap labour and his skills to be exploited. In an interview, Kunzru summarized the dual nature of globalization as presented in his novel, stating that “barriers are broken and people are coming to understand each other better” but “people like [Arjun] pay a big price”. Increasing interconnectedness also provides a means for small problems, like one person losing his job, to affect information across the world. The diversity of the main characters' origins, occupations, social statuses, etc. emphasises the breadth of technology's scope. Arjun, a poor virus tester; Guy Swift, an opulent advertising CEO; Gabriella, a shallow token girlfriend; and Leela, an Indian film star, are all affected by the same virus despite their wildly differing circumstances.

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