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About The Organization is Here to Support You
The Organization Is Here to Support You is written by author Charlene Elsby. It was published by Weirdpunk Books.
Synopsis: Welcome to the Organization. Employees of the organization contribute to its mission to apply non-traditional methods to the non-traditional problems of today.
To ensure that all employees have the same opportunity to thrive, the organization's state-of-the-art live and work facility has all the comforts of home, plus technology that maximizes their opportunities for collaboration.
Without the organization, Clarissa Knowles would have nowhere else to go. That is, unless she can make it to Dick's house, the professor she's been talking to online. Haunted by her failed relationship with Maurice (the existentialist), and the deaths of her parents, can Clarissa shake off the values of the organization, pack up her cat - and go?
The Organization is Here to Support You is an existential bureaucratic horror satire in the tradition of Franz Kafka, J.G. Ballard, and Sayaka Murata.
Publisher: Weirdpunk Books
Genre: Dystopia/Horror
Release date: March 15th, 2025
The Organisation is Here to Support You Review
I’ve often wondered what a stripped back Dystopia which dwells in and celebrates its own minimalism would look like. One that depicts the idea that a darkly futuristic world can exist while peeling back the need for body augmentation, misogynistic android fuck-dolls and flying cars. Yet still, continue to question reality and our (meaningless) existence. Oh god, am I tired of flying cars.
If you’re at all familiar with Charlene Elsby or her books then you’d probably note a visceral nature in her writing style. A style that taps into the darker elements of what it is to be human, holds a raucous party in your brain, throws a tv from its inner rooftop and then smiles at the carnage below - before looking back at the reader and saying “I’m not fucking done yet…”
Her latest book, The Organization Is Here To Support You, isn’t a departure from that style of writing but it does deliver its core-purpose with brazen subtlety. And yes, I know the idea of “brazen subtlety” is a tad oxymoronic. However, when I look back at what I’ve read and try to emphasise the gusto of this 150 page jaunt it’s phrases like “delicate subtlety” or “intricate subtlety” which, while giving some indication of this journey - simply don’t cut it.
Going back to my earlier comment of dystopia, The Organization Is Here To Support You follows Clarissa Knowles, an employee working for “The Organization.” A company which basks itself in the realm of corporate policy and process. Deviating from these elements are tolerated to a point but only via several rounds of passive aggressive reprimanding. To do so, not only ruins your standing with your fellow employees but also ruins your chances for advancement. A satire on how fascist-like corporate working and employee warfare can get. It’s as Phillip K. Dick as Elsby can get without the LSD-infused existential clusterfuckery.
When Clarissa starts a digital erotic relationship with a fellow employee and a new opportunity for career advancement presents itself, she finds herself embroiled in a downward spiral. One that ultimately causes her to question her past relationship, her relationship with her parents as well as her living and working in the organisation. It’s here that living in the confines of the organisation’s quarters for staff feels claustrophobic.
It’s when Clarissa finally leaves the Organization where it feels like Charlene Elsby has penned her Brave New World moment. Where Clarissa’s exposure to the real world feels so incredibly alien to her but all the more familiar to us. Leading to an ending which depicts the Organisation as uncanny as it is sinister.
The ultimate irony here is that throughout her work at the organisation Clarissa is responsible for approving funding to different projects which would really benefit the lives of those applying. Which speaks to real-world corporations who would enslave their workforce and have us believe their core objectives at face value: helping people, enriching lives and creating financial freedom. After all, that’s their pitch, isn’t it?
Is freedom really achievable or is it the merely the concept of freedom? Or we all really just slaves to the society we live in? The territory covered in Charlene Elsby’s The Organization is Here to Support is the kind of writing you’ll want to keep away from Corporate CEOs and their generational wealth lapdogs. Because one things for sure, they’d cancel and silence authors like Elsby if given the chance. And if that’s not reason enough to pick up this book then I don’t know what is.
My Kind Of Weird Score:
9/10.