Three by Cory Doctorow

In my Movie Glutton blog, I have started doing reviews of similar movies together, since I tend to watch movies faster than I write about them.  Same thing with reading.  I have a bit of a backlog, so I will occasionally review books together.  In this case, I have recently read 3 books by Cory Doctorow, a contemporary science-fiction writer: Makers (2009), Little Brother (2008), and Eastern Standard Tribe (2004).

Doctorow's novels tap into the cyber culture, projecting just a few steps into the future, looking at cultural trends, especially in the realm of personal technology and communications, and fleshing out the next movement.  In this sense, Doctorow's novels, at least these 3, don't have the feel of traditional sci-fi.  There are no space ships, aliens, or ray guns.  I know, that's stereotypical.  He writes in the sci-fi sub-genre of cyber-punk or cypher-punk, in which I've read a little, and liked little, but Doctorow stands above others in the genre.  In any case, I heard someone say that to be considered science fiction, there have to be at least 3 patentable ideas.   Doctorow definitely meets that standard.

Eastern Standard Tribe, Little Brother, and Makers have interrelated themes but have distinctly different story lines.  The first novel itself was a little disappointing, but the concepts and the framing of the story were terrific.  The title of Eastern Standard Tribe hints at a cultural trend which I haven't seen, but surely is out there.  People have always been drawn to affinity groups, based on common interests.  The internet and social networks have enabled our social groups to become more and more specialized.  So what if your specific interest group is centered in Hong Kong?  Or Southern California?  And you live in Texas?  You can adjust your sleep schedule so that your waking hours line up with your group.  The problem is the resulting sleep deprivation may effect your mental health; your circadian rhythms may never catch up.  Such is the plight of Art.  When his partner and girlfriend betray him and have him involuntarily committed to a mental hospital, he has a hard time proving he's not insane, since his sleep patterns have, in a way, driven him insane.

This theme of involuntary institutionalization struck a chord with me.  It reminded me of the work of Thomas Szasz , who wrote The Myth of Mental Illnessand many other works, and Jeffrey Schaler, author of Addiction is a Choice.  These two psychologists have written prolifically and profoundly against involuntary institutionalization.  Art experiences the dilemma of involuntary institutionalization: there is no practical way to prove that one is not insane.  While in the mental hospital, Art is kept drugged up and can't properly prove his sanity.  Doctorow doesn't explicitly address this issue, per se, but the novel raises the question in an interesting way.  The story starts with Art in the hospital, being driven crazy trying to prove that he's not crazy, then moves backwards to piece together how he got there.

Art provides the sci-fi requisite 3 patentable ideas himself.  He is a user experience (UE) engineer, a phrase I was not previously familiar with.  I thought it might originate with Doctorow.  A Google search brings lots of hits, though.  Apparently the concept, more commonly abbreviated UX or UXD (for user experience design), originated with Dr. Donald Norman, who expounded on UX in books such as User Centered System Design and Living with Complexity.  Doctorow never explicitly references Norman, as best I can remember, but he fleshes out Norman's ideas through Art's work.

Little Brother, billed as young adult fiction, features high-school-aged main characters and deals with youth culture, but can be enjoyed by adult readers as well.  He takes on some broader themes here, as San Francisco is hit with a large-scale terrorist attack.  Marcus and his friends are swept up as suspected terrorists after the attack, and upon release become sworn enemies of the Department of Homeland Security, who has become an occupying force in their city.  Using his electronic genius, fueled by his passion for justice, Marcus puts together an underground of rebels, linked together by Xboxes.  Together they thwart many of DHS's surveillance and control efforts, making themselves targets in the meantime.

Set in the all-to-near future, Little Brother presents a viable picture of government security gone too far.  In a sense, I objected, of course our government wouldn't behave in such a way!  But Docotorow forces the reader to think about the incremental way the federal government has chiseled away at our freedoms since 9-11, and the vigor with which agencies from the FBI and DHS down to local law enforcement have embraced their expanded authority.  I'm not sure how well I relate to the late-teen, early twenties gamer set who dominate Doctorow's story, but I sure hope I end up on their side when this future happens.

Finally, the most recent novel.  Makers is the most ambitious of the three in every sense.  In this very near future, the U.S. has suffered another economic downturn.  Lester and Perry have found their niche, making custom products from scavenged material.  These creative geniuses have taken advantage of the abundant technology, cheap computerization, and plenty of discarded electronics to create brilliant new inventions.  With a bit of notoriety and advancements in 3-D printers, they begin mass marketing their inventions and create a whole new type of market.  Imitators around the world mimick their methods, setting up shop in their basements and garages, many making lots of money in what comes to be known as the New Work.

The curve reflects the tech boom of the 1990s, with a few big successes, lots of little guys, plenty of failures, and an eventual bust.  Doctorow celebrates the successes of enterpreneurship and the impact entrepreneurs can have.  One character argues for the virtue of creative work,referring to the success of one of their creations: "That’s a half-million lives—a half-million households—that we changed just by thinking up something cool and making it real."

Doctorow does prefer the start-up over the corporation, and downplays the profit motive as lower than the creative drive.  The acquisition of the business by Kodacell (merger of Kodak and Duracell) leads to its demise.  In a conversation about business without structure, Lester tries to convince Tjan to leave Kodacell and come to work for him.  Tjan defends the structured approach: "Businesses are great structures for managing big projects. It’s like trying to develop the ability to walk without developing a skeleton. Once in a blue moon, you get an octopus, but for the most part, you get skeletons. Skeletons are good sh--.”  "Tjan, I want you to come on board to help me create an octopus,” Perry said.  “I can try,” Tjan said, “but it won’t be easy. When you do cool stuff, you end up making money.” 

Makers has a bit of a mixed message about business qua business, but his celebration of creativity and entrepreneurship is inspiring.  On great ideas: “It’s so obvious now that I see it,” he said.  “Yeah, all the really great ideas are like that,” Lester said.  With this theme, Makers started out to be a favorite book.  But in the post-New Work era, Lester and Perry end up creating a ride which takes riders on a nostalgic trip through the New Work, then it develops a cult following and is replicated around the world.  The story just gets a little jumbled and I stopped caring about 1/2 way through. 

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but finished it on the wave of the first half.  Not that it got bad, it just didn't live up to the start.  One complaint I have is the extremely explicit sex scene.  It's only a short part of a long book, but it seemed way out of character with the rest of the book.  It would have fit more appropriately in a porn mag than in a sci-fi book.  I've read sex scenes in books before, but never anything as extended and explicit as this.  Cory, save it for another forum; your novels are not a place for these fantasies!!  Little Brother, by the way, was not so explicit, but the teen sex scenes in there were certainly more explicit that I would want my soon-to-be teen to be reading.

I thoroughly enjoyed each of these books.  Of the three, Little Brother is my favorite for its great theme and start to finish completeness.  Makers petered out due to length or lack of inspiration, but I still liked it, mostly because of the ideas.  Eastern Standard Tribe was OK, it just didn't click with me as much as the other two.  I know these comments sound sort of tepid, but with the three books, Doctorow has definitely become a new favorite author.  My endorsement of his books as stories ranges from half-hearted to positive, but his weaving of brilliant ideas into stories saves the day.

One thing I should add: Doctorow makes all his books available for free on his website, craphound.com.  Seriously, even new releases.  You can download them in various formats.  Check it out.