Pam's Book Log

13 January, 2003

Behold the power of advertising. This is a book I would never have chosen to read without some sort of prior recommendation[1], but because I have seen the advertisement for it at the top of Boing Boing every day for months, I read it the day it became available. It helped, of course, that the author has made it available for free download from his website, so I didn't have to actually go to the book store and spend money, or anything strenuous like that.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a type of story which has a venerable history in the science fiction genre-- it's an "idea story." The focus of the book is not the plot or the characters, or even "world building." Rather, it's an answer to a question of the form, "What would the world be like if ... ?" In old-time science fiction, that question was more often than not completed with the description of some kind of gadget or technological advance. Here, the "what if" is more esoteric: what would the world be like if humanity conquered death, and had access to unlimited resources? If nobody had to worry about food or shelter, or access to information, and death but a minor inconvenience, easily remedied by "restoring from backup"?

Doctorow explores this question by means of a personal drama, involving a fellow names Jules, who is a typical member of the "Bitchun Society"[2]: eighty-some years old (physical appearance, 25 or so), composer of two symphonies, holder of four PhDs, with no greater responsibility than keeping his much younger girlfriend happy and helping to keep Disneyworld's Haunted Mansion running smoothly. Like the vast majority of people in his society, he's physically grown, but psychologically he's still a child. Over the course of the book, he loses everything he thought was important, and actually manages to grow up. Yes, this is a coming-of-age story featuring an octagenarian. The surprising thing is that it's believable, and it works.

This is not a book for the detail-obsessed individual. Doctorow makes no effort to explain how the miricle of a deathless, infinitely-rich society came about, nor does he attempt to justify the premise that, under those conditions, large-scale human misery (as opposed to mere personal angst) would actually be wiped out, or even to explain how Disneyworld could still exist and be itself, in the absence of the all-powerful, all-controlling Disney corporation. All those things just are. The world of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom isn't intended to be a realistic portrayal of the future. It's more like a metaphor, or an abstract picture of what the future might hold.

I won't be running out to buy this novel; while I enjoyed it, I didn't enjoy it enough to shell out $20 for such a short book. I'll probably get it if or when it comes out in paperback, though.

[1] For the same general reasons given by Mike Kozlowski, in his review.

[2] This deliberately-off spelling bugs me more than it ought to. What's wrong with the proper "Bitchin'"?