Art Cleves

Art Cleves is a millennial every-man who, now in his early 30s, finds himself confronting the lack of direction and meaning that has characterized his life thus far. Until his breakup with Charlotte, Art is happy with his image of himself as “the famously gentle Art, the thoughtful generous lyrical Art” (48). He is proud of his moderately successful blog Art in Nature and satisfied with his day job tracking down incidences of copyright infringement for the large, faceless company SA4A Entertainment. He lives in a nice flat in London with his live-in girlfriend, rarely looking up from his blog notes to glimpse the world outside his self-contained, apolitical sphere.

However, when Charlotte leaves Art after one apathetic dismissal too many, he is forced to examine whether there is any truth to her accusations that his “political soul” is “dead” (60) like the laptop she breaks during their...