New Book Alert: Enemy by Kimberly Amato; Yet Another Dark, Disturbing, and All Too Real Dystopian Science Fiction

 

New Book Alert: Enemy by Kimberly Amato; Yet Another Dark, Disturbing, and All Too Real Dystopian Science Fiction 

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers (BIG HEAVY SPOILERS IMPLIED!!!) Here we go again.

Here we have yet another dystopian science fiction novel that might as well be (to borrow the old Law and Order ad catchphrase) "ripped from the headlines." 

I can't imagine why, but that has become quite a popular genre of late. (End sarcasm). I mean it's not like we are in an environmental catastrophe, been through a worldwide pandemic, have businesses who would rather work with a small workforce than kick in a few bucks so their employees can survive, student loan and housing crisis, inflation and no living wage to counter it, supply chain issues, international crisis with China, and had a former President with tyrannical ambitions encourage his own followers to attack the Capitol building or anything.

(Really, end sarcasm.)

Most people read and write for escapism. This genre is like the Universe saying "Not today, Bookworm! You're going to read it, write it, think about it, and you're going to like it!" 

Not only that but is it just me or do these dystopians get darker and darker? Just when you think you have read the final one, the bleakest one yet that squashes any hope for humanity, along comes another one which tops that. What, do these authors challenge each other to see who can be the most depressing?

Case in point, Kimberly Amato's Enemy which seems to have taken its inspiration from the Jim Henson series, Dinosaurs' final episode "Changing Nature" which seemed to have as its motto "If you want to get viewers talking and watching, then leave them dying and the audience crying."

I thought that Ark of the Apocalypse finally caused me to hit the bottom. Enemy reminded me that there is no bottom, just the big gaping abyss that Nietzsche spoke about. 

Ark of the Apocalypse had a plan of traveling to other worlds. The plan showed that while the characters who conceived it were unlikeable, at least something was salvageable. 

With Enemy, there is no plan. There is no space travel. There is just survival and a slow countdown to extinction. 

There are various subplots in this book which takes place in the near future. The United States is taken over because of an alliance between a former American and Russian President. Obviously, it's part futuristic story and as of right now part alternate universe, because it practically stems from many of the fears over what would happen if a certain someone had won a second term. Though he's barely referred to by name, it's clear that many of the tyrannical 

legislation and requirements on the dystopian government's agenda are based on policies by a certain previous Presidential administration and its cult of followers.

Anyway in Enemy, the President of the United States, James Laskin is a puppet ruler under the true master,  King Valkov, "the one true ruler" of the world. Women, LGBT, and minorities are deprived of their rights. The dying environment has caused many to live underground. Prison employees are permitted to use brainwashing and torture and many are imprisoned for so-called "heinous" crimes like criticizing the government, being disabled, or emigrating into the country. There is no illegal immigration, because immigration is forbidden or rather I should say, that everyone who enters the country is considered an illegal immigrant. Of course the news is nothing more than propaganda and children are educated to fit the world government's definition of "God and Country."

Despite this tight stranglehold on truth and freedom, there are small cells of resistors that communicate with each other virally. 

Most of the protagonists of this story are part of one such cell. One of those members is Agent Ellie Goldman, a former Multinational Security Council Operative, who is now one of the heads of the Resistance. Besides helping people enter the country, she has one other goal in mind: to kill President Laskin.

However, there is dissension within the ranks as many male former military operatives turned rebels don't like being ordered about by a woman. 

Osaka, a Rebel, is undercover working for Laskin but she can't disguise her growing affection for the President's young son, Maxim. Osaka's lover and fellow rebel, Anton, is determined to rescue his captive sister, Nadja.

Riker's Island, a New York prison, is now a central hub or torture and brainwashing. It's run by the militant Col. Macalov and much of the nastiest work is headed by the sadistic Mr. Flannery, who would love to replace Macalov. Also, working at Riker's Island is low level Officer Tim Flynt who takes care of his mentally ill mother and younger brother, Sam, who may be interested in joining the rebels.

Meanwhile, President Laskin has a long list of enemies that he wouldn't mind doing away with and using the Resistance to do so.

The main emotion that runs throughout this book is a certain world weariness, perhaps from the Reader being bombarded with similar scenarios in fiction and probable ones in real life. The world weariness also exists within the framework of the book itself and within the characters. 

The rebels overall plans are to kill Laskin and infiltrate and destroy Riker's Island. They plan this while other cells around the world are destroyed and other rebels are killed, arrested, or converted. Because this dictatorship is worldwide, the odds of Ellie's cell doing any permanent damage is unlikely. There are other Rikers and many people to replace Laskin. The thing is they know it too. Their actions such as they are, are mere pinpricks towards the dictatorship. Ellie can only hope that what they do will inspire others to act.

These are people who have lived their whole lives under this regime and have either grown accustomed or apathetic to it. The ones that fight, have replaced ideals with survival. They have no plans on what to replace the dictatorship with, just live with it, fight against it, and be alive long enough to see it end.

After all with as much damage that has been done to the world, there may not be anything salvageable left to recover.

While weariness is the main emotion, there are some genuine heartfelt moments, particularly by characters who cling to friends and family members because that's all they have. Ellie definitely has tunnel vision in her desire to kill Laskin and is very militant and authoritarian towards her fellow rebels. However, she is grieving over the death of her wife, a woman who was the love of her life. She also connects with an immigrant family consisting of a single mother and her young children. 

Speaking of children, Osaka's bond with Maxim is moving as she sees not an enemy but a small child who is not at fault for what his father does. She becomes more of a parental figure 

to him than his actual parents.

There are some heartbreaking passages which reveal the real price of the war between the oppressors and the oppressed. When Anton learns of his sister's fate, his grief is real and believable showing that there is great loss on all sides. It's like a cry of pain that travels from the words to the Reader's souls.

Tim is an eyewitness to the torture of a rebel and is left traumatized by the experience especially by her calm acquiescence to death. While he remains working at Riker's for some time afterwards, it's clear this experience changed him and is part of why he is reluctant to discover where Sam's allegiances lay. He doesn't want his kid brother to go through that experience of torture with Tim having to helplessly watch and do nothing. Suddenly, these faceless rebels have names and identities to Tim and one of those is the person that he loves the most.

That care for character is also given to many of the antagonistic characters. Some like Flannery delight in cruelty while other like Valkov are far off and remote from the overall action, others are dissected more closely. Laskin is charming, crafty and is distant but concerned for his family. Macalov shows compassion in some of the strangest times such as when he refuses to torture a small child (True, that the child benefits him in his overall plans is a factor, but the fact that he stopped it at all is particularly notable.) They are portrayed as men who might have once been reasonable even idealistic, but like everyone else, made the choice to survive. They just chose to go with the regime rather than fight against it.

 Instead of a straight line between the Evil Empire vs. The Good Rebels, the line is faint and more jagged. Everybody exists in a shade of gray, suggesting there are no direct enemies because the real enemy is inside.

Which leads us to the ending. Because of the previous weariness and emotions of the characters, there is no thought that this book will end in victory for either side. There is some good tension as plans are made and sides attack and counterattack. However, any type of happy victory would ring hollow because of the somber tone that preceded it. Pessimism reigns throughout this book and is definitely present in the final pages.

Because of humanity's self destructive nature, no one comes out a winner. It gets worse in the final pages as at the very end, no one learns anything. This countdown to violence and destruction may continue and once again, we will head for extinction.

It's as though Enemy, literally is the final word on humanity's probable chances for existence. Let's listen to it

But for now, let it be the final word on the dystopian science fiction genre.

Weekly Reader: Effacement by Hieronymus Hawkes; Suspenseful Tech Heavy Science Fiction Chase Thriller That is All Too Timely

 

Weekly Reader: Effacement by Hieronymus Hawkes; Suspenseful Tech Heavy Science Fiction Chase Thriller That is All Too Timely

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers: This is yet another book that I am reading that has familiar echoes in reality. Where the fictional situation which is being explored is also discussed in the real world outside the book.

Just as I am reading Effacement by Hieronymus Hawkes, a science fiction tech thriller in which everyone's information is displayed for all the world to see and privacy is non-existent, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and founder of Facebook (well Meta now) is being held under scrutiny by a whistleblower who called Zuckerberg and the social media giant out regarding targeting children as potential users, not addressing national security concerns, and using algorithms to intentionally spread false information and hate speech. 

 Other concerns facing the social media empire include a lack of privacy, censoring accurate but critical information, and interfering with elections.

In Hawkes' version, the tech industry goes one step further. Instead of posting all of the information on the Internet through social media so people can voluntarily peruse such data, the data is transmitted inside people's brains through a device called Lifelog. Lifelog stores where they were born, their address, what they ate, who they hung out with, general health, where they shopped, and where they are. They are connected through a neurochip based network, called Vitasync, and the information can be viewed with AR glasses. Since the network is connected through the brain, there is so none of that messy computer or mobile device necessity to deal with.

 In fact it is illegal to be without the neurochip. The crime is called effacement and is usually resolved by the sinisterly named Federal Department of Fidelity.

That is the situation faced by Cole Westbay, the protagonist who wakes up with sharp severe pain, a splitting headache, and no access to Lifelog. He isn't effaced (is that even a word in this universe?) by choice but he is treated like he is and will soon be facing trial. Eventually, he finds himself on the run, reaching the interest of his former company, his fiancee Tesla, the FDF, and a resistance group that chooses to live without the Vitasync.

Effacement is one of those science fiction novels that is so prevalent and so intriguing because it is so prescient. With books like this, Reality Testing, and Centricity warning about the abuses of technology and the Internet, right at the same time that tech companies are under suspicion for such misuse is alarmingly familiar.

Effacement's version of tech is like the current tech CEO's times 10. Big Brother isn't just watching you. He's watching everyone else too and probably dancing horribly to Tick Tock while laughing at cat videos.

With the current issues concerning the tech industry and a book like Effacement, it almost makes you want to log off permanently and become a Luddite. 

I said almost. I work from home, in a job that I love, that I would not be able to do in person. Plus, I am aware that I am reading an ebook, one of several, that I purchased from Amazon on a Kindle device, am writing a review for a blog, and will soon be sharing the review on social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, so the irony does not escape me.

Cole is the typical protagonist that can be found in this genre: quiet, unassuming, sardonic on the inside but not much of a rebel on the outside. Since his injury occurs right before we are introduced to him, we don't experience Cole as a cooperative member of the system. He has OCD and is an addict, probably to cope with this tech heavy world around him where the nights and days seem to have a thousand eyes.

Instead, we see him after he has forcibly been yanked from the system and he doesn't know why. Mostly, we get inferences towards his previous behavior such as his job in R&D in which he and his boss have a mentor-protege relationship and his engagement with Tesla, in which he is getting irritated with her narcissism. He gets irritated with the world around him but doesn't think about it until he is removed from it and forced to look at the Vitasync-less world.

Even Cole's reasons for even considering joining the resistance are more self involved than altruistic. He is attracted to Eva, one of the Resistors, by her physical appearance more than swayed by her sound arguments. Even after he gets to know her, he is mostly interested in her for being an attorney that exclusively works with those who have been effaced, so she can plead for his defense. It is only after he goes to the resistance hideout and sees a world of nature, sincere people, and  alone time with his thoughts that he actually wants to help for the larger picture of a life without Lifelog.

There are some moments that really stand out for Cole's character. One of them is after his Vitasync is removed. He feels pain as though someone's arm has been severed. It is a threatening experience which reveals in its intensity how it feels to be suddenly caught off from society and not by choice. For Cole, it is pure physical and mental torture like going through a drug withdrawal.

The other moments are when he is at the Resistance's hideout. He sees a farm where people work with their hands and are very cooperative. There are some humorous passages like when he rides a snowmobile for the first time and becomes violently ill. Throughout this journey, Cole is almost like a kid at Christmas experiencing real joy for the first time. 

This book is for the most part great but there are some flaws. The content is very tech heavy and sometimes difficult to follow when the Reader is trying to see through the tech talk to get to the story. It's ironic that a book that is so critical of the reaches of technology would be so enamored in describing it. I suppose like this Reader who could not avoid using technology to share her thoughts about this book, Hawkes can't avoid getting lost in the details in writing about it.

The other flaw cannot just be found in science fiction but in other genres, that of explaining too much in the beginning, leaving out much suspense and speculation. There is a prologue dealing with an FDF agent that spells out exactly what his role is and why he stalks Cole later. 

More egregious is an early chapter involving two characters that not only reveal why Cole's neurochip had been removed but that of a far reaching conspiracy. This makes the two character's motives questionable even as they claim that they are helping Cole.

 It also keeps the Reader ahead of Cole which since he is our protagonist, we shouldn't be that far ahead in knowledge. This exposition isn't necessary for the overall story and is clunky rather than compelling. Instead this important chapter could have been presented much later in flashbacks or through one character explaining what happened. As it is, there is less interest in Cole's journey as he stumbles looking for answers that we already know. At times, he comes across looking like an idiot for trusting characters that we know are not trustworthy.

Despite its glaring flaws, Effacement is a suspenseful and timely warning about how far we could go to be connected. It could happen just as quickly as tomorrow.

New Book Alert: Umbral Ten (Khaldaia Chronicles) by Douglas Murphy; Outstanding Characters and Dystopian Horror Fill Dark Fantasy

New Book Alert: Umbral Ten (Khaldaia Chronicles) by Douglas Murphy; Outstanding  Characters and Dystopian Horror Fill Dark Fantasy

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews

PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book with a character with vision impairment or enhanced eyesight (Jakob)


Spoilers: What do you get when you combine Epic Fantasy with Dystopian Fiction? You would probably get something like Umbral Ten, the first book in the Khaldaia Chronicles. A book that is firmly set in the epic fantasy milieu but features characters learning to survive and adapt in a chaotic world of corruption, environmental disaster, and fully sanctioned murder and genocide. This book puts the dark in Dark Fantasy and elevates the work into unforgettable horror and terror affecting a cast of outstanding characters.


Before the book officially begins there is a strange prologue in which two characters discuss needing funding and being unable to save the world overnight. For now, it is almost unnecessary and provides a distraction to the rest of the book,u bit also provides hints that there are bigger things going on and that all is not necessarily as it seems.

Once the novel begins proper, we are introduced to six characters: Theodosia AKA Theo, an Elven mage and the wise leader of the group, Ser Lance, a knight dedicated to his religion and code of honor, Rook, a sharp tongued mercenary, Snuffles, Rook's partner who has a dark secret, Sister Tamara, a foul mouthed nun who packs a gun, and Jakob, a meek library assistant with an eidetic memory.


The sextet encounter each other after they are knocked out during a ceremony. When they wake up, they discover that the world around them has changed. Ten years have gone by. The place wherehwhere the ceremony was held is abandoned and lays in ruins. The tree that was once a symbol of life and positive magic is now dead. A once venerated archbishop has turned into a demonic creature, called an Incarnate, who devours human flesh. The only Gods that are worshipped are dark death gods and even small villages have daily human sacrifice rituals. It's pure Hell and our gang of six are right in the middle of it.


So far there isn't much of a single quest beyond mere survival in this pre-Industrial dystopian nightmare but under the circumstances, that's enough. The protagonists have to adjust to a world that they don't recognize and survive when there are many creatures that are out for blood. It's terrifying like someone who was in a coma during the Obama Administration waking up in 2020 and is terrified to experience the Coronavirus pandemic, unidentified Federal troops pulling people off the streets, and a reality show host as President/Dictator. It would be a lot to take in and every day, you would use any ability you had to learn how to survive and to fight in this confusing world.


That is what the six protagonists do and where they shine best. They learn that people that they knew and once respected are now firmly on the side of the human sacrificers. They also work to protect a village of terrified people and a young priest suddenly thrown into the role of village head because of the deaths of those before him. Despite the different temperaments and personalities, the six companions band together to help the villagers and fight off a delegation of dark sorceresses and Incarnates. Their final conflict is actually clever as they outsmart their enemies rather than outfight them.


The six companions are very brilliantly written characters as they interact with each other. They discover some of them, like Snuffles and Jakob, have hidden abilities and others, like Sister Tamara, have alliances that get revealed later. Many of these revelations cause dissension in the group. At one point, they vote whether or not to kill one of the members in case their abilities push them too far.

By far the best character is Jakob. He is almost a stand-in for every fantasy fan who reads the books wishing they were part of the action. He is well read and brilliant, but clearly out of his element among skilled fighters, powerful magic users, and bold warriors. He suffers from an inferiority complex, especially when others describe him as dead weight. He even questions his own self worth, but ultimately shows that he can contribute just as well as any of them.

Umbral Ten is a very dark, but outstanding beginning to a potentially great series. Hopefully, things can only get better for them because I can't see how they can get worse.

New Book Alert: VanWest: The Past (Book One of The VanWest Series) by Kenneth Thomas; Involved, But Action Packed and Suspenseful Start of a Science Fiction Series

New Book Alert: VanWest: The Past (Book One of the VanWest Series) by Kenneth Thomas; Involved, But Action Packed and Suspenseful Start Of A Science Fiction Series

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: The first couple of chapters of Kenneth Thomas's VanWest The Past are a stark difference than the rest of the book. It begins like a video game put to words. VanWest, the protagonist, participates in a series of tournaments that seems to be somewhere between Halo and Harry Potter's Triwizard Tournament. There is action and propaganda as VanWest and his fellow Enforcers are held up as the ultimate athletes. They go through various games with such delightful names as "Pythea's Labyrinth" and "Fires of Vesta," to achieve victory. The Enforcers use their strength, teamwork, and intelligence to get through the various levels. The Reader expects to see a Health Bar or gold coins representing extra points over the Soldier's heads. These chapters are tense and nail-biting, but not particularly interesting or character driven.


Just when the Reader thinks this book is going to continue to be all action and little plot, the book takes a 360 degree turn and it becomes apparent that all that happened before was intended propaganda. We, the Readers, were meant to see VanWest as the government sees him: as the ultimate hero, warrior, the one who fills their ideals of conquest and control. We are meant to not think too much about VanWest and what he actually stands for.

The introduction hints that Earth is now controlled by oligarchs who reside in Antartica (because it is the only decent piece of land that hasn't been completely destroyed by radiation and pollution). While we have an inkling that the government is corrupt, VanWest doesn't. He is supposed to be their model Superman, until the games are over.


Since time travel is possible, VanWest is given an important assignment. A rebel group the Natural Earth Alliance, wants to break the stronghold that the Universal Council has over the 29th century. The NEA wants to restore Earth to the late 20th century status so they have gone back in time to prevent the Universal Council from it's eventual conquest. 

The NEA's first stop is 1961 to interfere with the formation of CERN which is the first link in a long chain that resulted in the formation of space travel, the creation of the Universal Council, and the destruction of Earth. VanWest has to go back in time to infiltrate and stop the NEA. 

It is on this mission that VanWest and the Reader realizes that he is more than a propaganda tool. He initially sees the NEA members as names on a list with psuedonyms like "Mad Newton", "The Seductress," "The Priestess," and others.

 After his assignment, he befriends Dr. Von Helmann, the so-called "Mad Newton" and falls in love with Von Helmann's daughter, Iris. 

When he gains acceptance by the Van Helmann family and ends up being on the same side of the NEA, he sees them as more than names on a list. He sees them as people fighting for a just cause. We also see VanWest in a better light. He is more than a thoughtless blunt instrument. He is a man struggling to be himself and fight for his individuality in a government that forbids it. His greatest moment is when he openly defies the Council in public and on screen, the opposite of who he was before.


The book starts out virtually plotless but then becomes more involved. Betrayals pile on top of each other,  further confusing allegiances so that no one is sure who to trust. Suspense is built as characters try to outdo each other in cunning, subterfuge, and with a few fistfights and shootings.
VanWest The Past is the beginning of what hopefully will be a fascinating series of a rebel fighting against his own government and in the process finding himself.

New Book Alert: The Girl Who Found The Sun by Matthew S. Cox; Unintentionally Difficult Science Fiction Book To Read These Days

New Book Alert: The Girl Who Found The Sun by Matthew S. Cox; Unintentionally Difficult Science Fiction Book To Read These Days

By Julie Sara Porter

Bookworm Reviews



Spoilers: Matthew S. Cox's The Girl Who Found The Sun is a very difficult book to read right now.

It's hard to read about a futuristic world in which characters a trapped underground hiding from the environmental and sociopolitical disasters up above. It can make a Reader anxious to visualize the claustrophobia, the deprivation from even the simplest things, and the dependence on people who are just as frightened and uncertain as they are, especially when the Reader is living that life in reality.


That is the situation faced by Raven, one of a dwindling group of Earth's survivors in the Arc, an underground shelter. They hid to get away from an alien race called plutions who destroyed the planet, leaving noxious gases. Should anyone go outside, the toxic air could kill them. The community leader, Noah, rules with an iron fist. Unfortunately, a few members disappeared including Raven's father who often talked about the world up above.

Raven also has to make the difficult decision to face that world. As a tech, she is one of the people in charge with bringing oxygen into the Arc. Unfortunately, the air filtration system is breaking down. Raven has to go above to fix it. She has an even more pressing reason to do so when many of the community members become seriously ill, including Raven's daughter, Tinsley.

The underground world of the characters is bleak and terrifying, especially when you are living a life indoors and kept away from the outside world. In both cases in fiction and reality, the reasons are to keep the residents safe but it still makes them longing for the outside world. Of course in the fictional, The Girl Who Found The Sun, the situation is excaberated by the fact that many generations have lived underground to the point that the populace of the Arc is dwindling with only eight small children and very few couples that are genetically related. All of those things like blue skies, colorful birds and animals, different types of people and nations can only be found in books and stories. The Arc was meant to be only a temporary solution, but after several centuries have gone by, the characters stay underground because it's the only life that they know. They have become apathetic and agoraphobic living only for their immediate survival.

Raven would be the same way: working in the job in which she was assigned, giving birth and raising a daughter at a young age even though she does not get on with the child's father, and following the various rules without question. She would never go outside, except her father, Eli, had been in and out numerous times and has told her about the beautiful world that he had seen. Most people think that Eli was just telling stories or out of his mind, especially since he disappeared and never returned.


Raven is a courageous and independent thinker, thanks to her dad's freethinking ways. She had dreams of the outside world, but her encounter with that world to fix the air filtration system intensifies those desire to explore. For the first time, she is blinded by the sun, feels the grass underneath her toes, and breathes the clean air without the aid of an oxygen mask. She longs to explore more of the outside world, especially when she sees potential evidence that other people live on the outside.

Raven also reveals her kindness and devotion to the other Members of the community, particularly her daughter, Tinsley. She has no intention of leaving them behind. First, she lures out her colleague, Lark then Tinsley. Her plan is to lead out a small group at a time recognizing the strength in numbers. She reasons that if more people acknowledge that it really is safe out there, then Noah could be convinced to let the others out or at least let outside air come into the Arc.


Of the more brilliant choices that Cox makes with his work is how he writes Noah, the Arc leader. It would be tempting to make him the Big Bad, someone who has gone insane and drunk with power through the years and is willing to kill his people rather than see the outside or part of some giant conspiracy that knows the outside world is safe and will kill to prevent that secret to hold onto his little world. There are many times when the Reader expects the novel to go into that direction.

Thankfully, Cox subverts those expectations. Noah actually is a decent man who wants to do right by his community, but is in over his head. He became leader at a fairly young age and is somewhat overwhelmed by his responsibilities, especially when people around him become sick. He is driven by his own fears and ignorance of the outside world, unfortunately as leader that fear is also passed onto his people. However, he is not completely hard hearted and when times get desperate, Noah is willing to weigh different probable solutions and is ultimately willing to admit that he is wrong. Because of how well Cox writes them, Raven and Noah are the two best characters in the book.




Once the outside world is revealed, the writing becomes quite beautiful and almost wistful. There are beautiful moments such as when Raven encounters a flock of birds for the first time. The sun becomes blinding when they approach it, but the warmth is intoxicating. Raven and her crew also encounter dangers such as feral cats and humans gone mad by the outside hardship. One of the more harshest discoveries is when Raven learns that the Earth's destruction was not caused by alien forces called plutions, but from within by humanity itself.

As Raven and the others wander the rubble of the fallen cities and see the corpses of the people left behind, a lump fills the Reader's throat over the fallen world and how quickly this fiction could become a reality if we do not do our part to take care of the world.


That's what makes The Girl Who Found The Sun so haunting and difficult to read. This is a world that could be all too real and made even more real every day. It also makes one take pleasure in those little things like a walk through the grass, the feel of the sun, a walk down a city street, a trip to the store, and love it more.

Classics Corner: Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace: A Hard to Follow But Thought Provoking Look At The Future

Classis Corner: Infinite Jest by David Fostet Wallace; A Hard To Follow, But Thought Provoking Look At The Future
By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews

And I thought Ulysses was a difficult read. Infinite Jest makes the James Joyce novel look like Green Eggs and Ham.
Infinite Jest is one of those books that is made to be reread so the Reader can catch all of the nuances, plot angles, and literary devices that they missed the first time around. But if you are reading and reviewing it for the first time, it's the  literary equivalent to climbing Mt. Everest a difficult climb but you have to read it because it's there.

Infinite Jest is an unwieldy book with several characters and plot angles that it's hard to summarize. Characters get a several page introduction and you think they will be important later, only to take a minor role in later pages. Certain conversations get repeated to the point where the Reader is filled with deja vu thinking "Didn't I read this already?" The narration goes from third person to first to script format without a care. Not to mention, there are over 100 pages of footnotes to the almost 1,000 pages of the main text that recounts important conversations and plot points that the Reader might miss if they don't read the footnotes. Clearly, Wallace did not want to make his book an easy read.

However when Infinite Jest isn't lost in its unwieldiness, it is a thought-provoking and intriguing look at the near future which looks ever so much like today. It is fascinating to read a book set in the future like Infinite Jest and recount how many topics that the writer got right.

Okay, the yearly calendar has yet to be arranged to fit Subsidized Time from advertisers who buy the rights to name the years after their products such as the Year of the Whopper, the Year of the Dove Trial-Size Bar, and the Year of the Depend Adult-Size Undergarment. (How do you determine Astrological signs and personality traits with years like that? Is a baby born in the Year of the Whopper full of themselves? One born in the Year of the Dove Trial-Size Bar obsessed with cleanliness? I'd hate to think what the personality of a Depend Adult-Size Undergarment baby would be.)
However with pop up ads and product placement, advertising surrounds us more than ever that we might as well have years named for them.

People watch entertainment on teleputers and through a site called the Interlace. We know them as Netflix, Hulu, and others.(However Wallace still had a toe in 1996 by saying that the characters watched the works on cartridges and home computers. Wallace did not envision hand-held devices or that the Entertainments could be downloaded on to them.) The majority of the Entertainments are plotless mindless action movies to keep the audience watching and enthralled with the occasional experimentation, not to far off from what is seen in modern-day movie theaters. Pop culture invades every mode of society, even academia, shown when a character gets accepted to a prestigious academy by writing a thesis comparing the lead characters in Hawaii Five-0 and Hill Street Blues. Many real-life college campuses and high schools contain courses on Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and other pop culture touchstone items.

The political social environment also is similar to life in the late-2010's. The United States, Canada, and Mexico have formed a super country but many Quebecois want to break from this union similar to the divisions between the United States and many of its former allies as well as the Brexit when Britain left the European Union. The President, Johnny Gentle, a crooner with little political experience wins the election based on backing from various fringe groups like oh say a certain real estate mogul/reality show star becoming President based on backing from various fringe groups. (Though Gentle's demeanor is more based on Ronald Reagan rather than the bombastic Trump.) Many characters are addicted to various drugs, many of them are a composite of marijuana and various painkillers and prescription drugs similar to the modern day Opioid Crisis. There are areas between the former United States and Canada that are environmentally uninhabitable. While that has yet to happen, the relaxing of many EPA regulations suggest that one day this may be a possibility.

The world of Infinite Jest seems like a composite of Brave New World and Idiocracy, where there is no depth, where shallowness is the order of the day, and most characters behave like thoughtless children living for their personal pleasures and nothing else. The most disturbing thing  about this futuristic society is that except for a few fringe groups here and there, there is hardly any Resistance to fight against this society. Where is Guy Montag to remind them of the importance of reading? Why doesn't a John the Savage claim the right to be unhappy? Why aren't there even people who rebel in little ways like a journaling Winston Smith or an Offred vowing not to let the bastards grind her down?

The answer is nowhere. There is no Resistance. The people have become desensitized to their society that they are numb to it. No one shows much outrage unless it concerns them personally. So they withdraw into themselves and their addictions.

Addiction is an ongoing theme in this book particularly in its main two settings, the Enfield Tennis Academy and the Ennet House Alcohol and Drug Recovery House. The Tennis Academy is filled with students who are pushed to succeed, particularly Hal Incandenza, son of the Tennis Academy's late founder, James O. Incandenza and it's current co-President, Avril Mondragon Tavis Incandenza. While being pushed in his courses and to succeed on the court against students who are sometimes better and younger than his 13 years, Hal also has to deal with his eccentric family. His family includes his obssessive-compulsive mother, Avril, his womanizing brother, Orin, his deformed brother, Mario, his uncle, Charles Tavis who may have had an affair with the nymphomaniacal, Avril, and his father, James who besides creating the Academy made Experimental films before he committed suicide. With a family like that, it's no wonder Hal and his friends retreat into drugs to numb themselves from the stress of a world that no longer listens.

The Ennet House is also filled with lost characters starting with Don Gately, a former addict turned counselor. He has been through the steps so often, that he knows the cliches by heart. He also is not as far from his addictive past as he thinks he is. Another resident at the Ennet House is Joelle Van Dyne, AKA Madame Psychosis, a disfigured former actress who was Orin's former girlfriend and James's frequent co-star in his films. Like her nickname suggests, she has a dark personality that rejects the beauty that she once was. Her addictions are her only means of existence.

The ultimate addiction in this book is not a drug, it's a film. The Entertainment also called the samizdat or Infinite Jest, directed by James Incandenza and.starrimg Joelle Van Dyne is a movie that puts new meaning to the term binge watching. The Entertainment is so addictive that people can't stop watching it, forgetting to eat, forgetting to sleep. They just watch it until they die. Many want this film, including the government to use it as a weapon or an antidote and many others want to use it as another drug, something that helps them forget their worries.

Infinite Jest is a book that is tough going and could be several hundred pages shorter, but when the Reader is able to find the story underneath the length, they find a book that makes them think.

Classics Corner: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood: A Landmark in Postmodern Feminism

Classics Corner: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood: A Landmark in Postmodern Feminism
By Julie Sara Porter, Bookworm Reviews

Spoilers Ahead: In 2017, it was hard to escape the presence of The Handmaid's Tale. Margaret Atwood's dystopian Feminist novel seemed to be everywhere. It was made into a critically acclaimed Emmy winning Hulu series starring Elisabeth Moss. Protestors against sexual assault and for reproductive rights and other women's health issues have taken to standing in silence and wearing the Handmaid's costumes: a red robe and a white bonnet covering most of the face.
The book has been banned, analyzed, and debated over the themes and whether modern society is approaching the grim Totalitarian theocracy of Gilead, as envisioned by Atwood in 1985. When a novel reaches modern consciousness, sometimes people wonder if it's worth all the hype. Luckily in this case, the Atwood novel is and so much more. It is one of the Landmark works of Postmodern Feminism.

(Note: I am basing this review on the novel since I don't have a Hulu subscription and have not seen the series-a shame since I love the novel and am a fan of Elisabeth Moss. I will make passing references to the series based on things I have heard but since the series will soon be entering its second season, I must reiterate that this review will contain spoilers.)

For the few people unaware of the premise, The Handmaid's Tale is set in a futuristic United States which has become a collective of Theocracies that tie church and state together tightly. (You know that thing the Constitution warned us about in separating them.) The main setting is Gilead, which is formerly known as the state of Maine. The Gileadian structure, indeed most of the governments, is very unstable. Many of the various religious factions war against each other. Different racial and ethnic minorities have been either isolated or wiped out. Previous nuclear attacks have rendered the population diminished and sterile.

Because of the reduced population and the strict religious laws, the roles of men and women are rigidly defined. Men either fight in the wars, are Guardians of the various enclaves, or are Commanders or overseers of the communities. Women are tightly constrained as either Wives of the Commanders, Marthas who are housekeepers and cooks, Econowives, wives of poorer men, or Handmaids, women of childbearing years who are given the task to give birth to their Commander's children, whether they want to or not.

The book is told by one of the Handmaids, known as Offred a patronym meaning that the Handmaids belong to their Commanders, in this case Fred. Showing that the women don't even have the freedom of a real name beyond belonging to a man. (Though there are hints in the book that Offred's real name is June, which the series also uses as her name in flashbacks.)
 Offred describes her daily life in which the Handmaids are constantly monitored, deprived of possessions, and forced to remain silent, according to the Biblical tenets which dictate their society. Their only outside experiences are their shopping trips in which they are partnered with other Handmaids and walk into stores with pictures for signs. (In this society women are not permitted to read because in the words of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast: "Next you thing you know women start getting ideas...thinking."). The women however also are forced to participate in sex rites with their much older Commanders for the purpose of conceiving children. So women are meant to be sexual playthings in a society dominated by religious dogma. It's a world dominated by men who are somewhere between Mike Pence and Harvey Weinstein.

Like 1984's Winston Smith, Offred hates her society but does not overtly rebel against it. Instead she covertly acts in small ways to retain her individuality and humanity in a world of forced conformity. She sees words scratched  in her room which says "Notile te bastardes carborundorum" which she repeats silently as a mantra. (She later learns that it means "don't let the bastards grind you down" making her repetition of the phrase more subversive.)
 She goes with her shopping partner to the Wall where prisoners are hung and displayed for various "crimes" such as participating in abortions, being "gender traitors" i.e. homosexuals, and being different religions.
 She takes a secret smug delight in the silenced and diminished role of Serena Joy, Commander Fred's Wife who used to be a Conservative Religious spokeswoman who campaigned against Feminism and insisted that a woman's place should be in the home. ("How furious she must be now that she has been taken at her word," Offred remarks observing Serena Joy's now-powerless role in the world she helped create by her views.)
Offred also uses restricted alone time with her Commander to play Scrabble and to be granted favors like hand lotion and magazines, and to receive answers to questions about why the world became the way it did. ("Better never means better for everyone," The Commander observes. "It always means worse for some.") These moments of defiance serves to remind Offred that she is an individual person underneath the red robe and that as long as she is aware of that, her spirit can never be broken.

Another way Offred retains her individuality is to retain her memories of her life "in the Time Before." She recalls her Feminist mother who gave birth to her in middle age and used to drag her daughter to protest marches when Offred was a little girl. Offred also rembers her best friend and former college roommate, Moira and how the two shared cigarettes, pretentious thoughts, and opinions on men and society.
Above all, Offred remembers having a job at a library, a husband named Luke, and a daughter, all of which she loved and loved having the freedom of choosing a life.
She recalls the world changing around her-Conservative pundits, like Serena Joy, speaking loudly about Traditional values, declining birth rates and infant kidnapping including briefly her own daughter's, slight restructuring of laws giving less rights to women-until the day comes when Offered and her female colleagues are removed from their jobs and their cards are declined; when their status as women were marginalized and they officially became second-class citizens.

These memories of those basic times of various choices of wearing different clothes, earning her own money, having relationships become dear to Offred. She also recalls various memories with the people in her life;  the bad-the teasing, her mother's embarrassments, Moira's odd views, squabbles with Luke and her daughter, and the good- advice from her mother, heart-to-heart chats with Moira, public moments of affection and romance  with Luke, and a joyous  bond with her daughter. Offred misses all of them and the people they used to be.

With a feeling of nostalgia, Offred longs for the return of those days no matter how embarrassing, confusing, and minor they seemed at the time but are now precious in a world she no longer recognizes. They become weapons in her defiance against the Gileadian society as she longs for a different time because she lived through it.

There are hints of a Resistance and Offred possibly becomes involved with a member who may also be a spy for Gilead. In the end, Offred's whereabouts become murky as she is taken away never to be heard from again. (Though a second season to the series is planned with Atwood's full cooperation.)
However, an epilogue set long after the end of the Gileadian regime in which women reclaim their full power states that Offred's account of her life as a Handmaid was an important document in the return of a Feminist society.
The academic epilogue in which a professor discusses Offred's account shows that in her small acts of subversion and her accounts of her life before and her time as a Handmaid, Offred gained more than she ever would have believed in her life time.: People inspired by her to survive the Totalitarian regime of Gilead, to fight against it, and ultimately defeat it.