Down and out in the magic kingdom

This week I read Cory Doctorow’s science fiction novel - Down and out in the magic kingdom. It is Cory’s first book, published in 2003; simulatenously released under Creative Commons license and can be downloaded in many formats for free. The title is inspired from George Orwell’s “Down and out in Paris and London” (just like “Little Brother”) which describes descent into poverty, a similar plot point in the book. The book is short (208 pages) and I finished it in 5-6 hours. Doctorow is a digital rights activist, working with EFF, which is what brought my attention to his work.

Set in distant future, the story revolves around the idea “What if we discovered Immortality?”. Humanity is now inter-planetary, and has gained amazing capabilities like curing death, a universal reputation system and transhumanism (upgrading the human body with technology). The backdrop of the story is Disney World where the protagonist Jules, his best friend Dan and girlfriend Lil, fight a gang war to control the theme park’s attractions.

In the book, Earth, Moon and planets are all part of a large civilisation called “Bitchun society”. Very different from our current society, these are Bitchun’s defining features:

• Adhocracy, a very dynamic form of government.
• Wuffie - a universal reputation system - also acts like a currency - based on how much people respect you.
• Immortality - achieved by mind backups and body clones. Just like in a computer, if you have the software state (mind) backed up you can resume running it on compatible hardware (body clone).
• Deadheading - Freezing the human body and mind for possibly centuries.
• Transhumanism - Brain machine interface via implants, always connected to the Internet, replaceable body parts etc.

The world Doctorow constructs is teeming with new, weird ideas. He doesn’t give an explanation of adoption/evolution of these ideas, but builds and plays with them. Although this helps keeping the story fast-paced, some concepts like Wuffie deserve more explanation as form a major part of the story. This is a world of immortality and body clones, and age and appearance are unreliable features. A person with a youthful appearance might be 20 or 200 years old. Where the mind is separate from the body, there are bound to be interesting scenarios. This age dynamic plays out between the characters and is significant to the world and story.

There is an effort to construct realistic dialogues and scenarios in this world. Most of the time the scenarios are recognizable but sometimes seem pretty outlandish and hard to imagine - like a scene where naked people are playing musical instruments in an unusual structure in space. Even without the crazy futuristic world, the theme park setting of the plot is unique and fun. For Disney World fans, this will be a treat as attractions and rides are discussed in detail.

At the heart of the book is a cultural gang war being fought to upgrade the attractions at the park. The protagonist gang fights for keeping the old mechanical nature of rides, as oppossed to newer electronic ways - like directly flashing a sensory experience onto your brain. These questions will become more legitimate as we move into the future - when everything can be done digitally, there will be a backlash for more authentic experiences.

My short verdict - I liked the ideas and worldbuilding, but the plot suffers from inconsistencies, and pacing problems. Overall, read this book for the sci-fi elements and less for the story.