Friday, August 15, 2008

Reading: Little Brother



Review of the novel Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

1984 by George Orwell is a classic political and sociological novel. Orwell’s book was meant as a warning. Unfortunately too many political leaders have used it as an operations manual. But at least we have words like “Orwellian” and “double-speak” to use to describe the actions of groups who want to put us all under surveillance and use twisted language to tell us that losing our privacy means being free.

If there is any justice in the world, Little Brother, the new novel by Cory Doctorow, will be just as influential as Orwell’s classic. Little Brother is set in San Francisco in the very near future after a terrorist attack on the Oakland Bay Bridge, and follows the adventures and misadventures of high school student Marcus, known online as w1n5t0n (pronounced “Winston”). Marcus and his friends get swept up in a Homeland Security dragnet and are held and interrogated as terrorist suspects.

Unlike Winston in 1984, Marcus’s attempts to fight back and subvert the system are a little more effective. But I don’t want to give away the plot.

Doctorow tackles all the tough issues of post-911 America, surveillance, security, the Bill of Rights, Constitutional authority, extraordinary rendition, and much more. Marcus and his friends, teachers, parents are all very real characters that have to make hard decisions in the face of real terrorism and real fear. There are no clichéd heroes and villains in this book, just people making decisions, hard decisions.

Little Brother should be required reading for citizens young and old. It is gritty, harsh, funny, scary, and heart rending but above all hopeful.

Read It! You can download it for free at Doctorow’s website. Or buy it.

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