After technology makes death and scarcity and money obsolete, what is left?
Disney World.
Your personality and memories can be restored from back-up into a cloned body if you kick the bucket. Internal neurocomputers make it possible to access hyperlinks in conversation, make subvocal phone calls, and upload files to your friend's brains simply by making gunfingers at them. Nanotech makers produce food for free, and cash becomes irrelevant, replaced by a tally of community respect called 'Whuffie'. Since nobody needs to starve, nobody needs to be guaranteed a job. If you think you can do something, you just waltz in and do it, and if you do it well enough the respect you earn translates to Whuffie, which in turn translates to preferential treatment. This is the future world of Bitchun society, the setting for Cory Doctorow's science fiction novel Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom, a world taken over by an 'ad-hocracy' of power blocs which spring up to take over organisations and earn themselves Whuffies. This portrayal of humanity coming close to the edge of post-humanity then looking back is reminiscent of Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan comic, even down to the animalistic body modification for future furries, but Down And Out takes things even further forwards.
Our protagonist Julius lives at and for Disney World. He and his girlfriend Lil work at the Haunted Mansion, trying to preserve its oldschool animatronic style in the face of technological advance, personified by the changes being made over at the Hall of Presidents. With the world's big problems -- starvation and war and such -- surmounted, all the main characters have left to deal with are their personal problems, friends and lovers and families, but instead they fill their lives by obsessing over trivia. Sound familiar?
With egoboo as the new currency it's like the net culture of fandom is the only thing that matters. And Doctorow understands fandom and obsessive geeks and the relationship they have with the professionals they worship:
"Totally obsessive fans are a good measure of a ride's popularity, but they're kind of a pain in the ass, too. They lipsynch the soundtrack, cadge souvenirs and pester you with smarmy, show-off questions. After a while, even the cheeriest castmember starts to lose patience, develop an automatic distaste for them."
This use of Disney World as the setting seems brave in the age of copyright confusion, but maybe that's why he doesn't use Disneyland. I'm a cynical hipster myself, and my attitude is best summed up by Tom Waits's comments in a Playboy interview:
"Disneyland is Vegas for children. When I went with the kids, I just about had a stroke. It's the opposite of what they say it is. It's not a place to nurture the imagination. It's just a big clearance sale for useless items. I'm not going back, and the kids won't be allowed to return until they're 18, out of the house. And even then, I would block their decision."
but Doctorow does such a good job of explaining why his central character loves the place he might make me appreciate it yet. Plus, Treasure Planet -- pirates in space, how can that not be cool?
All this clever world building and speculation would be for naught if the characters were dull, but the tech never gets in the way of the personalities. Judicious use of flashbacks explaining how the world got from now to then also illuminate how the characters came to be the way they are. A trip to an orbiting space station could be an excuse to have a lot of airlocks going wshhh and "Open the pod bay doors" dialogue, but instead it becomes a cathartic story about the ultimate ex from hell. I mean that, if you think your ex tore your heart out and fed it to her flying monkeys, wait till you read this baby.
This is Doctorow's first novel, so to get the word-of-mouth flowing he's giving it away for free on the net, although there's a dead tree edition available from Tor Books as well. You can read it in html, plain text, pdf, PalmOS PDB, Apple Newton PKG, PalmOS Palm Reader, and Microsoft LIT formats. It's a small download and a short novel and eminently worth your time. Head on over to http://www.craphound.com/down and give the man some Whuffie. You'll get to read one of the most imaginative and well-written science fiction stories of recent times.
He deserves bonus points for use of the word 'fuxor' too.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)