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Tourist Season (novel) Tourist Season is a 1986 novel by Carl Hiaasen. It was his first solo novel, after co-writing several mystery/thriller novels with William Montalbano. Plot. "Las Noches de Diciembre" (Spanish, "The Nights of December") is a small terrorist cell led by rogue newspaper columnist Skip Wiley, calling himself "El Fuego". Skip believes that the only way to save Florida's natural beauty from destruction is to violently dissuade tourists from visiting and/or settling in the state. Recruiting three comrades with similar vendettas against the Florida establishment, they begin a spree of flashy kidnappings, murders, and bombings to frighten off new arrivals into the Sunshine State. Their first victim is B.D. "Sparky" Harper, the head of Miami's Chamber of Commerce. Sparky's body is found stuffed into an oversized suitcase, dressed in a garish tourist outfit, smeared with sunscreen, and with his legs amputated. Next, the group starts kidnapping and killing random tourists and Florida residents, many of whom are fed to a giant crocodile nicknamed "Pavlov". Brian Keyes, a private investigator and former reporter for the Miami "Sun", is hired to help defend petty burglar Ernesto Cabal, who was caught driving Sparky's stolen car. Brian does not believe that Ernesto killed Sparky, but the Miami police dismiss him. Ernesto commits suicide when told by his own lawyer that the case is a lost cause. Brian is then hired by Nell Bellamy to find her missing husband (the first tourist victim), and by "Sun" editor Cab Mulcahy to locate the missing Wiley. After an encounter with his ex-girlfriend Jenna (who is now dating Skip), Brian tracks Skip to the Everglades and is captured by "Las Noches". Revealing himself, Skip tells Brian to return to Miami and spread the word of the group's demands. He then has Brian watch as their latest victim is fed to Pavlov. Brian tries to stop the murder and is stabbed in the back by one of Skip's followers, a Cuban named Jesús Bernal. He is returned to Miami and treated in the hospital.. Since it is the start of the tourist season, the police's initial reaction to Brian's warnings is to engage in a cover-up, dismissing the "Las Noches" communiques as a hoax. "Sun" reporter Ricky Bloodworth uncovers the letters and writes an article, but misspells the name of the group as "Las "Nachos"". The terrorists retaliate by triggering several bombs in public places, forcing the authorities to take them seriously. Brian's old friend, Detective Al Garcia is appointed head of a task force to catch the terrorists. Based on Skip's hints, Brian, Cab, and Al deduce that the terrorists plan to kidnap Miami's much-touted Orange Bowl Queen. Since civic leaders refuse to cancel the Orange Bowl Parade or to provide the beauty queen with visible police protection, Al suggests hiring Brian as her undercover bodyguard. Brian finds the beauty queen, Kara Lynn Shivers, to be an intelligent and sensible girl who is only in the beauty queen "racket" to indulge her father. Brian and Kara Lynn grow closer, eventually developing a relationship. While escorting Kara Lynn home from a tennis game, Brian catches Jesús loitering in the parking lot and beats him into submission with a tennis racket. Furious that Jesús has foiled the group's element of surprise, Skip devises a new plan. Jesús, aching for reinstatement with the anti-Castro terrorist group he was expelled from, abandons "Las Noches" and sends a mail bomb to Al. Farcically, the bomb is instead opened by an over-eager Ricky, illegally sifting Garcia's mail for clues about the terrorists. Because of Bernal's poor construction, the bomb only injures Ricky. Al never learns that the bomb was addressed to him, and the bombing is attributed to "Las Noches". The next evening, Skip buzzes the deck of a cruise ship in a helicopter and bombards the deck with shopping bags containing live snakes. As the panicked passengers dive off the ship and the Coast Guard is summoned, Skip's helicopter unexpectedly crashes at sea before it reaches land. No bodies are recovered. Miami's civic leaders assume the terrorists are dead, but Brian and Al insist that their security precautions remain in place until after the parade. In a last-ditch effort, Jesús kidnaps Al at gunpoint and drives him to Key Largo to be executed. Al is wounded in the shoulder by Jesús's shotgun, but Brian manages to track them down and kills Jesús. To Brian's surprise, the parade proceeds without any sign of "Las Noches". The following evening, during the Orange Bowl, he belatedly realizes that Kara Lynn is supposed to make a brief appearance during the game's halftime show, and figures out that "Las Noches" has chosen that moment to strike. Kara Lynn is kidnapped and carried out of the stadium on an airboat, though one of the terrorists, ex-football player "Viceroy" Wilson, is shot to death by her unofficial escort. Brian deduces from Skip's old press clippings that he has taken Kara Lynn to Osprey Island, a small nature preserve in the middle of Biscayne Bay. There, Skip reveals to Kara Lynn that the island has been mined with dynamite, to be exploded at dawn, to allow for the construction of a new condominium. He plans to leave her there, with the island's other remaining wildlife, so that her death will send a message to Florida's greedy developers. Before Skip can depart, Brian arrives and disables him with a bullet to the leg. Skip initially refuses to tell Brian where he has anchored his boat, prepared to let the dynamite claim the three of them all at once. However, upon realizing that Brian has brought Jenna along, he surrenders the boat's location. To Brian's surprise, he refuses to go along with them. As they speed away from the island, Keyes, Kara Lynn, and Jenna look back and see Skip is climbing a tree, trying to scare a bald eagle nesting there into taking flight before the dynamite explodes. The novel ends just as the "all clear" signal for the detonation is sounded, with the three of them whispering the same prayer: "Please fly away." Themes. The book is not only an example of the crime fiction genre, but a satire as well, of many subjects from tourism to sports to race relations to the newsroom. It also contains examples of the literary device of the red herring; for example, deep background is given to characters who appear briefly only to die off, which keeps the reader guessing as to who will make it to the end of the book. Hiaasen is a newspaper columnist from the "Miami Herald". In an interview, he said that he took much of his inspiration from his work on the "Herald". Readers may believe that Skip Wiley is a slightly more crazed version of the author; both are newspaper columnists, and both are very passionate and entertaining writers. One theme that persists in the book is moral ambiguity; while Brian Keyes understands the value of Skip Wiley's ends, Keyes would have preferred a less violent means. Their conflict arises as a matter of where they place their allegiance: Brian Keyes to humankind, and Skip Wiley to the wild. Hiaasen's novels typically deal with distinctly Floridian themes such as environmental destruction of unique ecosystems, the inability to sustain rapid growth, and crooked politicians, among others. Other media. An audiobook version of "Tourist Season" was released in 1998 by Recorded Books. The audiobook, read by George Wilson, is unabridged and runs 13 hours 48 minutes over 12 CDs.

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The Wump World The Wump World by Bill Peet (1970) is a children's book taking place on an imaginary planet. It is about the near destruction of the only habitat of creatures known as Wumps. These Wumps look somewhat like a cross between a capybara (sometimes called a water hog) and a moose. The story about these Wumps takes place on their own planet, hence the name "The Wump World". A race of blue humanoids named the Pollutians overruns the Wump World, causing the Wumps to flee to the safety of caves. The Pollutians build great cities and colonise, dirtying the air, water, and plowing down entire forests and grasslands, which the Wumps rely on for food and water. The Pollutians reach trouble when the air becomes too polluted, and their leaders send scouts to search for another planet. One scout returns, claiming that he has found a bigger and better world; upon hearing this news the entire Pollutian populace leaves the planet, leaving their thickly polluted cities. When the world above grows quiet, the Wumps emerge to find a changed world, a deserted "concrete jungle". The Pollutians, having used up every natural resource, have left. Though the book ends with a message of hope about nature's ability to recover and a small plant sprouting up between the cracks of a sidewalk, it notes that the Wump World would never be quite the same. The book is similar to Peet's previous work "Farewell to Shady Glade". Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax", another similar book, was also published the year after.

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Jokerman 8 Jokerman 8, by Richard Melo, is a novel of that follows a group of college students whose lives weave in and out of the radical environmental movement. It was published in 2004 by Soft Skull Press and was reviewed in "The Oregonian", "The Believer", and other print and online periodicals. Set in the late 80s and early 90s, it follows the members of the radical Jokerman troupe as they spike trees, sink an Icelandic whaling vessel, and occupy a construction crane on the eve of the groundbreaking of an animal research facility on the University of California campus. The writing style recalls works by Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins, though its closest literary cousin is The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey. The novel is also noted for its evocation of The Beatles and U2 (in particular the album "The Joshua Tree").

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The Year of the Flood The Year of the Flood is a novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood, the second book of her dystopian trilogy, released on September 22, 2009 in Canada and the United States, and on September 7, 2009, in the United Kingdom. The novel was mentioned in numerous newspaper review articles looking forward to notable fiction of 2009. The book focuses on a religious sect called the God's Gardeners, a small community of survivors of the same biological catastrophe depicted in Atwood's earlier novel Oryx and Crake. The earlier novel contained several brief references to the group. The novel is told through the perspective of protagonists Ren and Toby, with the main characters of Oryx and Crake, including Jimmy and Crake having minor roles. Atwood continues to explore the effect of science and technology that has caused this plagued world, focusing on the theme of religion through the environmentally focused religious movement of the God's Gardeners. It answers some of the questions of Oryx and Crake, develops and further elaborates upon several of the characters in the first book, and reveals the identity of the three human figures who appear at the end of the earlier book. This is the second of Atwood's trilogy, with the final book being MaddAddam. Although, Atwood sees them as 'simultaneouels' with the three novels all taking place at the same time and not in sequence. Plot. The Year of the Flood details the events of Oryx and Crake from the perspective of the lower classes in the pleeblands, specifically the God's Gardeners who live commune at the Edencliff Rooftop Garden. God's Gardeners are a religious sect that combines some Biblical practices and beliefs with some scientific practices and beliefs. They are vegetarians devoted to honoring and preserving all plant and animal life, and they predict a human species-ending disaster, which they call "The Waterless Flood". This prediction becomes true in a sense, as Crake's viral pandemic destroys human civilization. God's Gardeners have their own set of saints, all honoured for their environmental activists, such as Saint Dian Fossey and Saint Rachel Carson. The plot follows two characters, Toby and Ren, whose stories intertwine with each other and, at points, with major characters from "Oryx and Crake". Much of the story is told through flashbacks with the two main characters separately surviving the apocalypse described in the previous novel, each reminiscing about their time in the God's Gardeners religious movement and the events that led to their current situations. Atwood uses third-person narration for Toby's accounts and first-person narration for Ren's. Toby is a young woman who loses her parents under tragic circumstances that may or may not be due to the corporations, and is forced to live off of the grid in a shady meat burger joint working as a meat barista at SecretBurgers. She soon encounters the unwelcome attentions of Blanco the psychopathic manager of the chain who has a reputation for sexually assaulting and murdering the women in his employ. Toby is able to escape when a group of God's Gardeners arrive at the restaurant and her former colleague Rebecca begs her to join them. She follows them to the rooftop garden. The leader of God's Gardeners, Adam One, is looked up to as a charismatic holy man but perceived by outsiders as a cult leader. The novel is filled with sermons and hymns Adam One gives to the religious sect. Although she is sceptical, finding it difficult to follow the theology and follow the religious traditions, Toby becomes an influential member of the gardeners. She even rises to the official position of an Eve. Within the sect Toby encounters Ren, a child member of the gardeners. Ren joined the God's Gardeners, when her mother Lucrene leaves her HelthWyzer scientist husband, after falling in love with Zeb, a member of the sect. Ren grows up in religious sect, befriending Amanda, until Lucrene decides to go back to the Compounds. Ren goes to school, where she meets Jimmy (Snowman) and Glenn (Crake), who is particularly interested in the God's Gardeners. Later, Ren enrols in Dance Calisthenics courses at the Martha Graham Academy, until Lucrene is unable to pay and she drops out. Eventually, Ren becomes a sex worker and trapeze dancer in the sex-club Scales and Tails, part of SeksMart. Here, Ren happens to be locked in a bio-containment unit in the club called the Sticky Zone when the pandemic occurs. Amanda rescues Ren from the club. Blanco is able to find out where Toby is and raids the Gardeners. Toby is able to flee, relocating to the AnooYoo spa. In fear, she changes her outward appearance through cosmetic surgery to hide from Blanco. Toby barricades herself in the luxury spa, as the plague spreads, utilising the skills of foraging she learned with the God's Gardeners to survive. Blanco participates in the televised game of Painball, where teams of criminals try to kill each other in the surrounded arena. Blanco and three companions escape the Painball forrest to find Toby at the spa. They capture and torture Ren and Amanda. Toby is able to shoot one of the criminals and free Ren, but the others escape with Amanda. Both Toby and Ren come together to search for Amanda. Toby poisons Blanco and, with the help of Jimmy, they are able to incapacitate the two criminals. The novel ends, much like the ending of Oryx and Crake, with the remaining survivors witnessing an unknown group approach, carrying torches and playing music. Themes. Science and Technology. In this hyper-capitalist society, scientists work for and answer to the global corporations, creating products to which the citizens become dependent upon. Any ethical concern or moral practice is disregarded, only considering the potential consumerist profits. Consumerism replaces any idealist principles. The advancement of technology has only further expanded the capitalist framework and materialistic attitudes within the class hierarchy. It is the developed cosmetic procedures which allow Toby to completely change her appearance, in order to hide from her stalker Blanco. This includes a 'Mo'hair' transplant. In this way, nature is seen only as a means to exploit and profit from. Consequently, the entire ecosystem is corrupted, with many animal species rapidly becoming extinct. Instead of trying to reduce their environmental impact, scientists only continue experimenting on these animals. They keep on trying to splice animals together, creating a new animal through this mix between natural animals, such as the 'Liobam' (a blend of lion and sheep). Many of these new animals are formed and utilised for their by products, including a combination of goat and spider to yield silk bulletproof vests and 'Mo'Hairs', which are colourful sheep to make better, natural wigs. Science lacks any restraint in their pursuit of new commodities. Religion. Using the primary religious sect of the God's Gardeners, Atwood presents an environmentally focused religious movement. Adam One, the religious leader, leads the God's Gardeners, in a pacifist and greener life style. The novel is littered with his sermons and hymns, where the religious sect revere environmental activists in their own calendar of special saints, such as Saint Euell Gibbons, Saint James Lovelock and Saint Jane Jacobs, amongst others. As a result, the Gardener's do not eat meat, having taken 'Vegivows', and are horrifed by the carnivorous lifestyle. The MaddAddam Trilogy. The Year of the Flood is the second novel in the MaddAddam Trilogy, after Oryx and Crake and before MaddAddam. In this novel, the middle of trilogy, Atwood gives us more detail surrounding the childhood of Crake, highlighting his connection with the God's Gardeners that inspired his plague, and the conception of the MaddAddam group. The Year of the Flood uses alternative perspectives than that of Snowman in Oryx and Crake, though the character has a minor role. Atwood explains who the people that Snowman had seen at the conclusion of Oryx and Crake are, with it being Toby, Ren, Amanda and the criminals they incapacitate. At the end of The Year of the Flood these survivors, similar to the end of the previous novel, listen and see a passing group of people coming towards them, wondering who they could be. Promotion. Atwood's tour to promote the book included choral performances of 14 religious hymns that appear in the book. They were also released as a CD. Naming rights. For both "Oryx and Crake" and "The Year of the Flood", Atwood donated naming rights to characters in the novel to charity auctions. One of the winning bidders was journalist Rebecca Eckler, who paid $7,000 at a benefit for the magazine "The Walrus". "Amanda Payne" and "Saint Allan Sparrow" were also named by auction winners. Critical reception. The novel was generally well-received; reviewers noted that while the plot was sometimes chaotic, the novel's imperfections meshed well with the flawed reality the book was trying to reflect. "The Daily Telegraph" commented that "Margaret Atwood is genuinely inventive, rather than merely clever". In 2010, the novel was longlisted as a candidate for the 2011 International Dublin Literary Award, and shortlisted for the 2010 Trillium Book Award. The novel was selected for inclusion in the 2014 edition of CBC Radio's "Canada Reads", where it was defended by Stephen Lewis.

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Flood (Baxter novel) Flood is a 2008 work of hard science fiction by English author Stephen Baxter. It describes a near future world where deep submarine seismic activity leads to seabed fragmentation, and the opening of deep subterranean reservoirs of water. Human civilisation is almost destroyed by the rising inundation, which covers Mount Everest in 2052. Baxter issued a sequel to this work, entitled "Ark", in 2009. "Flood" was nominated for the British Science Fiction Award in 2008. Synopsis. The above effects are catastrophic, and exceed current estimates of climate change-related sea level rise. In the opening chapter, four main characters (former USAF Captain Lily Brooke, British military officer Piers Michaelmas, English tourist Helen Gray, and NASA scientist Gary Boyle) are liberated by a private megacorporation called AxysCorp from a Christian extremist Catalan terrorist bunker in Barcelona in 2016, after five years of captivity. AxysCorp was hoping to save a fifth prisoner, John Foreshaw, but he was executed minutes before the rescue. Nonetheless, the corporation continues to look after the four hostages and search for Helen's daughter, Grace, who was conceived in captivity by the son of a Saudi royal and taken by his family. Helen befriends Foreign Office official Michael Thurley in the hopes of finding her daughter, and the four rescued hostages make a pact to keep in contact. At this point, sea level changes have already submerged Tuvalu, a low lying South Pacific island, whose inhabitants have been evacuated to New Zealand. London and Sydney are prone to constant flooding. However, as a tidal surge hits London and Sydney, killing hundreds of thousands in both cities, scientists become aware that this cannot be explained solely by the consequences of climate change. American oceanographer Thandie Jones uncovers the truth – through deep sea diving missions to oceanic ridges and trenches reveal that the seabed has fragmented, and there is turbulence that can only be attributable to the infusion of vast subterranean reservoirs of hitherto hypothesised but undetected oceanic masses of water (see below). Over the next three decades, ocean waters rise exponentially and inundate the whole world, as the main characters struggle for survival in a vast and continuously altering environment. Lily and her sister Amanda, as well as her children Benj and Kristie experience the flooding and abandonment of London. Amanda and her children settle into a refugee resettlement in Dartmoor, but the rising floodwaters make that only a temporary respite. In 2019, a tsunami obliterates western coastal cities in the United Kingdom, killing Helen Gray and tens of thousands of others. At the same time, New York City is demolished by an Atlantic tidal wave (with hundreds of thousands killed in New York and the city levelled in the process), and Washington, D.C. is evacuated. For the next twenty years, Denver, Colorado becomes the capital of the steadily diminishing United States, which fragments as individual states assert their own survival needs. By 2020, much of the eastern coast of the United States is underwater, as well as Sacramento, California, on its western coast. AxysCorp CEO Nathan Lammockson, the man who ordered the main characters' rescue and indirect friend of Lily, has a contingency plan for survival of an affluent western minority, which involves evacuation to the mountainous Peruvian Andes. Lily, Amanda with her children, and Piers tag along to the settlement, where Nathan discloses that he is aware of the extent of global inundation, which will not stop until all land on Earth is submerged, apart from the Greenland and eastern Antarctica ice sheets. As the United States is eroded away, a contingent of refugees which includes Gary, Thandie, and Grace, heads south to meet Lily. When they reach Nathan's 'Project City' in Peru, they are swept up in a revolt that tries to seize control of the former elite settlement which results in the deaths of Amanda, Benj, and Kristie's husband, Ollantay, a self-claimed Inca descendant who leads the revolt. Gary parts ways with Lily as he hands over Grace, so they, along with Piers and Kristie board Nathan's "Ark Three", a "Queen Mary" sized (and shaped) ocean vessel that sets sail in 2035. By then, little of Western Europe, Russia, the Americas, Oceania, and Africa remain above the water. Ark Three sails the global ocean in search for trading and finding higher ground, despite running into skirmishes with pirates that lead to Lily falling overboard and staying on a submarine with Thandie for a year, the survivors head for Tibet. However, when they arrive, Nepal's Maoist rulers have devastating news – Tibet is ruled by a Khmer Rouge-like regime that practices human slavery and cannibalism. Ark Three heads back out to sea but has nowhere to go, given that the floods are now lapping around the Rocky Mountains. Seaborn piracy is rife from those refugee seaborn populations who have taken to scavenging the refuse from the posthumous remains of human civilization; and after a visit to coastal Colorado, the pirates ultimately board and destroy Ark Three. By this time, over five billion people have perished from the floods. By 2048, the Andes, Rocky Mountains and elsewhere have been submerged. Tibet's regime is no more, and Australia, North America, South America, Africa, and most of Asia except for the highest mountains in the Himalayas have been flooded. As Lily, Gary, and Thandie settle into life as sea-dwelling survivors; Piers, Nathan, and Kirstie die in staggered succession since the sinking of Ark Three. The novel ends in 2052, as a group of survivors watch the submergence of the peak of Mount Everest. Lily has survived, and wonders what the grandchildren of her late-sister's family and her old hostage comrades from three decades ago will make of post-deluge Earth, now at a new environmental equilibrium, with a vast global storm system that is reminiscent of those on Jupiter and Neptune. Civilization is virtually dead at the novel's end. Survivors continue to exist only on the rafts and some decrepit surviving former navy vessels. The children of the rafts, raised on the water, start building their own aquatic culture. By the end of the novel, extinction seems certain for humanity on Earth. However, we learn later in the book that Ark Three (the aforementioned ocean liner) was one of many projects created by AxysCorp and a few other groups. One of these (Ark One) was a starship project, which was taken over by the remnant government of the United States, and launched as Denver flooded in 2041; and at that time earlier in the novel, Lily had managed to get Grace aboard it just before it launched, and at the time she was unwillingly pregnant with the child of Nathan's snobbish and estranged son, Hammond. In 2044, a lunar eclipse occurs, just as a massive burst of light is sighted near Jupiter and the survivors realise it must be Ark One, and Grace's survival is thus ensured. As they prepare to leave the former site of Mount Everest Lily realizes something. She sailed on Ark Three, and Ark One is a starship. In closing, she asks "What is Ark Two?" The question ends the novel, and sets the scene for Baxter's sequel, "Ark," in which it is resolved. "Hard science" basis for novel. In a short afterword, Baxter claims to have based his work on a hypothesis related to possible subterranean oceans within the Earth's mantle. His other references are cursory, although one refers to the presence of such immense reservoirs approximately below Beijing. In 2014, an ultra-deep diamond found in Juína, Mato Grosso in western Brazil, contained inclusions of ringwoodite—the only known sample of natural terrestrial origin—thus providing evidence of significant amounts of water as hydroxide in the Earth's mantle.

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Ecotopia Emerging Ecotopia Emerging "(EE)" by Ernest Callenbach is a fictionalized history of the events leading up to the secession of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington to form the steady-state, environmentalist nation of Ecotopia along the Pacific Coast of the United States. In 1975, Callenbach had published a utopian novel called "Ecotopia" about the events; "EE" is the prequel, published in 1981. The "EE" story seems to take place in the 1990s; Callenbach assumes that the pro-business, anti-environmental Reagan-era policies—already evident at the time of publication—will have persisted in the United States after Reagan's presidency. "Ecotopia" has been extremely popular and influential. Although "EE" addresses the question of 'how to get there from here,' it has received much less attention. On its release, "Publishers Weekly" reviewed it as a “young adult” book. Plot summary. "EE" is mainly a history of the Ecotopian independence movement. The main characters are Vera Allwen, the leader of the Survivalist Party, and Lou Swift, a teenage physicist, along with their families and friends. Other characters are shown briefly as each one decides independently to break with the American status quo and begin living in an Ecotopian (low-tech, sustainable) fashion. Bolinas, California, high school student Lou Swift finds a way to generate electricity cheaply from seawater in a solar cell. However, she doesn’t understand how the cell works. She refuses to publish her results until she understands the science. Because she is determined to make the cell design freely available, she spurns corporate and academic offers to buy the cell design. Meanwhile, spies and burglars try to obtain her notes. Vera Allwen is a California state senator. Angered by an Eastern food corporation’s announcement it would stop selling fresh produce, she and other politicians, artists, and professionals form a new political party. It is decentralized, environmentalist, and populist. They create a platform and name it the Survivalist Party. As the book proceeds, they spread their ideas, coalition with like-minded people, and become a regional political force. Vera’s speeches are reprinted within the text. Some of their ideas come from a short novel called "Ecotopia", and the Party publishes a paper called "The Survivalist Way to Ecotopia." The Party creates a think tank for environmentalist policies. When the Pacific Northwest states pass a special tax on cars to reduce car use, the U.S. Supreme Court overturns it; public outrage along the Pacific coast helps tip the people of the region toward supporting the Survivalist Party. When the Quebec government offers to establish diplomatic relations, the Party starts thinking about independence. A nuclear accident gives them the governorship of Washington State, and Northern California's refusal to keep supplying Southern California with water leads to the state splitting into two. An ardent secessionist claims to have planted dirty bombs in New York City and Washington, DC, and threatens they will explode if the U.S. attacks the region. Bolinas declares itself independent of other governments. The Survivalist Party has infiltrated local units of the National Guard, which are now sympathetic to the secessionists. The U.S. is too busy with a war in Brazil to send troops to pacify Bolinas and its supporters. In a lucky coincidence, the U.S. helicopters massing on the Nevada border and preparing to attack the region are suddenly recalled to deal with a crisis in Saudi Arabia, and secession seems likely to proceed. Meanwhile, in the future Ecotopia, individuals move the local economy toward a more sustainable model. A collective sets up a solar remodeling business; a young man uses goats to mow lawns. Berkeley creates car-free zones; other cities adopt them. A suburban tract is replanted as an orchard. Rural residents build a lightweight, cheap horse-drawn buggy, and stills to distill alcohol from farm waste. Eventually, a large part of the public is car-free and ready to take the final steps to a sustainable economy. Lou finally discovers the key chemical that makes her solar cell work. She publishes her paper and people start building their own cells. With this breakthrough, the region will no longer be dependent for energy on the rest of the U.S. for imported fossil fuels or nuclear power. With this energy independence, the future nation of Ecotopia becomes a practical possibility. These events occur against economic and political breakdown in the U.S.: corporate concentration, slashed government budgets, and military adventurism abroad, aided by a compliant corporate media. The automobile habit has essentially bankrupted the U.S. Refusing to develop alternative energy sources, “oil-hungry America lurched toward some unseen economic catastrophe.” At the end, the Saudi oil refineries have been bombed, and the U.S. military is caught up in a war in the Middle East. The Ecotopian storyline ends with the Party making Lou’s solar cell technology available to the public, and a constitutional convention where the region decides to secede from the U.S. following the Quebec-Canada model. The book "Ecotopia" begins about 20 years after secession, when the new nation is securely established. Neither book describes events in between, such as the political difficulties of secession, the economic dislocations and outmigration from the region, and the Helicopter War with the U.S. (referred to in "Ecotopia"). Comparison of "Ecotopia Emerging" and "Ecotopia". As a prequel to "Ecotopia", "EE" uses some of the same characters as "Ecotopia", principally Vera Allwen and Marissa D’Amato (later the girlfriend of "Ecotopia"’s narrator). However, there are important differences between the books. Critical reaction. "EE" has received little critical attention. One critic points out that independence is achieved too easily. "In "Ecotopia Emerging", the internal contradictions of existing North American capitalism do feature strongly in creating the impetus for change. However, little account is offered of how such dynamics would surely also ensure stubborn resistance to such change (nuclear blackmail notwithstanding) – in this emerging ecotopia, big business’s capitulation to idealists seems abject and fairly complete.” References. Also

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Make Room! Make Room! Make Room! Make Room! is a 1966 science fiction novel written by Harry Harrison exploring the consequences of both unchecked population growth on society and the hoarding of resources by a wealthy minority. It was originally serialized in "Impulse" magazine. Set in a future August 1999, the novel explores trends in the proportion of world resources used by the United States and other countries compared to population growth, depicting a world where the global population is seven billion people, plagued with overcrowding, resource shortages and a crumbling infrastructure. The plot jumps from character to character, recounting the lives of people in various walks of life in New York City, population 35 million. The novel was the basis of the 1973 science fiction movie "Soylent Green", although the film changed much of the plot and theme and introduced cannibalism as a solution to feeding people. Plot summary. "Make Room! Make Room!" is set in an overpopulated New York City in 1999 (35 years after the time of writing). 30-year-old Police Detective Andy Rusch lives in half a room, sharing it with Sol, a retired engineer who has adapted a bicycle to generate power for an old television set and a refrigerator. When Andy lines up for their continually reducing water ration, he witnesses a public speech by the "Eldsters", older people forcibly retired from work. A riot breaks out after a nearby food shop has a surprise sale on "soylent" (soy and lentil) steaks. The shop is looted by the mob. Billy Chung, an 18-year-old Chinese-American, grabs a box of steaks. He eats some of them and sells the rest to raise enough money to land a job as a Western Union messenger boy. His first delivery takes him into a fortified apartment block, complete with the rare luxuries of air conditioning and running water for showers. He delivers his message to a rich racketeer named "Big Mike" O'Brien and sees Shirl, Mike's 23-year-old live-in mistress. Billy leaves the apartment, but fixes it so he can get back into the building later. He breaks into Mike's place, but when Mike catches him in the act, Billy accidentally kills him and flees, empty-handed. A piece of evidence may connect an out-of-town crime boss who may be trying to expand into New York City, a threat to Mike's associates. They see to it that Andy keeps working on the case, in addition to his regular duties. During his investigation, he becomes enamored of Shirl. He ensures that she is permitted to stay in the apartment until the end of the month. During this month, they enjoy the luxuries. Afterwards Shirl moves in with Andy. Shirl soon becomes disappointed with how little time the overworked Andy has for her. She eventually sleeps with a wealthy man she meets at a party. To evade capture, Billy leaves the city, eventually breaking into the abandoned Brooklyn Navy Yard, where he comes to live with Peter, who is eagerly awaiting the new millennium as the end of the world. Soon they are attacked and displaced by a trio. They find a new home in a car. Months after the murder, Billy decides to visit his family, believing the police have lost interest in him. Meanwhile, Sol decides he can no longer remain passive in the face of humanity's overpopulation crisis. He joins a march to protest the overturning of a legislative bill that supports population control. Sol is injured in a riot and catches pneumonia. A few days after his death, an obnoxious family takes over his living quarters, making Shirl and Andy's life much more miserable than before. Andy stumbles upon Billy Chung, cornering him in his family's home. When Billy moves to attack Andy with a knife, he stumbles, and Andy accidentally shoots and kills him. The gangsters have lost interest by this point, but his superiors disavow Andy's actions, and he is temporarily demoted to ordinary patrolman. When he returns to his quarters, he finds Shirl has left him. Andy is on patrol in Times Square on New Year's Eve, where he spots Shirl among rich party-goers. As the clock strikes midnight, Andy encounters Peter, who is distraught that the world has not ended and asks how life can continue as it is. The story concludes with the Times Square screen announcing that "Census says United States had biggest year ever, end-of-the-century, 344 million citizens." Concept and creation. Author Harry Harrison claimed, "The idea came from an Indian I met after the war, in 1946. He told me, 'Overpopulation is the big problem coming up in the world' (nobody had ever heard of it in those days) and he said, 'Want to make a lot of money, Harry? You have to import rubber contraceptives to India.' I didn't mind making money, but I didn't want to be the rubber king of India!" Short story. Several years after writing the novel, Harrison created the short story "Roommates" (1971), largely by joining excerpts from the novel. Harrison describes the impetus and creation of the short story in his introduction for it in "The Best of Harry Harrison". He recounts how he was asked for an excerpt for reprinting, but that he did not think any simple excerpt stood alone. So he took various scenes from the "roommates" plot strand and combined them into the short story.

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Nature Girl (novel) Nature Girl is a novel by Carl Hiaasen, published in 2006. Plot introduction. Honey Santana becomes irritated by telemarketers and invites a particularly obnoxious one to a phony real estate promotion - which she describes as an eco-tour - in the Ten Thousand Islands in order to teach him a lesson. It is thus that telemarketers Boyd Shreave and his reluctant mistress Eugenie Fonda make their way from Texas to Everglades City, Florida, and eventually Dismal Key with Honey, unaware that she is being stalked by Louis Piejack, Honey's perverted and disfigured ex-employer, who is unaware that he is being followed by Fry, Honey's wise and protective twelve-year-old son, and his courageous ex-drug runner father. Also on the island are a young half-Seminole man named Sammy Tigertail and his very willing captive, Gillian, a sex-obsessed, warmhearted Florida State coed. Various odd events surface along the way. Detailed plot summary. Honey Santana loses her job after she hits her lecherous boss, Louis Piejack. During dinner, she receives a call from telemarketer Boyd Shreave, trying to sell her cheap land. Honey asks Boyd if his mother knows what he does for a living, causing him to insult her. Honey resolves to track Boyd down to teach him a lesson. Meanwhile, a drunken tourist dies of a heart attack during an airboat ride with Sammy Tigertail, a young half-Seminole. Misconstruing his uncle's advice, he dumps the body in a river and camps out on the Ten Thousand Islands. Sammy's solitude is interrupted by a group of college students having a drunken party. He is about to steal one of their canoes and find another island when one of the students, Gillian, pressures him to take her along. Boyd loses his job for insulting Honey, and his co-worker Eugenie Fonda, the one-time mistress of a tabloid murderer, ends their affair. He is also unaware that his wife, Lily, has hired a private investigator, Dealey, to gather evidence of his infidelity for their divorce. Lily demands more explicit footage of Boyd's affair, causing Dealey to realizes that she is now indulging a sexual fetish instead of gathering evidence. Meanwhile, Honey tracks Boyd down and calls him at home, posing as a telemarketer offering a free trip to Florida as part of a timeshare promotion. Boyd seizes the opportunity to try to win Eugenie back, and she is intrigued enough by a trip to Florida to accept. Honey borrows the airfare from her ex-husband, Perry Skinner, and asks her son, Fry, if he can stay with Perry for a few days. Boyd and Eugenie arrive at Honey's trailer park. There, Dealey — who has followed the pair — is abducted by Louis, who is stalking Honey. While skateboarding past the trailer park, Fry catches sight of them. Honey leads Boyd and Eugenie on a kayaking trip. By coincidence they land on Dismal Key, where Sammy and Gillian have begun to bond. Fry is so preoccupied worrying about his mother that he collides with a garbage truck on his skateboard, suffering a concussion. Perry, who does not trust the hospital to look after his son, gives him a Miami Dolphins football helmet and drives with him to the docks. He spots Louis tailing Honey's kayak in a jon boat and follows them. On Dismal Key, Honey reveals her identity to Boyd and gives him a rehearsed lecture on basic courtesy. Boyd turns to leave with Eugenie, but they find the kayaks gone — Sammy, mistaking them for intruders, has stolen them. Dealey arrives on Dismal Key with Louis. Sammy finds them, knocks Louis out, and takes Dealey prisoner, mistaking him for the tourist's ghost. After Honey, Boyd and Eugenie fall asleep, Sammy sneaks to their campsite to steal water. Eugenie wakes and follows him back, wanting the quickest possible way off the island. There, she meets Dealey, who admits he was sent by Lily. Dealey borrows Gillian's cell phone and calls the Coast Guard for air rescue. Sammy says that Eugenie and Gillian are leaving with him, whether they want to or not. Sensing her last opportunity, Gillian asks Eugenie for some privacy and seduces Sammy. Perry and Fry arrive on the island, with Fry ignoring his father and leaving the boat to find his mother. He runs into Eugenie, who is charmed by Fry's intelligence and manners, and helps him back toward the camp when he is overcome by vertigo. In the morning, Honey makes Boyd climb a tree with her to watch a sunrise, which fails to impress him. As they climb down, Louis snatches Honey and Boyd watches mutely as she is dragged away. Dealey tries to paddle out in one of Honey's kayaks when a Coast Guard helicopter arrives, but has to be rescued by Gillian when he tips the kayak over and nearly drowns. Fry encourages Eugenie to go too, and she is rescued along with Dealey and Gillian. Fry comes upon Louis threatening Honey with a shotgun. Sammy strikes Louis with his guitar, killing him. Perry is shot in the hip during the skirmish, and Honey rushes him and Fry back to the mainland. Sammy disposes of Louis's body using his jon boat. Boyd reaches another island on Sammy's canoe and stumbles on a small religious group who identify him as the returned Jesus Christ. In the epilogue, Sammy finds a new island and realizes that Gillian is searching for him, but wonders whether or not he wants to keep hiding. Eugenie leaves her telemarketing job and, as a snub to Lily, sends her footage of two mating geckos which she idly filmed on the island with one of Dealey's cameras. Dealey offers her a job in his office. Boyd alienates his religious followers, who kick him out of the group and leave him on the island with his canoe. He makes his way to the mainland, comes across a tourist couple from Chicago asking for a realtor. Honey and Perry get back together while recovering from their injuries. Fry is happy, but worried about whether his mother's obsessiveness will drive them apart again. During dinner, Honey decides not to answer the phone when it rings. Characters. Like many of Hiaasen's novels, the events of the book are largely driven by the collection of characters who populate it: Critical reception. "The New York Times" wrote that "perhaps as compensation for its familiarity, "Nature Girl" is a bit too frantic in its plotting." "Kirkus Reviews" wrote: "For once, the characters are funnier than their exhaustingly unpredictable interactions. The result is less satire than usual from Hiaasen ... and more Rube Goldberg farce." "Publishers Weekly" called the book "another hilarious Florida romp." "The Independent" called it "an hysterical romp of crooks and tarts by a delectably deranged imagination."

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Lucky You (novel) Lucky You is a 1997 novel by Carl Hiaasen. It is set in Florida, and recounts the story of JoLayne Lucks, a black woman who is one of two winners of a lottery. The book parodies paranoid militia movement groups that believe in somewhat bizarre conspiracy theories. It also takes a satiric look at the fictional community of Grange, Florida, (based on the real community of Cassadaga) and its cottage tourist industry based on the "discovery" of various religious miracles. A theatrical adaptation premiered in Edinburgh in 2008. Plot summary. Newspaper reporter Tom Krome is sent to the small Florida town of Grange to interview JoLayne Lucks, an African-American veterinary assistant who holds one of two winning tickets to the state lottery. She agrees to an interview, but politely declines to have a news story written about her. The other winning lottery ticket is held by Bode Gazzer and his best friend "Chub," two unemployed white supremacists. Bode is the founder and self-proclaimed "leader" of a fledgling militia, which consists solely of himself and Chub. Unwilling to accept only half of the $28 million jackpot, Bode insists that they track down the owner of the other winning ticket. Discovering that this other winner is black seems to vindicate Bode's conspiracy theory that the government is keeping "Christian white men" from winning the lottery, and makes his and Chub's next decision easy. After Bode and Chub savagely beat JoLayne and steal her ticket, she appears in Tom's hotel room pleading for help. Tom urges her to contact the police, but she says she can't: she plans to use the lottery proceeds to buy Simmons Wood, a pristine forest plot near her home, to prevent it being redeveloped; she can't afford to wait for the police, since a labor union in Chicago has already made an offer for the property. Before leaving Grange, Bode and Chub approach "Shiner," the clerk at the convenience store where JoLayne bought her winning ticket, and convince him to hand over the store's security video showing the purchase by playing on his small-town boredom and offering him a place within the new "brotherhood." Tom's editor, Sinclair, who believes in innocuous "feel-good" stories, refuses to allow any kind of investigation into the alleged lottery theft. Tom quits in disgust and helps JoLayne track down the robbers, an easy task given the duo's flagrant use of her stolen credit card. JoLayne provides Moffitt, her friend and an agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, with the license plate number for the robbers' truck. Moffitt identifies Bode and searches his apartment, deducing that the ticket has likely been concealed inside a condom in Bode's wallet. Moffitt leaves an ominous message on the wall of the apartment that sends Bode's paranoia into overdrive, leading to the robbers fleeing south in Bode's truck. Before doing so, Chub orders Shiner to kidnap Amber, a waitress at Hooters who Chub has become smitten with, and bring her to his and Bode's refuge. Meanwhile, Tom is surprised to hear from his attorney that his house has exploded. His girlfriend, Katie, is married to a violently jealous circuit court judge named Arthur Battenkill, Jr., who sent his law clerk Champ Powell to burn down Tom's house. The clerk accidentally ignited the fire with himself inside, and his charred remains are similar enough to Tom's for the coroner to declare Tom dead. Unknown to Tom, his lawyer plans to use the situation to his client's advantage: his estranged wife, Mary Andrea, has gone to absurd lengths to avoid being served with divorce papers, including assuming false names and traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada. Tom's lawyer predicts that Mary Andrea, an actress, will attempt to capitalize on the publicity surrounding his "death", and return to Florida long enough for her to be served. Bode and Chub steal a motorboat and plan to make a refuge on Pearl Key, a small island in Florida Bay. However, because of their inept navigational skills, Tom and JoLayne easily follow them in a boat of their own. As Tom predicted, tension over Amber's presence -- coupled with Shiner's belated realization that Bode and Chub never intended to share the jackpot with him -- eventually causes the three men to fall out arguing, allowing Tom and JoLayne to ambush and disarm them. Chub is interrupted in his attempt to rape Amber by a shotgun wound to his shoulder, while Bode is knocked unconscious and tied up, allowing JoLayne to remove a lottery ticket from his wallet. Krome sends Amber and Shiner back to the mainland in the thugs' boat, with Amber armed with Chub's revolver to make sure Shiner behaves. Bode loosens his bonds and tries to escape the island in the only remaining boat. While wrestling with Tom in the shallows, Bode inadvertently kicks a napping stingray, which pierces his femoral artery with its barb. JoLayne does her best to treat Chub's gunshot wound, but can do nothing to save Bode, who dies cursing his own rotten luck. Tom and JoLayne depart the island in the remaining boat, leaving Chub behind with some meager supplies. They collect JoLayne's first lottery payout in Tallahassee, and return to Grange in time to bid against the mob-controlled union for Simmons Wood. At first, Bernard Squires, the union's representative, is ready and willing to outbid JoLayne, but Moffitt drops by and threatens to put him and his real employer in the newspapers. Squires withdraws from the negotiations and flees to South America with $250,000 in cash from the union. While Shiner is driving her home, Amber is surprised to discover the other winning lottery ticket (the one originally belonging to JoLayne) hidden in an empty chamber of Chub's revolver. With Shiner's reluctant agreement, she decides to return the ticket to JoLayne. The crowning irony of the novel is that, throughout the story, Bode and Chub are the only ones who know that they are the rightful owners of the second winning ticket; the other characters act from the belief that there is only one winning ticket in their possession, which eventually results in both tickets winding up with JoLayne. A chance meeting at the newspaper office brings Katie and Mary Andrea into contact, and they go to Grange to say their goodbyes to Tom. Katie informs on her husband to the police, leading to his arrest for felony murder. Chub, unable to attract the attention of passing boats or aircraft, eventually dies of thirst and starvation on Pearl Key. Tom and JoLayne, now a couple, and the holders of both winning lotto tickets, decide to make their home near Simmons Wood, now safe from development.

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State of Fear State of Fear is a 2004 techno-thriller novel by Michael Crichton, his fourteenth under his own name and twenty-fourth overall, in which eco-terrorists plot mass murder to publicize the danger of global warming. Despite being a work of fiction, the book contains many graphs and footnotes, two appendices, and a 20-page bibliography in support of Crichton's beliefs about global warming. Many climate scientists, science journalists, environmental groups, and science advocacy organisations dispute Crichton's views on the science as being error-filled and distorted. The novel had an initial print run of 1.5 million copies and reached the #1 bestseller position at Amazon and #2 on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for one week in January 2005. The novel itself has garnered mixed reviews, with some literary reviewers stating that the book's presentation of facts and stance on the global warming debate detracted from the book's plot. Plot summary. Peter Evans is a lawyer for a millionaire philanthropist, George Morton. Evans' main duties are managing the legal affairs surrounding Morton's contributions to an environmentalist organization, the National Environmental Resource Fund (NERF) (modeled after the Natural Resources Defense Council [NRDC]). Morton becomes suspicious of NERF's director, Nicholas Drake, after discovering that Drake has misused some of the funds Morton had donated to the group. Soon afterward, Morton is visited by two men, John Kenner and Sanjong Thapa, who appear on the surface to be researchers at MIT, but, in fact, are international law enforcement agents on the trail of an eco-terrorist group, the Environmental Liberation Front (ELF) (modeled on the Earth Liberation Front). The ELF is attempting to create "natural" disasters to convince the public of the dangers of global warming. All these events are timed to happen during a NERF-sponsored climate conference that will highlight the "catastrophe" of global warming. The eco-terrorists have no qualms about how many people are killed in their manufactured "natural" disasters and ruthlessly assassinate anyone who gets in their way (few would recognize their preferred methods as murder: the venom of a rare Australian blue-ringed octopus which causes paralysis, and "lightning attractors" which cause their victims to get electrocuted during electrical storms). Kenner and Thapa suspect Drake of being involved with the ELF to further his own ends (garnering more donations to NERF from the environmentally-minded public). Evans joins Kenner, Thapa, and Morton's assistant, Sarah Jones, on a globe-spanning series of adventures to thwart various ELF-manufactured disasters before these disasters kill thousands of people. Kenner's niece, Jennifer Haynes, joins the group for the final leg as they travel to a remote island in the Solomon Islands to stop the ELF's "pièce de résistance", a tsunami that will inundate the California coastline just as Drake is winding up the international conference on the "catastrophe" of global warming. Along the way, the group battles man-eating crocodiles and cannibalistic tribesmen (who feast on Ted Bradley, an environmentalist TV actor whom Drake had sent to spy on Kenner and his team). The rest of the group is rescued in the nick of time by Morton, who had previously faked his own death to throw Drake off the trail so that he could keep watch on the ELF's activities on the island while he waited for Kenner and his team to arrive. The group has a final confrontation with the elite ELF team on the island during which Haynes is almost killed, and Evans kills one of the terrorists who had previously tried to kill both him and Jones in Antarctica. The rest of the ELF team is killed by the backwash from their own tsunami, which Kenner and his team have sabotaged just enough to prevent it from becoming a full-size tsunami and reaching California. Morton, Evans, and Jones return to Los Angeles. Evans quits his law firm to work for Morton's new, as yet unnamed, organization, which will practice environmental activism as a business, free from potential conflicts of interest. Morton hopes Evans and Jones will take his place in the new organization after his death. Allegorical characters. Several critics have suggested that Crichton uses the major characters as proxies for differing viewpoints on the topic of global warming in order to allow the reader to clearly follow the various positions portrayed in the book. Author's afterword/appendices. Crichton included a statement of his views on global climate change as an afterword. In the "Author's message", Crichton states that the cause, extent, and threat of climate change are largely unknown. He finishes by endorsing the management of wilderness and the continuation of research into all aspects of the Earth's environment. In Appendix I, Crichton warns both sides of the global warming debate against the politicization of science. Here he provides two examples of the disastrous combination of pseudoscience and politics: the early 20th-century ideas of eugenics (which he directly cites as one of the theories that allowed for the Holocaust) and Lysenkoism. This appendix is followed by a bibliography of 172 books and journal articles that Crichton presents "...to assist those readers who would like to review my thinking and arrive at their own conclusions." Global Warming. "State of Fear" is, like many of Crichton's books, a fictional work that uses a mix of speculation and real world data, plus technological innovations as fundamental storyline devices. The debate over global warming serves as the backdrop for the book. Crichton supplies a personal afterword and two appendices that link the fictional part of the book with real examples of his thesis. The main villains in the plot are environmental extremists. Crichton does place blame on "industry" in both the plot line and the appendices. Various assertions appear in the book, for example: Numerous charts and quotations from real world data, including footnoted charts which strongly suggest mean global temperature is, in this era, lowering. Where local temperatures show a general rise in mean temperature, mostly in major world cities, Crichton's characters infer it is due to urban sprawl and deforestation, not carbon emissions. Crichton argues for removing politics from science and uses global warming and real-life historical examples in the appendices to make this argument. In a 2003 speech at the California Institute of Technology, he expressed his concern about what he considered the "emerging crisis in the whole enterprise of science—namely the increasingly uneasy relationship between hard science and public policy." Reception. Literary reviews. The novel has received mixed reviews from professional literary reviewers. "The Wall Street Journal"'s Ronald Bailey gave a favorable review, calling it "a lightning-paced technopolitical thriller" and the "novelization of a speech that Mr. Crichton delivered in September 2003 at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club." "Entertainment Weekly"'s Gregory Kirschling gave a favorable A- review and said it was "one of Crichton's best because it's as hard to pigeonhole as greenhouse gas but certainly heats up the room." In "The New Republic", Sacha Zimmerman gave a mixed review. Zimmerman criticized Crichton's presentation of data as condescending to the reader but concluded that the book was a "globe-trotting thriller that pits man against nature in brutal spectacles while serving up just the right amount of international conspiracy and taking digs at fair-weather environmentalists." Much criticism was given to Crichton's presentation of global warming data and the book's portrayal of the global warming debate as a whole. In the "Sydney Morning Herald", John Birmingham criticized the book's usage of real world research and said it was "boring after the first lecture, but mostly in the plotting... It's bad writing and it lets the reader ignore the larger point Crichton is trying to make." In "The Guardian", Peter Guttridge wrote that the charts and research in the book got "in the way of the thriller elements" and stated the bibliography was more interesting than the plot. In "The New York Times", Bruce Barcott criticized the novel's portrayal of the global warming debate heavily, stating that it only presented one side of the argument. In the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", Allan Walton gave a mostly favorable review and offered some praise for Crichton's work. Walton wrote that Crichton's books, "as meticulously researched as they are, have an amusement park feel. It's as if the author channels one of his own creations, "Jurassic Park's" John Hammond, and spares no expense when it comes to adventure, suspense and, ultimately, satisfaction." Criticism from scientific community. This novel received criticism from climate scientists, science journalists and environmental groups for inaccuracies and misleading information. Sixteen of 18 US climate scientists interviewed by Knight Ridder said the author was bending scientific data and distorting research. Several scientists whose research had been referenced in the novel stated that Crichton had distorted it in the novel. Peter Doran, leading author of the "Nature" paper, wrote in the "New York Times": "our results have been misused as 'evidence' against global warming by Michael Crichton in his novel "State of Fear"". Myles Allen wrote: Michael Crichton's latest blockbuster, "State of Fear", is also on the theme of global warming and is, ... likely to mislead the unwary... Although this is a work of fiction, Crichton's use of footnotes and appendices is clearly intended to give an impression of scientific authority.The American Geophysical Union states in their newspaper "Eos" "We have seen from encounters with the public how the political use of "State of Fear" has changed public perception of scientists, especially researchers in global warming, toward suspicion and hostility." James E. Hansen wrote that Crichton "doesn't seem to have the foggiest notion about the science that he writes about." Jeffrey Masters, chief meteorologist for Weather Underground, writes: "Crichton presents an error-filled and distorted version of the Global Warming science, favoring views of the handful of contrarians that attack the consensus science of the IPCC." The Union of Concerned Scientists devote a section of their website to what they describe as misconceptions readers may take away from the book. Recognition. US Congress. Despite being a work of fiction, the book has found use by opponents of global warming. For example, US Senator Jim Inhofe, who once pronounced global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people", made "State of Fear" "required reading" for the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, which he chaired from 2003 to 2007, and before which he called Crichton to testify in September 2005. Al Gore said on March 21, 2007, before a US House committee: "The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor ... if your doctor tells you you need to intervene here, you don't say 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that tells me it's not a problem. Several commentators interpreted this as a reference to "State of Fear". AAPG 2006 Journalism Award. The novel received the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) 2006 Journalism Award. AAPG Communications director Larry Nation told the "New York Times", "It is fiction, but it has the absolute ring of truth". The presentation of this award has been criticized as a promotion of the politics of the oil industry and for blurring the lines between fiction and journalism. After some controversy within the organization, AAPG has since renamed the award the "Geosciences in the Media" Award. Daniel P. Schrag, Director of the Center for the Environment at Harvard University, called the award "a total embarrassment" that he said "reflects the politics of the oil industry and a lack of professionalism" on the association's part. As for the book, he added "I think it is unfortunate when somebody who has the audience that Crichton has shows such profound ignorance".

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The Goodbye Family The Goodbye Family are a fictional family of undertakers from the Old Weird West of author and illustrator Lorin Morgan-Richards. The Goodbye Family comprises Pyridine Goodbye, matriarch and mortician, Otis, father and driver of the hearse, their child Orphie, who has the dual role of gravedigger and self-appointed town Sheriff, and their pets: Ouiji the cat, a tarantula named Dorian, and Midnight their horse. Since 2009, the Goodbyes have appeared in both single panel comic and literature as part of the Great Mountain book series by Richards that begin with "Me’ma and the Great Mountain". The humor of the Goodbye Family is typically gothic or macabre, and often satirizing industrialization and rules of authority. Characters and story. Beginning in 2009, Richards started to produce the Goodbye Family as one-off cards after an inspiring trip to France and Wales. Richards envisioned Orphie, the daughter, and primary character, on the roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral sitting with gargoyles, while her parents Otis tried to board a train with a shrunken head, and Pyridine publicly sewed a cadaver in Cardiff. Subsequent single panel comics and merchandise were made of each character but before delving further into their identities. In 2012, A Raven Above Press released Richards first novel "Me’ma and the Great Mountain", about an indigenous girl that overcomes ghoulish spirits to save her people. Along with her journey, she meets Hollis Sorrow, a friendly character entombed in a casket made by the Goodbye Family, marking the first mention in literature of the Goodbye Family. By 2015, Steamkat, an online comic distributor, weekly featured The Goodbye Family comic, and starting in the following year, Richards released subsequent book collections about the family and syndicated his series through social media and Tapas. The Goodbye family lives in a giant tree that has been made habitable by Otis' woodworking. Their original house was lost in a fire due to the war of the Tried and Boorish. In an interview, when asked about the characters influences Richards replied: "I suppose Pyridine Goodbye, the matriarch, is loosely based on my wife, Otis Goodbye is myself, and Orphie their child is Berlin (Richards daughter) and our friend's child Heidi (who came before our daughter). All though with a few other influences. Just like the Goodbye Family we do have a pet tarantula and Siamese cat." Kepla is said to be based on an older friend of Richards and his wife that they jokingly called their son. Humor. Richards clarifies the genre of "The Goodbye Family": "I fall into the category of Weird West, but I think it may be more of a “Down West” as I’d like to call it, for its sense of macabre western humor." The Goodbye Family and the Great Mountain. The Goodbye Family and the Great Mountain is a Weird West juvenile fiction novel by Lorin Morgan-Richards, the second in his Great Mountain series, about undertakers Otis, Pyridine, and their daughter Orphie. According to the book's summary Pyridine is a witch and mortician, Otis is a bumbling but brazen hearse driver, and Orphie has the strength of twenty men and helps with grave digging. Following the first novel "Me’ma and the Great Mountain", Me’ma, an Indigenous child, has routed the mining tycoon Baron Von Nickle and headed west over the Great Mountain as the defeated and leaderless miners returned east to the town of Nicklesworth. Frank Thorne is the only soldier to stay intact and searches for the Baron's accomplice. The Goodbye family, undertakers in town, hear of the defeat when the Baron's rattail hair appear on their doorstep. The Goodbye's, suffering from poor business, look to monetize the situation and seek an heir, but find the townsfolk are turning into zombies. Otis finds the culprit in a new tonic that leads the family to Nothom, the underworld, where Thorne is following close behind. They find a production facility that is pumping oil to those above for consumption, dramatically altering the land of Nothom to the dissatisfaction of the Goodbyes. In turn, and without the Baron, the oil is causing the townspeople above, like Thorne, to become the living dead and fall under the control of the Baron's accomplice, a wicked warlock named Zenwick Aldrich. The book is a blend of goth and humor and stylistically has been compared to author's like Roald Dahl. The story includes a foreword by medium Richard-Lael Lillard. A common theme in Richards stories is an underlying environmental message. Similarly, to his first novel, "Me'ma and the Great Mountain", he also provides a solution. In "The Goodbye Family and the Great Mountain", dependence on oil is the cause of conflict and the Goodbye family's disruption and disorder saves the day. Television. Richards announced he is writing a script for "The Goodbye Family: The Animated Series". Theme song. Richards collaborated with the music act Heathen Apostles to write the Goodbye Family theme song: "Sew it Up", and appears in "The Goodbye Family: The Animated Series".

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The Monkey Wrench Gang The Monkey Wrench Gang is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey (1927–1989), published in 1975. Abbey's most famous work of fiction, the novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the Southwestern United States, and was so influential that the term "monkeywrench" has come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems. In 1985, Dream Garden Press released a special 10th Anniversary edition of the book featuring illustrations by R. Crumb, plus a chapter titled "Seldom Seen at Home" that had been deleted from the original edition. Crumb's illustrations were used for a limited-edition calendar based on the book. The most recent edition was released in 2006 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Plot summary. The book's four main characters are ecologically minded misfits—"Seldom Seen" Smith, a Jack Mormon river guide; Doc Sarvis, an odd but wealthy and wise surgeon; Bonnie Abbzug, his young Jewish feminist assistant; and a rather eccentric Green Beret Vietnam veteran, George Hayduke. Together, although not always working as a tightly knit team, they form the titular group dedicated to the destruction of what they see as the system that pollutes and destroys their environment, the American West. As the gang's attacks on deserted bulldozers and trains continue, the law closes in. For the gang, the enemy is those who would develop the American Southwest—despoiling the land, befouling the air, and destroying nature and the sacred purity of Abbey's desert world. Their greatest hatred is focused on the Glen Canyon Dam, a monolithic edifice of concrete that the monkey-wrenchers seek to destroy because it dams a beautiful wild river. Legacy. In his book "Screw Unto Others", George Hayduke states that Edward Abbey was his mentor, and mentions "The Monkey Wrench Gang" as the origin of the term "monkey-wrenching". Hayduke says "The Monkey Wrench Gang" inspired environmentalist David Foreman to help create "Earth First!" a direct action environmental organization that often advocates much of the minor vandalism depicted in the book. Many scenes of vandalism and ecologically motivated mayhem, including a billboard burning at the beginning of the book and the use of caltrops to elude a group of vigilantes, are presented in sufficient detail as to form a skeletal how-to for would-be saboteurs. The actions are presented in a larger-than-life format, because much of what Hayduke, and the rest of the characters in the story face are larger-than-life obstacles that require larger-than-life approaches. The symbol of the Earth Liberation Front is a monkey wrench and stone hammer. In his book "", author Matt Ruff notes: Film, TV or theatrical adaptations. As of 2012, a film adaptation of the book, to be directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, was being planned. The film rights holders for the book filed suit against the producers of "Night Moves", charging that the film's plot is significantly similar to the story of book.

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Sick Puppy Sick Puppy is a 2000 novel by Carl Hiaasen. Plot summary. Robert Clapley, a former drug smuggler-turned-real estate developer, plans to build high-rise condominiums and golf courses on Toad Island, the home to a large population of oak toads. The project requires the construction of a massive new bridge to the mainland to accommodate Clapley's cement trucks. On the recommendation of Richard "Dick" Artemus, a corrupt governor of Florida to whom Clapley has given major campaign contributions, Clapley hires lobbyist Palmer Stoat to expedite the government funding for the bridge construction. By random happenstance, Stoat becomes subject to the obsessive wrath of ecoterrorist Twilly Spree after he witnesses him litter the highway from his luxury Range Rover. He tracks him back to the Fort Lauderdale residence he shares with his wife, Desirata. Twilly arranges ironic pranks - hijacking a garbage truck and dumping its load into Desi's convertible, and filling Stoat's Range Rover with dung beetles - but is aggravated when Stoat continues to litter. When he breaks into Stoat's home, he is confronted by his massive Labrador Retriever and by Desi herself. Desi, who is increasingly unhappy with her marriage, tells Twilly that he is "aiming low" if he is trying to correct Stoat's misbehavior. She guides him to Toad Island, where Clapley's construction crew has deliberately buried thousands of oak toads to avoid later protest by environmentalists. Twilly orders Desi to tell Stoat that he will kill the dog if he doesn't stop the bridge project. Stoat dismisses the threat until Twilly sends him a roadkill Labrador's severed ear via FedEx. The actual dog becomes Twilly's companion after he changes his name to "McGuinn." Stoat convinces Artemus to veto funding for the bridge but has no intention of letting the project fail. He tells Clapley and Artemus that the funding can be put back into the budget later, through a special session of the Florida legislature. Clapley sends a hit man, Mr. Gash, to kill Twilly, while Artemus, in an effort to avoid the bridge project being tainted by a violent death, locates ex-governor Clinton Tyree, a.k.a. "Skink", who vanished in the mid-1970s after a short term of office and is said to be hiding in the remaining wilderness of Florida. Artemus knows that Skink's mentally disturbed elder brother, Doyle, is still on the state's payroll as the keeper of an abandoned lighthouse, and threatens to put him on the street if Skink doesn't apprehend Twilly. Artemus fails to realize the dire consequences of threatening a man with Skink's volcanic temper, or of putting him and Twilly in contact with each other. Desi becomes attracted to Twilly, and the two eventually develop a relationship. Stoat is disgusted and washes his hands of her and McGuinn, telling Twilly that the bridge is going up no matter what he does. A violent confrontation with Twilly, Desi, and Skink on Toad Island leaves Mr. Gash mortally wounded. Twilly is left in Skink's care while Desi returns to her parents' home in Atlanta. Despite her pleadings, Twilly is still committed to stopping the Toad Island project. Accompanied by Skink, Twilly trails Stoat, Clapley, and Artemus to a private canned hunting reserve in northern Florida, where Stoat has arranged for Clapley to shoot a black rhinoceros and win over Willie Vasquez-Washington, a crucial member of the Florida House who is opposed to the special session. Twilly is on the verge of shooting Clapley with a rifle, but McGuinn runs into the preserve and nips playfully at the rhino's tail. The rhino - so ancient that it has hardly moved since it arrived at the ranch - goes berserk and charges at the hunting party. Clapley is gored to death on the rhino's horn, and Stoat is trampled flat. Artemus escapes the chaos but is mortified to learn that Willie snapped plenty of pictures of the fiasco. Clapley's death dooms the Toad Island project. Apart from his many lobbying clients and crony politicians, only a few friends and family members show up at Stoat's funeral. Desi is among the mourners, during which she is approached by McGuinn, holding a note with Twilly's new address on it. Meanwhile, Twilly and Skink are driving along the highway when they see another group of litterbugs. They immediately agree they have to teach them a lesson. Major themes. Although some of the themes of the novel may suggest an autobiographical element the author himself shrugs off at least one aspect of this parallel. The main character Twilly and himself both had attorney forebears who lived in Southern Florida, but the development in this area came as a surprise to him and his attorney father and grandfather. Literary significance and criticism. "Sick Puppy" has been reviewed well and one example describes Hiaasen's skills thus. Other reviews praised the novel's harder edges. In his review of Hiaasen's later novel "Skinny Dip", Michael Grunwald made several references to the characters of "Sick Puppy":

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The Lost Scrapbook The Lost Scrapbook (1995) is a novel by the American writer Evan Dara. It won the 12th Annual FC2 Illinois State University National Fiction Competition judged by William T. Vollmann. The novel is a prime example of ecofiction, and culminates in a battle between a fictional Missouri town named Isaura and the Ozark chemical company, which has been the economic linchpin for the community for many decades. The company is accused of releasing toxic waste which has poisoned the groundwater. Writing in the Washington Post, Tom LeClair compares the book favorably to The Recognitions by William Gaddis, saying: "This first novel resembles the ambitious debuts of McElroy (A Smuggler's Bible) and Pynchon (V), but author Evan Dara pushes the bar back upward toward Recognitions-height. With The Lost Scrapbook Dara asks readers to vault into an insistently bookish book, a dangerous and courageous request in an age of Web browsers and Net servers...I'd hate to see The Lost Scrapbook lost for 30 years, as The Recognitions went unrecognized, because Dara is a consummate ventriloquist of our time's voices and a remarkable ringmaster of our culture's circus acts...At the end of The Recognitions a composer finally plays his own music in a cathedral, hits a very difficult note, and brings the cathedral down on his head. Dara has taken a similar risk with his Beethoven-influenced novel of variations."

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MaddAddam MaddAddam is a novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, published on 29 August 2013. "MaddAddam" concludes the dystopian trilogy that began with "Oryx and Crake" (2003) and continued with "The Year of the Flood" (2009). While the plots of these previous novels ran along a parallel timeline, "MaddAddam" is the continuation of both books. "MaddAddam" is written from the perspective of Zeb and Toby, who were both introduced in "The Year of the Flood". Plot. The novel continues the story of some of the same characters in the wake of the same biological catastrophe depicted in Atwood's earlier novels in the trilogy. The narrative starts with Ren and Toby (protagonists in "The Year of the Flood") rescuing another survivor (Amanda Payne) from two criminals, who had been previously emotionally hardened by a colosseum-style game called Painball. Ren and Toby meet up with Jimmy, the protagonist from "Oryx and Crake". These characters reunite with other survivors, develop a camp and start to rebuild civilization with the Crakers, all while the vengeful criminals (Painballers) stalk them. Similarly to the previous two books, the narrative switches periodically into the past. After Zeb and Toby become lovers, he tells her about his previous career. Zeb and Adam One (from "The Year of the Flood") grew up as half-brothers. Their father, a preacher ("The Rev"), advocated a corporate-friendly message that espoused petroleum and shunned environmentalism. Disgusted by his father’s ethics and hypocrisy, Zeb hacks into his father's accounts and empties them. Knowing their father's political influence, Zeb and Adam leave home, take on different identities and separate in order to avoid detection. Ultimately, Zeb and Adam re-unite and work together in building God's Gardeners, the central organization in "The Year of the Flood". Critical reception. Andrew Sean Greer said in "The New York Times", "Atwood has brought the previous two books together in a fitting and joyous conclusion that's an epic not only of an imagined future but of our own past". James Kidd of "The Independent" said, "Atwood's body of work will last precisely because she has told us about ourselves. It is not always a pretty picture, but it is true for all that."

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The Martian Chronicles The Martian Chronicles is a science fiction fix-up novel, published in 1950, by American writer Ray Bradbury that chronicles the settlement of Mars, the home of indigenous Martians, by Americans leaving a troubled Earth that is eventually devastated by nuclear war. The book is a work of science fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, dystopian fiction, and horror that projects American society immediately after World War II into a technologically advanced future where the amplification of humanity's potentials to create and destroy have both miraculous and devastating consequences. Events in the chronicle include the apocalyptic destruction of both Martian and human civilizations, both instigated by humans, though there are no stories with settings at the catastrophes. The outcomes of many stories raise concerns about the values and direction of America of the time by addressing militarism, science, technology, and war time prosperity that could result in a global nuclear war (e.g., "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "); depopulation that might be considered genocide (e.g., ", " and "); racial oppression and exploitation (e.g., "); ahistoricism, philistinism, and hostility towards religion (e.g., "); and censorship and conformity (e.g., ""), among others. On Bradbury's award of a Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in 2007, the book was recognized as one of his "masterworks that readers carry with them over a lifetime." Structure and plot summary. Fix-up structure. "The Martian Chronicles" is a fix-up, a literary term for novels popularized nearly three decades after the work's publication, consisting of short stories previously published. The first edition consisted of stories already published from 1946 to 1950 and new ones woven together with short bridge narratives in the form of interstitial vignettes, intercalary chapters, or expository narratives. Previously published stories were revised for consistency of the overall story line and refinement. (For an example, see "There Will Come Soft Rains".) "The Martian Chronicles" may appear to be a planned short story cycle; however, Bradbury did not specifically write "The Martian Chronicles" as a singular work – rather, its creation as a novel was suggested to Bradbury by a publisher's editor years after most of the stories had already appeared in many different publications (see Publication history and original publication notes under Contents). In responding to the suggestion, the 29-year-old Bradbury was shocked by the idea that he had already written a novel and remembers saying: "Oh, my God. ...I read "Winesburg, Ohio" by Sherwood Anderson when I was 24 and I said to myself, 'Oh God, wouldn't it be wonderful if someday I could write a book as good as this but put it on the planet Mars.'". (See the Influences section on literary influences affecting the works's structure.) Chronicle structure and plot summary. "The Martian Chronicles" is written as a chronicle, though the events are in the future, as each story is presented as a chapter that appears in the overall chronological ordering of the plot. Overall, the chronicle can be viewed as three extended episodes or parts, punctuated by two apocalyptic events. Events chronicled in the original edition of the book ranged from 1999 to 2026. As 1999 approached, all dates were advanced by 31 years in the 1997 edition, so the summary that follows includes the dates of the original and 1997 editions. Publication history. The creation of "The Martian Chronicles" by weaving together previous works was suggested to the author by New York City representatives of Doubleday & Company in 1949 after Norman Corwin recommended Bradbury travel to the city to be "'discovered'". The work was subsequently published in hardbound form by Doubleday in the United States in 1950. Publication of the book was concurrent with the publication of Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains" that appeared in "Collier's" magazine. The short story appears as a chapter in the novel, though with some differences. The novel has been reprinted numerous times by many different publishers since 1950. The Spanish language version of "The Martian Chronicles", "", was published in Argentina concurrently with the U.S. first edition, and included of all the chapters contained in the U.S. edition. The edition included a foreword by Jorge Luis Borges. The book was published in the United Kingdom under the title "The Silver Locusts" (1951), with slightly different contents. In some editions the story "The Fire Balloons" was added, and the story "Usher II" was removed to make room for it. The book was published in 1963 as part of the Time Reading Program with an introduction by Fred Hoyle. In 1979, Bantam Books published a trade paperback edition with illustrations by Ian Miller. As 1999 approached, the fictional future written into the first edition was in jeopardy, so the work was revised and a 1997 edition was published to advance all of the dates by 31 years (with the plot running from 2030 to 2057 instead of 1999 to 2026). The 1997 edition added " and ", and omitted "", a story considered less topical in 1997 than 1950. The 1997 edition of "Crónicas Marcianas" included the same revisions as the U.S. 1997 edition. In 2009, the Subterranean Press and PS Publishing published "The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition "that included the 1997 edition of the work and additional stories under the title "The Other Martian Tales". (See "The Other Martian Tales" section of this article.) Contents. Bradbury called the table of contents for "The Martian Chronicles" "Chronology" with each item formatted with the date of the story followed by a colon followed by the story title. The title of each chapter in the first edition was the corresponding line in "Chronology". In the 1997 edition, chapter titles omitted the colons by printing the date and the story title on separate lines. The chapter titles that follow are formatted consistent with the "Chronology". The years are those appearing in the first edition followed by the year appearing in 1997 edition. Publication information on short stories published prior to their appearance in "The Martian Chronicles" is available in Ray Bradbury short fiction bibliography. January 1999/2030: Rocket Summer. Publication history. First appeared in " The Martian Chronicles". Not to be confused with the short story of the same name published in 1947. Plot. "Rocket Summer" is a short vignette that describes the rocket launch of the first human expedition to Mars on a cold winter day in Ohio. February 1999/2030: Ylla. Publication history. First published as "I'll Not Ask for Wine" in "Maclean's", January 1, 1950. Plot. "Ylla" introduces two unhappily married Martians, Mr. Yll K and Mrs. Ylla K, who also serve as examples for the appearance, home, life style, diet, and telepathic powers of indigenous Martians. The pair have lived together for twenty years by a dead sea, in a one thousand-year-old house that has been continuously occupied by their ancestors. Ylla tells Yll about her daydream about a very tall man who calls himself "Nathaniel York" who travels in a ship from the third planet from the Sun he calls "Earth" and spoke in a language she didn't know but could understand through telepathy. Ylla asks Yll if there are people on the third planet and Yll explains that scientists say there aren't any because the atmosphere has too much oxygen. Later, just before preparing dinner, Yll hears Ylla singing the 17th century song "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" (with lyrics from the poem "To Celia" by Ben Jonson), in English she doesn't understand. The next morning Yll tells Ylla that she should see a doctor because she talked in her sleep during the night. Ylla tells him that she had a ridiculous dream of meeting Nathaniel York who told her she was beautiful, kissed her, and offered to take her back with him to the third planet. Yll becomes jealous and angry, and asks Ylla where and when York would be arriving. She said in Green Valley that afternoon. Ylla tells Yll that he is insane and sick, and he responds that he was being childish and kisses her. At noon, Ylla asks Yll why he hasn't left for Xi City as he usually does, and he responds that it's too hot. Ylla tells him that she is going to see her friend Pao in Green Valley, and Yll tells her that he forgot to tell her that Mr. Nll was coming by to see them. Yll convinces Ylla to stay for the meeting, though Ylla is not happy with her decision. Mr. Nll does not show up. Yll says he's tired of waiting and convinces Ylla to let him go hunting for a short time while she waits for Mr. Nll. Yll departs with an insect weapon that is like a gun. Ylla waits and experiences a cloudless weather storm just as she observed the First Expedition's rocket land in Green Valley. She suppresses an urge to run to Green Valley but decides she must wait for Mr. Nll. Moments later, Ylla hears two shots fired from an insect weapon and then is panic stricken. In a few minutes Yll returns and discharges two bees from his weapon. He asks his wife if Mr. Nll arrived and says he remembers the meeting with Nll is for the next day. She tells Yll that she can no longer recall "Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" and sobs. Yll tells her that she will feel better the next day. Still distressed, she agrees with him. August 1999/2030: The Summer Night. Publication history. First published as "The Spring Night" in "The Arkham Sampler", winter 1949. Plot. "The Summer Night" is a vignette about an idyllic Martian summer night that is disrupted when Martian adults and children spontaneously start to sing the words from English poems and children's rhymes they don't understand, including Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" and "Old Mother Hubbard". The music, poems and rhymes emanate from astronauts aboard the Second Expedition's spaceship heading towards Mars. The Martians are terrified and sense that a terrible event will occur the next morning. August 1999/2030: The Earth Men. Publication history. First published in "Thrilling Wonder Stories", August 1948. Plot. "The Earth Men" is the story of Second Expedition crew's encounters with members of a Martian community not far from their landing site. The four man crew is led by Captain Jonathan Williams of New York City, who leads crew conversations with Martians. In their first encounter, the men learn that the Martians communicate to them in English using telepathy and are so encouraged that they expect to be greeted, welcomed, honored and celebrated for their successful journey. However, the crew is patronized by all of the Martians they meet, indifferent to any words about their triumph. The crew does not know that each Martian they meet suspects one or more of them is an insane Martian. In their encounter with Mr. Iii, the Martian decides that Williams is psychotic and that his crew is the captain's hallucination, while Williams is clueless about being evaluated. Williams signs an agreement for his own confinement in an insane asylum believing that paperwork and administrative processing are related to honors. Mr. Iii tells the deluded crew that the agreement includes euthanasia, if necessary, and gives Williams a key, which Williams first believes is a "key to the city", but Mr. Iii tells him that it is the key to the "House" where they can stay the night to meet a Mr. Xxx in the morning. Williams enters the "House" and locks himself and his crew inside. He deduces the "House" is an insane asylum. The crew discovers Martians can use telepathy to project their thoughts as images and disguises that can appear, sound, smell, and taste like real objects. When the crew meets Mr. Xxx, Williams seeks to prove his sanity by showing Mr. Xxx his spaceship and allowing him to inspect it. After the inspection, Mr. Xxx concludes that the spaceship and William's crew is an exceptionally ingenious hallucination and that the captain cannot recover from psychosis, so, he euthanizes Williams. After Williams dies, Mr. Xxx is confused because the remaining crew and spaceship did not vanish. Mr. Xxx kills the remaining astronauts believing one of them is responsible for the spaceship; however, after all the crew dies, the spaceship persists. Mr. Xxx determines that spaceship persists because he is psychotic, and so, he kills himself. The town people later sell the spaceship as scrap metal to a junkman. March 2000/2031: The Taxpayer. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "The Taxpayer" is about an incident at the launch site of the Third Expedition to Mars in Ohio on the day of the launch. A man named Pritchard believes he is entitled to be in the crew of the Third Expedition because he is a taxpayer. Pritchard shouts to the crew as it leaves to board the spaceship that he doesn't want to be left on Earth because "there's going to be an atomic war." Pritchard is removed from the launch site by the police as the rocket is launched. April 2000/2031: The Third Expedition. Publication history. First published as "Mars is Heaven!" in "Planet Stories", fall 1948. The original short story was set in 1960 and dealt with characters' nostalgia for their childhoods in the American Midwest in the 1920s. The story in " The Martian Chronicles " contains a brief paragraph about medical treatments that slow the aging process, so that the characters can be traveling to Mars in 2000 but still remember the 1920s. Plot. "The Third Expedition" is the story of the third crew of seventeen astronauts to travel to, land on, and explore Mars. The expedition is led by Captain John Black and includes Navigator David Lustig and archaeologist Samuel Hinkston. During the journey from Earth, the crew experience violent turbulence and each member was sickened by an infectious disease. One member died during the transit. As in "", the Martians project an elaborate hallucination in the minds of the astronaut crew to entrap and exterminate them since the spaceship contains a weapons arsenal. The Martian projection is that of a 20th-century American Midwestern town every crew member would be familiar with. Only Black, Lustig, and Hinkston depart the spaceship to investigate in order to preserve the safety of the remaining crew members. As the three explore the town they speculate on what they are experiencing. They conclude it is a community established by human immigrants from Earth and that the beings they met say they are from Earth to protect their sanity. The three explorers come upon a house that appears to be the home of Lustig's grandparents. Lustig treats the occupants as his own grandparents even though they have been dead for thirty years. The grandmother explains, "All we know is here we are, alive again, and no questions asked." In the meantime, the rest of Black's crew has left the spaceship as they were being greeted by a crowd and a music band, but before he can intervene he meets what appears to be his brother Edward with whom he spends the rest of the day. At night in bed, Black determines that he is experiencing a telepathic hallucination and that Edward, who is in the same bedroom, is not his brother. Edward has read Black's thoughts and kills the captain. All of the other crew members are killed that night. In the morning, the Martians continue the projection and hold a sentimental Midwestern community burial ceremony for the crew. June 2001/2032: —And the Moon Be Still as Bright. Publication history. First published in "Thrilling Wonder Stories", June 1948. Plot. "—And the Moon Be Still as Bright" is the story of the Fourth Expedition after it lands on Mars. Shortly after landing, crewman Hathaway surveys the planet and reports that he could not find a living Martian among the modern and ancient cities and towns though there were huge numbers of Martian corpses that tests showed they all died of chicken pox that must have originated from one of the previous expeditions. Hathaway believes some corpses are ten days old and that some Martians may be living on isolated mountains. The expedition is led by Captain Wilder and includes Jeff Spender, a crewman who becomes disaffected with the expedition's mission as he observes his fellow crewmen behaving as ugly Americans demonstrated by drunkenness, loud partying, littering, and indifference and disrespect for anything Martian. When the crew explores what Bradbury describes as a "dreaming dead city", Spender is so enthralled that he recites Lord Byron's poem "So, we'll go no more a roving" that includes the story's title at the end of the first stanza, though immediately after he's done, drunken crewman Biggs vomits on a beautiful tilework. Without permission, Spender leaves the expedition to explore Martian settlements. Spender quickly learns to read Martian manuscripts and finds personal spiritual fulfillment in Martian philosophy, religion, art, and culture. Spender returns to the expedition encampment, declares himself "the last Martian" and murders six crewmen, with Biggs being the first. In response, Wilder organizes a manhunt to kill Spender. During the manhunt, in which Spender kills one more crewman, Wilder calls a truce to communicate with the rogue crewman. Spender explains to Wilder his spiritual awakening, indicts society's embrace of science to make life meaningless by being hostile to religion and art, describes his plan to kill the rest of the crew (except for Wilder) and the crews of all subsequent expeditions, and asks Wilder to advocate for limited settlement of Mars for fifty years to allow archaeologists to study Martian civilization in case he is killed. Wilder denies Spender's point of view after Spender gives him a tour of a village. Wilder resumes the manhunt. Although Wilder finds he has grown sympathetic to Spender's concerns, he kills the rogue crewman before his crew can. At the end, Wilder is affected by the incident. He beats crewman Parkhill when the subordinate uses a Martian city for target practice. August 2001/2032: The Settlers. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "The Settlers" is a vignette that describes the "Lonely Ones", the first settlers of Mars, single men from the United States who are few in number. December 2001/2032: The Green Morning. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "The Green Morning" is a tall tale about Benjamin Driscoll, an emigrant who is threatened to be returned to Earth because he has difficulty breathing due to the thin Martian atmosphere. Driscoll believes Mars can be made more hospitable by planting trees to add more oxygen to the atmosphere and, inspired by the memory of a childhood school lesson about Johnny Appleseed, advocates for a tree planting project with the settlement Co-ordinator. The Co-ordinator explains that the priority for settlement development is mining and that the plan is to transport the settlement's food from Earth and harvest some from hydroponic gardens. However, after a long discussion, Driscoll manages to convince the Co-ordinator about the benefits of trees, and the Co-ordinator assigns and equips Driscoll for the project. Driscoll, on foot, hauls a bin full of seeds and sprouts into a valley wilderness and manually plants them. A drenching rainstorm breaks a thirty-day dry spell that causes his plantings to sprout and grow into a mighty forest overnight. Regarding the tall tale aspect of "The Green Morning" read " regarding supplies of lumber that continue to be transported from Earth to Mars. However, Discoll did leave a legacy as Discoll Forest is a place named in ". February 2002/2033: The Locusts. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "The Locusts" is a vignette that describes, in less than six months, the arrival of ninety thousand American emigrants to Mars in numerous rockets Bradbury likens to a swarm of locusts. The construction of towns is portrayed as the work of "steel-toothed carnivores" with nails as teeth that "bludgeon away all the strangeness" of Mars, transforming the planet into familiar American towns "filled with sizzling neon tubes and yellow electric bulbs". August 2002/2033: Night Meeting. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "Night Meeting" is the story of Tomás Gomez, a young Latino construction worker on Mars, who drives his truck across an empty expanse between towns to attend a party, and his encounters along the way with an elderly gas station owner and a Martian who appears to him as a phantom. Gomez stops for gasoline and converses with the gas station owner who explains that he came to Mars because he appreciates things that are "different" and says he is satisfied because "everything's crazy" there. He tells Gomez that even his clock "acts funny" and that he sometimes feels like an eight year old. Gomez continues his journey on an ancient Martian road into the night and believes he smells Time, where Bradbury says he is driving the "hills of Time". Gomez stops on a hillside overlooking the ruins of an ancient Martian city to have a coffee break when a Martian named Muhe Ca approaches and meets him. They greet each other and are amicable. They find that they can't touch each other and that they can see through each other. Each claims the other is a phantom though each insists on being alive. Muhe Ca tells Gomez that he is going to a festival in the city that appears as a ruin to the human though it is a vibrant city to the Martian. Gomez points to the town he is traveling to but Muhe Ca sees an empty space. Gomez tells Muhe Ca that the Martian is dead because he can see ruins but Muhe Ca can't see the human town, though Muhe Ca insists on being alive. They agree to disagree on who is dead or alive; and each wishes the other can attend the celebration being traveled to. The story ends when each departs to attend their respective parties, and each regarding the meeting as a dream. The fearless Tomás Gomez reflects a common Mexican attitude toward death, which Bradbury understood. Prior to the publication of "The Martian Chronicles" in 1950, two of his short stories relating to the Day of the Dead were published in 1947 — "El Día de Muerte" set on the Day of the Dead in Mexico City and "The Next in Line" that was published in his book "Dark Carnival" about a visit to catacombs in a Mexican village which terrifies the American protagonist. Both stories were likely inspired by his learning about Mexican death rites during his own frightful experience on a 1945 trip to Mexico that included a visit in Guanajuato where he viewed mummies. October 2002/2033: The Shore. Publication history. First appeared in " The Martian Chronicles ". Plot. "The Shore" is a short vignette that serves as a prologue to a group of stories that follow it. It characterizes two successive groups of settlers as American emigrants who arrive in "waves" that "spread upon" the Martian "shore" – the first are the frontiersmen described in "The Settlers", and the second are men from the "cabbage tenements and subways" of urban America. November 2002/2033: The Fire Balloons. Publication history. The story first appeared as "…In This Sign" in "Imagination", April 1951 after publication of the first (1950) edition of "The Martian Chronicles" and so, was included in the U.S. edition of "The Illustrated Man" and in "The Silver Locusts". The story was included in the 1997 edition of "The Martian Chronicles", though it appeared in earlier special editions – the 1974 edition from The Heritage Press, the September 1979 illustrated trade edition from Bantam Books, the "40th Anniversary Edition" from Doubleday Dell Publishing Group and in the 2001 Book-of-the-Month Club edition. Plot. "The Fire Balloons" is a story about an Episcopal missionary expedition to cleanse Mars of sin, consisting of priests from large American cities led by the Most Reverend Father Joseph Daniel Peregrine and his assistant Father Stone. Peregrine has a passionate interest in discovering the kinds of sins that may be committed by aliens reflected in his book, "The Problem of Sin on Other Worlds". Peregrine and Stone argue constantly about whether the mission should focus on cleansing humans or Martians. With the question unanswered, the priests travel to Mars aboard the spaceship "Crucifix". The launch of the rocket triggers Peregrine's memories as a young boy of the Fourth of July with his grandfather. After landing on Mars, Peregrine and Stone meet with the mayor of First City, who advises them to focus their mission on humans. The mayor tells the priests that the Martians look like blue "luminous globes of light" and they saved the life of an injured prospector working in a remote location by transporting him to a highway. The mayor's description of the Martians triggers Peregine's endearing memories of himself launching fire balloons with his grandfather on Independence Day. Peregrine decides to search for and meet Martians, and he and Stone venture into the hills where the prospector encountered them. The two priests are met by a thousand fire balloons. Stone is terrified and wants to return to First City while Peregrine is overwhelmed by their beauty, imagines his grandfather is there with him to admire them, and wants to converse with them, though the fire balloons disappear. The two priests immediately encounter a rock slide, which Stone believes they escaped by chance and Peregrine believes they were saved by Martians. The two argue their disagreement, and during the night while Stone is sleeping, Peregrine tests his faith in his hunch by throwing himself off a high cliff. As he falls, Peregrine is surrounded by blue light and is set safely on the ground. Peregrine tells Stone of the experience but Stone believes Peregrine was dreaming, so Peregrine takes a gun which he fires at himself and the bullets drop at his feet, convincing his assistant. Peregrine uses his authority to have the mission build a church in the hills for the Martians. The church is for outdoor services and is constructed after six days of work. A blue glass sphere is brought as a representation of Jesus for the Martians. On the seventh day, a Sunday, Peregrine holds a service in which he plays an organ and uses his thoughts to summon the Martians. The fire balloons, who call themselves the Old Ones, appear as glorious apparitions to the priests and communicate the story of their creation, their immortality, their normally solitary existences, and their pure virtuousness. They thank the priests for building the church and tell them they are unneeded and ask them to relocate to the towns to cleanse the people there. The fire balloons depart, which fills Peregrine with such overwhelming sadness that he wants to be lifted up like his grandfather did when he was a small child. The priests are convinced and withdraw to First Town along with the blue glass sphere that has started to glow from within. Peregrine and Stone believe the sphere is Jesus. Bradbury said he consulted a Catholic priest in Beverly Hills while he developed the plot for "Fire Balloons". In an interview, Bradbury recalled part of a day-long conversation: "'Listen, Father, how would you act if you landed on Mars and found intelligent creatures in the form of balls of fire? Would you think you ought to save them or would you think they were saved already?' 'Wow! That's a hell of a fine question!' the father exclaimed. And he told me what he would do. In short, what I make Father Peregrine do." Interpretation of "The Fire Balloons" has been called "ambiguous" because its meaning can be dramatically different due to the context set by the stories that accompany it. Its first appearance in the U.S. in 1951 was as a stand-alone story as "... In This Sign" and in "The Illustrated Man" that was concurrent with its first appearance in "The Silver Locusts" in the U.K. which included all of "The Martian Chronicles" stories with Martian characters. Within "The Silver Locusts" and the 1997 edition of "The Martian Chronicles" the strategy used by Martians in "The Fire Balloons" is implicit — they use their telepathic powers to peacefully keep settlers away from their mountains. As in "" the Martians understand Father Peregrine's fond memories of his grandfather and the Fourth of July celebrations they shared together involving fire balloons before and after the "Crucifix" lands on Mars. As in "", an elaborate, imaginary world is constructed, though in "The Fire Balloons" it is for the priests in order to convince them to cleanse humans of sin in First City. The appearance of Martians as fire balloons ends with the chapter. February 2003/2034: Interim. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Not to be confused with the short horror story or "Time Intervening," which is also under that title. Plot. "Interim" is a one paragraph long vignette that describes the Tenth City built by colonists with lumber from California and Oregon, and occupied by emigrants that so much resembles an ordinary Midwestern American town in appearance and community life that the town seems to have been removed intact from Earth by an earthquake and transported and set down on Mars by a tornado. April 2003/2034: The Musicians. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "The Musicians" is the story of a "heap" of young boys who defy their parents and habitually play in and among the otherwise unpopulated ruins of indigenous Martian towns where many Martians perished in their homes. Martian towns are being incinerated by Firemen who are charged with eliminating any trace of their existences. Within the houses are the remains of the dead Martians, which have become skeletons and "black leaves", desiccated thin black flakes that behave like fallen tree leaves. One of their games involves a running race to a designated house. The boy arriving first earns the title of "Musician" and makes a shambles of the remains of a dead Martian by striking the ribcage with bones like playing a "white xylophone" and scattering black leaves all about, including on themselves. Boys who get caught by their parents with traces of black leaves on their person are physically punished. The Firemen complete their mission by the end of the year. May 2003/2034: The Wilderness. Publication history. First appeared in "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction", November 1952. The story appears in the 1974 edition of "The Martian Chronicles" by The Heritage Press, the 1979 Bantam Books illustrated trade edition, and the 1997 edition of "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "The Wilderness" is a story about two young single women, Janice Smith and Leonora Holmes, prior to their departure to Mars the next day in a manner comparable to the pioneer women of the mid-nineteen century though on a rocketship to be launched from their hometown, Independence, Missouri. Smith expects a telephone call at midnight from her fiancée Will on Mars, who has already purchased a home on Mars that looks identical to her home on Earth. The two women leave their summer house and walk to a soda fountain where Smith shows Holmes a picture of Will's house. The night sky of Independence is filled with helicopters and the debris from rocket launches. The two fly by helicopter over Independence one last time. The women return to the summer house and Smith is called by Will at midnight. She informs him off her travel plan and her love for him. His response after the long delay due to the distance to Mars is incomplete due to natural interference so, she only hears him say "love". Smith contemplates about being a pioneer as the women before her, and then falls asleep for the last time on Earth. June 2003: Way in the Middle of the Air. Publication history. First appeared in the first edition of "The Martian Chronicles" and not included in the 1997 edition. The work later appeared in the July 1950 issue of "Other Worlds Science Stories" after five major magazines rejected the manuscript drafted in 1948. Bradbury explained that the drafting of "Way in the Middle of the Air" was a common way he used writing to address his emotional state affecting him at a moment. He recalled in a 1962 interview that he was so upset about the circumstances of African-Americans in the United States that "I put them in rocket ships and send them off to Mars, in a short story, to rid myself of that tension". Publication of "Way in the Middle of the Air" in 1950 was groundbreaking for a science fiction story even though the work is considered limited by providing only the viewpoint of white Americans. According to Isiah Lavender III, "Bradbury is one of the very few authors in [science fiction] who dared to consider the effects and consequences of race in America at a time when racism was sanctioned by the culture." Even with the story's limitations, Robert Crossley suggested that it might be considered "the single most incisive episode of black and white relations in science fiction by a white author." Plot. "Way in the Middle of the Air" is the story about Samuel Teece, a white racist and terrorist hardware store owner in an unnamed town in the Jim Crow era American South of 2003, and his efforts to dissuade the African-Americans in the town area from emigrating to Mars. Teece and a group of white men sit on the porch of his hardware store when they see a flood of black families and others marching into town with their belongings. One of the men tells Teece that the entire community has decided to leave for Mars. Teece is incensed and declares that the governor and militia should be contacted because the migrants should have notified everyone in advance before departing. As the migrants pass the store, Teece's wife, accompanied by the wives of other men on the porch, asks her husband to come home to prevent their house servant, Lucinda, from leaving. Mrs. Teece says she couldn't convince Lucinda from leaving after offering an increase in pay and two nights a week off, and said she didn't understand her decision because she thought Lucinda loved her. Teece restrains himself from beating his wife, and orders her go back home. She obeys, and after she's gone he takes his gun out and threatens to kill any migrant who laughs. The march continues quietly through town toward the rocket launch site. Teece sees the black man, Belter, and threatens to horsewhip him because Belter owes him fifty dollars. Belter tells Teece that he forgot about the debt, and Teece tells Belter that he shouldn't leave because his rocket will explode but Belter responds that he doesn't care. Teece calls Belter "Mister Way in the Middle of the Air" taken from the lyrics of the negro spiritual "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" about a vision of the prophet Ezekiel that occurred in the sky. After Belter begs Teece to let him depart for Mars, an old man among the migrants passes his hat around and quickly collects fifty dollars in donations from other migrants and gives it to Belter, who gives it to Teece and leaves. Teece is enraged and waves his gun at the migrants and threatens to shoot their rockets down one by one. The men on Teece's porch ponder the reason for the mass migration mentioning advances in civil rights like elimination of the poll tax, some states enacting anti-lynching laws, "all kinds of equal rights", and that the wages of black men are nearly on par with white men. After almost all of the migrants have passed through town, Silly, Teece's seventeen year old black employee, comes to the porch to return Teece's bicycle Silly uses for deliveries. Teece shoves Silly off the machine and orders Silly to go inside the hardware store and start working. Silly doesn't move and Teece pulls out a contract he says Silly signed with an "X" that requires the boy to "give four weeks notice and continue working until his position is filled". Silly says he didn't sign a contract and Teece responds by saying he will treat the boy well. Silly asks one of the white men on the porch if one of them will take his place and Grandpa Quartermain volunteers so Silly can leave. Teece claims Silly as his and says he'll lock the boy in the back room until the evening. Silly starts to cry and then three other men on the porch tell Teece to let Silly go. Teece feels for the gun in his pocket and then relents. Silly cleans out his shed at the store on orders from Teece and departs the store in an old car. As Silly leaves, he asks Teece what he is going to do at night when all the black people are gone. After the car drives away, Teece figures out that Silly was asking about lynchings Teece participated in, and gets his open-top car to chase down Silly and kill him. Quartermain volunteers to drive, and in their pursuit a tire goes flat after running over cast off belongings that migrants abandoned onto the road. Teece returns to his store where men are watching rockets shooting up into the sky. Teece refuses to watch and proudly comments that Silly addressed him as "Mister" to the very end. 2004–2005/2035–2036: The Naming of Names. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". (Not to be confused with the short story "The Naming of Names", first published in "Thrilling Wonder Stories", August 1949, later published as "Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed".) Plot. "The Naming of Names" is a short vignette about the names of places on Mars being given American names that memorialize the crews of the four exploratory expeditions, or "mechanical" or "metal" names, which replace the Martian names that were for geographic features and things in nature. The vignette also describes tourists who visit Mars and shop, and describes the next wave of emigrants as "sophisticates" and people who "instruct" and "rule" and "push" other people about. April 2005/2036: Usher II. Publication history. First published as "Carnival of Madness" in "Thrilling Wonder Stories", April 1950. In 2010, Los Angeles artist Allois, in collaboration with Bradbury, released illustrated copies of "Usher" and "Usher II". The story also appeared in the 2008 Harper Collins/ Voyager edition of "The Illustrated Man". Plot. "Usher II" is a horror story and homage to Edgar Allan Poe about the wealthy William Stendahl and the house he built to murder his enemies. The story begins with Stendahl's meeting with Mr. Bigelow, his architect, to perform a final check-out for the completion of his newly built house. Stendahl reads Bigelow architectural specifications taken directly from the description of the House of Usher from the text of Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher". Stendahl is satisfied and refers to the house as, The House of Usher. The owner is angered that Bigelow doesn't know anything of or about Poe and sends him away. Bigelow's ignorance is innocent because for decades, anything "produced in any way suggesting ... any creature of the imagination" has been outlawed, including books, many of which were confiscated and burned in the Great Fire thirty years earlier, including Stendahl's own fifty thousand book library. Stendahl is visited by Mr. Garrett, an investigator of Moral Climates, who immediately tells Stendahl that he will have his place dismantled and burned later that day. Stendahl tells Garrett that he spent a huge sum of money for the house and invites the investigator inside for additional information for his investigative report. During the tour, Garrett experiences an automated horror fantasy world, and finds the place "deplorable" as well as a work of genius. Garrett is met by a robot ape that Stendahl demonstrates is a robot and then orders it to kill Garrett. Stendahl has his assistant Pikes, who he regards as the greatest horror film actor ever when such films were made, construct a robot replica of Garrett to return to Moral Climates to delay any action affecting the house for forty-eight hours. Stendahl and Pikes send invitations out to their enemies for a party later that evening. About thirty guests arrive at Stendahl's party. Upon greeting them, he tells them to enjoy themselves because the house will be soon be destroyed, though Pikes interrupts and shows Stendahl the remnants of Garrett, which are the parts of a robot. They first panic and then Stendahl figures the real Garrett will come to visit since they sent a robot back, and very soon Garrett appears and informs Stendahl that the Dismantlers will arrive in an hour. Stendahl tells Garrett to enjoy the party and offers him some wine that is politely refused. Garrett and Miss Pope then observe Miss Blunt being strangled by an ape and her corpse bring stuffed up a chimney. Another laughing Miss Blunt comforts Miss Pope by telling her that what she saw killed was a robot replica of herself. Stendahl serves Garrett wine which he drinks. Garrett watches additional killings performed in a similar manner that he remembers from Poe's "The Premature Burial", "The Pit and the Pendulum", and one other from "The Murders in the Rue Morgue". Stendahl serves Garrett more wine which is consumed and asks the investigator if he would like to see what is planned for him. Garrett agrees and is treated as the character Fortunato from Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado". After Stendahl and Pike have disposed of all their guests, they leave in a helicopter and, from above, watch the house break apart like the one in Poe's story. August 2005/2036: The Old Ones. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "The Old Ones" is a short vignette that describes the last wave of emigrants to Mars – elderly Americans. The title does not refer to the Martians in "The Fire Balloons". September 2005/2036: The Martian. Publication history. First published in "Super Science Stories", November 1949. Plot. "The Martian" is the story about an elderly married couple, LaFarge and Anna, who encounter a Martian who wants to live with them as their fourteen-year-old son, Tom, even though Tom died of pneumonia many years before. On a rainy night, Lafarge mentions his grief for Tom to Anna, who asks him to "forget him and everything on Earth". They go to bed but before they can sleep they respond to a knock at their front door and find a boy who looks like Tom there. Anna is afraid but LaFarge thinks of the boy as Tom. Anna tells the boy to leave and asks her husband to lock the door, but LaFarge tells the boy that he can enter the house if he wants to and shuts the door unlocked. The next morning, LaFarge finds the boy bathing in the canal adjacent to his house while his wife treats the boy as her son with no discernible sign of concern or doubt. LaFarge asks the boy to give his true identity and guesses he is a Martian. The boy asks to be accepted and not to be doubted, and then runs away. Anna becomes distresses as she sees the boy running away, and LaFarge asks his wife if she remembers anything about Tom's death. Anna responds that she doesn't know what he's talking about. The boy returns late in the afternoon and makes an agreement with LaFarge on not asking any more questions. The boy says he was almost "trapped" by a man living in a tin shack by the canal after he ran away. After the boy leaves LaFarge to prepare for suppertime, Saul in a canal boat tells LaFarge that Nomland, the man living in the tin shack known to have murdered a man named Gillings on Earth, said Nomland saw Gillings that afternoon and tried to lock himself in the jail, and when he couldn't, went home and shot himself dead only twenty minutes earlier. LaFarge asks the boy what he did during the afternoon, and the boy responds, "Nothing" and LaFarge stops the questioning. LaFarge, Anna, and the boy leave the house on a canal boat over fearful objections of the boy. The boy falls asleep in the boat and talks in his sleep about "changing" and "the trap" which the couple don't understand. Soon after they arrive in the town and start to meet numerous people, the boy runs off. Anna is distressed and Tom reassures her that the boy will return before they leave. The couple buys theater tickets and return to the canal boat late at night when the entertainment ends, but the boy is not there. LaFarge goes into town to find the boy and meets Mike who tells him that Joe Spaulding and his wife found their daughter, Lavinia, on Main Street while buying their theater tickets. LaFarge goes to the Spaulding's house and finds Lavinia, though he calls her Tom, and asks Lavinia to come back to him and Anna. LaFarge makes a fatherly commitment and Lavinia leaves with LaFarge, though the departure is detected and Vinny shoots at them and misses. As they flee, LaFarge sends the boy off in a different direction to rendezvous at the canal boat where Anna awaits. As the boy runs through town his appearance changes to a figure that is recognizable to each person who sees him. The boy makes it to the boat where LaFarge and Anna await, but Joe Spaulding has a gun and stops their departure. The boy steps off the boat and Spaulding takes his wrist while all the people around him claim the boy is theirs. As the crowd argues, the boy sickens and screams as his appearance changes rapidly and uncontrollably from one recognizable figure to a person in the crowd to another, and then dies. It starts to rain again. LaFarge and Anna return home and go to bed. At midnight, LaFarge hears something at the door, opens it to a rainy night and watches the empty yard for five minutes before locking the door shut. November 2005/2036: The Luggage Store. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "The Luggage Store" is a short dialogue between Father Peregrine and the elderly owner of a luggage store. The proprietor tells Peregrine that he heard on the radio that there will be a war on Earth, looks at Earth in the night sky, and tells the priest he finds the news incredible. Peregrine changes the proprietor's mind by telling him that news of war is unbelievable because Earth is so far away. The shop owner tells the priest of the hundred thousand new emigrants expected in the coming months and Peregrine comments that the travelers will be needed on Earth and that they'll probably be turning back. The proprietor tells the priest that he'd better prepare his luggage for a quick sale after which the priest asks if the owner thinks all the emigrants on Mars will return to Earth. The owner believes so because the emigrants haven't been on Mars for long, except for himself because he is so old. Peregrine tells the shopkeeper that he's wrong about staying on Mars. The owner is convinced again by the priest, and Peregrine buys a new valise to replace his old one. November 2005/2036: The Off Season. Publication history. First published in "Thrilling Wonder Stories", December 1948. Plot. "The Off Season" is the story of former Fourth Expedition crewman Sam Parkhill, who is a character in "", and his wife Elma, and their encounters with Martians as they prepare to open the first hot dog stand on Mars, which is decorated with glass Sam broke off old Martian buildings. The Parkhills hope to become wealthy because one hundred thousand new emigrants are expected to arrive to establish Earth Settlement 101 nearby, though Elma points out that the new inhabitants will be Mexican and Chinese nationals. The couple is unaware that Earth is on the brink of global war because their radio is broken. During the evening, the Parkhills are approached by a Martian they spoke to earlier that day. The Martian learns the Parkhills don't know about the situation on Earth and as the Martian says he wants to show Sam a bronze tube that appears in the Martian's hand. Sam shoots the Martian dead with a gun believing the tube is a weapon. However, Elma discovers the tube contains a document written with Martian hieroglyphics neither of them understand. As Sam tells Elma that the Earth Settlement will protect him from Martians, Elma sees twelve Martian sand ships approaching and Sam believes the Martians want to kill him. Sam takes Elma onto a Martian sand ship he purchased at an auction and learned to operate, and takes off to a town for protection. As Sam's sand ship sails, a young woman appears on the ship's tiller bench. The woman, a vision, tells Sam to return to the hot dog stand. Sam refuses and tells the women to get off his ship. The vision argues that the ship isn't his and claims it as part of the Martian world. Sam shoots the vision and it vanishes after breaking into crystals and vaporizing. Elma is disappointed in Sam and asks him to stop the ship, but Sam refuses. In frustration and to display his might, Sam destroys the crystal ruins of a Martian city by shooting them as the sand ship passes by, though Elma is unimpressed and then falls unconscious. As Sam readies to shoot up another Martian city, three sand ships catch up with him. Sam shoots at them and one ship disintegrates and vaporizes along with its crew. As the two other ships approach Sam's, he gives up by stopping his ship. A Martian calls him, and Sam explains himself and surrenders by throwing down his gun. The Martian tells him to retrieve his gun and return to the hot dog stand where they want to explain something without harming him. Elma wakes up on the journey back. Back at the hot dog stand, the Martian Leader tells the Parkhills to ready it for operation and to have a celebration. The Leader produces the scrolls which he explains are grants to Sam that sum to half of the entire planet. Sam asks the Leader for an explanation for the gift but the Martians announce their departure and tell him to "prepare" and repeat that the land is his. Sam believes the Martians were telling him the rockets with the new emigrants are arriving, so Sam and Elma start preparing hot dogs. As they prepare food, Sam thinks of the hungry emigrants to feed and botches recitation of Emma Lazarus' poem "The New Colossus" which is on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty in Sam's hometown, New York City. Elma looks at Earth in the night sky and sees an explosion on the planet that gains Sam's attention. Elma tells Sam she believes no customers will be coming to the hot dog stand for a million years. In "—And the Moon Be Still as Bright", the bodies of dead Martians are corpses. Sam Parkhill's shooting of the Martians dead at his hot dog stand and on his sand ship are illusions projected by one or more Martians somewhere else. November 2005/2036: The Watchers. Publication history. First appeared in "The Martian Chronicles". Not to be confused with the 1945 short story of the same name. Plot. "The Watchers" is a short vignette about the concerns of the Martian colonists, who are all Americans, about reports of war on Earth. At nine o'clock in the night sky, they view an explosion that changes the color of Earth, though, three hours later the color returns to normal. At two o'clock in the morning, colonists receive a message that war had begun, that a stockpile of nuclear weapons "prematurely" detonated destroying the Australian continent, and that Los Angeles and London had been bombed. The message said "come home" repeatedly without explanation. The proprietor of a luggage store, who is a character in "The Luggage Store", sells out of stock early in the morning, as colonists prepare to return to Earth. December 2005/2036: The Silent Towns. Publication history. First published in "Charm", March 1949. Plot. "The Silent Towns" is a story about thirty year old Walter Gripp, a miner who lived in a remote mountain shack and walked to the town of Marlin Village every two weeks to find a wife. On his December visit Gripp finds the town abandoned and happily helps himself to money, food, clothing, movies, and other luxuries, but soon realizes he's lonely. As he walks to return to his shack, Gripp hears a phone ringing in an abandoned house but he can't reach it soon enough to communicate with the caller. He hears a telephone ringing in another house and misses the call and realizes he expects the caller to be a woman. In the abandoned home, he obtains a colony telephone directory and starts calling the listed numbers in alphabetal order but stops after contacting a woman's automated message service. Gripps tries his luck with telephone exchanges and government and public institutions, and then places where he thinks a woman would take herself. Gripp calls the biggest beauty parlor in New Texas City and reaches Genevieve Selsor but is cut off. He finds a car and drives a thousand miles to the Deluxe Beauty Salon, fantasizing about Selsor along the way. Gripp can't find Selsor there and believes she drove to Marlin Village to find him, so he returns and finds Selsor at a beauty parlor holding a box of cream chocolates. Gripps finds the twenty-seven year old physically unattractive and suffers while they watch a Clark Gable movie together after which she pours perfume into her hair. They return to the beauty parlor and Selsor declares herself as "last lady on Mars" and Gripp as the last man and presents him with a box containing a wedding dress. Gripp flees, driving across Mars to another tiny town to spend his life happily alone and ignoring any phone he hears ringing. April 2026/2057: The Long Years. Publication history. First published in "Maclean's", September 15, 1948. Plot. "The Long Years" is the story of the last days of the life of Hathaway, the physician/geologist crewman from the Fourth Expedition's story "". At night during a windstorm, Hathaway visits four graves on a hill away from his family's hut and asks the dead for forgiveness for what he's done because he was lonely. As he returns to the hut, he spots a rocket approaching. He tells the family of the "good news" of a rocket arrival in the morning. He goes to the nearby ruins of New New York City and sets it ablaze as a location for the rocket to land. Hathaway returns to the hut to serve wine to his family in celebration. He reminisces about missing all the rockets evacuating colonists from Mars when the Great War started because he and his whole family were doing archaeological work in the mountains. As his wife and three children drink their wine it all just runs down their chins. In the morning, the family prepares to greet whoever is in the rocket ship, including a great breakfast. As the rocket lands, Hathaway suffers an angina attack while running toward it. He recovers and continues on. Wilder, who was captain of the Fourth Expedition, emerges, sees Hathaway and greets him. Wilder explains that he's been on a twenty-year mission to the outer solar system; reports that he surveyed Mars before landing and found only one other person, Walter Gripp, who decided to stay on Mars, Wilder ponders with Hathaway the fate of Earth; and agrees to take Hathaway and his family on his return to Earth. Hathaway compliments Wilder on his promotion to lead the twenty-year mission so that Wilder would not slow the development of Mars. Wilder orders his crew out of the spaceship to join Hathaway's family. On their way to the family hut, Hathaway updates Wilder on the Fourth Expedition's crewmen. Hathway tells Wilder that he visits Jeff Spender's tomb annually to pay his respects, and about Sam Parkhill's hot dog stand which was abandoned a week after opening in order to return to Earth. Wilder observes Hathaway in physical distress and has his physician crewman check Hathaway. Hathaway tells Wilder that he has stayed alive just to await rescue and now that Wilder has arrived he can die. The doctor gives him a pill and then says what he just spoke was "nonsense". Hathway recovers and continues on to the family hut. At the hut, Hathaway introduces his family to the crew. Wilder is struck by how young Hathaway's wife appears, given that he met her decades earlier, and he compliments her on her youthfulness. Wilder asks John, Hathaway's son, his age, and John answers twenty-three. Crewman Williamson tells Wilder that John is supposed to be forty-two. Wilder sends Williamson off to investigate on the pretense of checking up on their rocket. Williamson returns to report that he found the graves of Hathaway's wife and children, and that the gravestones said that they died of an unknown disease during July 2007/2038. As breakfast ends, Hathaway stands and toasts the crew and his family, and as soon he is done he collapses and knows that he will soon be dead. Wilder wants to call the family in to see Hathaway, but Hathaway stops him. Hathaway says they won't understand and wouldn't want them to understand, and then dies. Wilder converses with Hathaway's wife and concludes that she and the children are all androids, created by Hathaway to keep him company after his wife and children died. The crew burys Hathaway in his family's graveyard. As Wilder prepares to depart, Williamson asks Wilder about what should be done about the android family and specially asks whether they should be deactivated. Wilder rejects taking them to Earth and says deactivation never crossed his mind. Wilder hands Williamson a gun and tells the crewman that if he can do anything it is better than anything he can do. Williamson goes into the hut and returns to Wilder reporting that he pointed the gun at an android daughter, who responded by smiling, and that he felt shooting them would be "murder". Wilder speculates the androids could operate for up to two more centuries. The rocket departs, and the android family continues on with its endless routines, that includes, for no reason at all, the android wife nightly looking up at Earth in the sky and tending a fire. August 2026/2057: There Will Come Soft Rains. Publication history. First published in "Collier's", May 6, 1950, and revised for inclusion in "The Martian Chronicles". Plot. "There Will Come Soft Rains" chronicles the last hours of a lone, unoccupied, highly automated house of the McClellan family that stands and operates intact in a California city that is otherwise obliterated by a nuclear bomb, and its destruction by a fire caused by a windstorm. The story marks the end of the United States as a nation. The story also commemorates the United States' atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 5, 1945 (US time) during World War II. The title of the story was taken from Sara Teasdale's anti-war poem "There Will Come Soft Rains" originally published in 1918 during World War I and the 1918 Flu Pandemic. The chronicle includes the house entertainment system mentioning Teasdale as Mrs. McClellans favorite poet and recitation of the Teasdale poem to the empty house just hours before the fire that consumes the house ignites. October 2026/2057: The Million-Year Picnic. Publication history. First published in "Planet Stories", summer 1946. Plot. "The Million-Year Picnic" is the story of William Thomas, a former governor of the state of Minnesota and Alice, his wife, and three sons, who traveled to Mars to escape war under the parents' pretense that the family is taking a fishing trip. Alice is not noticeably pregnant with a girl. The family enjoys a warm Martian summer day in and along water-filled canals traveling in a power boat prepared for an encampment. William is troubled by the war on Earth and does his best to keep the children entertained though he mutters his concerns as stray thoughts his children don't completely comprehend. William draws the boys' attention on fish, the ancient Martian cities they pass by, and on finding Martians – the latter, William assures the boys that they will find. While boating in a canal William and his wife listen to a broadcast on their atomic radio and are jolted by what they hear. William remotely detonates the family's rocket that causes a great sound, throttles the boat faster to drown out the noise and collides with a wharf and stops. No damage is done and William laughingly tells everyone he just exploded their rocket. The boys instantly think it is part of a game. William tells the boys he did it to keep their location secret, and the boys think it is still part of a game. William listens in on the atomic radio again and hears nothing for a couple of minutes. He tells the family, "It's over at last" and the children fall silent. William boats down the canal where they pass six Martian cities and asks the family to choose the best one. They all choose the last one and William declares that it will be their new home. The boys are saddened to tears about missing Minnesota but the father tells the boys that the Martian city is theirs and the boys become filled with a sense of adventure. The family walks through their new city and William tells the family that they will be joined by Bert Edward's family that includes four girls. He tells his son Timothy that he destroyed the rocket to prevent them from returning to Earth and to leave no trace for "evil men" from Earth to find them. The family settles around a campfire and William explains how he purchased the rocket when the Great War started and hid it in case he needed to escape Earth, as Edwards did too. The father burns in a campfire a variety of documents, including government bonds, he brought to Mars to burn "a way of life". While he burns his papers, he tells his sons that Earth has been destroyed, that interplanetary travel has ended, that people grew too dependent on technology and couldn't manage its war time use, and that the way of life on Earth "proved itself wrong" through its own self-destruction. He warns his sons that he will tell them the last point everyday until they really understand it. William finishes burning his papers, saving a map of Earth for last. William takes the family to the canal and tells the children that they will be taught what they need to learn and that they are going to see Martians. William stops at the canal and points to the family's reflection in the water. Characters. Most of the characters in "The Martian Chronicles" appear in a single chapter. The few that otherwise appear in multiple chapters are some surviving crew members of the Fourth Expedition; Father Peregrine, who came to Mars to cleanse it of sin; and Walter Gripp, a miner, who preferred solitude over bonding with the last woman on Mars. Father Peregrine. The Episcopal priest whose risks his life to test his faith in the moral goodness of the Martian fire balloons in "November 2033: The Fire Balloons", enters into a dialogue with a shopkeeper in "November 2036: The Luggage Store" that provides the justification for their immediate return to Earth on the request of the U.S. government as a global war starts. Fourth Expedition Crew Members. Captain Wilder, Hathaway, and Sam Parkhill first appear in "June 2032: –And the Moon Still Be as Bright" as surviving members of the Fourth Expedition crew and reappear in chapters that chronicle Mars during and after the outbreak of global war on Earth in 2036. Hathaway and Parkhill are the only characters to fully experience Mars exploration, settlement, and abandonment by their fellow Americans, while Wilder is sent on a long exploratory mission to the outer planets to prevent him from slowing Mars settlement, a legacy of Jeff Spender, the crewman Wilder killed to save the Fourth Expedition. Sam Parkhill reappears in "November 2036: The Off Season" as a married man who prepares to open the first hot dog stand on Mars in anticipation for the arrival of thousands of Mexican and Chinese immigrants. Parkhill's fear of Martians and his inclination to destroy Martian ruins continues even as Martians attempt to grant him land rights to half of the planet. "The Off Season" is concurrent with the United States' involvement in global war, and the Parkhills return to Earth later that year. Hathaway, the Fourth Expedition scientist who discovered in "June 2032: –And the Moon Still Be as Bright" that the human chicken pox virus infected and killed all the Martians he observed in a survey of the planet, reappears in "April 2057: The Long Years" with Captain Wilder, who returns from an exploratory mission of the outer planets. In the 2057 story, Hathaway tells Wilder that he and his family were stranded on Mars because they failed to reach the last evacuation rocket to Earth in 2036. In 2057, Hathaway is dying from heart disease and appears to be living with his wife and three children, but Wilder and his crew discover that the four died of disease in 2038, and that Hathaway was living with robot replicas of family members he built to keep from being lonely. Hathaway dies and Wilder and his crew return to Earth just before global nuclear war destroys human civilization leaving Hathaway's android family to perform their family functions on Mars. Walter Gripp. Walter Gripp, who avoids becoming the mate of Genevieve Selsor in "December 2036: The Silent Towns", is discovered living in solitude in April 2057 by Captain Wilder and his crew. Presumably, Gripp, a miner who worked alone as a young man in 2036, is living contentedly in solitude as the chronicle ends. After December 2036, there is no further mention of Selsor. Influences. Fascination with Mars, the Works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Comics. Brabury's fascination with Mars started when he was a child, including depictions of Mars in the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "The Gods of Mars" and "John Carter, Warrior of Mars". Burroughs' influence on the author was immense, as Bradbury believed "Burroughs is probably the most influential writer in the entire history of the world." Bradbury said that as a child, he memorized all of John Carter and Tarzan and repeated the stories to anyone who would listen. Harold Foster's 1931 series of Tarzan Sunday comics had such an impact on his life that ""The Martian Chronicles" would never have happened" otherwise. Literary Influences. Ray Bradbury referred to "The Martian Chronicles" as "a book of stories pretending to be a novel". He credited a diverse set of literary influences that had an effect on the structure and literary style of "The Martian Chronicles", among them Sherwood Anderson, William Shakespeare, Saint-John Perse, and John Steinbeck, as well as Edgar Rice Burroughs, particularly the Barsoom stories and John Carter of Mars books. Bradbury was particularly inspired by plot and character development in Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio" that helped him write "vivid and real" stories that improved his earlier writings that were "lifeless robots, mechanical and motionless". The author said the stories took their form as combinations of component "Martian pensées" which were "Shakespearian 'asides,' wandering thoughts, long night visions, predawn half-dreams" honed in a manner inspired by the perfection of Saint-John Perse. The combination of separate stories to create "The Martian Chronicles" as "a half-cousin to a novel" was a suggestion of Doubleday editor Walter Bradbury (no relation to the author), who paid Ray Bradbury $750 for the outline of the book. The author only then realized such a book would be comparable to his idea of "Winesburg, Ohio". For his approach to integrating previous work into a novel, Bradbury credited Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio" and John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" as influences on the structure of the work. "Winesburg, Ohio" is a short story cycle, and "The Grapes of Wrath" separates narrative chapters with narrative expositions that serve as prologues to subsequent narrative chapters. The idea of using short vignettes, intercalary chapters, and expository narratives to connect the full-length "Chronicle" stories, their role in the overall work, and the literary style used to write them, Bradbury said were "subconsciously borrowed" from those in "The Grapes of Wrath", which he first read at age nineteen, the year the novel was published. Reception. Upon publication, "The Paris Review" noted that ""The Martian Chronicles" ... was embraced by the science-fiction community as well as critics, a rare achievement for the genre. Christopher Isherwood hailed Bradbury as 'truly original' and a 'very great and unusual talent'." Isherwood argued that Bradbury's works were "tales of the grotesque and arabesque" and compared them to the works of Edgar Allan Poe by writing, Bradbury "already deserves to be measured against the greatest master of his particular genre." Writer and critic Anthony Boucher and critic J. Francis McComas praised "Chronicles" as "a poet's interpretation of future history beyond the limits of any fictional form". The writer L. Sprague de Camp, however, declared that Bradbury would improve "when he escapes from the influence of Hemingway and Saroyan", placing him in "the tradition of anti-science-fiction writers [who] see no good in the machine age". Still, de Camp acknowledged that "[Bradbury's] stories have considerable emotional impact, and many will love them". A decade of after its publication, Damon Knight in his "Books" column for "F&SF", listed "The Martian Chronicles" on his top-ten science fiction books of the 1950s. By September 1979 more than three million copies of "The Martian Chronicles" had been sold. Legacy. Continued popularity of "The Martian Chronicles". On November 28, 1964, the NASA spacecraft Mariner 4 flew by Mars and took the first close-up pictures of the Martian surface that were far different than those described by Ray Bradbury. In spite of direct visual and scientific information since then that indicate Mars is nothing like Bradbury's descriptions in "The Martian Chronicles", the novel remains a popular work of "classic short stories", "science fiction", and "classic fiction anthologies and collections" as indicated by the Amazon book store best seller lists. In an introduction to a 2015 edition of the work, Canadian astronaut and former International Space Station commander Chris Hadfield speculated on the continuing popularity of the work, attributing it to beautiful descriptions of the Martian landscape, its ability to "challenge and inspire" the reader to reflect on humanity's history of related follies and failures, and the popular idea that someday some people will come to accept Mars as being their permanent home. Bradbury attributed the attraction of readers to his book because the story is a myth or fable rather than science fiction. He said "... even the most deeply rooted physicists at Cal-Tech accept breathing the fraudulent oxygen atmosphere I have loosed on Mars. Science and machines can kill each other off or be replaced. Myth, seen in mirrors, incapable of being touched, stays on. If it is not immortal, it almost seems such." Bradbury Landing on Mars. The August 6, 2012 Martian landing site of "Curiosity", NASA's Mars Rover, was named Bradbury Landing in honor of Ray Bradbury on August 22, 2012, on what would have been the author's ninety-second birthday. On naming the location, Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for "Curiosity", said "This was not a difficult choice for the science team. Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars." The author died on June 5, 2012. Adaptations. Theater. A stage production of "" was produced at the Desilu Studios Gower Studios, Hollywood, California in 1962. The debut of a theater adaptation of "The Martian Chronicles" was at the Cricket Theater (The Ritz) in Northeast Minneapolis in 1976. Film. MGM bought the film rights in 1960 but no film was made. In 1988, the Soviet Armenian studio Armenfilm produced the feature film "The 13th Apostle", starring Juozas Budraitis, Donatas Banionis, Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, based on "The Martian Chronicles". The film was directed by Armenian actor and screenwriter, Suren Babayan. The Uzbek filmmaker Nozim To'laho'jayev made two films based on sections from the book: 1984's animated short "There Will Come Soft Rains" (Russian: Будет ласковый дождь) and 1987's full-length live action film "Veld" (Russian: Вельд), with one of the subplots based on "The Martian". In 2011 Paramount Pictures acquired the film rights with the intention of producing a film franchise, with John Davis producing through Davis Entertainment. Opera. "The Martian Chronicles" was adapted as a full-length contemporary opera by composer Daniel Levy and librettist Elizabeth Margid. This is the only musical adaptation authorized by Bradbury himself, who turned down Lerner and Loewe in the 1960s when they asked his permission to make a musical based on the novel. The work received its initial readings from the Harriet Lake Festival of New Plays at the Orlando Shakespeare Theater in 2006, and was presented in workshop form in the inaugural season of the Fordham University Lincoln Center Alumni Company in 2008. The "Night Meeting" episode was presented at Cornelia Street Cafe's "Entertaining Science" series on June 9, 2013. The entire work was presented as a staged reading with a cast of Broadway actors at Ars Nova NYC on February 11, 2015. Three scenes were presented as a workshop production with immersive staging, directed by Carlos Armesto of Theatre C and conducted by Benjamin Smoulder at Miami University, Oxford OH on September 17–19, 2015. Radio. "The Martian Chronicles" was adapted for radio in the science fiction radio series "Dimension X". This truncated version contained elements of the stories "Rocket Summer", "Ylla", "–and the Moon Be Still as Bright", "The Settlers", "The Locusts", "The Shore", "The Off Season", "There Will Come Soft Rains", and "The Million-Year Picnic". "—and the Moon Be Still as Bright" and "There Will Come Soft Rains" were also adapted for separate episodes in the same series. The short stories "Mars Is Heaven" and "Dwellers in Silence" also appeared as episodes of "Dimension X". The latter is in a very different form from the one found in "The Martian Chronicles". A very abridged spoken word reading of "There Will Come Soft Rains" and "Usher II" was made in 1975 with Leonard Nimoy as narrator. A BBC Radio 4 adaption, produced by Andrew Mark Sewell as an hour-long programme and starring Derek Jacobi as Captain Wilder, was broadcast on 21 June 2014 as part of the "Dangerous Visions" series. Television miniseries. In 1979 NBC partnered with the BBC to commission "The Martian Chronicles", a three-episode miniseries adaptation running just over four hours. It was written by Richard Matheson and was directed by Michael Anderson. Rock Hudson starred as Wilder, Darren McGavin as Parkhill, Bernadette Peters as Genevieve Selsor, Bernie Casey as Jeff Spender, Roddy McDowall as Father Stone, and Barry Morse as Hathaway, as well as Fritz Weaver. Bradbury found the miniseries "just boring". Television adaptations of individual stories. The cable television series "The Ray Bradbury Theater" adapted some individual short stories from "The Martian Chronicles" including "Mars is Heaven", "The Earthmen", "And the Moon Be Still as Bright", "Usher II", "The Martian", "Silent Towns", and "The Long Years". Video releases of the series included a VHS tape entitled "Ray Bradbury's Chronicles: The Martian Episodes " with some editions with three episodes and others with five. Comic books. Several of the short stories in "The Martian Chronicles" were adapted into graphic novel-style stories in the EC Comics magazines, including "There Will Come Soft Rains" in "Weird Fantasy" #17, "The Million-Year Picnic" in "Weird Fantasy" #21 and "The Silent Towns" in "Weird Fantasy" #22. In 2011, Hill & Wang published "Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles: The Authorized Adaptation" as a graphic novel, with art by Dennis Calero. Video games. "The Martian Chronicles" adventure game was published in 1996. "The Other Martian Tales". "The Martian Chronicles: The Complete Edition" published in 2009 by Subterranean Press and PS Publishing contains the 1997 edition of "The Martian Chronicles" with an additional collection of stories under the title "The Other Martian Tales", which includes the following: "The Other Martian Stories" also includes the 1964 and 1997 "The Martian Chronicles" screenplays, and essays by John Salzi, Marc Scott Zicree, and Richard Matheson.

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Rushing to Paradise Rushing to Paradise is a novel by British author J. G. Ballard, first published in 1994. The novel relates the fictional tale of a small and eccentric group of environmentalists attempting to save the albatross on the Pacific island of St. Esprit from nuclear tests by the French government. Plot summary. Dr. Barbara is a disgraced doctor who forms a small band of environmentalists to attempt to save the albatross from nuclear testing by the French government on the remote Pacific island of St. Esprit. Neil, a naïve 16-year-old, joins the group and the story is told from his perspective. During an illegal landing on the island, Neil is caught on film being shot in the foot by a French soldier. The subsequent news coverage makes Neil, and their environmental campaign, media celebrities. This allows a return visit to the island with a larger and more eccentric group of campaigners. Whilst attempting to land, a French navy frigate collides with their boat. This event is broadcast live to the world by the cameraman who dies in the collision. The subsequent adverse news coverage causes the French to leave the campaigners unmolested on the island. The coverage also leads to a deluge of gifts from well wishers all over the world, a steady stream of visitors and a growing collection of endangered animals which are meant to use the island as sanctuary. Visitors include a representative from Club Med who investigates whether the island can be turned into a resort. These excesses cause Dr. Barbara to manipulate Neil and other residents to commit ever greater acts of sabotage to cut themselves off from the outside world. Gradually, the male residents of the island (except Neil) become ill and slowly die under the 'care' of Dr. Barbara. As fewer able bodied residents are left, the endangered animals they are supposed to be saving are killed and eaten. Slowly, Neil realises that his role is to father as many children as possible from the female residents. As more visitors arrive on the island, the female members stay and the male members disappear. When another young man arrives on the island, Neils role as stud is in jeopardy and he too becomes ill whilst the new arrival is kept healthy. Slowly, over the course of the story, the environmentalists change from being the sane ones in an insane world into total insanity as Dr. Barbara's all female 'paradise' is constructed. Neil and the remaining residents are rescued in the nick of time by the French navy after a couple who only just manages to escape alerts the authorities to what is really happening on the island.

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Pentagonia The Pentagonia is the collective title of a series of five novels by Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas. It was subtitled by its author ""the secret history of Cuba"." The novels were written from the mid-1960s through the late 1980s, and indeed, as was recounted in Arenas' autobiography "Before Night Falls", were rewritten many times as manuscripts were lost, destroyed and/or confiscated by Cuban authorities. Each of the novels is semi-autobiographical and indeed has Arenas as one, if not more than one, of the major characters. Book One. The first volume, "Singing from the Well," was originally published as "Celestino antes del alba" in 1967, the only Arenas novel to be published in Cuba. The book recounts the history of a young child, Celestino, growing up in the province of Oriente, Cuba. Celestino was a child ostracized by his family because of his literary talents. He would write on trees and in retaliation his grandfather denuded the forest. Book Two. The second volume, "Palace of the White Skunks," focuses on adolescent Fortunato who was raised in a house of frustrated aunts, a primal grandmother, and an emasculated grandfather. Set during the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the novel follows the main character as he clumsily joins the rebels. The acclaimed editor, Thomas Colchie, has written, that in this work, “Arenas has created a haunting family portrait, combining the lyrical empathy of a Tennessee Williams toward his characters’ troubled lives with a radically fractured narrative that pays dark tribute less to Faulkner than to the schizophrenia of life under any dictatorial extreme.” (Colchie 2001) Book Three. The Third volume, "Farewell to the Sea," is a divided novel, telling the story of a married couple on a six-day vacation on the Cuban coast. The first half is a prosaic stream of consciousness narrative of the troubled wife demonstrating her love and inability to understand her husband, Hector. The last half of the novel is composed of six poetic cantos sung in silence to the sea by Hector, a poet who is no longer allowed to write and who has been compelled to enter into a sham marriage to avoid the charge of homosexuality. It is a story of a marriage of two people who, while sharing genuine affection, are so different and incompatible that they not only cannot communicate, they fail to speak in the same terms, one in prose and the other in poetry. Book Four. In the fourth volume, "The Color of Summer", Arenas appears as three characters: Gabriel, the dutiful "straight" son; Reinaldo, the expatriate author; and Skunk in a Funk, the "picaro" – faggot – who seeks merely to live and work as an artist in Castro’s Cuba while engaging in anonymous sex. The novel is set in a carnival celebrating the 50th anniversary of the revolution and breaks many, if not all of the norms of narrative story telling (the "Foreword" appears on page 252). In that foreword, Arenas states that the novel is a "grotesque and satirical (and therefore realistic) portrait of an aging tyranny and the tyrant himself..." He adds that the novel “is not a linear work, but circular, and therefore cyclonic, with a vortex or eye – the Carnival – towards which all vectors whirl." Book Five. The fifth and final volume, "The Assault", is a dark and Kafkaesque vision of a future Cuba, where homosexuality is punishable by death, told by a repressed homosexual turned government agent for the "Bureau of Counterwhispering" as he searches to destroy all whispers, homosexuals, dissidents and most particularly his own mother. Overview. Writing about the entire Pentagonia, Arenas wrote, in the foreword to "The Color of Summer": In all of these novels, the central character is an author, a witness, who dies but in the next novel is reborn under a different name yet with the same angry rebellious goal: to chant or recount the horror and the life of the people, including his own. There thus remains, in the midst of a terrible, tempestuous time, a life raft, a ship of hope, the intransigence of man the creator, the poet, the rebel –standing firm before all those repressive principals which, if they could, would destroy him utterly – one of those principals being the horror that he himself exudes.

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Discrimination against superheroes The Registration Acts—the Mutant Registration Act (MRA), the Keene Act, the Superhuman Registration Act (SRA, or SHRA), the Sokovia Accords, the Vigilante Registration Act (VRA), and the Underage Superhuman Welfare Act (Kamala's Law)— are fictional legislative bills that have been plot points used in various comic books and superhero films which, when passed into law, enforce the regulation of extra legal vigilante activity vs. criminal activity or the mandatory registration of superpowered individuals with the government. The issue that the government might seek to regulate the activities and civil rights of superheroes, who are either criminalized or deemed to be a threat to the safety of the general public, who may be denied habeas corpus or detained indefinitely without trial, or viewed as valuable national security resource subject to forced conscription without notice in times of crisis, has also been explored in other comics, such as those featuring DC's Justice Society of America team, series like "Watchmen", "Astro City," and "Powers;" the films "The Return of Captain Invincible" (1983) and "The Incredibles" (2004); and in role-playing games "Brave New World" (1999), and "Dawn of Legends" for "Savage Worlds". This kind of plot point is especially rich and extensively explored in the fictional universes of various comic book stories that are published by Marvel Comics. The first mention of the broad concept was in "Uncanny X-Men" #141 (January 1981). The actual term "Registration Act" was first used in "Uncanny X-Men" #181 (May 1984). As their names suggest, "Mutant Registration Act" and "Superhuman Registration Act" deal with the registration of mutants and superhumans respectively. The Mutant Registration Act has also been featured in both the original "X-Men" animated series and the "X-Men" films. Numerous versions of each bill have been proposed at different times and in different jurisdictions in the Marvel Universe. The "Superhuman Registration Act" is a major plot point in Marvel's 2006 crossover limited series "Civil War", which was loosely adapted for the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in "" (2016). This version was called the Sokovia Accords. The Accords were mentioned in (2017). The Accords would have a lasting impact in the films (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), and the series WandaVision (2021). The Registration Acts as a concept. Publication history. The idea that enhanced individuals might need to be "regulated" or "registered" by the government was first raised in specific relation to Marvel Comics' mutants. In "Uncanny X-Men" #141, (written by Chris Claremont and John Byrne) the concept is briefly suggested. In that issue the term "Registration Act" is not used, but one character (Moira MacTaggert) brings up the notion of "registration". In reference to a politician whom she suspects of anti-mutant bigotry she says: The same issue features mention of the "Mutant Control Act", however it is left unclear exactly what that legislation involves and whether some form of registration is a part of it. However, in "New Mutants" #1, it was implied that involved the operation of concentration camps. The term "Mutant Registration Act" was first fully used in "Uncanny X-Men" #181, by writer Chris Claremont. As the MRA (as it became known) was passed into law in the Marvel Universe it became widely used as a subplot, plot device or background element across Marvel's entire line of titles, especially those featuring mutants (such as "Uncanny X-Men", "X-Factor" and "New Mutants") during the late 1980s. In the early 1990s Chris Claremont left the X-titles and the topic of the MRA began to appear much more rarely in stories. It was still occasionally mentioned, though usually in the past tense, suggesting that it was repealed at some point (though this was never clearly shown) or that it simply ceased to be actively enforced. However, in an interview regarding the "" limited series its writer David Hine suggested that it is still law in the Marvel Universe, stating that in the series the idea of bringing "the Mutant Registration Act in line with the SRA" will be discussed. The idea of an equivalent piece of legislation for non-mutant super-powered individuals—a Superhuman Registration Act—was first raised in comics that were published during the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover in 1989–1990. The issue was most fully explored in "Fantastic Four" #335-336 by writer Walter Simonson. In the course of the story, the issue was apparently resolved with the proposed Act being shelved. The concept was then revived in 1993 in "Alpha Flight" (vol. 1) #120 (May 1993) by writer Simon Furman. In that issue a "Superpowers Registration Act" becomes law in Canada and went on to be a major plot point in the remainder of the series. However, later "Alpha Flight" series did not make use of the concept. In 2006 the concept was again revived by writer Mark Millar as the main plot point in Marvel's 2006 "Civil War" crossover. In preparation for that storyline a new version of the Superhuman Registration Act has been widely mentioned across various Marvel titles, with the issue being most widely discussed and explored in "The Amazing Spider-Man" #529 - 531 (April - June 2006) by writer J. Michael Straczynski. Issues, allegories and metaphors. When the topic of the original Superhuman Registration Act is debated in "Fantastic Four" #335-336 the issue is explored in a national security context, with the utility of such a law being challenged. In the comics the Fantastic Four argue that super-heroes are already a hugely benevolent force for society and such an act would be unnecessary and possibly counter-productive. When the issue of an SRA was raised again in "Amazing Spider-Man" #529 - 531 the prospect of a new SRA is explored once more from a security perspective, with reference being made to the fact that super-powered individuals often wield abilities which have massively destructive potential for use, making some mechanism to regulate their activities necessary. The writer of "Civil War", Mark Millar, has stated that that storyline explores the civil rights implications of the SHR as previous stories have done, but also explores the other side of the argument in more depth, in particular how Marvel super-heroes are, absent an SRA, illegal vigilantes, lacking proper legal authority or oversight. Terms of the registration acts. In a June 2006 interview "Civil War" editor Tom Brevoort confirmed that registrants to the act were required to reveal their identities to the government (but not the public) and they have to undergo some basic testing or training and satisfy certain (as yet unspecified) standards before they gain legal authorization to continue to use their abilities to fight crime. Government employment is not mandatory, though it is available to those who wish to take it. This has not remained consistent, though, and characters have made reference to all superpowered individuals being forced to register and enlist in S.H.I.E.L.D. It was revealed in "Amazing Spider-Man" #535 that unregistered individuals are sent to a prison in the otherdimensional Negative Zone indefinitely until they agree to register. Iron Man claims that as this is off United States soil, they have almost no civil rights unless the United States Supreme Court explicitly rules otherwise—and he knows they won't. This leads Spider-Man to re-evaluate his support of the act. After the major conflict of "Civil War" ends, all the superhero inmates are transferred to real prisons in the state while the facility is transformed into a Maximum Security Prison for high-threat-level villains such as the Taskmaster and Lady Deathstrike. Marvel Universe. Marvel Comics. Mutant Control Act. The first direct mention of a piece of legislation specifically aimed at super-humans in the Marvel Universe comes in "Uncanny X-Men" #141 (January 1981) in which the "Mutant Control Act", a law from the future, is mentioned. In the course of the story, the first part of the two-part "Days of Future Past" storyline, Kate Pryde travels back in time from a dystopian future to the present and possesses the body of her younger self, X-Men member Kitty Pryde. On revealing herself to Kitty's teammates she recounts to them the series of events which led to her dark future, in the hopes that the X-Men might be able to prevent those events from coming to pass. One of those pivotal events was the passing of a "Mutant Control Act" by the government of the United States. When the Supreme Court found the law unconstitutional the government responded by reactivating their robot Sentinel program so that they might police the mutant race. The Sentinels interpreted their mandate in such a way that they decided to forcibly take over the government of the country and instituted a harsh regime where mutants were severely persecuted. The reference to the Mutant Control Act is brief, and it is unclear exactly what its provisions would entail, though it would appear that registration forms at least one part of it. In the course of the story the X-Men are successful in preventing one of the pivotal events which Pryde had described to them (the assassination of Senator Robert Kelly) from occurring, though the story's end is intentionally ambiguous as to whether Pryde's dystopian future was fully avoided. Although no Mutant Control Act has been introduced in the comics, the Mutant Registration Act may be its equivalent and the events of "Days of Future Past" continue to be alluded to in X-Men comics as a possible future. 1982 British Super Hero Legislation. During the events of the "Jaspers' Warp" story arc, an insane reality warper, Jim Jaspers, became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and turned the UK into a fascist state. As PM, he enforced "Super Hero Legislation"; using armored agents of S.T.R.I.K.E., the UK division of S.H.I.E.L.D., to hunt down and detain superhumans within the UK. However, the legislation is abandoned after Captain Britain defeated Jaspers. Mutant Registration Act. Registration as a concept is first mentioned in "Uncanny X-Men #141" in which Moira MacTaggert suggests that Robert Kelly deems the registration of mutants by the government as necessary. Her suggestion eventually turns out to be accurate, and in the "Uncanny X-Men #181" (May 1984) the first mention of a Mutant Control Act is made when Kelly is seen discussing his introduction of the Mutant Affairs Control Act with a senatorial colleague. It is then mentioned in #183 (1984) to have "stirred up the hornets' nest" (12) by Valerie Cooper. By #184 (July 1984) the Act is mentioned as introduced in Congress by Senator Kelly, and in #188 Nightcrawler remarks the chance of it to become accepted as law is as high as never before, suggesting that, unlike the Mutant Control Act in the "Days of Future Past" timeline, it would not be struck down by the Supreme Court. The passage of the MRA did not have an immediate impact on the plots of any Marvel series, but the legislation continued to be referenced intermittently in various titles. In at least one instance ("X-Factor" #1; February 1986), the Act is referred to as a "possible new law". In that story, the prospect of the MRA is one of the things which motivate Jean Grey and Cyclops to form X-Factor. The legislation becomes a plot point later when government agent Val Cooper and the mutant terrorist Mystique form Freedom Force, a government-sanctioned superhero team (mostly comprising former members of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) in "Uncanny X-Men" #199 (November 1985). Freedom Force went on to make many appearances where they sought to enforce the MRA by arresting unregistered mutants such as members of the X-Men (e.g. "Uncanny X-Men" #206, June 1986), X-Factor (e.g. "X-Factor" #30; July 1988) and the New Mutants (e.g. "New Mutants" #86, February 1990). They also appeared enforcing the MRA in non-X-Men-related titles such as "Daredevil" #269 (August 1989). Captain America (who at this point is John Walker, the character who would later be known as U.S. Agent) and Battlestar – two other officially sanctioned super-heroes – also briefly enforce the Act by capturing the unregistered mutant Meteorite for the government in "Captain America" (vol. 2) #343 (July 1988). During this period of active enforcement of the MRA, the only mutants who are shown publicly protesting the Act were those who were not aligned with the X-Men or its affiliated teams. For example, in "X-Factor" #33 the Alliance of Evil demonstrates against the MRA in Manhattan and after fighting X-Factor are arrested by Freedom Force and in "Captain America" #368 (March 1990) a mutant group called the Resistants are shown protesting the Act in Washington D.C. Indeed, far from publicly agitating against the act, one X-team (X-Factor, in its original form) actually pretend in public to be supporters of the MRA who are actively enforcing it, though in actuality they act to subvert it. With Freedom Force (the characters most involved in the enforcement of the Act) no longer existing (they disband following a disastrous mission in Iraq in "X-Factor Annual" #6, 1991) and Chris Claremont (the writer who developed the MRA as a sub-plot) no longer writing "X-Men" stories after 1992, the Mutant Registration Act stopped appearing prominently in Marvel Universe stories. Proposition X. In an attempt to further subjugate the remaining mutant population, Simon Trask leads the Humanity Now! coalition in support of federal legislation called Proposition X. Proposition X if passed would have force mandatory chemical birth control on all mutants. While marching to San Francisco's city hall in support of Proposition X, Simon Trask and his followers met opposition by Hank McCoy, young mutants and mutant right activist. Hank McCoy's peaceful resistance against Proposition X eventually led to a fight between the opposing sides. In response Norman Osborn will declare martial law in San Francisco, which causes the riot that will plague the city the next few nights. These events will lead to Cyclops creating a new mutant sanctuary called Utopia, where mutants can be free from bigoted legislation. 1990 Metahuman Registration Act. A variation on the concept of the Mutant Registration Act the Superhuman Registration Act concept is originally proposed in comic books published circa the "Acts of Vengeance" storyline, such as "Punisher" (vol. 2) #29 and "Avengers" (vol. 1) #313 (both January 1990). During that period, in "Fantastic Four" #335 and 336 (December 1989, January 1990) the Fantastic Four go to Congress where a committee is investigating whether an SRA, similar in its provisions to the already in effect Mutant Registration Act, is required for Superheroes (the MRA only covers individuals who have their powers inherently at birth, not those who acquire their abilities artificially in later life). In his testimony and in evidence he presents to Congress, Reed Richards argues that a Super-human registration Act is unnecessary as Super-humans have been largely effective and trustworthy in their actions and government regulation would only stifle their ability to protect the world. He argues that those individuals who were likely to act irresponsibly with their powers are also likely to be supervillains and thus would not be candidates for registration anyway. As the topic is debated, he and his teammates are continually attacked by random supervillains whom they easily subdue, though it is unclear if this helps or hinders his arguments. In his final point concerning the lack of any workable definition of superhuman Richards demonstrates a device that scans a human for physical and mental capabilities and compares those to the national average, marking 'significant outliers' as "superhuman". The device identifies several regular humans, including some committee members, as "superhuman" according to those criteria. The proposed legislation is abandoned and registration of superhumans in the United States is not recommended by the committee. 1993 Canadian Super-powers Registration Act. A similarly titled "Super-powers Registration Act" is passed by the Canadian government in "Alpha Flight" #120 (May 1993). Introduced by a minister of the Canadian government named Robert Hagon, the Super-powers Registration Act is part of a complex plot engineered by the Master, who is using the alias "Joshua Lord". The terms of the act entail the government employment of all super-powered individuals, including mutants, who are then enlisted in one of the government Department H "Flight" programs such as "Alpha Flight" and "Gamma Flight". Although the Act was shown to be controversial and the first series ended with the disbandment of the Canadian government's superteams (the various "Flights") in "Alpha Flight" (vol. 1) #130 (March 1994), the Canadian SRA is never explicitly repealed or overturned within the comics. Later "Alpha Flight" series did not acknowledge the law. As of 2006, rumors began to circulate (encouraged by some Marvel creators such as Mark Millar) that a new "Alpha Flight" series of some form is in the planning stages. The rumors suggest that the premise of this series would involve American superheroes fleeing the United States to Canada to escape a newly enacted U.S. Superhuman Registration Act. This suggests that registration is no longer mandatory in the Marvel Universe version of Canada. In July 2006 "Civil War" editor Tom Brevoort concurred with this sentiment saying "we've seen no evidence of it in ten-plus years of Canadian appearances. So if such legislation did exist, it was evidently repealed at some point." Other sources, however, such as Michael Avon Oeming's post-"Civil War" title "Omega Flight", contradict this statement, which several characters mentioning having a Registration Act for years, without the negative effects of the American Superhuman Registration act. 2006 Superhuman Registration Act. Interest in the concept of the act was revived in various Marvel comic books in 2006. In "New Avengers Special: the Illuminati" (May 2006), following the events of "Decimation" and the sudden dramatic fall in the Mutant population, the U.S. government again considers a Superhuman Registration Act and Iron Man attempts to persuade his Illuminati colleagues to support the SRA, in order to diffuse it. Iron Man predicts that some superhuman or group of superhumans will eventually make a mistake that will cost hundreds of lives (he specifically mentions the Young Avengers and the Runaways as candidates for causing such a catastrophe). After such an event, he went on to predict, the government would inevitably rush to make an example of someone, or everyone, in the superhuman community by passing legislation that would be even more restrictive or persecutory towards them than the proposed SRA. By supporting the Act before it is passed, he suggests, he and his fellow Illuminati might be able to help avert such possible future tragedies and also, by becoming a part of the process, help moderate the legislation so that it would have the minimum possible negative effect on the superhuman community. However, most of the Illuminati members (except for Reed Richards, who had spoken against the similar proposition made 16 years before "(see above)") flatly reject Stark's proposal, leading to the disbandment of the group. In "Amazing Spider-Man" #529-531 (April–June 2006), Spider-Man and Iron Man travel to Washington D.C. to discuss the issue. In those issues Iron Man is shown to be initially opposed to the idea, while Spider-Man is unsure of his opinion. In #531, the first part of Iron Man's prediction are shown to be accurate when a conflict between the New Warriors and a group of supervillains ends with a massive explosion which kills hundreds of people, including children attending a nearby school. As depicted in the "Civil War" crossover and series, the public outcry that follows this event leads the government (with the support of Iron Man and fellow Illuminati member Reed Richards) to quickly enact the Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA), 6 U.S.C. § 558, which required those with naturally occurring superhuman abilities, super abilities acquired through science or magic (including extraterrestrials and gods), and even non-super powered humans using exotic technology, such as Iron Man, to register as "living weapons of mass destruction." Enactment of the law on the federal level led to various revisions to state criminal codes (such as Chapter 40, Article 120, Section 120 of the New York Penal Code and Section 245(d) of the California Penal Code) in order to allow state and federal coordination in enforcing the law. This leads to a major schism and conflict among the superheroes, with the anti-SHRA side- regarding the Act as a violation of civil liberties- led by Captain America and the pro-SHRA side- seeing the Act as a natural evolution of the superhuman's role in the modern world to regain public trust- led by Iron Man. Eventually, Iron Man's side wins the conflict and the "Fifty State Initiative" is established. Other countries followed America's lead and introduced their own Superhuman Registration laws. Following the Skrull invasion and the subsequent fall from grace of Iron Man, Norman Osborn seizes control of the Initiative and SHIELD, but is prevented from getting his hand on the register (and thus the identities of most of the superhuman community) by Tony Stark when he infects the US government database with a computer virus. There is only one copy of the SHRA database, in Stark's brain, where he deleted it, piece by piece, before Osborn could get his hands on it, destroying the very information that was the focus of "Civil War" in the first place. At the conclusion of "Siege", Steve Rogers is named the new head of security of the United States and as a condition of joining, he convinces the government to repeal the Act, allowing superheroes to return to their prior activities. MI-13 Registration Act. First raised in #1 and further detailed in #5 of "Captain Britain and MI-13" (2008), the British version of registration was started during the Skrull invasion: all superheroes in the UK were drafted with immediate effect into the intelligence agency MI-13. After the invasion, the terms were stated that MI-13 would monitor and support superheroes and call on them for reasons of national defence, but would allow them semi-autonomy so they would not feel morally compromised. Underage Superhuman Welfare Act. Being first hinted at by Senator Geoffrey Patrick on television about problems caused by young vigilantes, in Outlawed (April 2020), the destruction of Coles Academic High School due to Viv's malfunction and the simultaneous/resulting nearby public's near death experience had the U.S. government draft the Underage Superhuman Welfare Act. The Act, which they nicknamed Kamala's Law due to Kamala's courageous actions during the event, outlawed superheroes below twenty-one years of age. The Act also leads to the creation of the Child-Hero Reconnaissance and Disruption Law Enforcement (C.R.A.D.L.E.), whose commanders would prevent young people from being superheroes. The Act was supported by many superheroes such as Spider-Man (Peter Parker), as well as parents of young superheroes. Marvel Media. Ultimate Universe. Although no Registration Act exists in the Ultimate Marvel Universe, there are several laws in place that prohibit superhuman activity. Genetic modification of a human being is illegal, and the Superhuman Test Ban Treaty makes it illegal for nations to employ superhumans. This makes the Test Ban Treaty the polar opposite of the SHRA. In "Ultimate Six" #1, it was stated that the law on deliberately created superhumans is still unclear, allowing Nick Fury to hold supervillains indefinitely without any trial and in hidden locations (#5 showed that the President of the United States was unaware of this, and was furious when he learned of it). Exiles #12. In "Exiles" #12 a parallel world is shown, similar to the "Days of Future Past" timeline, in which the passing of a Mutant Registration Act led to the Sentinels taking over the world and herding mutants, superhumans and eventually even humans into concentration camps. The "Age of Apocalypse" version of Sabretooth, who at that point was a member of the Exiles, stays on this planet in order to raise the infant David Richards (the son of the Rachel Summers and Franklin Richards of that reality). Marvel Knights: 2099. In an alternate world (Earth-2992) shown in the "Marvel Knights: 2099" series of one-shots published in November 2004, a Mutant Registration Act is in effect which mandates that mutants undergo a process which robs them of their abilities. The "Marvel Knights: Mutant 2099" one-shot explained that after the passage of this act the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four opposed the government's enforcement of it and were eventually defeated in a major battle that was fought in front of the Baxter Building. This led all the remaining superheroes to go underground. The 1992 X-Men animated series. The first episode of the 1992 "X-Men" Animated Series ("Night of the Sentinels (part 1)"; original airdate: 31 October 1992) mentions that some form of registration is in effect already. In the episode, Jubilee's foster parents worry that they may have to "register her with the Mutant Control Agency" after she manifests her powers for the first time. But following the attack on Jubilee at a mall, it was revealed that the hidden agenda of Henry Peter Gyrich, the founder of the agency is to deceive the mutants into revealing their identities so the Sentinels could track down and eliminate them due to Gyrich's beliefs that mutants pose a threat to society. After the destruction of their files, following the X-Men's raid on the agency, the President decides to cancel the registration act. The government's persecution of mutants is a consistent theme throughout the fifth season of the series. The "X-Men" movies. The events of the first "X-Men" film are precipitated when Senator Robert Kelly introduces a Mutant Registration Act to the Senate. This motivates Magneto, who sees such legislation as persecutory towards mutants, to kidnap Kelly and replace him with Mystique, who while impersonating Kelly, withdraws his advocacy for the Act. In the sequel, "X2", the Mutant Registration Act is briefly mentioned when Storm speculates that Nightcrawler's attack on the White House might lead the government to reintroduce the legislation. Marvel Cinematic Universe. In ' (2016), which is loosely based on the 2006-2007 comics storyline "Civil War", public opinion of the Avengers and all superpowered beings worsens following the events of "The Avengers", "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", and "Avengers: Age of Ultron", causing great destruction and casualties to New York City, Washington D.C., and Sokovia respectively. After a catastrophe in Lagos, involving Wanda Maximoff using her powers to try and divert an explosion from Brock Rumlow, causing the accidental destruction of a building and the deaths of several humanitarian workers (several of them Wakandan), the United Nations begins trying to pass a set of internationally ratified legal documents: these documents provide regulation and frame-working for the military/law enforcement deployment of enhanced individuals, particularly the Avengers, and are called the Sokovia Accords. The Accords divide the Avengers, leading Steve Rogers to come into conflict with Tony Stark, with Stark believing the Avengers need to be held responsible for their actions, especially after he created Ultron and was responsible for the destruction in Sokovia, and Rogers believing the Accords will restrict the Avengers' freedom and therefore opposes it. In the meantime, Bucky Barnes gets framed for a bombing at the UN by Colonel Helmut Zemo, who is using the Accords to his advantage against the Avengers, seeking vengeance for the deaths of his family in Sokovia. This leads to Rogers and Stark each forming their own sides as they battle over the Accords, ultimately resulting in a large-scale battle at the Leipzig/Halle Airport, with Stark, James Rhodes, Peter Parker, Romanoff, T'Challa and Vision against Rogers, Barnes, Sam Wilson, Clint Barton, Maximoff, and Scott Lang. The battle concludes with Rogers and Barnes escaping to a secret Hydra base in Siberia where Barnes had been kept and from where they suspect Zemo will unleash five other Winter Soldiers. In the aftermath of the battle, Wilson, Maximoff, Barton and Lang are imprisoned at the Raft, while Romanoff goes into hiding for helping Rogers and Barnes escape. Later, Rogers breaks his allies out of the Raft, with Stark – who was appalled at how his former comrades were being treated – willingly letting the breakout occur without interference from his side. When Thaddeus Ross calls Stark to stop the breakout, he ignores it, pretending to be busy. In "" (2018), Ross intends to prosecute Rogers, Romanoff, Wilson, and Maximoff for violating the Accords, despite being made aware of Zemo's actions and the threat that Thanos poses to Earth. This alienates Rhodes, who now sees that the Accords will only end up causing more harm than good, and he proceeds to hang up on Ross instead of arresting them as ordered. Clint Barton and Scott Lang are unavailable for the battle against Thanos because they are on house arrest for violating the accords. In "Ant-Man and the Wasp" (2018), Lang is under house arrest as part of his plea deal, while Hope van Dyne and her father Hank Pym were forced into hiding for violation of the Accords due to their technology being involved in the conflict. In "WandaVision" (2021), FBI agent Jimmy Woo suggests that Maximoff violated the Accords when she reactivated Vision. However, it is eventually revealed that the surveillance footage showing this was doctored by S.W.O.R.D. acting director Tyler Hayward. This indicates that the Accords are still active after "", and that Hayward and his agents have violated the Accords by taking action against Maximoff. "Avengers Assemble". In "Avengers: Ultron Revolution", two registration acts are enacted: "the New Powers Act" which puts all super powered beings under government jurisdiction and a variation of the Mutant Registration Act known as Inhumans Registration Act which puts all Inhumans under government control with Registration Disks on their necks. Both the "New Powers Act" and the Inhuman Registration Act, however, are revealed to be just a plot by Ultron (who was disguised as the Avengers' government liaison Truman Marsh) to accomplish his goals against both humans and Inhumans, also revealing that the Registration Disks are mind control devices. "Marvel Future Avengers". In a three-part story during the first season of the anime series "Marvel Future Avengers", Norman Osborn uses a mind-altering gas as the Green Goblin to cause the Hulk to go on a rampage in New York City, stoking anti-superhero sentiment. Osborn uses this to gain support for a new superhero regulation bill, hoping to eliminate superheroes from society and allow him to sow chaos. The law passes, but several councilmen begin seeking its repeal, leading the Green Goblin to stage violent attacks on the bill's opponents. Ultimately, Spider-Man and the Future Avengers expose Osborn as the Green Goblin, and he is defeated and imprisoned, restoring the people's faith in heroes and leading to the law's repeal. DC Universe. DC Comics. In DC Comics, DC Universe the Justice Society of America chose to disband in 1951 rather than appear in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which demanded that they unmask themselves. This was first shown in a back-up story in "Adventure Comics" (vol. 1) #466 ("The Defeat of the Justice Society!"; December 1979) by writer Paul Levitz and subsequently further explored in the "America vs. The Justice Society" 4 issue limited series (January–April 1985) by writers Roy and Dann Thomas. There is also a piece of legislation called the "Keene Act" (an apparent reference to "Watchmen", see below) in the DC Universe. First mentioned in "Suicide Squad" (vol. 1) #1 (May 1987) in a story written by John Ostrander, the "Act" is referred to as a piece of legislation from 1961 which gives prisons greater leeway in imprisoning superhumans than ordinary prisoners. It was more fully explored in "Secret Origins" (vol. 3) #14 (May 1987), again written by Ostrander, where it is revealed that the Act was passed in 1961 and it reaffirmed the right (that had been cast into doubt by HUAC in 1951) of superheroes to operate with secret identities. That story also reveals that the later "Ingersoll Amendment" (a reference to lawyer and comics writer Bob Ingersoll) to the Keene Act, which delineates governmental authority over superhuman activity in times of crisis, was passed into law in 1972. "Watchmen". In Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 12 issue "Watchmen" series (September 1986 – October 1987), extensive reference is made to a law called the Keene Act. The series reveals that the actions of superheroes or "costumed vigilantes" in the world of "Watchmen" caused a New York City police strike in 1977, which led to rioting (shown in "Watchmen" #2; October 1986) and the passing of the Keene Act which outlaws non-government affiliated acts of "costumed adventuring" (mentioned in "Watchmen" #4; December 1986). The passing of the act led to the retirement of most of the US superheroes, the sole exceptions being government-sponsored heroes such as The Comedian and Doctor Manhattan (who are used to fight wars, allowing the US to win the Vietnam War) and Rorschach, who refuses to abide by the law. The series depicts them coming out of retirement when The Comedian is murdered at the beginning of the comic. DC Media. "Smallville". In the television series "Smallville" The Vigilante Registrations Act (VRA) is proposed legislation that would require vigilantes to register themselves. Led by General Slade Wilson, the VRA forces registered heroes to unmask and officially work for the government or be branded as terrorists. Despite the efforts of Darkseid and his minions to encourage anti-hero propaganda, the actions of the Justice League, Oliver Queen, and the pro-vigilante Senator Martha Kent – ironically aided by an assassination attempt arranged against Martha by a clone of Lex Luthor, which was based around his personal grudges against her son rather than the VRA – result in the Act being repealed and the heroes being permitted to return to their daily lives. "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". In the film "", the character of Superman becomes controversial due to his unintentional hand in the destruction wreaked in Metropolis as a result of General Zod's invasion during "Man of Steel". The government subsequently decides to have a court hearing that will decide if Superman should be held accountable via a registration act. A conflicted Superman tries to avoid it, and instead focus on trying to locate Batman, who agrees with the government and desires to obtain kryptonite to use on him if necessary. Superman ultimately attends the hearing, but before a resolution can be made, Lex Luthor bombs the court. Other equivalents. In many other super-hero universes the government has intervened to regulate or control the activities of super-heroes. Some examples of this include: "The Return of Captain Invincible". In the 1983 comedy film "The Return of Captain Invincible" starring Alan Arkin and Christopher Lee, Captain Invincible (Arkin) is a super-hero who was forced into retirement in the 1950s following the government's persecution of him. In a similar scenario as that faced by the Justice Society, Captain Invincible faced a McCarthy-ish congressional investigation which accused him of being a communist (because of his red cape) and charged him for violating U.S. airspace by flying without a proper license. As the title suggests a crisis forces Captain Invincible out of retirement in the 1980s which leads to him redeeming his reputation. "City of Heroes". Following World War II, in the City of Heroes universe, the United States intelligence community feared the Soviet bloc would gain an advantage in meta-human assets. To address this issue, the government passed the Might for Right Act. This law proclaimed any U.S. citizen with meta-human powers or paranormal abilities, super-powered individuals and vigilante heroes a valuable national resource subject to draft without notice into the service of the United States government. The law was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court after numerous protests and complaints regarding the law's civil rights abuses. Currently in effect in the setting is the Citizen Crime Fighting Act, which provides vigilantes who choose to register (whether technically superhuman or not) with police powers. Unlike the Might for Right act or the Marvel act the CCFA does not require heroes to work for the government, although through various "forms" in the game it is shown the government (or at least the one in Paragon City) keeps track of all heroes and any supergroups they may form. Similar to Marvel's 2006 Act, in the alternate dimension Praetoria all superhumans are required to work under the "Powers Division" of the government. "Astro City". In writer Kurt Busiek's "Astro City" Vol. 2 #6-9 (February - May 1996) the registration of super-humans is mandated by the city's Mayor Stevenson. In those comic book issues, a super-human serial killer is thought to be active in the city and the Mayor proposes that registration will help apprehend the killer. Stevenson brings in federal E.A.G.L.E. agents to enforce the new requirement, which is opposed by many active super-heroes. The prominent hero Winged Victory makes outspoken statements opposing registration and several super-humans flout the law and illegally continue their activities without registration. In "Astro City" #8 the Mayor is revealed as an alien infiltrator whose actions are part of a planned extraterrestrial invasion. The mayor's policy discredited, Astro City's super-human population unite to defeat the invasion in "Astro City" #9. Registration is abandoned at the storyline's conclusion and has not been mentioned again in the series. The issues involved were later collected in the trade paperback "Astro City: Confession" (). "Brave New World". In the "Brave New World" superhero role-playing game originally released by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 1999 the setting of a dystopian alternate timeline includes a fascist United States government which passed the "Delta Registration Act" after a group of supervillains attempted to assassinate President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. In the game the law requires that anybody with super-human abilities must register themselves to the United States Government. Its restrictive provisions include requirements that registrants surrender certain civil rights and notify the police of their whereabouts regularly. The law also mandates that super-powered individuals register within 7 days of first manifesting their abilities, with the penalty for failing to do so being an automatic sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The Act also legislates for the mandatory military conscription of individual super-powered individuals at any time should their abilities be judged necessary by the government. In the world of the game most other nations have similar laws, though they are far less draconian in their restrictions and enforcement. "Powers". In Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming's "Powers" series, superheroes had to register with the government in order to be able to operate. This was changed following the events of "Powers" (vol. 1) #30 (March 2003) in which Super Shock, the world's most trusted superhero, goes on a massive worldwide killing spree. At that point, the US government prohibited super-beings from using their powers and operating as superheroes. This leads all the world's heroes to retire and attempt to live normal lives, though after "Powers" (vol. 2) #6 (November 2004) some begin to re-emerge. "The Incredibles" and "Incredibles 2". In the world depicted in the 2004 Pixar animated feature film "The Incredibles", superheroes (known as "supers") are shown in flashbacks as originally having been required to register with the National Supers Agency (or "NSA"; a joke reference to the real-life National Security Agency) in order to legally fight the crime that mostly (and at many times constantly) occurred in their home city of Municiberg during the late 1940s and into the 50s. However, this all changed when the "Sansweet v. Incredible" court case at the start of the film revealed superheroes are legally liable for personal injury claims of people injured during their activities, eventually revealing they are also liable for costs to infrastructure and property damaged during their activities. Despite any and all of the important live-saving and crime-stopping those same activities had and would provide for everyone, the superheroes ended up facing potentially overwhelming legal liabilities for those injuries and damages, and public pressure from those who hated superheroes for causing any and/or all of them: this forced all superheroes into retirement before the end of the 1950s. To assist them with these retirement processes, the United States government set up a "Superhero Relocation Program" (similar in many ways to the non-fictional Witness Protection Program) which granted superheroes amnesty from the legal claims provided they permanently retire from hero work and live anonymously. By the end of the movie, in the Early 1960s (1962 according to a newspaper), the main protagonists have returned to their roles as superheroes (among the very few left as the result of the villainous Syndrome's actions), hinting the program itself has been nullified. In the 2018 sequel, "Incredibles 2", the shutdown of the relocation program is confirmed, after the main protagonists' first attempt at resuming their hero work unfortunately reveals that much of the public and government still does not want them back, thus leading to said shutdown. A wealthy industrialist, Winston Deavor, recruits Helen Parr (Elastigirl and wife of Robert Parr, Mr. Incredible) to help him get supers legalized again. Although the effort is sabotaged by Deavor's own sister Evelyn, who blames supers for the cause of their father's death, near the end of the film, a judge is shown striking down the legislation outlawing superheroes. "Absolution". In the world depicted in "Absolution", Christopher Gage's creator-owned limited series by Avatar Press, super heroes are part of the police force. While the government is aware of their real identities, superheroes are not obligated to reveal their identities to the public.

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Alongside Night Alongside Night is a dystopian novel by science fiction writer J. Neil Schulman intended to articulate the principles of Agorism, an anarcho-capitalist political philosophy created by Samuel Edward Konkin III, to whom Schulman dedicated the work. It was first published during 1979 by Crown Publishers, with subsequent paperback editions released by Ace Books during 1982, Avon Books during 1987, Pulpless.com during 1999, and Amazon Kindle during 2009. The novel received endorsements from Anthony Burgess and Milton Friedman and was entered into the Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus Hall of Fame in 1989. Ross Ulbricht credited the novel and Konkin’s writings as inspirations for the creation of the online marketplace Silk Road. A film adaptation, written and directed by Schulman, was released in 2014 via Tugg and later on Amazon Prime and home video. It was accompanied by an audiobook version of the novel as well as a graphic novel adaptation of the screenplay. Plot summary. The story begins with the United States collapsing economically — bankers inflating the money supply, the government agents struggling to keep their power. Trading in foreign currency is illegal. Businesses are subject to rationing. As a result, there is a growing black market for everything. It's the world as Samuel Edward Konkin III conceived it prior to a successful agorist revolution. Elliot Vreeland, son of Nobel Laureate Austrian School economist Dr. Martin Vreeland, learns of his father's apparent death, and is rushed home from school. But the death is fake, a plot concocted by his father to escape arrest by the government agents who are detaining "radicals" accused of worsening the economic crisis. Elliot is sent by his father to collect some gold coins stored in case the family has to escape. Upon his return home, Elliot finds his family missing. Government agents enter the house searching for Elliot, who manages to escape. Elliot becomes acquainted with the Revolutionary Agorist Cadre, an organization plotting the end of the government agents by means of counter-economics. The cadre is strong and organized, and has its militia. Elliot enlists their help, and meets Lorimer, a girl hiding from the government agents; they develop a relationship. As the government agents weaken, they tighten controls on communication, travel, and trade. This fails to avert economic collapse, causing the private sector — unions, syndicates, and many unorganized individuals — to control the old infrastructure. Film adaptation. In 2013, Schulman completed production on a feature-film adaptation of "Alongside Night." The film was independently produced by several prominent libertarians, including Austin Petersen and Rich Iott. The film was shot entirely in Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada, with principal photography lasting two years. Some scenes were shot at area libertarian and sci-fi conventions. The cast stars Kevin Sorbo as Martin Vreeland, Christian Kramme as Elliot, Reid Cox as Lorimer, Sam Sorbo as Cathryn, and Jake Busey as The President. Several members of the science fiction and libertarian community were involved in the production and make on-screen appearances; including "Star Trek" actors Tim Russ, Garrett Wang, and Gary Graham, author Brad Linaweaver, and activist Adam Kokesh. The film makes several changes to the source material, updated with current references and technology. The location changes from New York city to Las Vegas, and the character of Maureen Fischer was changed to a male named Murray Konkin (named for Samuel Edward Konkin). The film premiered July 14, 2014 at the Laemmle Music Hall in Beverly Hills, California, played in limited theatrical release from Tugg.com, released for streaming on iTunes in 2014, was released July 8, 2015 as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack, and released in 2015 for streaming on Amazon Video and Amazon Prime.

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Neal Stephenson/Snow Crash

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Excession Excession is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. It is the fifth in the Culture series, a series of ten science fiction novels which feature a utopian fictional interstellar society called the Culture. It concerns the response of the Culture and other interstellar societies to an unprecedented alien artifact, the Excession of the title. The book is largely about the response of the Culture's Minds (benevolent AIs with enormous intellectual and physical capabilities and distinctive personalities) to the Excession itself and the way in which another society, the Affront, whose systematic brutality horrifies the Culture, tries to use the Excession to increase its power. As in Banks' other Culture novels the main themes are the moral dilemmas that confront a hyperpower and how biological characters find ways to give their lives meaning in a post-scarcity society that is presided over by benign super-intelligent machines. The book features a large collection of Culture ship names, some of which give subtle clues about the roles these ships' Minds play in the story. In terms of style, the book is also notable for the way in which many important conversations between Minds resemble email messages complete with headers. Plot summary. The Excession of the title is a perfect black-body sphere that appears mysteriously on the edge of Culture space, appearing to be older than the Universe itself and that resists the attempts of the Culture and technologically equivalent societies (notably the Zetetic Elench) to probe it. The Interesting Times Gang (ITG), an informal group of Minds loosely connected with Special Circumstances, try to manage the Culture's response to the Excession. The Affront, a rapidly expanding race which practises systematic sadism towards subject species and its own females and junior males, also try to exploit the Excession by infiltrating a store of mothballed Culture warships and using them to claim control of the mysterious object. The "Sleeper Service", an Eccentric General Systems Vehicle (GSV) who had nominally left the Culture, is instructed to head to the location of the Excession by the ITG. As a condition the "Sleeper Service" demands that Genar-Hofoen, a human member of Contact, attend it to seek a resolution with his ex-lover who lives in solitude on the GSV. They had had an intense love-affair and, after a series of sex changes, had each become impregnated by the other until Genar-Hofoen was unfaithful and Dajeil attacked Genar-Hofoen, killing the unborn child. Dajeil then suspended her pregnancy and withdrew from society for 40 years and the "Sleeper Service" hopes to effect a reconciliation between them. As the stolen Affront fleet approaches the Excession, the "Sleeper Service" deploys a fleet of 80,000 remote controlled warships, in a misguided attempt to neutralize the threat. It transpires that the Affront have been manipulated into their grab for power by members of the ITG who thought it was morally imperative to curb the Affront's cruelty by any means, and intend to use the Affront's theft of Culture warships as an excuse for war. The Excession releases a wave of destructive energy towards the "Sleeper Service". In desperation, the "Sleeper Service" transmits a complete copy of its personality, its "Mindstate", into the Excession, which has the effect of halting the attack. The Excession then vanishes as mysteriously as it appeared and the brief war with the Affront is halted. During these events, and after speaking with Genar-Hofoen, Dajeil decides to complete her pregnancy and remain on the "Sleeper Service", which sets course for a satellite galaxy. Genar-Hofoen returns to the Affront, having been rewarded by being physically transformed into a member of the Affront species (whose company he finds more stimulating than that of the Culture's people). The book's epilogue reveals that the Excession is a sentient entity that was acting as a bridge for a procession of beings that travel between universes. It also assesses whether the species and societies it encounters are suitable to be enlightened about some unknown further existence beyond the universe; as a result of events in the story the Excession concludes that the civilisations it has encountered in this universe are not yet ready. It also takes the name given to it by the Culture – "The Excession" – as its own - in an oblique reference to the aforementioned Affront species, who had been named by another species in an attempt to label them as a lost cause of hyper-sadistic freaks. Outside Context Problem. This novel is about how the Culture deals with an Outside Context Problem (OCP), the kind of problem "most civilizations would encounter just once, and which they tended to encounter rather in the same way a sentence encountered a full stop." This is a problem that is "outside the context" as it is generally not considered until it occurs, and the capacity to actually conceive of or consider the OCP in the first place may not be possible or very limited (i.e., the majority of the group's population may not have the knowledge or ability to realize that the OCP can arise, or assume it is extremely unlikely). An example of OCP is an event in which a civilization does not consider the possibility that a much more technologically advanced society can exist, and then encounters one. The term is coined by Banks for the purpose of this novel, and described as follows: Banks has noted that he spent much time playing the "Civilization" computer game (appearing to refer to the first version of the game series) before writing the book and that it was one of the inspirations for the concept of the 'Outside Context Problem' central to the novel. In an interview, Banks specifically compares this to having a "Civilization" battleship arrive while the player is still using wooden sailing ships. Literary significance and criticism. Banks' view of the Culture. The book, more than any of the other Culture novels, focuses on the Culture's Minds as protagonists. When asked about his focus on the possibilities of technology in fiction, Banks said about the book: Also significant within the Culture novel cycle is that the book shows a number of Minds acting in a decidedly non-benevolent way, somewhat qualifying the godlike incorruptibility and benevolence they are ascribed in other Culture novels. Banks himself has described the actions of some of the Minds in the novel as akin to "barbarian kings presented with the promise of gold in the hills." Reviews. Most reviewers praised the book's ideas and witty writing, but some complained about its complexity. "Kirkus Reviews" described the book as "Brilliantly inventive and amusing--whole sections read like strings of knowing jokes--but a mess: Chattering spaceships with splendid if confusing names [...] don't compensate for the absence of real characters." A few who praised it commented that "Excession"s complexity and frequent use of in-jokes make it advisable for new readers of Banks' Culture stories to start with other books. In a retrospective of "Excession" at Tor, Peter Tieryas writes, "There are literally paragraphs thrown in as background detail that could make for amazing novels of their own. Part of the joy of "Excession" is hearing the Minds speak with each other, that matrix-like shower of numbers, text, esoteric syntax, and witty repartee." Gideon Kibblewhite reviewed "Excession" for "Arcane" magazine, rating it a 10 out of 10 overall. Kibblewhite comments that "Huge in scope, intricate in detail, swaying from pathos to metaphysics and from humour to light-speed action, "Excession" is another astounding achievement from lain Banks - a science-fiction writer truly without equal at the moment."

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The Day Before the Revolution "The Day Before the Revolution" is a science fiction short story by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, first published in 1974. It is considered a short story prologue to "The Dispossessed" and represents an idealized anarchy by following the character of "Odo", the semi-legendary woman who led the revolution that founded the anarchist society in "The Dispossessed". Plot summary. The story follows Laia Asieo Odo through a day of her life. In "The Dispossessed", she is usually referred to as the historical figure "Odo", but in this story, told from her point of view, she is called Laia. Laia is the woman who developed an anarchist philosophy that inspired the revolution that founded the anarchist society of Anarres in the novel "The Dispossessed", which is set several generations after the events in this story. At the time of the story Laia is an elderly woman who has already had a major stroke. Her husband is long dead, her days as a political prisoner are in the past and her major anarchist treatises were written many years ago. She lives in the nation of A-Io on Urras in an "Odonian House", a building or commune in which her anarchist principles are followed and she acts as a focal point and inspiration for revolutionary action. The day is strongly implied to be both the day before the General Strike which becomes a revolution and results in the settlement of the barren moon Anarres by Laia's followers, and also the last day of Laia's own life. The experience of aging, death, grief and sexuality in older age are themes explored in the short story that were largely absent from "The Dispossessed", which has a younger protagonist. During the day Laia both re-affirms her commitment to anarchism and to "her people" (the urban poor and dispossessed), and is distanced from them by her partial foreknowledge of her impending death. There are also echoes of some themes in "The Dispossessed". In particular the temptations of convention and authority have already appeared; Laia recognizes that some of the status and honor she is accorded by her fellow anarchists is not in keeping with her principles or theirs. In her discussion of the story in "The Wind's Twelve Quarters", Le Guin refers to Laia as one of the ones who walk away from Omelas—a reference to Le Guin's short story of an apparent utopia that rests on torture and misery. Publication. The story was first published in "Galaxy" in 1974, and collected in Le Guin's short fiction collection "The Wind's Twelve Quarters" in 1975. It has been anthologized and reprinted many times, including in "Nebula Award Stories 10" (1975) and in the second volume of Pamela Sargent's "Women of Wonder" series, "More Women of Wonder" (1975). "The Day Before the Revolution" won the Nebula Award for short story in 1974, the Locus Award for short story in 1975, and was nominated for the short story Hugo Award in 1975.

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The Hydrogen Sonata The Hydrogen Sonata is a science fiction novel by Scottish author Iain M. Banks, set in his techno-utopian Culture universe. The hardcover edition was released on 4 October 2012 in the United Kingdom, and on 9 October in the United States. The book's release marked 25 years since the publication of Banks' first Culture novel. A paperback edition of the book was released on 5 September 2013 in the United Kingdom, and on 10 September in the United States. "The Hydrogen Sonata" was Banks' last science fiction novel, as he died of gall bladder cancer in June 2013. The Hydrogen Sonata of the title is a fictional work of music which is woven into the plot. Background. An official synopsis and preliminary cover art were released in February 2012. The novel's final cover art, which differed significantly from the preliminary art, was unveiled on 28 June 2012. At a book signing at Foyles in London, England, on 11 April 2012, Banks briefly described "The Hydrogen Sonata" as being "about the whole "Subliming" business". The first four chapters of the book were read by Banks and Kim Stanley Robinson at an event in the British Library on 9 June 2012. The sonata of the title was revealed to be an almost impossible-to-play musical piece. Plot. The Gzilt, a civilisation that almost joined the Culture 10,000 years before the novel, have decided to Sublime, leaving behind “the Real” to take up residence in higher dimensions. The Zihdren-Remnant, what is left of an older species that Sublimed before the Culture was formed, send an envoy to confess a long-kept secret before the Gzilt depart but a Gzilt warship intercepts and destroys their ship several weeks before the Sublimation is due to take place in order to preserve that secret. The Culture sends ships both to wish the Gzilt well, as they have always been on good terms with the Gzilt, and to keep an eye on the younger species arriving to scavenge the technology and infrastructure the Gzilt leave behind. Two of these, the Liseiden (an eel-like species) and the Ronte (a hive insect-like species) are jockeying in negotiations with the Gzilt for official permission and preferred status. Vyr Cossont is introduced as a former Lieutenant-Commander (reserve) of the Gzilt, who has set herself a life-task of playing T. C. Vilabier's 26th String-Specific Sonata For An Instrument Yet To Be Invented, the eponymous Hydrogen Sonata, on the instrument subsequently invented for its performance: the Antagonistic Undecagonstring, or elevenstring. In order to do so, she has had to grow two additional arms. Both the instrument and the work are presented as unusually challenging. Spyware aboard the Gzilt warship has transmitted the secret to the 14th Regiment, traditional opponents of the current power structure and erstwhile dissenters in the decision to Sublime; they recruit Cossont, who once knew Ngaroe QiRia, a Culture citizen who can verify the truth of the Zihdren secret. Alerted to their knowledge and doing all he can to ensure a smooth Sublimation, Septame Banstegeyn orders their destruction. Cossont barely escapes, and is eventually picked up by the "Mistake Not…", a Culture ship of non-standard class. They begin to head towards the storage facility where Cossont left the mind state QiRia had given her, but are interrupted by intelligence that he had stopped at Xown, where Cossont had been living, some five years earlier. Despite confirmation that he had indeed stopped there, they are unable to locate the information they need. Meanwhile, a group of Minds dealing with the issue wake Scoaliera Tefwe, a former lover of QiRia who has been Stored for many centuries. She agrees to try and track him down, and her mind state is sent to inhabit a pair of new bodies, stopping for information from an old drone. When she finds him, he reveals he has had the memories removed. Cossont and the "Mistake Not..." successfully retrieve QiRia’s mind-state, but only after being attacked in the storage facility on Banstegeyn’s orders. Unfortunately, the memories have also been wiped from the mind state, and they have to return to Xown when they realise where they have been hidden. Cossont manages to retrieve the memories despite heavy attack and the loss of the ship’s avatar. The Gzilt Book of Truth is revealed to have been a sociological experiment by a fringe Zihdren scientist that was subsequently forgotten. This had been disclosed to QiRia and other members of the prospective Culture. After finding this out and deciding it would not affect the ability of the Gzilt to join the Culture being formed, their minds had been wiped of these memories. However, experimental memory storage augmentation in QiRia prevented the memories from being properly removed. The other Minds in the group decide to keep the secret, and some 99.9% of the Gzilt Sublime. Cossont is one of the few that does not. She leaves behind her elevenstring instrument, and considers rejoining the "Mistake Not..." to visit QiRia at the planet where he is on retreat, and returning his memories. The Hydrogen Sonata. The Sonata, from which the book derives its title, is a highly complex musical composition. It is played on a stringed instrument which requires the player to sit in it like a chair. Cossont has undergone bodily enhancement to grow the two extra arms ideally necessary to play it. By the end of the book she plays the entire sonata. Reception. Stuart Kelly of "The Guardian" gave the novel a positive review, praising Banks' "gloriously baroque and silly" ideas and the "keen satire and... keener anger" of his political themes. "Kirkus Reviews" described it as "Sheer delight."

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Prometheus Award The Prometheus Award is an award for libertarian science fiction novels given annually by the Libertarian Futurist Society. L. Neil Smith established the award in 1979, but it was not awarded regularly until the newly founded Libertarian Futurist Society revived it in 1982. The Society created a Hall of Fame Award (for classic works of libertarian science fiction, not necessarily novels) in 1983, and also presents occasional one-off Special Awards. Multiple recipients. Some authors have won the award for best novel more than once: Twice. A few authors have won the Prometheus Hall of Fame award more than once: Process. Books published in a given year are eligible (although books from the last few months of the previous year are also eligible if it is felt that they have been overlooked). Step 2 happens in the first few months of the following year. Step 3 happens in early summer of the following year. The awards are given at the Annual Worldcon. Prometheus Award winners and finalists.   *   Winners   +   No winner selected

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Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town is a contemporary fantasy novel by Canadian author Cory Doctorow. It was published in June 2005, concurrently released on the Internet under a Creative Commons license, free for download in several formats including ASCII and PDF. It is Doctorow's third novel. The novel was chosen to launch the Sci Fi Channel's book club, "Sci Fi Essentials" (now defunct). Plot summary. The story mainly takes place in two Ontario locales. In flashbacks, the main character, usually but not always called Alan (he appears to have been alphabetized rather than named, and will answer to any masculine name beginning with A), and his brothers (also alphabetized) grow up outside of the remote town of Kapuskasing. The novel opens with Alan's purchase of a home in the Kensington Market neighborhood of modern-day Toronto. There are two main plotlines. Alan befriends Kurt, a thirty-something punk who operates a dumpster-diving operation. Kurt uses computer components that he retrieves from the trash and turns them into Wi-Fi network access points. Kurt's goal is to blanket the entire neighborhood with free and secure Internet access by attaching his access points to buildings in a wireless mesh network with the permission of their owners. Kurt's plan doesn't really get off the ground until he forms a partnership with Alan, who puts a more professional face on the operation and sweet-talks many local owners into allowing the access points to use their space and a small amount of their electricity. The second plotline features fantasy elements. Unbeknownst to most of the other characters, Alan and his brothers are not quite human. Their father is a mountain and their mother is a washing machine. Alan's eldest brother can see the future, his second-eldest is an island, his younger brother is undead, and his three youngest brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls. Alan is the most normal-seeming of his family. Outwardly, he looks human, but he heals at an incredible rate, and if part of him is cut off, it will grow back, and the cut off part can be made to form a new copy of him. Another plot strand concerns Alan's neighbors, a household of students and artists which includes Mimi, a troubled young woman who like Alan is not quite human. Born with wings on her back and no family history, she lives with her abusive boyfriend Krishna, a musician/bartender who can spot beings like Alan and his family, and hates them. Krishna amputates Mimi's wings every three months; she stays with him because she believes he's the only one willing and able to make her "normal." Characters. Alan, the main character, is called by several names that start with "A", such as Adam and Abby. His brothers' names follow the same pattern, from "B" through "G" for the seventh and youngest brother. No name is given for their parents other than "mother" and "father". Alan is largely known as "Alan" in the narrator's voice, though rarely in any character's voice. Only in a few places does the narrator call Alan by another name. Alan's neighbors' first names also follow an alphabetic sequence: Krishna, Link, Mimi, and Natalie. Mimi is merely a name that she is called, described as being "as good as any other". There are repeat uses of some of these letters, namely Kurt, Lyman, and Marci. (An O and a P name are also briefly mentioned). There are also six anarchists collectively known as Waldo. Almost everyone is known by their first name only. A good number of people are nameless, described by some physical characteristic instead.

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The Diamond Age The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is a science fiction novel by American writer Neal Stephenson. It is to some extent a Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, focused on a young girl named Nell, set in a future world in which nanotechnology affects all aspects of life. The novel deals with themes of education, social class, ethnicity, and the nature of artificial intelligence. "The Diamond Age" was first published in 1995 by Bantam Books, as a Bantam Spectra hardcover edition. In 1996, it won both the Hugo and Locus Awards, and was shortlisted for the Nebula and other awards. Setting. "The Diamond Age" depicts a near-future world revolutionised by advances in nanotechnology, much as Eric Drexler envisioned it in his 1986 nonfiction book "Engines of Creation". Molecular nanotechnology is omnipresent in the novel's world, generally in the form of Matter Compilers and the products that come out of them. The book explicitly recognizes the achievements of several existing nanotechnology researchers: Feynman, Drexler, and Ralph Merkle are seen among characters of the fresco in Merkle-Hall, where new nanotechnological items are designed and constructed. The book contains descriptions of various exotic technologies, such as the "chevaline" (a mechanical horse that can fold up and is light enough to be carried one-handed), and forecasts the use of technologies that are in development today, such as smart paper that can show personalized news headlines. Major cities have immune systems made up of aerostatic defensive micromachines, and public matter compilers provide basic food, blankets, and water for free to anyone who requests them. Matter compilers receive their raw materials from the Feed, a system analogous to the electrical grid of modern society. The Feed carries streams of both energy and basic molecules, which are rapidly assembled into usable goods by matter compilers. The Source, where the Feed's stream of matter originates, is controlled by the Victorian phyle (though smaller, independent Feeds are possible). The hierarchic nature of the Feed and an alternative, anarchic developing technology, known as the Seed, mirror the cultural conflict between East and West that is depicted in the book. This conflict has an economic element as well, with the Feed representing a centrally-controlled distribution mechanism, while the Seed represents a more flexible, open-ended, decentralized method of creation and organization. Phyles. Society in "The Diamond Age" is dominated by a number of "phyles", also sometimes called "tribes", which are groups of people often distinguished by shared values, similar ethnic heritage, a common religion, or other cultural similarities. In the extremely globalized future depicted in the novel, these cultural divisions have largely supplanted the system of nation-states that divides the world today. Cities appear divided into sovereign enclaves affiliated or belonging to different phyles within a single metropolis. Most phyles depicted in the novel have a global scope of sovereignty, and maintain segregated enclaves in or near many cities throughout the world. The phyles coexist much like historical nation-states under a system of justice and mutual protection, known as the Common Economic Protocol (CEP). The rules of the CEP are intended to provide for the co-existence of, and peaceful economic activity between, phyles with potentially very different values. The CEP is concerned particularly with upholding rights to personal property, being shown to provide particularly harsh punishment for harming the economic capability of another person. The role of the CEP in the world of the novel could be seen in comparison with the roles of real-life international organizations such as the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund. "Thetes" are individuals who are not members of any phyle and are often socially disadvantaged and economically poor, being similar to second-class citizens under the CEP. In the novel, the material needs of nearly all thetes are satisfied by freely-available food and clothing, albeit of low quality; thetes without the political connections of a phyle are entitled to similarly low-quality "free justice." The book distinguishes three Great Phyles: the Han (consisting of Han Chinese), the Neo-Victorian New Atlantis (consisting largely of Anglo-Saxons, but also accepting Indians, Africans, and other members of the Anglosphere who identify with the culture) and Nippon (consisting of Japanese). The novel raises the question as to whether Hindustan (consisting of Hindu Indians) is a fourth Great Phyle, or a "riotously diverse collection of microtribes sintered together according to some formula we don't get." Internally, the New Atlantis phyle is a corporate oligarchy whose "equity lords" rule the organization and its bylaws under allegiance to the vestigial British monarchy. Other phyles are less defined – some intentionally, as with the CryptNet group or the mysterious hive-mind Drummers. Over the course of the story, the Common Economic Protocol sponsors the investigation of clandestine Seed technologies in order to preserve the established order from subversion, using the justification that unrestricted access to Sources would lead to the proliferation of high tech weapons and result in anarchy. It is also hinted that property rights are so expansive that the Protocol recognizes children as the economic assets of their parents. Plot summary. The protagonist in the story is Nell, a "thete" (or person without a tribe; equivalent to the lowest working class) living in the Leased Territories, a lowland slum built on the artificial, diamondoid island of New Chusan, located offshore from the mouth of the Yangtze River, northwest of Shanghai. When she is four, Nell's older brother Harv gives her a stolen copy of a highly sophisticated interactive book, "Young Lady's Illustrated Primer: a Propædeutic Enchiridion", in which is told the tale of Princess Nell and her various friends, kin, associates, etc., commissioned by the wealthy Neo-Victorian "Equity Lord" Alexander Chung-Sik Finkle-McGraw for his granddaughter, Elizabeth. The story follows Nell's development under the tutelage of the Primer, and to a lesser degree, the lives of Elizabeth Finkle-McGraw and Fiona Hackworth, Neo-Victorian girls who receive other copies. The Primer is intended to steer its reader intellectually toward a more "interesting life," as defined by Lord Finkle-McGraw, and growing up to be an effective member of society. The most important quality to achieving an interesting life is deemed to be a subversive attitude towards the status quo. The Primer is designed to react to its owner's environment and teach them what they need to know to survive and develop. "The Diamond Age" is characterized by two intersecting, almost equally-developed story lines: the social downfall of the nanotech engineer designer of the Primer, John Percival Hackworth, who makes an illegal copy of the Primer for his own young daughter, Fiona, and Nell's education through her independent work with the Primer after her brother Harv steals it from Hackworth. Hackworth's crime becomes known to Lord Finkle-McGraw and Dr. X, the black market engineer whose compiler Hackworth used to create the copy of the Primer, and each man attempts to exploit Hackworth to advance their opposing goals. A third storyline follows actress ("ractor") Miranda Redpath, who voices most of the Primer characters who interact with Nell and essentially becomes Nell's surrogate mother. Later Miranda's storyline is taken over by her boss, Carl Hollywood, after Miranda disappears in her quest to find Nell. "Diamond Age" also includes fully narrated educational tales from the Primer that map Nell's individual experience (e.g. her four toy friends) onto archetypal folk tales stored in the primer's database. Although "The Diamond Age" explores the role of technology and personal relationships in child development, its deeper and darker themes also probe the relative values of cultures (which Stephenson explores in his other novels as well) and the shortcomings in communication between them. Title. "Diamond Age" is an extension of labels for archeological time periods that take central technological materials to define an entire era of human history, such as the Stone Age, the Bronze Age or the Iron Age. Technological visionaries such as Eric Drexler and Ralph Merkle, both of whom receive an honorary mention in "The Diamond Age", have argued that if nanotechnology develops the ability to manipulate individual atoms at will, it will become possible to simply assemble diamond structures from carbon atoms, materials also known as diamondoids. Merkle states: "In diamond, then, a dense network of strong bonds creates a strong, light, and stiff material. Indeed, just as we named the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Steel Age after the materials that humans could make, we might call the new technological epoch we are entering the Diamond Age". In the novel, a near future vision of our world, nanotechnology has developed precisely to this point, which enables the cheap production of diamond structures. Allusions to other works and genres. Charles Dickens. The novel's neo-Victorian setting, as well as its narrative form, particularly the chapter headings, suggest a relation to the work of Charles Dickens. The protagonist's name points directly to Little Nell from Dickens' 1840 novel "The Old Curiosity Shop". Judge Dee mysteries. The novel's character Judge Fang is based on a creative extension of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee mystery series, which is based around a Confucian judge in ancient China who usually solves three cases simultaneously. The Judge Dee stories are based on the tradition of Chinese mysteries, transposing key elements into Western detective fiction. "The Wizard of Oz". When Nell enters the castle of King Coyote in the Primer's final challenge for her, she encounters an enormous computer apparently designed to think and placed in charge of the kingdom. The computer is named "Wizard 0.2", a typographical allusion to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz". In that book, the Wizard puts on a grand appearance but is later revealed to be merely a man hiding behind a curtain. In similar fashion, Wizard 0.2 creates an impressive light show as it apparently processes data, but it is then revealed that the computer's decisions are in fact made by King Coyote himself. Proposed television adaptation. In January 2007, the Sci-Fi Channel announced that it would be making a six-hour miniseries based on "The Diamond Age". According to a June 2009 report in "Variety", Zoë Green had been hired to write the series, with George Clooney and Grant Heslov of Smokehouse Productions as executive producers on the project.

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The Ungoverned "The Ungoverned" is a 1985 science fiction novella by American writer Vernor Vinge, set between his novels "The Peace War" and "Marooned in Realtime". It was first published in "Far Frontiers", Volume III, first collected in "True Names and Other Dangers", and later published in the 1991 edition of the omnibus "Across Realtime" (Baen Books, 1991). The novella is a direct exploration of the concept of privately funded decentralized defense in the absence of a State, as described by Gustave de Molinari in "The Production of Security". Plot summary. The framework is the story of the Republic of New Mexico (NMR) invading the peaceful anarcho-capitalist society in Kansas. The NMR creates a military fiasco by completely failing to understand the cultural differences — including the amount of self-protection a lone Kansas farmer may have. The protagonist is Wil W. Brierson, a detective/insurance agent, who attempts to disrupt the invasion while trying to minimize the property damage (and thus claims his company might have to pay out) and bridge the cultural gap. Brierson is also the protagonist of "Marooned in Realtime".

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Inversions (novel) Inversions is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1998. Banks has said ""Inversions" was an attempt to write a Culture novel that wasn't." Plot. The book takes place on a fictional planet resembling late-Middle Ages Europe. A large empire broke up in the decade or so preceding the action, apparently from meteor or asteroid strikes that severely affected farming across much of the globe. The remnants of the empire still war with one another. The narrative alternates chapter-by-chapter between two concurrent story-lines, with alternating chapter headings of The Doctor and The Bodyguard. "The Doctor". The first storyline is presented as a written account from Oelph, publicly a doctor's assistant, but privately a spy for an individual identified only as "Master", to whom much of the account is addressed. Oelph is the assistant to Vosill, the personal doctor to King Quience of Haspidus – and a woman. The latter is unheard of in the patriarchal kingdom, and is tolerated only because Vosill claims citizenship in the far-off country of Drezen. The King himself is appreciative of her and her talents, but nonetheless her elevated position in defiance of the kingdom's social mores inspires hostility among others of the court. Oelph's account follows Vosill as she attends to the King regularly, as well as more charitable ministrations to the impoverished and those in need. Her methods are unconventional by kingdom standards, for example forgoing the use of leeches and instead using alcohol to "kill the ill humours which can infect a wound," but are more often than not successful. This only serves to inspire more distrust amongst her detractors, notably including a number of Dukes as well as the King's Guard Commander, Adlain. On this topic, Oelph includes a transcript he claims to have found in Vosill's journal, purported to be an exchange between Duke Walen and Adlain in which they make an agreement, "should it become necessary", to covertly kidnap the lady doctor and have Nolieti, the King's chief torturer, "put her to the question." Oelph notes that while the transcript appears to have been obtained under impossible circumstances, he somehow does not doubt its veracity. While Vosill attends to the King, Nolieti is murdered, nearly decapitated, presumably by his assistant Unoure. Vosill examines the body and determines that Unoure could not have killed his master, but her explanation is disregarded. Unoure is captured, but before he can be questioned he is found in his cell dead from a cut throat, apparently self-inflicted. Following this account Oelph includes another found transcript, this time between Walen and Duke Quettil, though Walen is unable to obtain Quettil's agreement for the use of Ralinge, his own chief torturer, in Walen's kidnapping plan. Some days later at a masked ball Walen is found murdered, this time by a stab to the heart. The Duke's murder disquiets much of the royal house, as it occurred in a room no one entered or left. Resentment towards Vosill continues to build, particularly after King Quience begins implementing somewhat radical reforms, such as permitting commoners to own farmland without the oversight of a noble and the creation of city councils, reforms which Vosill has discussed with the King publicly and at length. Following these reforms Vosill confesses to the King that she loves him, a sentiment he rebuffs, and further informs her that he prefers "pretty, dainty, delicate women who [have] no brains." Oelph finds her after this, drunk, and hints at his own feelings of love towards her; she rebuffs him as well, in what might be considered a more gentle way. Some days later Vosill receives a note from Adlain, asking her to meet him and two other Dukes elsewhere in the castle. She leaves alone, but Oelph opts to follow her in secret; after catching a glimpse of someone fleeing, he arrives in time to be arrested by the guard, who proceed to discover Vosill standing over the body of a murdered Duke, stabbed with one of her scalpels. Vosill and Oelph are almost immediately delivered to Ralinge, who binds the two separately and then strips, intending to rape, Vosill. The woman issues what sounds to Oelph like commands, albeit in a language he does not recognize even partially. Oelph's eyes are closed at this point, and in his narrative he is unable to adequately describe what he hears next, other than an impression of wind and metal. When he opens his eyes he finds Ralinge and his assistants dead, dispatched bloodily, and Vosill free and in the process of removing her bindings, no indication of how she was freed. Later, she claims that Oelph fell unconscious and the three men fought over who would rape her first, though she indicates to him that this is what he "should" remember. The two are taken from the torturer's chamber shortly thereafter, as the King has abruptly taken ill and appears to be dying. Vosill is able to cure King Quience's condition, and is there to witness as the conspiracy against her is revealed to the King, inadvertently, when news of Ralinge's death reaches the conspirators: Commander Adlain and Dukes Quettil and Ulresile. Ultimately the blame is publicly taken by Ulresile, who escapes with being exiled for several months; the King makes it clear that further plots against the doctor will not be tolerated. Because Oelph is not present for these events, his account comes second-hand from servants present; during this scene he reveals his master to be Guard Commander Adlain. Vosill requests the King release her from her duties, which he does. She leaves just a few days later on a ship for Drezen, and is seen off at the dock by Oelph. Oelph tries to suppress the urge to ask to accompany Vosill, since he knows that her answer will be in the negative, but in the end he does so anyway. The ship leaves sometime later, and Vosill vanishes some days later. "The Bodyguard". The second, interleaved storyline is told by an initially unnamed narrator, remaining unnamed so as to provide a neutral context for the narrative. The story focuses on DeWar, bodyguard to General UrLeyn, the Prime Protector of the Protectorate of Tassasen. Protector UrLeyn is the leader of Tassasen, having killed the previous monarch in a revolt; subsequently he eliminated official terms such as "King" and "Empire" within Tassasen. At the beginning of the story the Protectorate is fast approaching a war with the neighbouring land of Ladenscion, led by barons who initially supported UrLeyn's revolution but now intend to establish themselves as independent. DeWar is the sometimes-confidant of UrLeyn, but the bodyguard also maintains a friendly, conversational relationship with Perrund, a member of the Tassasen harem. Perrund was once the Protector's prized concubine, which changed following an assassination attempt on UrLeyn; Perrund shielded the Protector with her body, saving his life at the cost of crippling her left arm. Though no longer as prized as a concubine, Perrund is highly regarded by UrLeyn, DeWar, and most of Tassasen society. DeWar in particular finds her easy to confide in, and spends much of his off-time playing board games with her while the two tell each other stories. DeWar is on high alert as the conflict with Ladenscion approaches, believing that someone within the court may be a traitor. An attempt is made on UrLeyn's life by an assassin disguised as an ambassador, though DeWar anticipates the threat and kills the man before he can succeed. Nonetheless, this act only reinforces DeWar's fears of a traitor. A surprising, unwelcome turn comes when UrLeyn's young son, Lattens, has a seizure and subsequently falls ill. While the boy slowly recovers, DeWar tells him stories of a "magical land" called Lavishia, a place where "every man was a king, every woman a queen". Eventually the boy recovers, and UrLeyn and his bodyguard depart for the front lines, where the war with Ladenscion is flagging. However, no sooner are they there than word arrives that Lattens has fallen ill again, prompting a distraught UrLeyn to rush back to the castle. While DeWar is gone, Perrund tells Lattens a story about a girl named Dawn, who spent most of her life locked in a basement by her cruel family and was eventually rescued by a travelling circus. When he returns, Perrund tells DeWar about the story, then tells him it was a shadow of the real story: her story. Rather than her parents locking her in the basement to be cruel, they locked her in to hide her from Imperial soldiers—high-ranking men of the former King's regime. Rather than being rescued, the soldiers found her, raped her, her mother and her sisters, and then forced her to watch as they murdered her father and brothers. The soldiers were eventually killed, but Perrund still feels she is now dead inside. DeWar attempts to in some way comfort her, but she quickly demands he return her to the harem. Lattens' condition continues to worsen, causing UrLeyn to act more and more erratically, spending less time focusing on the war and more time at his son's bedside. The Protector goes so far as to bar all visitors to his chambers, and even prohibits DeWar from speaking to him unless he is spoken to. His only real contact is with Perrund, who spends most nights holding UrLeyn as he cries himself to sleep. DeWar enlists Perrund's help in focusing UrLeyn on the war, but to no success. An epiphany strikes DeWar when he finds he has drooled on his pillow in his sleep, and he proceeds to Lattens' room. A guard restrains the boy's nurse while DeWar examines his security blanket, finding it has been soaked in an unknown fluid, presumably poison. Under threat of death the nurse reveals who has been orchestrating the poisoning: Perrund. DeWar storms into the harem chambers, intent on revealing the conspiracy to UrLeyn, but arrives too late; Perrund has already killed the Protector, and calmly waits for the bodyguard. Holding her at sword-point, DeWar tearfully demands to know why she conspired against the Protector. Perrund replies that she did it for revenge, for killing her and her family. The soldiers who raped her were not the former King's men at all, not even men allied to UrLeyn, but the man himself, as well as his current, closest advisers. Afterwards she was taken in by men from Haspidus, and recruited as a spy by King Quience directly. Saving UrLeyn from the assassin was simply to prevent him from dying while he was a strong leader; instead, her orders were to ensure he died in "utter ruin" to put his citizens off the idea of states without a monarch, as UrLeyn had envisaged Tassasen being. After her confession, Perrund demands DeWar kill her. He silently refuses, lowering his sword. Perrund grabs his knife and brings it to her own throat, but it is quickly knocked away by DeWar's blade, which he lowers once more. Epilogue. Oelph gives a brief, personal epilogue for both stories. The three conspirators who attempted to kill Vosill died of various diseases, only Adlain lasting longer than a few years. King Quience reigned for forty years before his death, and was succeeded by one of his many daughters, giving the kingdom its first ruling Queen. Vosill disappeared from the ship she departed on; her disappearance was only discovered after a sudden burst of wind and chain-fire struck the ship, then vanished as quickly. Attempts to notify Vosill's family in Drezen were unsuccessful: nobody in the island country could be found who had ever met her. Oelph himself became a doctor, eventually taking Vosill's post as the royal physician. Tassasen endured a civil war after the death of Protector UrLeyn; eventually King Lattens took control of the Empire, ruling it quietly. Oelph explains that he stopped DeWar's story as he did because that is where versions of the story differ dramatically. The more popular version has DeWar personally execute Perrund, followed by a return to the Half-Hidden Kingdoms where he reclaims his hidden title as Prince, and eventually King. A second version, supposedly written by Perrund herself, instead has DeWar telling the waiting guards and staff that UrLeyn is fine but sleeping, this and other distractions providing enough time for him and the former concubine to flee Tassasen before the Protector's body is discovered. The two elude capture and arrive in the Half-Hidden Kingdoms, eventually marry, have several children, and die many years later in an avalanche in the mountains. Finally, Oelph ends his epilogue by revealing that he expects his wife, whom he loves dearly, to return soon, quite possibly with his grandchildren accompanying her. References to the Culture. The initial hardback printing of the book contained the following "Note on the Text", which was omitted from subsequent paperback editions: Some reviewers noted the joking reference to "Culture" in this. DeWar's tales of Lavishia clearly parallel The Culture as it is described in Banks' other novels. He also tells of a pair of close friends who disagree about how their advanced society should manage contact with more primitive cultures: It is evident that Vosill and DeWar are these two alien friends, now no longer in contact with each other, who have both come to the medieval planet and are independently attempting to do the "right thing" in their own differing ways, with Vosill being active and DeWar reactive. Doctor Vosill also habitually carried with her a dagger that came to be peripherally involved in circumstances suggestive of a disguised Culture knife missile, to which dagger she referred as having been useful in "uncultured places". This dagger is also described as being encrusted with small gems, the number of which decreases over time—each gem probably one of the many different kinds of ammunition drone missiles are seen to be capable of firing throughout the Culture series. The Epilogue contains this passage: Special Circumstances is the euphemistic name given to the "black ops" division of the Culture's Contact unit. Reception. "Kirkus Reviews" described it as "Atmospheric, ironic, resourceful, and all the parts add up—yet something sets the teeth on edge."

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Die Anarchisten Die Anarchisten: Kulturgemälde aus dem Ende des XIX Jahrhunderts ("The Anarchists: A Picture of Civilization at the Close of the Nineteenth Century") is a book by anarchist writer John Henry Mackay published in German and English in 1891. It is the best known and most widely read of Mackay's works, and made him famous overnight. Mackay made it clear in the book's subtitle that it was not intended as a novel, and complained when it was criticised as such, declaring it instead propaganda. A Yiddish translation by Abraham Frumkin was published in London in 1908 by the "Arbeter Fraynd" collective, with an introduction by the journal's editor, prominent London anarchist Rudolf Rocker. It was also translated into Czech, Dutch, French, Italian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. "Die Anarchisten" had sold 6,500 copies in Germany by 1903, 8,000 by 1911, and over 15,000 by the time of the author's death in 1933. Content. "Die Anarchisten" is a semi-fictional account of Mackay's year in London from the spring of 1887 to that of the following year, written from the perspective of protagonist and author surrogate Carrard Auban. It chronicles Mackay's conversion to the individualist philosophy of Max Stirner, to whom the book is dedicated. In it, Mackay unfavourably counterposes the then-prevalent communist anarchism with individualist anarchism, to which he had been won over by Benjamin R. Tucker, and which Auban represents in the face of his communist counterpart Otto Trupp (whose position is akin to that of Gustav Landauer). Much of the book focuses on arguments between the anarchist advocates of violence, epitomised by Trupp, and those such as Auban who believe that propaganda of the deed inadvertently strengthens the authorities it seeks to undermine. Mackay scholar Thomas Riley comments: Influence and reception. "Die Anarchisten" proved to be influential. According to a remark by Rocker in 1927, the book's publication in Zürich in 1891 caused considerable excitement in anarchist circles, which had hitherto been unfamiliar with any form of anarchism other than the communist anarchism they uniformly subscribed to. It firmly established Stirner's philosophy in the German anarchist movement. The book influenced Romantic composer Richard Strauss, who read it avidly and was reportedly engaged in a heated discussion concerning it hours before the opening of his first opera, "Guntram". "A Companion to Twentieth-century German Literature" describes the work as "a skilful portrayal of cultural life in Germany at the end of the nineteenth century". Anarchist historian Paul Avrich found the book to be "remarkable", while his counterpart George Woodcock commented that it revealed Mackay to be "a sort of inferior libertarian Gissing". In his memoirs, Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner wrote of the book:

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The Star Fraction The Star Fraction is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Ken MacLeod, his first one, published in 1995. The major themes are radical political thinking, a functional anarchist microstate, oppression, and revolution. The action takes place in a balkanized UK, about halfway into the 21st century. The novel was nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1996. Plot summary. The world is controlled by the US/UN, a sort of semi-benign meta-dictatorship which does not rule directly but enforces a series of basic laws on a vast number of microstates, many of which are in a near-constant state of low-intensity warfare. Among the laws enforced on them is a prohibition on certain directions of research, such as intelligence augmentation or artificial intelligence. Precisely what is prohibited is of course secret, and as violation of the prohibitions will result in the swift and efficient death of everyone directly involved, scientific research is a dangerous proposition at best. The main characters (a Trotskyist mercenary, a libertarian teenager from a fundamentalist microstate, and an idealistic scientist) find themselves caught up at the centre of a global revolution against the US/UN. The revolution was planned and partially automated by financial software, and it was set to break out after a certain set of conditions. The stakes are raised at the end of the book, when it is revealed that the autonomous financial software has evolved into an intelligent form, which might cause the paranoid US/UN to make a "clean break" with Earth, knocking the planet back to the Stone Age with the orbital defence lasers. Series. "The Star Fraction" is the first book of two series: one is a trilogy, and ends in "The Cassini Division" with a war between humans and a society of uploads inhabiting the massively re-engineered Jupiter; the other consists of "The Star Fraction" and "The Sky Road", and occupies a parallel universe, in which one of the main characters makes a different decision at the end of the first novel, which results in a very different, catastrophic outcome. Reception. Gideon Kibblewhite reviewed "The Star Fraction" for "Arcane" magazine, rating it a 5 out of 10 overall. Kibblewhite comments that "Pluses of the book [...] include a clever and well-described future culture that might be fun to play in (its institutions and factions have armed militia who act as legal terrorists in a game) and a great set of baddies who operate from cyberspace."

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Voyage from Yesteryear Voyage from Yesteryear is a 1982 science fiction novel by British writer James P. Hogan. Origins. According to Hogan, the idea for the book originated around 1976 when he was asked by a friend about whether there was a solution to "the Troubles" in Northern Ireland. He said that there was no solution that he could see and that the only thing that might work was separating the children and the adults to prevent the prejudices from being taught at an early age. However, some years later he returned to the concept of a society free from conditioning, which formed part of the basis for "Voyage from Yesteryear". Plot summary. The story opens early in the 21st century, as an automated space probe is being prepared for a mission to explore habitable exoplanets in the Alpha Centauri system. However, Earth appears destined for a global war which the probe designers fear that humanity may not survive. It appears that the only chance for the human species is to reestablish itself far away from the conflict but there is no time left for a manned expedition to escape Earth. The team, led by Henry B. Congreve, change their mission priority and quickly modify the design to carry several hundred sets of electronically coded human genetic data. Also included in this mission of embryo space colonization is a databank of human knowledge, robots to convert the data into genetic material and care for the children and construct habitats when the destination is reached, and a number of artificial wombs. The probe's designers name it the "Kuan-Yin" after the bodhisattva of childbirth and compassion. Shortly after the launch, global war indeed breaks out and several decades later, Earthbound humanity is united under an authoritarian government. It is this government that receives a radio message from the fledgling "Chironian" civilization revealing that the probe found a habitable planet (Chiron) and that the first generation of children have been raised successfully. As the surviving power blocs of Earth before the conflict are still evident, North America, Europe and Asia each send a generation ship to Alpha Centauri to take control of the colony. By the time that the first generation ship (the American "Mayflower II") arrives after 20 years, Chironian society is in its fifth generation. The "Mayflower II" has brought with it thousands of settlers, all the trappings of the authoritarian regime along with bureaucracy, religion, fascism and a military presence to keep the population in line. However, the planners behind the generation ship did not anticipate the direction that Chironian society took: in the absence of conditioning and with limitless robotic labor and fusion power, Chiron has become a post-scarcity economy. Money and material possessions are meaningless to the Chironians and social standing is determined by individual talent, which has resulted in a wealth of art and technology without any hierarchies, central authority or armed conflict. In an attempt to crush this anarchist adhocracy, the "Mayflower II" government employs every available method of control; however, in the absence of conditioning the Chironians are not even capable of comprehending the methods, let alone bowing to them. The Chironians simply use methods similar to Gandhi's "satyagraha" and other forms of nonviolent resistance to win over most of the "Mayflower II" crew members, who had never previously experienced true freedom, and isolate the die-hard authoritarians. Frustrated with their lack of success, the authoritarian faction stages a military coup on board the "Mayflower II" and launches the ship's heavily armed "battle module", threatening to attack unless they submit to a military dictatorship. Having isolated the authoritarians, the Chironians destroy the module with an antimatter particle beam weapon. The remainder of the crew dissolve their government and join Chironian society. The week after, the laser communications beam to the "Mayflower II" cuts off, having been destroyed in another global war that had taken place 4.5 years ago. The epilogue is set five years after these events and shows that the Chironians also assimilated the crews of the Asian and European starships. Now united, the Chironians refit and recommission the "Mayflower II" with an advanced antimatter drive and rename it the "Henry B. Congreve". The "Henry B. Congreve" is sent back to Earth to rebuild human civilization (with the new drive, this journey will only take eight years), fulfilling the "Kuan-Yin"'s mission of preserving humanity. Reception and influences. Dave Langford reviewed "Voyage from Yesteryear" for "White Dwarf" #57, and stated that "Solid and quite worthy stuff, but practically devoid of characterization." Much of the reaction to the novel has been related to the creation of the Chironian society. Ken MacLeod praised the "attractive and ... plausible depiction of a communist anarchy" while John Clute compared it with the work of Eric Frank Russell. The strong libertarian themes in the novel led to it winning the Prometheus Award in 1983, the first of Hogan's two wins. Hogan's essay "What Really Brought Down Communism?" explains the reception given to the book in the Soviet Union. In the mid-1980s, Hogan was informed that the novel had been serialized in a Polish science fiction magazine "Fantastyka", and, in the absence of a functioning exchange mechanism, paid for it in Polish złotys credited to an account taken out in Hogan's name. The story was republished in other Eastern European countries where its depiction of nonviolent resistance against authority proved popular. In 1989, Hogan attended a convention in Kraków before travelling to Warsaw to meet the publishers of the magazine serial and draw out the money he had been paid. However, inflation following the collapse of the communist regime had reduced the value of the money in the account to just $8.43. Hogan concluded: "So after the U.S. had spent trillions on its B-52s, Trident submarines, NSA, CIA, and the rest, that was my tab for toppling the Soviet empire. There's always an easy way if you just look."

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Always Coming Home Always Coming Home is a 1985 science fiction novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. It is in parts narrative, pseudo-textbook and pseudo-anthropologist's record. It describes the life and society of the Kesh people, a cultural group who live in the distant future long after modern society has collapsed. It is presented by Pandora, who seems to be an anthropologist or ethnographer from the readers' contemporary culture, or a culture very close to it. Pandora describes the book as a protest against contemporary civilization, which the Kesh call "the Sickness of Man". Setting. The book's setting is a time so post-apocalyptic that no cultural source can remember the apocalypse, though a few folk tales refer to our time. The only signs of our civilization that have lasted into their time are indestructible artefacts such as styrofoam and a self-manufacturing, self-maintaining, solar-system-wide computer network. There has been a great sea level rise since our time, flooding much of northern California, where the story takes place. The Kesh use technological inventions of civilization such as writing, steel, guns, electricity, trains, and a computer network (see below). However, unlike one of their neighboring societies – the Dayao or Condor People – they do nothing on an industrial scale, reject governance, have no non-laboring caste, do not expand their population or territory, consider disbelief in what we consider “supernatural” absurd, and deplore human domination of the natural environment. Their culture blends millennia of human economic culture by combining aspects of hunter-gatherer, agricultural, and industrial societies, but rejects cities (literal “civilization”). In fact, what they call “towns” would count as villages for the reader – a dozen or a few-dozen multi-family or large family homes. What they call “war” is a minor skirmish over hunting territories, and is considered a ridiculous pastime for youngsters, since an adult person should not throw his life away. Pandora observes that a key difference between the Kesh and the readers' [her?] society is the size of their population: "There are not too many of them.". Their low population density means that they can feed themselves from their land. The Kesh maintain this low population without coercion, which would be antithetical to their loosely organized society. They carry a large accumulation of genetic damage, which leads to fewer successful pregnancies and higher infant mortality. They also have social taboos against multiple siblings and early pregnancies; a third child is considered shameful, and the Dayao's practice of large families is referred to as "incontinence". Abortions are practiced freely. Summary. The book is divided into two parts: The first part consists mostly of Kesh texts and records of oral performances, interspersed with Pandora's commentary, accounts of a few aspects of Kesh life, and personal essays. The longest text is a personal history narrated by a woman called "Stone Telling". Stone Telling's autobiography fills less than a third of the book, told in three sections with large gaps filled with other material. The second part, called "The Back of the Book", contains a few Kesh texts but consists mostly of Pandora's accounts of various aspects of Kesh life. Stone Telling recounts how she spent her childhood with her mother's people in the Valley, as a very young woman lived several years with her father's people in The City, and escaped from it with her daughter, who was born there. The two societies are contrasted through her narrative: the Kesh are peaceable and self-organized, whereas the Condor people of The City are rigid, patriarchal, hierarchical, militaristic, and expansionist. The next longest piece in the main part, in the section "Eight Life Stories", is the novelette "The Visionary", which was published as a stand-alone story in "Omni" in 1984. This part also includes history and legends, myths, plays, a chapter of a novel, and song lyrics and poetry. Some editions of the book were accompanied by a tape of Kesh music and poetry. A number of these are attributed by Pandora to a Kesh woman named "Little Bear Woman"; these are: "The Back of the Book", about a fifth of the number of pages, presents cultural lore, with the format and attributions or annotations that an ethnographic fieldworker might make. It includes discussions of village layout and landscaping, family and professional guilds, recipes, medical care, yearly ritual dances, and language. Awards. The novel received the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and was a runner up for the National Book Awards. Literary significance and criticism. It has been noted that "Always Coming Home" underscores Le Guin's long-standing anthropological interests. The Valley of the Na [River] is modeled on the landscape of California's Napa Valley, where Le Guin spent her childhood when her family was not in Berkeley. Like much of Le Guin's work, "Always Coming Home" follows Native American themes. According to Richard Erlich, ""Always Coming Home" is a fictional retelling of much in A. L. Kroeber's [Ursula's father] monumental "Handbook of the Indians of California"." There are also some elements retrieved from her mother's "The Inland Whale" (Traditional narratives of Native California), such as the importance of the number nine, and the map of the Na Valley which looks like the Ancient Yurok World. There are also Taoist themes: the heyiya-if looks like the "taijitu", and its hollow center (the "hinge") is like the hub of the wheel as described in the "Tao Te Ching". Le Guin had described herself "as an unconsistent Taoist and a consistent un-Christian". One of its earliest reviews, by Samuel R. Delany in "The New York Times", called it "a slow, rich read... [Le Guin's] most satisfying text among a set of texts that have provided much imaginative pleasure" Dave Langford reviewed "Always Coming Home" for "White Dwarf" #82, and stated that "Among many rich strangenesses it also includes a critique of its own improbabilities (as seen through twentieth-century eyes)." Box set and soundtrack. A box set edition of the book (), comes with an audiocassette entitled "Music and Poetry of the Kesh", featuring 10 musical pieces and 3 poetry performances by Todd Barton. The book contains 100 original illustrations by Margaret Chodos. As of 2017, the soundtrack can be purchased separately in MP3 format (). A vinyl record was also released, together with a digital album for streaming and download in several formats. That combination sold out, but the digital album by itself remains available, and a second pressing of the vinyl, plus the digital, was scheduled to ship "on or around 25 May 2018". Stage performance. A stage version of Always Coming Home was mounted at Naropa University in 1993 (with Le Guin's approval) by Ruth Davis-Fyer. Music for the production was composed and directed by Brian Mac Ian, although it was original music and not directly influenced by Todd Barton's work. Influence. John Scalzi, one-time president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, wrote, in his introduction to the 2016 edition, that he discovered the book as a teenager, and calls it "a formative book...sunk deep in [his] bones", one to endlessly return to, always coming home.

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K-PAX K-PAX is an American science fiction novel by Gene Brewer, the first in the "K-PAX" series. The series deals with the experiences on Earth of a being named Prot. It is written in the first person from the point of view of Prot's psychiatrist. "K-PAX" was adapted into a theatrical film of the same name, released in 2001. Synopsis. In 1990, a man is picked up by the New York Police after being found bending over the victim of a mugging at Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. After responding to the police questions with somewhat strange answers, he is transferred to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation. Although not physically ill, he is found to harbor the strange delusion that he is from a planet called K-PAX in the Lyra constellation. The patient calls himself "prot" (pronounced to rhyme with "goat", and intentionally written in lower-case to reflect the insignificance of an individual life form in the universe). He is eventually transferred to the Manhattan Psychiatric Institute (MPI), where he becomes the patient of Dr. Gene Brewer. Prot is extremely fond of fruit, including banana skins and apple cores, which he eats during each session. He tells Brewer that he is 337 Earth years old, that he has visited Earth often, and that on this visit he has traveled to most of the world's countries for the past four years and nine months. He exhibits a sense of humor, reassuring Brewer on the first session that, despite being an alien, will not burst out of his chest. Brewer discovers that prot is also a savant who possesses arcane information about astronomy that excites a group of astronomers who meet him. Prot states that he possesses at least rudimentary conversational knowledge of most human languages as well as the languages of animals, including whale song and the apparent gibberish of some schizophrenic patients. Though prot's dialogue is usually satirical, he turns out to be highly suggestible and easily hypnotized. Once Brewer learns this, he begins more serious therapy. With the help of journalist Giselle Griffin, Brewer discovers that prot may be Robert Porter, who was traumatized by the murder of his wife and child, and his subsequent killing of the perpetrator, and that prot may be an alter ego resulting from dissociative identity disorder. Brewer speculates that the name prot is derived from Porter's surname. When prot "returns" to his own planet, Robert Porter is left in a catatonic state. However, Bess, another patient prot had promised to take with him, disappears along with a box of souvenirs prot has been collecting. Before departing, prot promises to return in five Earth years. Adaptations. The 2001 film "K-PAX" was directed by Iain Softley and based on the first book in this series. Kevin Spacey portrays prot, and Jeff Bridges plays the psychiatrist. "K-PAX" was made into a stage play, also written by Gene Brewer, and has been performed at the Lion and Unicorn Theatre, directed by Victor Sobchak. In 2010, the play made its North American debut at The Geneva Underground Playhouse in Geneva, Illinois directed by Eric Peter Schwartz. Reception. "Booklist" called the novel "fascinating". Psychiatrist Allan Beveridge wrote that the novel is a good example of "why psychiatrists should read fiction", saying that it shows "how to approach moral quandaries and decision-making". Science fiction scholar David Ketterer compares it with the novel "Star-Begotten" by H.G. Wells. Reviewer Michael Berry wrote "There aren't many possible denouements for a book like this, and Brewer steers a middle course between the extremes of outright fantasy and predictable mundaneness. "K-PAX" displays the mildly off-putting attitude found in such movies as "Rain Man" and "Forrest Gump", that we all can learn so much about ourselves from the simple-minded, but one can't deny that some of the story's episodes are genuinely funny and touching." Reviewer Lisa Koosis wrote that Prot "is one of the more extraordinary characters found in current science fiction" and that the author, "without actually having the characters set foot on another planet, manages to bring an alien world to life". Lawsuit. Upon the release of the film version of the book, Argentinian director Eliseo Subiela claimed that "K-PAX" plagiarized his 1986 film "Man Facing Southeast", and sued Brewer. The complaint was later withdrawn when Subiela could not afford continued litigation, but maintained his stated position on the matter until his death in late 2016. Brewer went on to release a memoir exploring his inspiration for the books, called "Creating K-PAX or Are You Sure You Want to Be a Writer?"

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Against the Day Against the Day is an epic historical novel by Thomas Pynchon, published in 2006. The narrative takes place between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the time immediately following World War I and features more than a hundred characters spread across the United States, Europe, Mexico, Central Asia, Africa and "one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all," according to the book jacket blurb written by Pynchon. Like its predecessors, "Against the Day" is an example of historiographic metafiction or metahistorical romance. At 1,085 pages it is the longest of Pynchon's novels to date. Title. Besides appearing within the book itself, the novel's title apparently refers to a verse in the Bible (2 Peter 3:7) reading "the heavens and the earth ... [are] reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." William Faulkner, whose diction frequently echoes the King James Bible, liked the phrase, and many reviewers have traced it to a speech of Faulkner's against racism. Perhaps as relevant is a passage in "Absalom, Absalom!" in which Sutpen, a Faustus character of the sort that Pynchon deploys everywhere, seeks "a wife who not only would consolidate the hiding but could would and did breed him two children to fend and shield both in themselves and in their progeny the brittle bones and tired flesh of an old man against the day when the Creditor would run him to earth for the last time and he couldn't get away." The Creditor there is Mephistopheles, to whom Faustus/Sutpen would owe his soul. (The passage in "Gravity's Rainbow" about the "black indomitable oven" with which the witch-like Blicero, another Faustus character, is left once the Hansel-and-Gretel-like children have departed, alludes to another passage in "Absalom, Absalom!".) Nonliterary sources for the title may also exist: "Contre-jour" (literally "against (the) day"), a term in photography referring to backlighting. There are also two uses of the phrase "against the day" in Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon", and, anecdotally, three uses in William Gaddis's "J R". One may assume that Pynchon has read his Walter Benjamin, who in his famous "Theses on the Concept of History" XV quotes a satirical ditty composed on the occasion of the July Revolution of 1830, when it was reported that several clock towers across Paris had been fired on: Who would have believed it!/ we are told that new Joshuas/at the foot of every tower,/ as though irritated with time itself*,/ fired at the dials/ in order to stop the day. - * The French makes it clearer: "qu’irrités contre l’heure" Speculation before publication. As Pynchon researched and wrote the book, a variety of rumors about it circulated over the years. One of the most salient reports came from the former German minister of culture, and before that, the publisher of Henry Holt and Company, Michael Naumann, who said he assisted Pynchon in researching "a Russian mathematician [who] studied for David Hilbert in Göttingen", and that the new novel would trace the life and loves of mathematician and academic Sofia Kovalevskaya. Kovalevskaya briefly appears in the book, but Pynchon may have partly modeled the major character Yashmeen Halfcourt after her. Author's synopsis/book jacket copy. In mid-July 2006, a plot-synopsis signed by Pynchon himself appeared on Amazon.com's page for the novel, only to vanish a few days later. Readers who had noticed the synopsis re-posted it. This disappearance provoked speculation on blogs and the PYNCHON-L mailing list about publicity stunts and viral marketing schemes. Shortly thereafter, "Slate" published a brief article revealing that the blurb's early appearance was a mistake on the part of the publisher, Penguin Press. Associated Press indicated the title of the previously anonymous novel. Pynchon's synopsis states that the novel's action takes place "between the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and the years just after World War I". "With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred." Pynchon promises "cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi and Groucho Marx", as well as "stupid songs" and "strange sexual practices". The novel's setting Like several of Pynchon's earlier works, "Against the Day" includes both mathematicians and drug users. "As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them." The synopsis concludes: The published jacket-flap of the book featured an edited-down version of this text, omitting the last three sentences, references to specific authorship (as well as misspelling Nikola Tesla's first name as "Nikolai"; Pynchon had previously spelled it correctly). Plot summary. Nearly all reviewers of the book mention the byzantine nature of the plot. Louis Menand in "The New Yorker" gives a simple description: As to the multitude of plot dead-ends, pauses and confusing episodes that return to continue much later in the narrative, Menand writes: Writing styles. Many reviewers have commented on the various writing styles in the book that hark back to popular fiction of the period. John Clute identifies four "story clusters", each with one or more prose-styles mimicking a popular fiction genre in the style used before the end of World War I: "Examples": "boys' adventure fiction, from the [contemporary] Airship Boys tale by Michael Moorcock to Horatio Alger; the Dime Novel in general; the British school story in general ... the future war novel" "Examples": Edward S. Ellis, Bret Harte, Jack London, Oakley Hall "Examples": "the Lost Race novel; the Symmesian Hollow Earth tale; the Tibetan Lama or Shangri-La thriller; the Vernean Extraordinary Journey; the Wellsian scientific romance; the Invention tale and its close cousin the Edisonade ..." "Examples": "the European spy romance thriller a la E. Phillips Oppenheim; the World Island spy thriller a la John Buchan; the mildly sadomasochistic soft porn tale as published by the likes of Charles Carrington in Paris around the turn of the century." [Clute may mean to include "the "Zuleika Dobson" subgenre of the "femme fatale" tale in particular" in this cluster.] Clute sees (but does not specifically categorize) another style mimicked in the book: "the large number of utopias influenced by Edward Bellamy and William Morris". Characterization. Some reviewers complain that Pynchon's characters have little emotional depth and therefore don't excite the sympathy of the reader. For example, Laura Miller in "Salon.com": Time doesn't exist, but it crushes us anyway; everyone could see World War I coming, but no one could stop it — those are two weighty paradoxes that hover over the action in "Against the Day" without truly engaging with it. This is the stuff of tragedy, but since the people it sort of happens to are flimsy constructions, we don't experience it as tragic. We just watch Pynchon point to it like bystanders watching the Chums of Chance's airship float by overhead. "New York Times" reviewer Michiko Kakutani writes of the characterizations: "[B]ecause these people are so flimsily delineated, their efforts to connect feel merely sentimental and contrived." In some of the reviews to his previous works, Pynchon had been called a cold, lapidary writer. Poet L. E. Sissman, from "The New Yorker", instead praised and defended him, saying I do not find him to be one. Though his characters are not developed along conventional lines, they do, in their recalcitrant human oddity, live, and they do eventually touch the reader more than he at first thinks they will. As a complement to Miller's criticism about tragedy, Adam Kirsch sees comedy as undercut as well, although parody remains: The gaudy names Mr. Pynchon gives his characters are like pink slips, announcing their dismissal from the realm of human sympathy and concern. This contraction of the novel's scope makes impossible any genuine comedy, which depends on the observation of real human beings and their insurmountable, forgivable weaknesses. What replaces it is parody, whose target is language itself, and which operates by short-circuiting the discourses we usually take for granted. And it is as parody — in fact, a whole album of parodies — that "Against the Day" is most enjoyable. Themes. Critic Louis Menand sees an organizing theme of the book as something like this: An enormous technological leap occurred in the decades around 1900. This advance was fired by some mixed-up combination of abstract mathematical speculation, capitalist greed, global geopolitical power struggle, and sheer mysticism. We know (roughly) how it all turned out, but if we had been living in those years it would have been impossible to sort out the fantastical possibilities from the plausible ones. Maybe we could split time and be in two places at once, or travel backward and forward at will, or maintain parallel lives in parallel universes. It turns out (so far) that we can’t. But we did split the atom — an achievement that must once have seemed equally far-fetched. "Against the Day" is a kind of inventory of the possibilities inherent in a particular moment in the history of the imagination. It is like a work of science fiction written in 1900. Menand states that this theme also appeared in Pynchon's "Mason & Dixon" and that it ties in with a concern present in nearly all of Pynchon's books: Steven Moore, in a book review in "The Washington Post", writes: Pynchon is mostly concerned with how decent people of any era cope under repressive regimes, be they political, economic or religious. [...] 'Capitalist Christer Republicans' are a recurring target of contempt, and bourgeois values are portrayed as essentially totalitarian." Jazz (or, as Pynchon refers to it in one variant spelling of the novel's time period, "Jass") provides a non-hierarchical model of organization that the author relates to politics about a third of the way through the novel, according to Leith, who quotes from the passage, in which ‘Dope’ Breedlove, an Irish revolutionist at a Jazz-bar, makes the point. Breedlove characterises the Irish Land League as "the closest the world has ever come to a perfect Anarchist organization". In a Bloomberg News review, Craig Seligman identifies three overarching themes in the novel: doubling, light and war. Doubling. "Pynchon makes much of a variety of calcite called Iceland spar, valued for its optical quality of double refraction; in Pynchonland, a magician can use it to split one person into two, who then wander off to lead their own lives", Seligman writes. Sam Leith identifies the same theme: War. Although the novel directly portrays the First Balkan War (1912–1913) and the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920), it dispatches World War I after a few pages. But during most of the book the Great War "looms as an approaching catastrophe", according to Seligman. This theme might form part of what Menand describes above as the struggle between power-pursuers and power-transcenders. Reviewer Adam Kirsch criticizes Pynchon's overall treatment of political violence: Light. Light becomes a "preoccupation [...] to which everything, finally, returns", according to reviewer Sam Leith. Light appears as a religious symbol or element and as a scientific phenomenon, as Peter Keouge, in his "Boston Phoenix" review points out: In his "Bloomberg News" review, Craig Seligman portrays the book as "overstuffed with wonders" often related to light, including a luminous Mexican beetle and the Tunguska Event of 1908 that leaves the native reindeer soaring and "stimulated by the accompanying radiation into an epidermal luminescence at the red end of the spectrum, particularly around the nasal area" (reminiscent of the luminescence of a certain fictional reindeer). "[T]he novel is full of images of light, like those beetles and those noses (and the title)", Seligman reports. Reviewer Tom Leclair notes light in various flashy appearances: God said, 'Let there be light'; "Against the Day" collects ways our ancestors attempted to track light back to its source and replaced religion with alternative lights. There is the light of relativity, the odd light of electromagnetic storms, the light of the mysterious Tunguska event of 1908, when a meteorite struck Siberia or God announced a coming apocalypse. [...] the dynamite flash, the diffracted light of Iceland spar, the reflected light of magicians' mirrors, the 'light writing' of photography and movies, the cities' new electric lighting that makes the heavens invisible at night. Scott McLemee sees connections between light, space-time and politics: It remains unclear whether Pynchon himself regards such escape or transcendence as really possible. Critical reception. The book received generally positive reviews from critics. While the review aggregator Metacritic no longer aggregates reviews for books, it was reported in 2007 that the book had an average score of 68 out of 100, based on 25 reviews.

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Hayduke Lives! Hayduke Lives!, written in 1989 by Edward Abbey, is the sequel to the popular book "The Monkey Wrench Gang". It was published posthumously in 1990 in a mildly unfinished state, as Abbey did not complete revision prior to his death. Thus, the book retains much of its author's unrefined musings. "The Monkey Wrench Gang" and "Hayduke Lives!" have been reprinted numerous times due to their popularity. Summary. "Hayduke Lives!" picks up several years after the (literal) cliffhanger and escape from the posse at the end of the previous book. It chronicles George Washington Hayduke's return to the deserts of southern Utah and northern Arizona, where he continues the sabotage initiated in "The Monkey Wrench Gang" under numerous aliases, such as The Green Baron, and Fred Goodsell. The enigmatic "Kemosabe" (a hero from Abbey's first novel, "The Brave Cowboy") also makes a reappearance, coming to the aid of Hayduke after his escape from the posse. For a grand finale, Abbey reunites Hayduke with the outlaw-heroes of "The Monkey Wrench Gang" as they plan the destruction the world's largest walking dragline excavator (giant earth mover, also called GEM or GOLIATH) while combating a greed-ridden Mormon Bishop in another attempt to save the American Southwest from development. The narrative shifts numerous times between characters neglected by the previous book, including Bishop Love, the wives of Seldom Seen Smith and the FBI agents sent to end the sabotage. Earth First! While "The Monkey Wrench Gang" inspired the creation of the movement Earth First!, the latter is cited in "Hayduke Lives!" (notably in chapters 12, 24 and 27). In "Hayduke Lives!", the people active for Earth First! wear T-shirts and banners with slogans such as:

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V for Vendetta (film) V for Vendetta is a 2005 dystopian political action film directed by James McTeigue and written by the Wachowskis, based on the 1988 DC limited series of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The film is set in an alternative future where a Nordic supremacist and neo-fascist totalitarian regime has subjugated the United Kingdom. It centres on V (portrayed by Hugo Weaving), an anarchist and masked freedom fighter who attempts to ignite a revolution through elaborate terrorist acts, and Evey Hammond (portrayed by Natalie Portman) a young, working-class woman caught up in V's mission. Stephen Rea portrays a detective leading a desperate quest to stop V. Produced by Silver Pictures, Virtual Studios and Anarchos Productions Inc., "V for Vendetta" was originally scheduled for release by Warner Bros. Pictures on 4 November 2005 (a day before the 400th Guy Fawkes Night), but was delayed; it instead opened in the United States on 17 March 2006 to mostly positive reviews from critics and was a box office success. However, Alan Moore, having been dissatisfied with the film adaptations of his other works, "From Hell" (2001) and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen "(2003), declined to watch the film and asked to not be credited or paid royalties. "V for Vendetta" has been seen by many political groups as an allegory of oppression by government; anarchists have used it to promote their beliefs. David Lloyd stated: "The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way." Plot. The world is in turmoil, with the United States fractured as a result of a second civil war and a pandemic of the "St. Mary's Virus" ravaging Europe. The United Kingdom is ruled as a Nordic supremacist and neo-fascist police state by the Norsefire Party, helmed by all-powerful High Chancellor Adam Sutler. Political opponents, immigrants, Jews, Muslims, atheists, homosexuals, and other "undesirables" are imprisoned and executed. On November 4, a vigilante in a Guy Fawkes mask, "V," rescues Evey Hammond, an employee of state-run British Television Network, from members of the "Fingermen" secret police. After the stroke of midnight, they watch his demolition of the Old Bailey, accompanied by fireworks and the "1812 Overture". Inspector Finch of Scotland Yard investigates V's activities. V hijacks a BTN broadcast to claim responsibility for the destruction, encouraging the people of Britain to rebel against their government and meet him on next year's Guy Fawkes Night outside the Houses of Parliament. The police attempt to capture V. Evey helps him escape but is knocked unconscious. V takes Evey to his home, where she is told she must remain for one year. V kills Lewis Prothero, Norsefire's chief propagandist, and Anthony Lilliman, the Bishop of London. Evey offers to help but escapes to the home of her boss, talk show host Gordon Deitrich. In return for Evey trusting him, Gordon reveals subversive paintings, an antique Quran, and homoerotic photographs. V confronts Dr. Delia Surridge, who experimented on him and others at Larkhill concentration camp twenty years earlier; seeing her genuine remorse, he kills her painlessly. After Gordon satirizes the government on his show, his home is raided, and Evey is captured. She is tortured for information about V, her only solace being a note written by Valerie Page, a prisoner tortured and killed for being a lesbian. Evey is to be executed unless she reveals V's location. When she says she would rather die, she is released, finding herself in V's home. V staged her imprisonment to free her from her fears. The note was indeed real, secretly passed from Valerie to V when he was imprisoned at Larkhill. Initially enraged, Evey realizes she has become stronger. She leaves him, promising to return before November 5. Reading Surridge's journal, Finch learns V is the result of human experimentation and is targeting those who detained him. Finch searches for V's true identity, tracing him to a bioweapons program in Larkhill. Finch meets William Rookwood, who tells him about the program. Fourteen years earlier, Sutler, Secretary of Defence at the time, launched a secret project at Larkhill, which resulted in the creation of the St. Mary's virus. Creedy, the current leader of the Norsefire Party, suggested releasing the virus onto the UK. Targeting St. Mary's School, a tube station and a water treatment plant, the virus killed more than 100,000 people and was blamed on a terrorist organisation. Norsefire used the fear and chaos to elevate Sutler to the office of High Chancellor, win an overwhelming majority in Parliament, and profit off the cure for the virus. Although Finch later disbelieves the story after discovering Rookwood is V in disguise, his faith in the Norsefire government is shaken. As November 5 nears, V distributes thousands of Guy Fawkes masks. Riots begin to break out as the United Kingdom slowly descends into anarchy. On the eve of November 5, Evey visits V, who shows her a train filled with ANFO explosives in the abandoned London Underground, set to destroy Parliament. He leaves it to Evey to decide whether to use it. V meets Creedy, with whom he made a deal to surrender in exchange for Sutler's execution. After Creedy executes Sutler, V kills Creedy and his men. Mortally wounded from the hail of gunfire during the battle, V staggers to the tunnel where Evey is waiting and finally admits he loves her before dying in her arms. Despite their earlier experiences, Evey has grown close to V and is visibly heartbroken by his death. Finch finds Evey placing V's body aboard the train. Disillusioned by the Party's regime, Finch allows Evey to send the train. Thousands of citizens wearing Guy Fawkes masks march toward the Houses of Parliament. Without any orders, the military allows the crowd to pass. As Parliament is destroyed, Finch asks Evey for V's identity, to which she replies, "He was all of us." Themes and interpretations. "V for Vendetta" sets the Gunpowder Plot as V's historical inspiration, contributing to his choice of timing, language, and appearance. For example, the names Rookwood, Percy and Keyes are used in the film, which are also the names of three of the Gunpowder conspirators. The film creates parallels to Alexandre Dumas's "The Count of Monte Cristo", by drawing direct comparisons between V and Edmond Dantès. (In both stories, the hero escapes an unjust and traumatic imprisonment and spends decades preparing to take vengeance on his oppressors under a new persona.) The film is also explicit in portraying V as the embodiment of an idea rather than an individual through V's dialogue and by depicting him without a past, identity or face. According to the official website, "V's use of the Guy Fawkes mask and persona functions as both practical and symbolic elements of the story. He wears the mask to hide his physical scars, and in obscuring his identity – he becomes the idea itself." As noted by several critics and commentators, the film's story and style mirror elements from Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera". V and the Phantom both wear masks to hide their disfigurements, control others through the leverage of their imaginations, have tragic pasts, and are motivated by revenge. V and Evey's relationship also parallels many of the romantic elements of "The Phantom of the Opera", where the masked Phantom takes Christine Daaé to his subterranean lair to re-educate her. As a film about the struggle between freedom and the state, "V for Vendetta" takes imagery from many classic totalitarian icons both real and fictional, including the Third Reich, the Soviet Union under Stalin and George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four". For example, Adam Sutler primarily appears on large video screens and on portraits in people's homes, both common features among modern totalitarian regimes and reminiscent of the image of Big Brother. There is also the state's use of mass surveillance, such as closed-circuit television, on its citizens - reminiscent of the comprehensive mass surveillance systems currently deployed throughout the UK. The name Adam Sutler is intentionally similar to Adolf Hitler. Like the so-called Führer, Sutler is given to hysterical speech. Also like Hitler, Sutler is a racial purist, although Jews have been replaced by Arabs and Muslims as the focus of Norsefire ethnoreligious propaganda and persecution. Valerie was sent to a detention facility for lesbianism and then had medical experiments performed on her, reminiscent of the persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The filmmakers added topical references relevant to a 2006 audience. According to the "Los Angeles Times", "With a wealth of new, real-life parallels to draw from in the areas of government surveillance, torture, fear mongering and media manipulation, not to mention corporate corruption and religious hypocrisy, you can't really blame the filmmakers for having a field day referencing current events." There are also references to an avian flu pandemic, as well as pervasive use of biometric identification and signal-intelligence gathering and analysis by the regime. Film critics, political commentators and other members of the media have also noted the film's numerous references to events surrounding the George W. Bush administration in the United States. These include the hoods and sacks worn by the prisoners in Larkhill that have been seen as a reference to the Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse. The Homeland Security Advisory System and rendition are also referenced. One of the forbidden items in Gordon's secret basement is a protest poster with a mixed US–UK flag with a swastika and the title "Coalition of the Willing, To Power" which combines the "Coalition of the Willing" with Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of will to power. Despite the America-specific references, the filmmakers have always referred to the film as adding dialogue to a set of issues much broader than the US administration. When James McTeigue was asked whether or not BTN was based on Fox News Channel, McTeigue replied, "Yes. But not just Fox. Everyone is complicit in this kind of stuff. It could just as well been the Britain's Sky News Channel, also a part of News Corp." Production. Development. The film was made by many of the same filmmakers involved in "The Matrix" series. In 1988, producer Joel Silver acquired the rights to two of Alan Moore's works: "V for Vendetta" and "Watchmen". After the release and relative success of "Road House", writer Hilary Henkin was brought on to flesh out the project with an initial draft – one that bears little, if any, relation to the finished product, with the inclusion of overtly satirical and surrealistic elements not present in the graphic novel, as well as the removal of much of the novel's ambiguity, especially in regard to V's identity. The Wachowskis were fans of "V for Vendetta" and in the mid-1990s, before working on "The Matrix", wrote a draft screenplay that closely followed the graphic novel. During the post-production of the second and third "The Matrix" films, they revisited the screenplay and offered the director's role to James McTeigue. All three were intrigued by the original story's themes and found them to be relevant to the contemporary political landscape. Upon revisiting the screenplay, the Wachowskis set about making revisions to condense and modernise the story, while at the same time attempting to preserve its integrity and themes. James McTeigue cites the film "The Battle of Algiers" as his principal influence in preparing to film "V for Vendetta". Moore explicitly disassociated himself from the film due to his lack of involvement in its writing or directing, as well as due to a continuing series of disputes over film adaptations of his work. He ended cooperation with his publisher, DC Comics, after its corporate parent, Warner Bros., failed to retract statements about Moore's supposed endorsement of the film. Moore said that the script contained plot holes and that it ran contrary to the theme of his original work, which was to place two political extremes (fascism and anarchism) against one another. He argues his work had been recast as a story about "current American neoconservatism vs. current American liberalism". Per his wishes, Moore's name does not appear in the film's closing credits. Co-creator and illustrator David Lloyd supports the film adaptation, commenting that the script is very good but that Moore would only ever be truly happy with a complete book-to-screen adaptation. Casting. James Purefoy was originally cast as V, but dropped out after six weeks into filming. Although at the time it was reported this was because of difficulties wearing the mask for the entire film, he later stated this was not the case. He was replaced by Hugo Weaving, who had previously worked with Joel Silver and the Wachowskis on "The Matrix" series. Director James McTeigue first met Natalie Portman during the filming of ', on which he worked as assistant director. In preparation for the role, Portman worked with dialect coach Barbara Berkery to speak in a British accent, studied films such as "The Weather Underground", and read the autobiography of Menachem Begin. She received top billing for the film. Her role in the film has parallels to her role in '. According to Portman: "the relationship between V and Evey has a complication [like] the relationship in that film." She also had her head shaved on camera during a scene in which her character is tortured. Filming. "V for Vendetta" was filmed in London, England, and in Potsdam, Germany, at Babelsberg Studios. Much of the film was shot on sound stages and indoor sets, with location work done in Berlin for three scenes: the Norsefire rally flashback, Larkhill, and Bishop Lilliman's bedroom. The scenes that took place in the abandoned London Underground were filmed at the disused Aldwych tube station. Filming began in early March 2005 and lasted through early June 2005. "V for Vendetta" is the final film shot by cinematographer Adrian Biddle, who died of a heart attack on 7 December 2005, 4 days prior to its world debut. To film the final scene at Westminster, the area from Trafalgar Square and Whitehall up to Parliament and Big Ben had to be closed for three nights from midnight until 5 am. This was the first time the security-sensitive area (home to 10 Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence) had ever been closed to accommodate filming. Prime Minister (at the time of filming) Tony Blair's son, Euan, worked on the film's production and is said (according to an interview with Stephen Fry) to have helped the filmmakers obtain the unparalleled filming access. This drew criticism of Blair from MP David Davis due to the film's content. However, the filmmakers denied Euan Blair's involvement in the deal, stating that access was acquired through nine months of negotiations with fourteen different government departments and agencies. Post-production. The film was designed to have a retrofuturistic look, with heavy use of grey tones to give a dreary, stagnant feel to totalitarian London. The largest set created for the film was the Shadow Gallery, which was made to feel like a cross between a crypt and an undercroft. The Gallery is V's home as well as the place where he stores various artefacts forbidden by the government. Some of the works of art displayed in the gallery include "The Arnolfini Portrait" by Jan van Eyck, "Bacchus and Ariadne" by Titian, a "Mildred Pierce" poster, "St. Sebastian" by Andrea Mantegna, "The Lady of Shalott" by John William Waterhouse and statues by Giacometti. One of the major challenges in the film was how to bring V to life from under an expressionless mask. Thus, considerable effort was made to bring together lighting, acting, and Weaving's voice to create the proper mood for the situation. Since the mask muffled Weaving's voice, his entire dialogue was re-recorded in post-production. Differences between the film and graphic novel. The film's story was adapted from Alan Moore and David Lloyd's graphic novel "V for Vendetta"; this was originally published between 1982 and 1985 in the British comic anthology "Warrior", and then reprinted and completed by DC. Moore's comics were later compiled into a graphic novel and published again in the United States under DC's Vertigo imprint and in the United Kingdom under Titan Books. There are several fundamental differences between the film and the original source material. Alan Moore's original story was created as a response to British Thatcherism in the early 1980s and was set as a conflict between a fascist state and anarchism, while the film's story was changed by the Wachowskis to fit a modern US political context. Alan Moore, however, charged that, in doing so, the story turned into an American-centric conflict between liberalism and neoconservatism, and abandoned the original anarchist–fascist themes. Moore states that "[t]here wasn't a mention of anarchy as far as I could see. The fascism had been completely defanged. I mean, I think that any references to racial purity had been excised, whereas actually, fascists are quite big on racial purity." Furthermore, in the original story, Moore attempted to maintain moral ambiguity, and not to portray the fascists as caricatures, but as realistic, rounded characters. The time limitations of a film meant that the story had to omit or streamline some of the characters, details, and plotlines from the original story. Chiefly, the original graphic novel has the fascists elected legally and kept in power through the general apathy of the public, whereas the film introduces the "St. Mary's virus", a biological weapon engineered and released by the Norsefire Party as a means of clandestinely gaining control over their own country. Many of the characters from the graphic novel underwent significant changes for the film. V is characterised in the film as a romantic freedom fighter who shows concern over the loss of innocent life. However, in the graphic novel, he is portrayed as ruthless, willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Evey Hammond's transformation as V's protégée is also much more drastic in the novel than in the film. Gordon, a very minor character in both versions, is also drastically changed. In the novel, Gordon is a small-time criminal who takes Evey into his home after V abandons her on the street. The two share a brief romance before Gordon is killed by a Scottish gang. In the film, however, Gordon is a well-mannered colleague of Evey's, and is later revealed to be gay. He is arrested by Fingermen for broadcasting a political parody on his TV program, and is later executed when a Quran is found in his possession. Release. The film adopts extensive imagery from the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, in which a group of Catholic conspirators plotted to destroy the then Houses of Parliament in order to spark a revolution in England. The film was originally scheduled for release on the weekend of 5 November 2005, the Plot's 400th anniversary, with the tag line "Remember, remember the 5th of November", taken from a traditional British rhyme memorialising the event. However, the marketing angle lost much of its value when the release date was pushed back to 17 March 2006. Many have speculated that the delay was caused by the London tube bombing on the 7 July and the failed 21 July bombing. The filmmakers have denied this, saying that the delays were due to the need for more time to finish the visual effects production. "V for Vendetta" had its first major premiere on 11 December 2005, at Butt-Numb-A-Thon, followed by a premiere on 13 February 2006 at the Berlin Film Festival. It opened for general release on 17 March 2006 in 3,365 cinemas in the United States, the United Kingdom and six other countries. Promotion. The cast and filmmakers attended several press conferences that allowed them to address issues surrounding the film, including its authenticity, Alan Moore's reaction to it and its intended political message. The film was intended to be a departure from some of Moore's original themes. In the words of Hugo Weaving: "Alan Moore was writing about something which happened some time ago. It was a response to living in Thatcherite Britain ... This is a response to the world in which we live today. So I think that the film and the graphic novel are two separate entities." Regarding the film's controversial political content, the filmmakers have said that the film is intended more to raise questions and add to a dialogue already present in society, rather than provide answers or tell viewers what to think. Books. The original graphic novel by Moore and Lloyd was re-released as a hardback collection in October 2005 to tie into the film's original release date of 5 November 2005. The film renewed interest in Alan Moore's original story, and sales of the original graphic novel rose dramatically in the United States. A novelisation of the film, written by Steve Moore and based on the Wachowskis' script, was published by Pocket Star on 31 January 2006. Spencer Lamm, who has worked with the Wachowskis, created a "behind-the-scenes" book. Titled "V for Vendetta: From Script to Film", it was published by Universe on 22 August 2006. Home media. "V for Vendetta" was released on DVD in the US on 1 August 2006, in three formats: a single-disc wide-screen version, a single-disc full-screen version, and a two-disc wide-screen special edition. The single disc versions contain a short (15:56) behind-the-scenes featurette titled "Freedom! Forever! Making V for Vendetta" and the film's theatrical trailer, whereas the two-disc special edition contains three additional documentaries, and several extra features for collectors. On the second disc of the special edition, a short Easter egg clip of Natalie Portman on "Saturday Night Live" can be viewed by selecting the picture of wings on the second page of the menu. The film has also been released on the HD DVD high definition format, which features a unique 'in-film experience' created exclusively for the disc. Warner Bros. later released the video on Blu-ray, on 20 May 2008. The film also saw release on Sony's PSP UMD format. The film was released on 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray on 3 November 2020. Reception. Box office. By December 2006, "V for Vendetta" had grossed $132,511,035, of which $70,511,035 was from the United States. The film led the U.S. box office on its opening day, taking in an estimated $8,742,504, and remained the number one film for the remainder of the weekend, taking in an estimated $25,642,340. Its closest rival, "Failure to Launch", took in $15,604,892. The film debuted at number one in the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden and Taiwan. "V for Vendetta" also opened in 56 IMAX cinemas in North America, grossing $1.36 million during the opening three days. DVD sales were successful, selling 1,412,865 DVD units in the first week of release which translated to $27,683,818 in revenue. By the end of 2006, 3,086,073 DVD units had been sold, bringing in slightly more than its production cost with $58,342,597. As of September 2018, the film has grossed over from DVD and Blu-ray sales in the United States. The film was also successful in terms of merchandise sales, with hundreds of thousands of Guy Fawkes masks from the film having been sold every year since the film's release, as of 2011. Time Warner owns the rights to the image and is paid a fee with the sale of each official mask. Critical response. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 73% approval rating based on 248 reviews, with an average rating of 6.78/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Visually stunning and thought-provoking, "V For Vendetta" political pronouncements may rile some, but its story and impressive set pieces will nevertheless entertain." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 62 out of 100 based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale. Ebert and Roeper gave the film a "two thumbs up" rating. Roger Ebert stated that "V for Vendetta" "almost always has something going on that is actually interesting, inviting us to decode the character and plot and apply the message where we will". Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton from "At the Movies" stated that despite the problem of never seeing Weaving's face, there was good acting and an interesting plot, adding that the film is also disturbing, with scenes reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Jonathan Ross from the BBC blasted the film, calling it a "woeful, depressing failure" and stating that the "cast of notable and familiar talents such as John Hurt and Stephen Rea stand little chance amid the wreckage of the Wachowski siblings' dismal script and its particularly poor dialogue." Sean Burns of "Philadelphia Weekly" gave the film a 'D', criticising the film's treatment of its political message as being "fairly dim, adolescent stuff," as well as expressing dislike for the "barely decorated sets with television-standard overlit shadow-free cinematography by the late Adrian Biddle. The film is a visual insult." On Alan Moore removing his name from the project, Burns says "it's not hard to see why," as well as criticising Portman's performance: "Portman still seems to believe that standing around with your mouth hanging open constitutes a performance." Harry Guerin from the Irish TV network RTÉ states the film "works as a political thriller, adventure and social commentary and it deserves to be seen by audiences who would otherwise avoid any/all of the three". He added that the film will become "a cult favourite whose reputation will only be enhanced with age." Andy Jacobs for the BBC gave the film two stars out of five, remarking that it is "a bit of a mess ... it rarely thrills or engages as a story." "V for Vendetta" received few awards, although at the 2007 Saturn Awards Natalie Portman won the Best Actress award. The film was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2007. "V" was included on "Fandomania" list of "The 100 Greatest Fictional Characters". "Empire" magazine named the film the 418th greatest movie of all time in 2008. Political response. "V for Vendetta" deals with issues of totalitarianism, criticism of religion, homosexuality, Islamophobia and terrorism. Its controversial story line and themes have been the target of both criticism and praise from sociopolitical groups. On 17 April 2006, the New York Metro Alliance of Anarchists organised a protest against DC Comics and Time Warner, accusing it of watering down the story's original message in favour of violence and special effects. David Graeber, an anarchist scholar and former professor at Yale University, was not upset by the film. "I thought the message of anarchy got out in spite of Hollywood." However, Graeber went on to state: "Anarchy is about creating communities and democratic decision making. That's what is absent from Hollywood's interpretation." Film critic Richard Roeper dismissed right-wing Christian criticism of the film on the television show "Ebert and Roeper", saying that V's "terrorist" label is applied in the film "by someone who's essentially Hitler, a dictator." LGBT commentators have praised the film for its positive depiction of gay people. Sarah Warn of AfterEllen.com called the film "one of the most pro-gay ever". Warn went on to praise the central role of the character Valerie "not just because it is beautifully acted and well-written, but because it is so utterly unexpected [in a Hollywood film]." David Walsh of the World Socialist Web Site criticised V's actions as "antidemocratic," calling the film an example of "the bankruptcy of anarcho-terrorist ideology;" Walsh writes that because the people have not played any part in the revolution, they will be unable to produce a "new, liberated society." The film was broadcast on China's national TV station, China Central Television (CCTV) on 16 December 2012 completely uncensored, surprising many viewers. While many believed that the government had banned the film, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television stated that it was not aware of a ban; CCTV makes its own decisions on whether to censor foreign films. Liu Shanying, a political scientist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who used to work for CCTV, speculated that the showing indicated that Chinese film censorship is getting loosened. Movie was also banned in the Belarus. Soundtrack. The "V for Vendetta" soundtrack was released by Astralwerks Records on 21 March 2006. The original scores from the film's composer, Dario Marianelli, make up most of the tracks on the album. The soundtrack also features three vocals played during the film: "Cry Me a River" by Julie London, a cover of The Velvet Underground song "I Found a Reason" by Cat Power and "Bird Gerhl" by Antony and the Johnsons. As mentioned in the film, these songs are samples of the 872 blacklisted tracks on V's Wurlitzer jukebox that V "reclaimed" from the Ministry of Objectionable Materials. The climax of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" appears at the end of the track "Knives and Bullets (and Cannons too)". The Overture's "finale" is played at key parts at the beginning and end of the film. Three songs were played during the ending credits which were not included on the "V for Vendetta" soundtrack. The first was "Street Fighting Man" by the Rolling Stones. The second was a special version of Ethan Stoller's "BKAB". In keeping with revolutionary tone of the film, excerpts from "On Black Power" (also in "A Declaration of Independence") by black nationalist leader Malcolm X, and from "Address to the Women of America" by feminist writer Gloria Steinem were added to the song. Gloria Steinem can be heard saying: "This is no simple reform ... It really is a revolution. Sex and race, because they are easy and visible differences, have been the primary ways of organising human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labour on which this system still depends." The final song was "Out of Sight" by Spiritualized. Also in the film were segments from two of Antonio Carlos Jobim's classic bossa nova songs, "The Girl From Ipanema" and "Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars". These songs were played during the "breakfast scenes" with V and Deitrich and were one of the ways used to tie the two characters together. Beethoven's "Symphony No.5" also plays an important role in the film, with the first four notes of the first movement signifying the letter "V" in Morse code. Gordon Deitrich's Benny Hill-styled comedy sketch of Chancellor Sutler includes the "Yakety Sax" theme. Inspector Finch's alarm clock begins the morning of 4 November with the song "Long Black Train" by Richard Hawley, which contains the foreshadowing lyrics "Ride the long black train ... take me home black train." Television series. In October 2017, it was announced that Channel 4 was developing a television series based on the comic book.

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Anarchy Comics Anarchy Comics is a series of underground comic books published by Last Gasp between 1978 and 1987, as part of the underground comix subculture of the era. Publication history. Published in 1978, 1979, 1981, and 1987 and edited by Jay Kinney (#1-3) and Paul Mavrides (#4), each issue of "Anarchy Comics" was created by an international cast of anarchist or sympathetic contributors. Each anthology included a mixture of fiction, history, commentary, and artwork, with wide ranges in style and format. Contributors. Each issue of "Anarchy Comics" showcased an international cast of artists who identified as anarchists, or non-sectarian socialists. An example of this is Spain Rodriguez, a Marxist, who was considered of "sufficient libertarian bent" to be included. Contributors including Rodriguez, Gilbert Shelton, Jay Kinney and Paul Mavrides were distinct for "adding new dimensions to the political comic" in the underground comix press of the 1970s and '80s. List of contributors. The following is a list of each contributor in alphabetical order. Themes. Anarchism. Overtly anarchist in its bent, all content included was based on anarchist philosophy and history. The humor of each anthology was satirical in nature, mocking both mainstream culture as well as traditional leftist ideas of revolution. Punk rock. Roger Sabin, an English historian of comics and subculture, noted a number of connections between the comic and the Punk rock subculture of the '70s, suggesting that Jay Kinney "clearly hoped to pick up a share of the punk market with this very political comic." The covers of issues No.2 and No.3 both feature archetypal "punk" characters, and issue No. 2 features the short comic "Kultur Documents", a punk rock parody of Archie Comics. Sabin also analyzes "Too Real", Jay Kinney's short comic from the first issue, as being jointly inspired by a combination of Situationist and punk rock imagery. Sabin noted that many of the comics didn't have any relationship to Punk culture, but thought that the comic may have introduced radical ideas to a generation of new, young punks. Media information. A total of four issues of "Anarchy Comics" were published between 1978 and 1987. Only the first issue remains in print. A collected edition titled "Anarchy Comics: The Complete Collection" () was published in December 2012 by PM Press.

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Use of Weapons Use of Weapons is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1990. It is the third novel in the Culture series. Plot introduction. The narrative takes the form of a biography of a man called Cheradenine Zakalwe, who was born outside of the Culture but was recruited into it by Special Circumstances agent Diziet Sma to work as an operative intervening in less advanced civilizations. The novel recounts several of these interventions and Zakalwe's attempts to come to terms with his own past. Plot summary. The book is made up of two narrative streams, interwoven in alternating chapters. The numbers of the chapters indicate which stream they belong to: one stream is numbered forward in words (One, Two ...), while the other is numbered in reverse with Roman numerals (XIII, XII ...). The story told by the former moves forward chronologically (as the numbers suggest) and tells a self-contained story, while the latter is written in reverse chronology with each chapter successively earlier in Zakalwe's life. Further complicating this structure is a prologue and epilogue set shortly after the events of the main narrative, and many flashbacks within the chapters. The forward-moving narrative stream deals with the attempts of Diziet Sma and a drone named Skaffen-Amtiskaw (of Special Circumstances, a division of Contact) to re-enlist Zakalwe for another job. He must make contact with Beychae, an old colleague, who lives in a politically unstable star cluster, to further the aims of the Culture in the region. The payment that Zakalwe demands is the location of a woman, named Livueta. The backward-moving narrative stream describes earlier jobs that Zakalwe has performed for the Culture, ultimately returning to his pre-Culture childhood with his two sisters (Livueta and Darckense) and a boy his age named Elethiomel whose father has been imprisoned for treason. As the two streams of the narrative conclude, it emerges that Elethiomel and Zakalwe commanded two opposing armies in a bloody civil war. Elethiomel took Darckense hostage before finally having her killed and her bones and skin made into a chair, to be sent to Zakalwe, who attempted suicide upon receiving it. After the successful extraction of Beychae, a severely wounded Zakalwe is taken back to his homeworld to see Livueta. She rejects him and reveals that "Cheradenine Zakalwe" is in fact Elethiomel who had stolen the real Zakalwe's identity after Zakalwe had successfully killed himself during the civil war. Elethiomel suffers an aneurysm and Skaffen-Amtiskaw performs surgery in an attempt to save him; it is left unspecified whether Elethiomel survives. The epilogue is a continuation of the prologue. Whether the story told by these "bookends" takes place prior to, or after, Zakalwe/Elethiomel suffers an aneurysm, is not immediately obvious. The clue that it takes place not long after is "Zakalwe pushing his hand through long hair that isn't there any more …" History. According to Banks, he wrote a much longer version of the book in 1974, long before any of his books (science fiction or otherwise) were published. The book had an even more complicated structure ("It was impossible to comprehend without thinking in six dimensions") but already introduced the Culture as background for the story of Cheradenine Zakalwe. Realising that his intended structure was a "fatal flaw", not least because it demanded the story's climax appear exactly half-way through, Banks moved on to write" Against a Dark Background" instead. The book's cryptic acknowledgement credits friend and fellow science fiction author Ken MacLeod with the suggestion "to argue the old warrior out of retirement" (to rewrite the old book) and further credits him with suggesting "the fitness programme" (the new structure). MacLeod makes use of similar structures in his own novels, most notably in "The Stone Canal". Reception. In 1990 "Use of Weapons" was nominated for a British Science Fiction Association Award. In 1991 it was nominated for an Arthur C. Clarke Award, and in 1993 it won the Kurd-Laßwitz-Preis for Foreign Novel. In 2012 it was selected for Damien Broderick's book "Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels 1985-2010". Commentary. "Use of Weapons" was voted the "Best sci-fi film never made" by the readers of The Register in 2011.

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Men Like Gods Men Like Gods (1923) is a novel, referred to by the author as a "scientific fantasy", by English writer H. G. Wells. It features a utopia located in a parallel universe. Plot summary. "Men Like Gods" is set in the summer of 1921. Its protagonist is Mr. Barnstaple (his first name is either Alfred or William), a journalist working in London and living in Sydenham. He has grown dispirited at a newspaper called "The Liberal" and resolves to take a holiday. Quitting wife and family, but then finds his plans disrupted when his and two other automobiles are accidentally transported with their passengers into "another world", which the "Earthlings" call Utopia. A sort of advanced Earth, Utopia is some three thousand years ahead of humanity in its development. For the 200,000,000 Utopians who inhabit this world, the "Days of Confusion" are a distant period studied in history books, but their past resembles humanity's in its essentials, differing only in incidental details: their Christ, for example, died on the wheel, not on the cross. Utopia lacks any world government and functions as a successfully realised anarchy. "Our education is our government," a Utopian named Lion says. Sectarian religion, like politics, has died away, and advanced scientific research flourishes. Life in Utopia is governed by "the Five Principles of Liberty", which are privacy, free movement, unlimited knowledge, truthfulness and free discussion (allowing criticism). "Men Like Gods" is divided into three books. Details of life in Utopia are given in Books I and III. In Book II, the Earthlings are quarantined on a rocky crag after infections they have brought cause a brief epidemic in Utopia. There they begin to plot the conquest of Utopia, despite Mr. Barnstaple's protests. He betrays them when his fellows try to take two Utopians hostage, forcing Mr. Barnstaple to escape execution for treason by fleeing perilously. In Book III, Mr. Barnstaple longs to stay in Utopia, but when he asks how he can best serve Utopia, he is told that he can do this "by returning to your own world". Regretfully he accepts, and ends his month-long stay in Utopia. But he brings with him back to Earth a renewed determination to contribute to the effort to make a terrestrial Utopia: "[H]e belonged now soul and body to the Revolution, to the Great Revolution that is afoot on Earth; that marches and will never desist nor rest again until old Earth is one city and Utopia set up therein. He knew clearly that this Revolution is life, and that all other living is a trafficking of life with death." Critical response. Contemporary reviews of the novel were largely positive, though some found the story weakly plotted. As is often the case in his later fiction, Wells's utopian enthusiasm exceeded his interest in scientific romance or fantasy (his own terms for what is now called science fiction). The novel was yet another vehicle for Wells to propagate ideas of a possible better future society, also attempted in several other works, notably in "A Modern Utopia" (1905). "Men Like Gods" and other novels like it provoked Aldous Huxley to write "Brave New World" (1932), a parody and critique of Wellsian utopian ideas. Wells himself later commented on the novel: "It did not horrify or frighten, was not much of a success, and by that time, I had tired of talking in playful parables to a world engaged in destroying itself." Themes. Several characters in the novel are directly taken from the politics of the 1920s. Rupert Catskill probably represents Winston Churchill, as he was seen at that time: a reckless adventurer. Catskill is depicted as a reactionary ideologue, criticises Utopia for its apparent decadence, and leads the attempted conquest of Utopia. "Men Like Gods" is notable for a number of set pieces: a description of telepathy, which has become the standard means of communication among Utopians and which enables them to communicate in the languages of the Earthlings (English and French); a meditation on mortality; a reflection on the continuing distinctions between the races in Utopia, there being little interbreeding as a matter of individual choice, although social intercourse is free; a description of how society could function without money; a denunciation of Marxism; a description of a wireless communication device; and several discussions of multiple universes.

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The Illuminatus! Trilogy The Illuminatus! Trilogy is a series of three novels by American writers Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson, first published in 1975. The trilogy is a satirical, postmodern, science fiction-influenced adventure story; a drug-, sex-, and magic-laden trek through a number of conspiracy theories, both historical and imaginary, related to the authors' version of the Illuminati. The narrative often switches between third- and first-person perspectives in a nonlinear narrative. It is thematically dense, covering topics like counterculture, numerology, and Discordianism. The trilogy comprises three parts which contain five books and appendices: The Eye in the Pyramid (first two books), The Golden Apple (third and part of fourth book), Leviathan (part of fourth and all of fifth book, and the appendices). The parts were first published as three separate volumes starting in September 1975. In 1984 they were published as an omnibus edition and are now more commonly reprinted in the latter form. In 1986 the trilogy won the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. The authors went on to write several works, both fiction and nonfiction, that dealt further with the themes of the trilogy. "Illuminatus!" has been adapted for the stage, as an audio book and has influenced several modern writers, artists, musicians, and games-makers. The popularity of the word "fnord" and the 23 enigma can both be attributed to the trilogy. Narrative. The plot meanders between the thoughts, hallucinations and inner voices, real and imagined, of its many characters—ranging from a squirrel to a New York City detective to an artificial intelligence—as well as through time (past, present, and future), and sometimes in mid-sentence. Much of the back story is explained via dialogue between characters, who recount unreliable, often mutually contradictory, versions of their supposed histories. There are even parts in the book in which the narrative reviews and jokingly deconstructs the work itself. Plot summary. The trilogy's story begins with an investigation by two New York City police detectives (Saul Goodman and Barney Muldoon) into the bombing of "Confrontation", a leftist magazine, and the disappearance of its editor, Joe Malik. Discovering the magazine's investigation into the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., the two follow a trail of memos that suggest the involvement of powerful secret societies. They slowly become drawn into a web of conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, the magazine's reporter, George Dorn—having been turned loose without support deep in right-wing Mad Dog, Texas—is arrested for drug possession. He is jailed and physically threatened, at one point hallucinating about his own execution. The prison is bombed and he is rescued by the Discordians, led by the enigmatic Hagbard Celine, captain of a golden submarine. Hagbard represents the Discordians in their eternal battle against the Illuminati, the conspiratorial organization that secretly controls the world. He finances his operations by smuggling illicit substances. The plot meanders around the globe to such locations as Las Vegas (where a potentially deadly, secret U.S. government-developed mutated anthrax epidemic has been accidentally unleashed); Atlantis (where Howard, the talking porpoise, and his porpoise aides help Hagbard battle the Illuminati); Chicago (where someone resembling John Dillinger was killed many years ago); and to the island of Fernando Poo (the location of the next great Cold War standoff between the Soviet Union, China and the United States). The evil scheme uncovered late in the tale is an attempt to "immanentize the eschaton", a secret scheme of the "American Medical Association", an evil rock band, to bring about a mass human sacrifice, the purpose of which is the release of enough "life-energy" to give eternal life to a select group of initiates, including Adolf Hitler. The AMA are revealed to be four siblings (last name Saure) who comprise four of the five mysterious Illuminati Primi. The identity of the fifth remains unknown for much of the trilogy. The first European "Woodstock" festival, held at Ingolstadt, Bavaria (place of origin of the "real" historical Illuminati, also known as Bavarian Illuminati), is the chosen location for the sacrifice of the unwary victims, via the reawakening of hibernating Nazi battalions from the bottom of nearby (fictitious) Lake Totenkopf (literal translation to contemporary American styled English- "dead head"). The plot is foiled when, with the help of a 50-foot-tall incarnation of the goddess Eris, the four members of the AMA are killed: Wilhelm is killed by the monstrous alien being Yog-Sothoth, Wolfgang is shot by John Dillinger, Winifred is drowned by porpoises, and Werner is trapped in a sinking car. The major protagonists, now gathered together on board the submarine, are menaced by the Leviathan, a giant, pyramid-shaped single-cell sea monster that has been growing in size for hundreds of millions of years. The over-the-top nature of this encounter leads some of the characters to question whether they are merely characters in a book. This metafictional note is swiftly rejected (or ignored) as they turn their attention to the monster again. The threat is neutralized by offering up their onboard computer as something for the creature to communicate with to ease its loneliness. Finally Hagbard managed to defeat the Illuminati Primi and went to Alpha Centauri in 1999. Titles. The titles of the three volumes or parts (the front covers were titled "Illuminatus! Part I The Eye in the Pyramid", "Illuminatus! Part II The Golden Apple" and "Illuminatus! Part III Leviathan") refer to recurring symbols of elements of the plot. "The Eye in the Pyramid" refers to the Eye of Providence, which in the novel represents particularly the Bavarian Illuminati, and makes a number of appearances (for example, as an altar and a tattoo). "The Golden Apple" refers to the Golden apple of discord, from the Greek myth of the Judgement of Paris. In the trilogy it is used as the symbol of the Legion of Dynamic Discord, a Discordian group; the golden apple makes a number of appearances, for example, on the cover, on a black flag, and as an emblem on a uniform. "Leviathan" refers to the Biblical sea monster Leviathan, which is a potential danger to Hagbard's submarine "Leif Erickson" (from the name of the Icelandic discoverer of America). It also refers to Thomas Hobbes' seminal work of political philosophy, "Leviathan", as a metaphor for an all-encompassing, authoritarian state - a common metaphor used in libertarian discourse. Publishing history. The trilogy was originally written between 1969 and 1971 while Wilson and Shea were both associate editors for "Playboy" magazine. As part of the role, they dealt with correspondence from the general public on the subject of civil liberties, much of which involved paranoid rants about imagined conspiracies. The pair began to write a novel with the premise that "all these nuts are right, and every single conspiracy they complain about really exists". In a 1980 interview given to the science fiction magazine "Starship", Wilson suggested the novel was also an attempt to build a myth around Discordianism: There was no specific division of labor in the collaborative writing process, although Shea's writing tended towards melodrama, while Wilson's parts tended towards satire. Wilson states in a 1976 interview conducted by Neal Wilgus: According to Ken Campbell, who created a stage adaptation of "Illuminatus!" with Chris Langham, the writing process was treated as a game of one-upmanship between the two co-authors, and was an enjoyable experience for both: The unusual end product did not appeal to publishers, and it took several years before anybody agreed to take it on. According to Wilson, the division of "Illuminatus!" into three parts was a commercial decision of the publisher, not the authors, who had conceived it as a single continuous volume. Shea and Wilson were required to cut 500 pages to reduce printing costs on what was seen as a risky venture, although Wilson states that most of the ideas contained therein made it into his later works. The idea that the top secrets of the Illuminati were cut from the books because the printer decided to trim the number of pages is a joke typical of the trilogy. Dell Publishing first released these individual editions (with covers illustrated by Carlos Victor Ochagavia) in the United States in 1975, to favorable reviews and some commercial success. It became a cult favorite but did not cross over into large mainstream sales. In Britain, Sphere Books released the individual editions (with different cover art) in 1976. The individual editions sold steadily until 1984, when the trilogy was republished in a single omnibus volume for the first time. This collected edition lost the "what has gone before" introduction to "The Golden Apple" and the "Prologue" to "Leviathan". Some of the material in that foreword, such as the self-destruct mynah birds (taught to say "Here, kitty-kitty-kitty!"), appears nowhere else in the trilogy, likely a result of the 500 pages of cuts demanded by Dell. The omnibus edition gave a new lease on life to flagging sales, and became the most commonly available form of the trilogy from then on. The trilogy was translated and published in German, again both as separate volumes (the three covers of which formed a triptych) and an omnibus. The face of J. R. "Bob" Dobbs was split across the first two volumes, despite the Church of the SubGenius not being featured in the novel (although Wilson had become a member). The Church was founded by "Illuminatus!" fans, and the image of "Bob" is widely considered to be a representation of Wilson himself. Themes. "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" covers a wide range of subjects throughout the book. These include discussions about mythology, current events, conspiracy theories and counterculture. Conspiracies. Although the many conspiracy theories in the book are imaginary, these are mixed in with enough truth to make them seem plausible. For example, the title of the first book, "The Eye in the Pyramid", refers to the Eye of Providence, a mystical symbol which derives from the ancient Egyptian Eye of Horus and is erroneously claimed to be the symbol of the Bavarian Illuminati. Some of America's founding fathers are alleged by conspiracy theorists to have been members of this sect. The books are loaded with references to the Illuminati, the Argenteum Astrum, many and various world domination plans, conspiracy theories and pieces of gnostic knowledge. Many of the odder conspiracies in the book are taken from unpublished letters to "Playboy" magazine, where the authors were working as associate editors while they wrote the novels. Among the oddest was the suggestion that Adam Weishaupt, founder of the Bavarian Illuminati, killed George Washington and took on his identity as President of the United States. This is often noted in Illuminati-conspiracy discussion. Proponents of this theory point to Washington's portrait on the United States one-dollar bill, which they suggest closely resembles the face of Weishaupt. Fnord. The nonsense word "fnord", invented by the writers of "Principia Discordia", is given a specific and sinister meaning in the trilogy. It is a subliminal message technique, a word that the majority of the population since early childhood has been trained to ignore (and trained to forget both the training and that they are ignoring it), but which they associate with a vague sense of unease. Upon seeing the word, readers experience a panic reaction. They then subconsciously suppress all memories of having seen the word, but the sense of panic remains. They therefore associate the unease with the news story they are reading. Fnords are scattered liberally in the text of newspapers and magazines, causing fear and anxiety in those following current events. However, there are no fnords in the advertisements, thus encouraging a consumerist society. "Fnord" magazine equated the fnords with a generalized effort to control and brainwash the populace. To "see the fnords" would imply an attempt to wrestle back individual autonomy, similar to the idea of , especially since the word fnord was actually said to appear between regular lines of text. The word makes its first appearance in "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" without any explanation during an acid trip by Dr. Ignotum Per Ignotius and Joe Malik: "The only good fnord is a dead fnord". Several other unexplained appearances follow. Only much later in the story is the secret revealed, when Malik is hypnotized by Hagbard Celine to recall suppressed memories of his first-grade teacher conditioning his class to ignore the fnords: "If you don't see the fnord it can't eat you, don't see the fnord, don't see the fnord..." Numerology. Numerology is given great credence by many of the characters, with the Law of Fives in particular being frequently mentioned. Hagbard Celine states the Law of Fives in Appendix Gimmel: "All phenomena are directly or indirectly related to the number five." He gives away the secret when he adds, "given enough ingenuity on the part of the demonstrator. That's the very model of what a scientific law must always be: a statement about how the human mind relates to the cosmos." (Late in the work, Celine demonstrates the meaninglessness of the Law of Fives by showing another character a picture of a young girl with six fingers on each hand and saying, "If we were all like her, there'd be a Law of Sixes.") Another character, Simon Moon, identifies what he calls the "23 synchronicity principle", which he credits William S. Burroughs as having discovered. Both laws involve finding significance in the appearance of the number, and in its "presen[ce] esoterically because of its conspicuous exoteric absence." One of the reasons Moon finds 23 significant is because "All the great anarchists died on the 23rd day of some month or other." He also identifies a "23/17 phenomenon." They are both tied to the Law of Fives, he explains, because 2 + 3 = 5, and 1 + 7 = 8 = 2³. Robert Anton Wilson claimed in a 1988 interview that "23 is a part of the cosmic code. It's connected with so many synchronicities and weird coincidences that it must mean something, I just haven't figured out yet what it means!". Counterculture. The books were written at the height of the late 1960s, and are infused with the popular counterculture ideas of that time. For instance, the New Age slogan "flower power" is referenced via its German form, "Ewige Blumenkraft" (literally "eternal flower power"), described by Shea and Wilson as a slogan of the Illuminati, the enemies of the hippie ideal. The book's attitude to New Age philosophies and beliefs are ambiguous. Wilson explained in a later interview: "I'm some kind of antibody in the New Age movement. on the rewrite we deliberately threw in a couple of references to it, but we had worked out the structure on our own, mostly on the basis of the nut mail that Playboy gets". The prevalence of kinky sex in the story reflects the hippie ideal of "free love"; characters are both liberal-minded and promiscuous. The authors are well aware that it also provides an excuse for mere titillation: in a typically self-referential joke, a character in the story suggests the scenes exist: "only to sell a bad book filled with shallow characters pushing a nonsense conspiracy". Similarly, the books espouse the use of mind-altering substances to achieve higher states of consciousness, in line with the beliefs of key counterculture figures like Timothy Leary, who is mentioned throughout the three novels. Dr. Leary himself called the trilogy "more important than "Ulysses" or "Finnegans Wake,"" two novels by author James Joyce—who appears as a character in "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" and is a favorite author of Robert Anton Wilson. This quote is blurbed on the covers or front page of its various printings. Cognitive dissonance. Every view of reality that is introduced in the story is later derided in some way, whether that view is traditional or iconoclastic. The trilogy is an exercise in cognitive dissonance, with an absurdist plot built of seemingly plausible, if unprovable, components. Ultimately, readers are left to form their own interpretations as to which, if any, of the numerous contradictory viewpoints presented by the characters are valid or plausible, and which are simply satirical gags and shaggy dog jokes. This style of building up a viable belief system, then tearing it down to replace it with another one, was described by Wilson as "guerrilla ontology". This postmodern lack of belief in consensus reality is a cornerstone of the semi-humorous Chaos-based religion of Discordianism. Extracts from its sacred text, the "Principia Discordia" by Malaclypse the Younger, are extensively quoted throughout the trilogy. It incorporates and shares many themes and contexts from "Illuminatus". Shea and Wilson dedicated the first part "To Gregory Hill and Kerry Thornley", the founders of the religion. The key Discordian practice known as "Operation Mindfuck" is exemplified in the character of Markoff Chaney (a play on the mathematical random process called Markov chain). He is an anti-social dwarf who engages in subtle practical joking in a deliberate attempt to cause social confusion. One such joke involves the forging and placing of signs that are signed by "The Mgt." (leading people to believe they are from "The Management" instead of "The Midget") that contain absurdities like "Slippery when wet. Maintain 50mph." Self-reference. There are several parts in the book where it reviews and jokingly deconstructs itself. The fictional journalist Epicene Wildeblood at one point is required to critique a book uncannily similar to "The Illuminatus! Trilogy": Several protagonists come to the realization that they are merely fictional characters, or at least begin to question the reality of their situation. George Dorn wonders early on if he "was in some crazy surrealist movie, wandering from telepathic sheriffs to homosexual assassins, to nympho lady Masons, to psychotic pirates, according to a script written in advance by two acid-heads and a Martian humorist". Hagbard Celine claims towards the climax that the entire story is a computer-generated synthesis of random conspiracies: "I can fool the rest of you, but I can't fool the reader. FUCKUP has been working all morning, correlating all the data on this caper and its historical roots, and I programmed him to put it in the form of a novel for easy reading. Considering what a lousy job he does at poetry, I suppose it will be a high-camp novel, intentionally or unintentionally." Allusions to other works. For a work of fiction, "Illuminatus!" contains a lot of references to songs, films, articles, novels and other media. This is partly because the characters themselves are involved in doing research, but it is also a trademark of Wilson's writing. The novel "Telemachus Sneezed" by the character Atlanta Hope with its catchphrase "What is John Guilt?" is a spoof of Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged", the origin of the character John Galt. Ayn Rand is mentioned by name a few times in "Illuminatus!", and her novel is alluded to by Hagbard who says, "If Atlas can Shrug and Telemachus can Sneeze, why can't Satan Repent?" Rand is also disparaged in one of the appendices concerning property, ostensibly written by Hagbard, which serves as an explanation of anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's views on the subject. There are also references to Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" and his "Gravity's Rainbow", an equally enormous experimental novel concerning liberty and paranoia that was published two years prior to "Illuminatus!" Wilson claims his book was already complete by the time he and Shea read Pynchon's novel (which went on to win several awards), but they then went back and made some modifications to the text before its final publication to allude to Pynchon's work. The phrase "So it goes" is repeatedly used in reference to death, a deliberate echoing of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five". Author H. P. Lovecraft is alluded to often, with many mentions of characters (e.g., Robert Harrison Blake, Henry Armitage, Klarkash-Ton), monsters (e.g., Tsathoggua, Yog-Sothoth, Cthulhu), books ("Necronomicon", "Unaussprechlichen Kulten") and places (Miskatonic University) from his Cthulhu Mythos. He even appears himself as a character, as does his aunt Annie Gamwell and one of his acquaintances, Hart Crane. Interest in Lovecraft reached new heights in 1975, with two full-length biographies published in the same year as "The Illuminatus! Trilogy". Reviews and reputation. The books have received laudatory reviews and comments from "Playboy", "Publishers Weekly", the American Library Association's "Booklist" magazine, "Philadelphia Daily News", "Berkeley Barb", "Rolling Stone" and "Limit". "The Village Voice" called it "The ultimate conspiracy book ... the biggest sci-fi-cult novel to come along since "Dune" ... hilariously raunchy!" John White of the "New Age Journal" described it as: "The Fortean Times" was also enthusiastic, whilst acknowledging the difficulties many readers would have attempting to follow the convoluted plot threads: "Illuminatus!" even garnered some attention outside literary criticism, having several pages devoted to it in a chapter on the American New Right in "Architects of Fear: Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia in American Politics" by George Johnson (1983). In more recent years, it was complimented in the bibliography to the "New Hackers Dictionary" as a book that can help readers "understand the hacker mindset." The Dictionary described it as: It was also included in the "Slack Syllabus" in "The Official Slacker Handbook" by Sarah Dunn (1994), a satirical guide aimed at Generation X. Follow-ups. Wilson and Robert Shea went on to become prolific authors. While Shea concentrated mainly on historical novels, Wilson produced over 30 works, mixing fictional novels with nonfiction. Although both authors' later work often elaborated on concepts first discussed in "Illuminatus!", the pair never collaborated again. The trilogy inspired a number of direct adaptations, including a stage play and a comic book series, and numerous indirect adaptations that borrowed from its themes. Shea and Wilson. Wilson subsequently wrote a number of prequels, sequels and spin-offs based upon the "Illuminatus!" concept, including an incomplete pentalogy called "The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles", a standalone work entitled "Masks of the Illuminati" and "The Illuminati Papers", in which several chapters are attributed to the trilogy's characters. Many of Wilson's other works, fictional and nonfictional, also make reference to the Illuminati or the "Illuminatus!" books. Several of the characters from "Illuminatus!", for example, Markoff Chaney ("The Midget") and Epicene Wildeblood, return in Wilson's "Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy", which also carries on some of its themes. The third book of the "Cat" trilogy, "The Homing Pigeons", is actually mentioned as a sequel to "Illuminatus!" in "Appendix Mem". In 1998, Wilson published an encyclopedia of conspiracy theories called "Everything is Under Control", which explains the origins of many of the theories mentioned in "Illuminatus!". Wilson and Shea did plan to collaborate again on a true sequel, "Bride of Illuminatus", taking place in 2026. It was rumored that it would feature a resurrected Winifred Saure (the only female member of the American Medical Association) exerting her influence through virtual reality. However, Robert Shea died in 1994 before this project came to fruition. An excerpt was published in Robert Anton Wilson's "Trajectories Newsletter: The Journal of Futurism and Heresy" in spring 1995. In a 1994 interview for "FringeWare Review", Wilson suggested he may even "do a Son of Illuminatus later". In "Intelligence Agents" by Timothy Leary (1996) he was credited with having already authored "Son of Illuminatus" in the 1980s. Shea, meanwhile, never wrote another "Illuminatus!"-related book, although many of his later novels include references to the themes of that work. "Locus" describes Shea's Saracen novels as "Deep background for the "Illuminatus" trilogy". Adaptations. An audacious proposal by the English experimental theater director Ken Campbell to stage "Illuminatus!" in its entirety at The National Theatre in London was met with surprisingly open arms, particularly given its inordinate length: a cycle of five plays—"The Eye of the Pyramid", "Swift Kick Inc.", "The Man Who Murdered God", "Walpurgisnacht Rock" and "Leviathan"—each consisting of five 23-minute-long acts. Sir Peter Hall, director of the National at the time, wrote of Campbell in his "Diaries", "He is a total anarchist and impossible to pin down. He more or less said it was a crime to be serious." The adaptation became the very first production at the National's Cottesloe Theatre space, running from 4 March to 27 March 1977. It had first opened in Liverpool on 23 November 1976. The first night of the London version featured Robert Anton Wilson, accompanied by Shea, as a naked extra in the witches' sabbat scene. Wilson was delighted with the adaptation, saying: "I was thunderstruck at what a magnificent job they did in capturing the exact tone and mixture of fantasy and reality in the book. I've come to the conclusion that this isn't literature. It's too late in the day for literature. This is magic!" The 23-strong cast featured several actors, such as Jim Broadbent, David Rappaport and Chris Langham, who went on to successful film, stage and television careers. Broadbent alone played more than a dozen characters in the play. Bill Drummond designed sets for the show, and it was eventually seen (when it moved to London, with Bill Nighy then joining the cast) by the young Jimmy Cauty. Drummond and Cauty later went on to form the "Illuminatus!"-inspired electronica band The KLF. In thanks, Wilson dedicated his "" (1977) to "Ken Campbell and the Science-Fiction Theatre Of Liverpool, England." The play was later staged in Seattle, Washington in 1978. No film or video exists of the performances at The National Theatre. However a full audio recording does exist and is available as a limited edition perk in the crowdfunding for the 2014 stage play of Wilson's book , adapted by Daisy Eris Campbell (Ken Campbell's daughter). An attempt was made to adapt the trilogy in comic book form beginning in the 1980s, by "Eye-n-Apple Productions" headed by Icarus! Icarus! met with Wilson in 1984 and subsequently obtained permission from Wilson's agent to adapt the trilogy. "Illuminatus!" #1 was issued in July 1987, then reissued in substantially revised form later that year by Rip Off Press (who had published the original 4th edition of the "Principia Discordia" in 1970). A second issue followed in 1990, and a third in March 1991, after which the venture stalled (although several ashcans of the as yet unpublished Fourth Trip were distributed at comic book conventions in the Detroit and Chicago areas between 1991 and 2006). Influence. The infamous 1980s computer hacker Karl Koch was heavily influenced by "The Illuminatus! Trilogy". Besides adopting the pseudonym "Hagbard" from the character Hagbard Celine, he also named his computer "FUCKUP", after a computer designed and built by that character. He was addicted to cocaine and became extremely paranoid, convinced he was fighting the Illuminati like his literary namesake. In 1987 he wrote a rambling seven-page "hacking manifesto of sorts, complete with his theories on Hagbard Celine and the Illuminati". The 1998 German motion picture "23" told a dramatized version of his story; Robert Anton Wilson appeared as himself. A card game, "Illuminati", inspired by the trilogy, was created by Steve Jackson Games. Using the "Illuminatus!" books as "spiritual guides but not as actual source material", it incorporated competing conspiracies of the Bavarian Illuminati and Discordians and others, though no characters or groups specific to the novels. A trading card game () and role-playing game supplement ("GURPS Illuminati") followed. The instruction booklets' bibliographies praise the novel and Wilson particularly, calling "Illuminatus!" in part "required reading for any conspiracy buff". Robert Shea provided a four-paragraph introduction to the rulebook for the Illuminati Expansion Set 1 (1983), in which he wrote, "Maybe the Illuminati are behind "this game." They must be—they are, by definition, behind "everything."" Despite this initial involvement, Wilson later criticized some of these products for exploiting the "Illuminatus!" name without paying royalties (taking advantage of what he viewed as a legal loophole). "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" is steeped with references to the 1960s popular music scene (at one point a list of 200 fictional bands performing at the Walpurgisnacht rock festival is reeled off (including a handful of actual bands of the 60s), and there are numerous references to the famous rock and roll song, "Rock Around the Clock"), and has influenced many bands and musicians. One of the aliases of anarchic British band The KLF was named after a secret society from the trilogy. They released much of their early material under the name "The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu"/"The JAMMs", cf. "The Justified Ancients of Mummu"/"The JAMs" from the trilogy, and much of their work was Discordian in nature. They mirrored the fictional JAMs' gleeful political tactics of causing chaos and confusion by bringing a direct, humorous but nevertheless revolutionary approach to making records. The American band Machines of Loving Grace took the name of a sex act performed by one of the main characters during a Black Mass for the title of their song "Rite of Shiva" on their eponymous album. UK chillout maestro Mixmaster Morris also named his band The Irresistible Force after one that appears at the festival in the last part of the trilogy. Together with Coldcut he organised a huge Robert Anton Wilson Memorial Show at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on 18 March 2007. In general, "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" can be credited with popularizing the genre of conspiracy fiction, a field later mined by authors like Umberto Eco ("Foucault's Pendulum"), Charles Cecil () and Dan Brown ("Angels & Demons", "The Da Vinci Code", "The Lost Symbol"), comic book writers like Alan Moore ("V for Vendetta", "From Hell"), Dave Sim ("Cerebus") and Grant Morrison ("The Invisibles"), and screenwriters like Chris Carter ("The X-Files") and Damon Lindelof ("Lost"). In particular, the regular use of the Illuminati in popular culture as shadowy central puppet masters in this type of fiction can be traced back to their exposure via "The Illuminatus! Trilogy". Editions. Major English-language editions include:

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Singularity Sky Singularity Sky is a science fiction novel by author Charles Stross, published in 2003. It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2004. A sequel, "Iron Sunrise", was published that same year. Together the two are referred to as the Eschaton novels, after a near-godlike intelligence that exists in both. The novel follows the ill-fated military campaign by a repressive state, the New Republic, to retaliate for a perceived invasion of one of its colony worlds. In actuality, the planet has been visited by the Festival, a technologically advanced alien or posthuman race that rewards its hosts for "entertaining" them by granting whatever the entertainer wishes, including the Festival's own technology. This causes extensive social, economic and political disruption to the colony, which was generally limited by the New Republic to technology equivalent to that found on Earth during the Industrial Revolution. Aboard the New Republic's flagship, an engineer and intelligence operative from Earth covertly attempt to prevent the use of a forbidden technology—and fall in love along the way. Themes of the novel include transhumanism, the impact of a sudden technological singularity on a repressive society, and the need for information to be free (the novel's elaboration of the latter theme helped to inspire a proposal to give every Afghan a free mobile phone to combat the Taliban). Its narrative encompasses space opera and elements of steampunk and science fantasy. Intertwined within are social and political satire, and Stross's trademark dark humour and subtle literary and cultural allusions. Stross wrote the novel during the late 1990s, his first attempt at the form. It was not his first novel to be published, but it was the first to be originally published in book form. Its original title, "Festival of Fools", was changed to avoid confusion with Richard Paul Russo's "Ship of Fools". Background. "Singularity Sky" takes place roughly in the early 23rd century, around 150 years after an event referred to by the characters as the Singularity. Shortly after the Earth's population topped 10 billion, computing technology began reaching the point where artificial intelligence could exceed that of humans through the use of closed timelike curves to send information to its past. Suddenly, one day, 90% of the population inexplicably disappeared. Messages left behind, both on computer networks and in monuments placed on the Earth and other planets of the inner solar system carry a short statement from the apparent perpetrator of this event: Earth collapses politically and economically in the wake of this population crash; the Internet Engineering Task Force eventually assumes the mantle of the United Nations, or at least its altruistic mission and charitable functions. Anarchism replaces the Westphalian nation-states; in the novel the UN is described as having 900 of the planet's 15,000 polities as members, and its membership is not limited to polities. A century later, the first interstellar missions, using quantum tunnelling-based jump drives to provide effective faster-than-light travel without violating causality, are launched. One that reaches Barnard's Star finds what happened to those who disappeared from Earth: they were sent to colonise other planets via wormholes that took them back one year in time for every light-year (ly) the star was from Earth. Gradually, it is learned, these colonies were scattered across a 6,000-ly area of the galaxy, all with the same message from the Eschaton etched onto a prominent monument somewhere. There is also evidence that the Eschaton has enforced the "or else" through drastic measures, such as inducing supernovae or impact events on the civilisation that attempted to create causality-violating technology. Earth and the colonies re-establish relations and trade. Some of the latter had regained the same, or higher, technological levels due in part to the "cornucopia machines", molecular assemblers that can recreate objects in predefined patterns or duplicate others, the Eschaton left them with. Transhumanist technologies that came into being before or during the Singularity, such as cybernetic implants, anti-aging and life extension treatments, are in wide use. Spaceships use antimatter, fusion and electron-sized black holes as propulsion. Some colonies, however, rejected or restricted use of advanced technology for social, cultural or political reasons, and instead of devolving into anarchism as Earth did, have replicated politically restrictive states from Earth's history. The novel takes place on two planets of one such polity, the New Republic. Its original settlers were predominantly from Eastern Europe, where many recalled the economic dislocation that followed the fall of communism there. The victorious side in an earlier civil war destroyed the sole remaining cornucopia machine, and imposed a socially and politically repressive feudalist regime that limits most technology to a level consistent with Europe at the end of the 19th century to guarantee everyone a place in society, with accompanying Victorian social mores. Despite this, there are still those who rebel and plan uprisings, along similar lines to those that happened in the historical Eastern Europe of that era. Plot. The Festival, a civilisation of uploaded minds, arrives at Rochard's World, an outlying colony of the New Republic. It begins breaking down objects in the system to make technology for its stay. Then it begins making contact with the inhabitants of the planet by dropping cell phones, forbidden to most citizens of the planet, from low orbit. Those who pick them up hear the Festival, "Entertain us," it asks, "and we will give you what you want." Interlocutors who successfully entertain the Festival by telling it something it has not heard are rewarded with anything they wish for. At first they request food or other modest needs, but then Burya Rubenstein, exiled to the colony for his role in leading an uprising, asks for a cornucopia machine in return for a political tract on the disruptive effect a sudden singularity would have on repressive regimes. Within days the theory becomes reality, as a post-scarcity economy develops and the government is threatened by Rubenstein's uprising and its advanced weaponry. A naval detachment challenges the Festival but is destroyed. In the New Republic's capital city of New Prague, 40 light-years away, deep-cover UN agent Rachel Mansour keeps a close eye as the New Republic prepares a military response. Not only does the New Republic misunderstand the Festival, it seriously underestimates its military capabilities. Of greater concern to Rachel is that it may be planning to approach Rochard's World via a closed timelike loop, arriving there shortly after the Festival did, but earlier than the Navy left the capital. If the Eschaton responds to this apparent violation of causality as the UN fears it might, many settled worlds could have to be evacuated. She recruits Martin Springfield, an Earth-based engineer who has been hired by the New Republic's Admiralty to upgrade its drive systems, to keep an eye out for any signs of such a plan. Unbeknownst to her, Martin is an agent of the Eschaton and has been assigned to sabotage the Admiralty's plan just slightly enough to make it seem unworkable. Back on Rochard's World, Rubenstein is disappointed with the revolution. While it is successful militarily, the cadres he leads have become as rigid and inflexible as the hegemony they fight against. Late one night, while signing seemingly endless orders and communiqués, he is visited by Sister Stratagems the Seventh, a creature resembling a giant mole rat. She is one of the Critics who accompany the Festival. Normally they remain in orbit providing high-level commentary, but she has gone down to the surface to find out for herself why the inhabitants of Rochard's World seem uninterested in the Festival's wisdom. Rachel drops her cover and is assigned to the flagship "Lord Vanek" as a diplomatic observer. Martin, too, has his contract extended so he can join the fleet on the voyage and finish the job. As the only two Terrans and civilians on board a voyage only they realise will end disastrously, they spend a lot of time together, their relationship deepening into love. The fleet travels a circuitous route, jumping four thousand years into the future, before reaching Rochard's World. Martin's 16-microsecond error in the drive code has worked, slightly delaying the fleet. Sister Stratagems faults Rubenstein for the shortcomings of the revolution—it was foolish, she explains, for him to rely on revolutionary traditions in the midst of a singularity and its all-encompassing constant radical change. She takes him on a ride, in Baba Yaga's hut, to the northern city of Plotsk, where he might understand. Along the way he sees "miracles, wonders and abominations". The landscape in some places has been seriously altered. Many farms and their cybernetically-enhanced owners now float freely in geodesic spheres and self-replicating robots, some dangerous to humans, roam the countryside. As the "Lord Vanek" approaches battle, Vassily Muller, a young secret police agent assigned to the ship arranges to have Martin arrested as a spy. He and the ship's head of security arrange a fake court-martial on the capital charge to trap their real target, Rachel, into revealing herself. It backfires when Rachel incapacitates everyone in the courtroom and rescues Martin. Back in her quarters, the two escape on a lifeboat she had her own cornucopia machine fabricate. Vassily and other crewmembers are sucked out into space when they attempt to break in afterwards; he alone survives, wearing emergency protective gear, and is eventually picked up by Rachel and Martin as they descend to Rochard's World, where they arrange, through the Critics, to meet Rubenstein. The warships confront two Bouncers sent out by the Festival. The fleet's captain suspects a trap, but it seems at first that the New Republic's ships have the upper hand. However, eventually they realise they have been hit with grey goo and their own ships are being consumed. The senior staff escape. Monitoring the battle from their own lifeboat, Martin and Rachel are unsurprised by the outcome, and explain to an angry Vassily how, despite its lack of intentions, the Festival's visit indeed represented an existential threat to the Republic since information wants to be free. At Plotsk, where skyscrapers of stratospheric height have been erected, Rubenstein and Sister Stratagems meet some of his former comrades, many of them now cyborgs, and realises that the revolution he started has now grown beyond needing him or any other leader. Many of the citizens of Rochard's World have transcended their humanity, joined the Festival or otherwise permanently modified themselves. Rubenstein himself is implanted with a brain/computer interface. When an anthropomorphised rabbit begs the assembled cadres for help finding his master, the former governor, they join him and Stratagems in looking for him. They find the governor, who had been granted his wish to once again become a young boy with faithful animal companions, mummified on a hillside where the Festival saved him from zombification at the hand of the Mimes, another associated species, with an X-ray laser blast that left his body exposed to dangerous levels of ionizing radiation. He asks, via the implant connection, that he be allowed to join the Festival instead of remaining on the planet. As Rubenstein is considering this request, Martin and Rachel arrive. She gives Rubenstein a cornucopia machine, her original mission, which both realise is no longer necessary. Vassily appears and attempts to kill Rubenstein, identifying himself as his son, but Rachel stops him with a stun gun although he irreversibly damages the cornucopia machine in the process. The Festival and its associated species leave for their next destination, and on the planet the population—survivors of a thousand years of technological progress compressed into one month—regroup. Those desiring to return to life under the New Republic settle in Novy Petrograd, where the senior officers from the "Lord Vanek" have re-established imperial authority. Rubenstein and the others go to Plotsk, where Martin and Rachel run a small shop offering "access to tools and ideas" until they can return to Earth nine months later. Characters. The Festival and its entourage. The Festival is an upload civilisation, originally intended to repair galactic information networks, that travels from system to system via starwisps, building the facilities it needs from local materials when it arrives. It usually prefers to interact with other upload civilisations, but any will do in a pinch. It asks for information it is unfamiliar with from those it visits, and will make any kind of payment in exchange. No individual member of the Festival makes an appearance in the novel. Traveling in the Festival's vast spare mindspace are a number of other upload species that are separate from them but part of every visit. Themes. The novel's most prominent theme is the cyberpunk refrain that "information wants to be free". Once impediments to it such as the New Republic's methods of repression are removed, technological and material progress follows. Rachel says exactly that to the rescued Vassily as she, he and Martin escape the doomed "Lord Vanek". The Festival's function is described as "repair[ing] holes in the galactic information flow". "Singularity Sky" also depicts the far-reaching implications of its title event. The arrival of the cornucopia machines and the cybernetic enhancements made available by the Festival force not only the collapse of the existing social, economic and political orders but prevent their replacement by Rubenstein's revolution. "People suddenly gifted with infinite wealth and knowledge rapidly learned that they didn't need a government—and this was true as much for members of the underground as for the workers and peasants they strove to mobilize." Martin describes it to Vassily as "what in our business we call a consensus reality excursion; people went a little crazy, that's all. A sudden overdose of change; immortality, bioengineering, weakly superhuman AI arbeiters, nanotechnology, that sort of thing. It isn't an attack." History. "Singularity Sky" was a younger Stross's first attempt at a novel, and his first novel first published in book form. Development. In the early 1990s, before actively beginning his writing career, Stross had wanted to do space opera, the subgenre of science fiction built around space battles and adventures. As part of his worldbuilding, he needed to have a diverse group of human colonies scattered across a large area of space. He needed to have faster-than-light travel between those worlds, but that also created the problem of avoiding causality violations, one of the many limitations of the singularity for space opera that he credits Vernor Vinge, who wrote an important early essay on the concept, for having highlighted in his novel "A Fire Upon the Deep". The Eschaton's dispersal of humanity and subsequent edict were his solution. "I'd been reading too much David Weber at the time," he recalled in 2013, "and noting the uncritical enthusiasm with which readers seemed to receive his tales of Napoleonic Navies in Spaaaaace." He began to wonder why such space navies always found themselves equally matched in battle. "Surely in a diverse space operatic universe you'll occasionally see a Napoleonic space navy run into a nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarine? Or the equivalent of wooden tall ships encountering an unarmed modern icebreaker." Further, he observed, "[l]et's just say that the political systems in most military space opera "really suck"." To satirise these failings of the subgenre, he chose "the most barkingly insane naval expedition of recent history" as a model: the Russian Baltic Fleet's journey around Africa and Asia in an attempt to retake Port Arthur in China during the Russo–Japanese War in 1905, with sailors who were largely new recruits and mostly new ships on their shakedown cruise. Most of the Russian fleet of coal-fuelled ships was lost in the resulting Battle of Tsushima, a decisive victory for the Japanese. Their journey to such a crushing defeat, including an early mistaken attack on another polity's civilian vessels similar to the Dogger Bank incident, is closely paralleled by the journey of the New Republic fleet during the novel. Once he had written that narrative, he realised he had forgotten to give the space navy an enemy. He broached this problem in a conversation at a pub in Edinburgh, where he lives, in August 1997. He recalled his original thoughts about Iain Banks's "Excession", and asked for "a threat they don't understand, one that they "can't" understand." A friend suggested the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which was the reason they had strayed from their preferred pubs to one in Leith: With that element in place, Stross cut a large chunk of what he had already written and wrote the novel's opening sequence. Since he had just gotten his own first cellphone, he decided that the Festival would announce its presence to the inhabitants of Rochard's World by raining them from orbit. He finished the first draft, originally titled "Festival of Fools", by 1998, while he was working for DataCash as a software developer and writing the Linux column for "Computer Shopper". It ultimately went through three drafts, during which the author says he cut passages equal to about 140% of the finished novel. After finishing it and the first drafts of a sequel that became "Iron Sunrise", Stross was unable to sell it and nearly gave up on writing fiction. He continued trying, especially after leaving his job at DataCash, and finally sold it to Ace Books in 2001. The title was changed to avoid confusion with Richard Paul Russo's "Ship of Fools", released around the same time. Stross's editor suggested working "singularity" then a buzzword, into the title. Publication. Publication was originally scheduled for mid-2002, but was later postponed until the beginning of the next year under the Big Engine imprint. In the meantime "The Atrocity Archive", two long stories Stross had published in the Scottish magazine "Spectrum SF", became his first published longform fiction. Big Engine went into liquidation before it could bring out "Singularity Sky". Ace published it in the US later that summer, with the mass-market paperback edition coming out a year later, making "Singularity Sky" Stross's first novel to be published in book form. Orbit Books acquired the UK rights and published the hardback in 2004 and the paperback early in 2005. Since "Iron Sunrise", the sequel, was published within months, an omnibus volume containing both books, "Timelike Diplomacy", was published by the SF Book Club in 2004 as well. It has been translated into several other languages, published in ebook format, and remains in print. In 2012 Stross said that the royalties from it amount to $1,000 a year. Reception. Stross's short stories, particularly those published in "Asimov's Science Fiction" magazines, later published as "Accelerando", had created a great deal of excitement in the science-fiction community. "Popular Science" ran a feature focusing on him and frequent collaborator Cory Doctorow as newer writers in the genre whose shared background in computer science helped lend credibility to their stories of artificial intelligence and the use of the singularity as a story element. Dealing extensively with both those issues, his first real novel was eagerly anticipated. It was generally well received. At "SF Site" Alma Hromic called it "deeply complex in a sort of cerebrally witty way". Reading it was "watching a writer having fun". At SF Reviews, Thomas Wagner called attention to some of the novel's imperfections. While he praised the scenes showing the effect of the singularity on Rochard's World as "a "tour de force" of imagination", he felt the characterisation could have been better for the minor characters. Rachel and Martin "get all of Stross's attention ... Other characters are drawn out only as far as the story needs them". "As a newcomer to long fiction," wrote "Publishers Weekly", "Stross has some problems with pacing, but the book still generates plenty of excitement." It was eventually shortlisted for the Hugo Award that year. In 2010 Stross admitted the novel had some faults, calling it "quirky but not well-plotted". Analysis and commentary. "Singularity Sky" has been the subject of some higher-level literary criticism. Veronica Hollinger of Trent University sees it as an example of what has been called New Baroque Space Opera, along with Iain Banks' "Consider Phlebas" and Alastair Reynolds' "Redemption Ark". "[They] are contributing to a self-conscious revival, in new directions, of one of SF's oldest (and most denigrated) subgenres, constructing futures that—quite cheerfully, for the most part—reflect back to us the incredible complexity of the technoscientific present." Markus Öhman, an undergraduate education student at Luleå University of Technology in Sweden, has looked at how the novel deals with class and gender issues as they intersect the singularity. Rigid class distinctions, reinforced by a hereditary aristocracy, are a feature of life in the New Republic so marked that both Martin and Rachel express discontent and frustration with them. But outside that order class exists as well. Status among the revolutionaries is measured by one's understanding of, and level of commitment to, revolutionary ideology. And the Critics, in turn, have a hierarchy distinguished by knowledge—Sister Stratagems privately hopes that her oblique manner of speaking and commenting will give enough of an impression of knowledge as to allow her to become queen one day—and gender as well (the only male Critic we see is apparently relegated to a military role and rudely dismissed when he offers even a slight sentence of comment). The Critics' class-and-gender hierarchy is mirrored by the New Republic, which oppresses women so thoroughly, Öhman observes, that only one female of that society has even a brief real speaking role in the book,(and she is an atypical one at that—the revolutionary confronting Mr. Rabbit). The singularity changes all that, although how is not shown in the text. "Through extrapolation and inference, however, it is made clear that the social upheaval results in changes in the paradigm, ensuing greater freedom for women." So, too, with social class: "... [F]or the duration of the Festival's orbital presence, Rochard's World is a classless anarchistic non-society with small zones of stability filled with modified humans." Öhman criticises Stross for one aspect of this liberation. He notes that the fugitive Duke describes, among the effects of the singularity, women in villages made so wise that their wisdom "leaked out into the neighborhood, animating the objects around them"—suggestive of witchcraft, which has historically been used to taint women acquiring knowledge as objects to be feared and persecuted. The only significant female character on Rochard's World, Sister Stratagems, is also one of the wisest characters in the story, even if she often speaks too obliquely for her wisdom to have any direct effect. But, Öhman points out, she too is associated with witchcraft in the form of her chosen vehicle, Baba Yaga's walking hut. "Stross uses the symbol of Baba Yaga to imbue Sister Seventh with authority and power, but at the same time he paints her as a symbol of evil and fear." By contrast, Rachel, according to Öhman, transcends gender limitations. She is both self-empowered, through her military implants and experience, and politically empowered by her position with the UN. During the staged court-martial she appears ready to become another example of a self-empowered woman who voluntarily renounces all or some of her power to save the man she loves, but instead she subverts the trope, drawing on her implants to appropriate the role of a male action hero and rescue Martin. "Through transhumanism, she transcends the tropes associated with male and female literary roles." Sequels. The novel has a sequel, "Iron Sunrise", published in 2004 and shortlisted for that year's Hugo. Stross decided afterwards that he had created unresolvable issues with the Eschaton universe and would not be writing any more works in that series. However, he has shared the plot details of a third novel he had planned, which would have dealt in part with the aftereffects of the events on Rochard's World within the New Republic as a whole. After finishing "Singularity Sky", Stross wrote the first draft of its eventual sequel. Most of it was extensively revised and even more was cut before the version that saw print. It follows Martin and Rachel, now in a long-term relationship, as they try to avert a potentially devastating revenge attack by the remnants of a colony destroyed by an induced supernova, and uncovering a more serious threat in the process. The Eschaton, as Herman, plays a larger direct role in the plot than it does in the first novel. The story is bookended by Rachel having to account to a UN accountant for the expense of her activities in "Singularity Sky"; otherwise there is no continuation of the narratives of that novel. In 2010 Stross wrote that mistakes he felt he had made in "Iron Sunrise" had left the universe of the Eschaton novels "broken" and thus he would not be writing any more novels in the series. However, he did post on his blog the plot setup he had been considering for a third installment before he decided to abandon the setting, which would have revisited the New Republic. His working title was "Space Pirates of KPMG". It would have taken place a decade after "Singularity Sky", when the destabilizing effects of the singularity on Rochard's World would have spread to the entirety of the New Republic. As a result of the economic upheavals, the remaining navy crews would be long in arrears on their pay, likely to mutiny and desert for more lucrative opportunities in piracy, using their military skills to violently rob starships of valuable cargo. This would have brought them into conflict with the predominant pirates, who prefer the more discreet technique of auditing the cargo and work with commodities traders to make money through arbitrage on the destination planet. Legacy. "Singularity Sky" has been cited outside the science fiction audience by writers trying to explain to readers the title concept, or at least the effects of the rapid change the novel depicts in a real-world context. In his 2011 book "News 2.0: Can Journalism Survive the Internet", Australian journalism professor Martin Hirst sees Rubenstein, whom the novel describes as a journalist, as an analogue to the position of real journalists confronted by the evolution of the Internet and social media in the early 21st century. While he concedes that there are experts who are sceptical that computers will reach or surpass human intelligence by the 2030s, "the point here is that Stross is right "enough" ... The world appears to be on a path of technological change that is constant and speeding up." In 2010 David Betz, a senior lecturer in war studies at King's College, London, cited "Singularity Sky" as a model for a proposal to undermine the Taliban's hold over Afghanistan, and strengthen the country's legitimate government, by giving every resident of the country a free mobile phone. He said it would "create a real communications space and 'let ideas find their own levels'". In Stross's novel, he noted, "the contact of the lesser developed culture with the advanced one is utterly devastating for the status quo of the former. The parallels are pretty obvious."

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Hartmann the Anarchist Hartmann the Anarchist or The Doom of the Great City is a science fiction novel by Edward Douglas Fawcett first published in 1893. It remained out of print for over 100 years and has only recently been re-published. The plot centers around Mr Stanley, a young moneyed gentleman who aims to stand for election as part of the Labour party in the early 20th century. Through his associations with many of London's most prominent socialists and anarchists, he encounters and befriends Rudolph Hartmann and 'goes along' with Hartmann's plan to attack London using his airship "The Attila". Much of London is destroyed by fire and shells in the beginning of their plans to replace civilization with anarchism: "But how is the new order to take shape? How educe system from chaos?" "We want no more 'systems,' or 'constitutions' -- we shall have anarchy. Men will effect by voluntary association, and abjure the foulness of the modern wage-slavery and city-mechanisms." "But can you expect the more brutal classes to thrive under this system. Will they not rather degenerate into savagery?" "You forget the Attila will still sail the breeze, and she will then have her fleet of consorts." "What! You do not propose, then, to leave anarchy unreasoned?" "Not at once -- the transition would be far too severe. Some supervision must necessarily be exercised, but, as a rule, it will never be more than nominal."

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Emma (play) Emma (or Emma: A Play in Two Acts about Emma Goldman, American Anarchist, its full title) is a play by historian and playwright Howard Zinn (1922–2010). It was first performed in 1976. The play dramatizes events from the life of Emma Goldman. Zinn wrote the play using Goldman's autobiography, correspondence between Goldman and fellow anarchist Alexander Berkman (Emma's lover, who also became a character in the play), and other research. As Zinn describes her in his introduction, "She seemed to be tireless as she traveled the country, lecturing to large audiences everywhere, on birth control ('A woman should decide for herself'), on the problems of marriage as an institution ('Marriage has nothing to do with love'), on patriotism ('the last refuge of a scoundrel'), on free love ('What is love if not free?'), and also on the drama — Shaw, Ibsen, Strindberg." According to author Tom H. Hastings, the play shows the period of Goldman's "nonviolence and resistance to militarism", rather than her earlier "attachment to violent revolution". After someone accuses her of plotting to "blow up the fleet" in San Francisco harbor, she declares "Bombs are not my way", but she "would be happy to see the fleet sink to the bottom of the sea ... so that we, and our brothers and sisters in other countries, can live in peace." Plot summary. The action of the play takes place during the late 1880s, and focuses on the character of Emma Goldman as she grows from a simple textile factory worker to a revolutionary and anarchist. The outspoken advocacy of radical anarchist and populist ideals are followed through persecution and hardship to the beginnings of World War I. The play closes with the words of Goldman during an anti-conscription protest in 1917, just before her arrest on sedition charges.

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The Culture The Culture is a fictional interstellar post-scarcity civilisation or society created by the Scottish writer Iain M. Banks and features in a number of his space opera novels and works of short fiction, collectively called the Culture series. In the series, the Culture is composed primarily of sentient beings of the humanoid alien variety, artificially intelligent sentient machines, and a small number of other sentient "alien" life forms. Machine intelligences range from human-equivalent drones to hyper-intelligent Minds. Artificial intelligences with capabilities measured as a fraction of human intelligence also perform a variety of tasks, e.g. controlling spacesuits. Without scarcity, the Culture has no need for money, instead minds voluntarily indulge humanoid and drone citizens' pleasures, leading to a largely hedonistic society. Many of the series' protagonists are humanoids who choose to work for the Culture's elite diplomatic or espionage organisations, and interact with other civilisations whose citizens hold wildly different ideologies, morals, and technologies. The Culture has a grasp of technology that is advanced relative to most other civilisations that share the galaxy. Most of the Culture's citizens do not live on planets but in artificial habitats such as orbitals and ships, the largest of which are home to billions of individuals. The Culture's citizens have been genetically enhanced to live for centuries and have modified mental control over their physiology, including the ability to introduce a variety of psychoactive drugs into their systems, change biological sex, or switch off pain at will. Culture technology can transform individuals into vastly different body forms, although the Culture standard form remains fairly close to human. The Culture holds peace and individual freedom as core values, and a central theme of the series is ethical struggle it faces when interacting with other societies - some of which brutalise their own members, pose threats to other civilisations, or threaten the Culture itself. It tends to make major decisions based on the consensus formed by its Minds and, if appropriate, its citizens. In one instance, a direct democratic vote of trillions – the entire population – decided The Culture would go to war with a rival civilisation. Those who objected to the Culture's subsequent militarisation broke off from the meta-civilisation, forming their own separate civilisation; a hallmark of the Culture is its ambiguity. In contrast to the many interstellar societies and empires which share its fictional universe, the Culture is difficult to define, geographically or sociologically, and "fades out at the edges". Overview. The Culture is characterized as being a post-scarcity society, having overcome most physical constraints on life and being an egalitarian, stable society without the use of any form of force or compulsion, except where necessary to protect others. That being said, some citizens and especially crafty minds tend to enjoy manipulating others, in particular by controlling the course of alien societies, through the group known as contact. Minds, extremely powerful artificial intelligences, have an important role. They administer this abundance for the benefit of all. As one commentator has said: The novels of the Culture cycle, therefore, mostly deal with people at the fringes of the Culture: diplomats, spies, or mercenaries; those who interact with other civilisations, and who do the Culture's dirty work in moving those societies closer to the Culture ideal, sometimes by force. Fictional history. In this fictional universe, the Culture exists concurrently with human society on Earth. The time frame for the published Culture stories is from 1267 to roughly 2970, with Earth being contacted around 2100, though the Culture had covertly visited the planet in the 1970s in "The State of the Art". The Culture itself is described as having been created when several humanoid species and machine sentiences reached a certain social level, and took not only their physical, but also their civilisational evolution into their own hands. In "The Player of Games", the Culture is described as having existed as a space-faring society for eleven thousand years. In "The Hydrogen Sonata", one of these founding civilisations was named as the Buhdren Federality. Society and culture. Economy. The Culture is a symbiotic society of artificial intelligences (AIs) (Minds and drones), humanoids and other alien species who all share equal status. All essential work is performed (as far as possible) by non-sentient devices, freeing sentients to do only things that they enjoy (administrative work requiring sentience is undertaken by the AIs using a bare fraction of their mental power, or by people who take on the work out of free choice). As such, the Culture is a post-scarcity society, where technological advances ensure that no one lacks any material goods or services. Energy is farmed from a fictitious "energy grid", and matter to build orbitals is collected mostly from asteroids. As a consequence, the Culture has no need of economic constructs such as money (as is apparent when it deals with civilisations in which money is still important). The Culture rejects all forms of economics based on anything other than voluntary activity. "Money implies poverty" is a common saying in the Culture. Language. Marain is the Culture's shared constructed language. The Culture believes the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis that language influences thought, and Marain was designed by early Minds to exploit this effect, while also "appealing to poets, pedants, engineers and programmers". Designed to be represented either in binary or symbol-written form, Marain is also regarded as an aesthetically pleasing language by the Culture. The symbols of the Marain alphabet can be displayed in three-by-three grids of binary (yes/no, black/white) dots and thus correspond to nine-bit wide binary numbers. Related comments are made by the narrator in "The Player of Games" regarding gender-specific pronouns, which Marain speakers do not use in typical conversation unless specifying one's gender is necessary, and by general reflection on the fact that Marain places much less structural emphasis on (or even lacks) concepts like possession and ownership, dominance and submission, and especially aggression. Many of these concepts would in fact be somewhat theoretical to the average Culture citizen. Indeed, the presence of these concepts in other civilisations signify the brutality and hierarchy associated with forms of empire that the Culture strives to avoid. Marain itself is also open to encryption and dialect-specific implementations for different parts of the Culture. M1 is basic Nonary Marain, the three-by-three grid. All Culture citizens can communicate in this variant. Other variants include M8 through M16, which are encrypted by various degrees, and are typically used by the Contact Section. Higher level encryptions exist, the highest of these being M32. M32 and lower level encrypted signals are the province of Special Circumstances (SC). Use of M32 is reserved for extremely secret and reserved information and communication within Special Circumstances. That said, M32 has an air of notoriety in the Culture, and in the thoughts of most may best be articulated as "the Unbreakable, Inviolable, Holy of Holies Special Circumstances M32" as described by prospective SC agent Ulver Seich. Ships and Minds also have a slightly distasteful view of SC procedure associated with M32, one Ship Mind going so far as to object to the standard SC attitude of "Full scale, stark raving M32 don't-talk-about-this-or-we'll-pull-your-plugs-out-baby paranoia" on the use of the encryption. Laws. There are no laws as such in the Culture. Social norms are enforced by convention (personal reputation, "good manners", and by, as described in "The Player of Games", possible ostracism and involuntary supervision for more serious crimes). Minds generally refrain from using their all-seeing capabilities to influence people's reputations, though they are not necessarily themselves above judging people based on such observations, as described in "Excession". Minds also judge each other, with one of the more relevant criteria being the quality of their treatment of sentients in their care. Hub Minds for example are generally nominated from well-regarded GSV (the largest class of ships) Minds, and then upgraded to care for the billions living on the artificial habitats. The only serious prohibitions that seem to exist are against harming sentient beings, or forcing them into undertaking any act (another concept that seems unnatural to and is, in fact, almost unheard of by almost all Culture citizens). As mentioned in "The Player of Games", the Culture does have the occasional "crime of passion" (as described by an Azadian) and the punishment was to be "slap-droned", or to have a drone assigned to follow the offender and "make sure [they] don't do it again". While the enforcement in theory could lead to a Big Brother-style surveillance society, in practice social convention among the Minds prohibits them from watching, or interfering in, citizens' lives unless requested, or unless they perceive severe risk. The practice of reading a sentient's mind without permission (something the Culture is technologically easily capable of) is also strictly taboo. The whole plot of "Look to Windward" relies on a Hub Mind not reading an agent's mind (with certain precautions in case this rule gets violated). Minds that do so anyway are considered deviant and shunned by other Minds (see GCU "Grey Area"). At one point it is said that if the Culture actually had written laws, the sanctity of one's own thoughts against the intrusion of others would be the first on the books. This gives some measure of privacy and protection; though the very nature of Culture society would, strictly speaking, make keeping secrets irrelevant: most of them would be considered neither shameful nor criminal. It does allow the Minds in particular to scheme amongst themselves in a very efficient manner, and occasionally withhold information. Symbols. The Culture has no flag, symbol or logo. According to "Consider Phlebas", people can recognize items made by the Culture implicitly, by the way they are simple, efficient and aesthetic. The main outright symbol of the Culture, the one by which it is most explicitly and proudly recognized, is not a visual symbol, but its language, Marain, which is used far beyond the Culture itself. It is often employed in the galaxy as a de facto lingua franca among people who don't share a language. Even the main character of "Consider Phlebas", an enemy of the Culture, ready to die to help in its downfall, is fluent in Marain and uses it with other non-Culture characters out of sheer convenience. It would have helped if the Culture had used some sort of emblem or logo; but, pointlessly unhelpful and unrealistic to the last, the Culture refused to place its trust in symbols. It maintained that it was what it was and had no need for such outward representation. The Culture was every single individual human and machine in it, not one thing. Just as it could not imprison itself with laws, impoverish itself with money or misguide itself with leaders, so it would not misrepresent itself with signs. Citizens. Biological. The Culture is a posthuman society, which originally arose when seven or eight roughly humanoid space-faring species coalesced into a quasi-collective (a group-civilisation) ultimately consisting of approximately thirty trillion (short scale) sentient (more properly, sapient) beings (this includes artificial intelligences). In Banks's universe, a good part (but by no means an overwhelming percentage) of all sentient species is of the "pan-human" type, as noted in "Matter". Although the Culture was originated by humanoid species, subsequent interactions with other civilisations have introduced many non-humanoid species into the Culture (including some former enemy civilisations), though the majority of the biological Culture is still pan-human. Little uniformity exists in the Culture, and its citizens are such by choice, free to change physical form and even species (though some stranger biological conversions are irreversible, and conversion from biological to artificial sentience is considered to be what is known as an Unusual Life Choice). All members are also free to join, leave, and rejoin, or indeed declare themselves to be, say, 80% Culture. Within the novels, opponents of the Culture have argued that the role of humans in the Culture is nothing more than that of pets, or parasites on Culture Minds, and that they can have nothing genuinely useful to contribute to a society where science is close to omniscient about the physical universe, where every ailment has been cured, and where every thought can be read. Many of the Culture novels in fact contain characters (from within or without the Culture) wondering how far-reaching the Minds' dominance of the Culture is, and how much of the democratic process within it might in fact be a sham: subtly but very powerfully influenced by the Minds in much the same ways Contact and Special Circumstances influence other societies. Also, except for some mentions about a vote over the Idiran-Culture War, and the existence of a very small number of "Referrers" (humans of especially acute reasoning), few biological entities are ever described as being involved in any high-level decisions. On the other hand, the Culture can be seen as fundamentally hedonistic (one of the main objectives for any being, including Minds, is to have fun rather than to be "useful"). Also, Minds are constructed, by convention, to care for and value human beings. While a General Contact Unit (GCU) does not strictly need a crew (and could construct artificial avatars when it did), a real human crew adds richness to its existence, and offers distraction during otherwise dull periods. In "Consider Phlebas" it is noted that Minds still find humans fascinating, especially their odd ability to sometimes achieve similarly advanced reasoning as their much more complex machine brains. To a large degree, the freedoms enjoyed by humans in the Culture are only available because Minds choose to provide them. The freedoms include the ability to leave the Culture when desired, often forming new associated but separate societies with Culture ships and Minds, most notably the Zetetic Elench and the ultra-pacifist and non-interventionist Peace Faction. Physiology. Techniques in genetics have advanced in the Culture to the point where bodies can be freed from built-in limitations. Citizens of the Culture refer to a normal human as "human-basic" and the vast majority opt for significant enhancements: severed limbs grow back, sexual physiology can be voluntarily changed from male to female and back (though the process takes time), sexual stimulation and endurance are strongly heightened in both sexes (something that is often the subject of envious debate among other species), pain can be switched off, toxins can be bypassed away from the digestive system, autonomic functions such as heart rate can be switched to conscious control, reflexes like blinking can be switched off, and bones and muscles adapt quickly to changes in gravity without the need to exercise. The degree of enhancement found in Culture individuals varies to taste, with certain of the more exotic enhancements limited to Special Circumstances personnel (for example, weapons systems embedded in various parts of the body). Most Culture individuals opt to have drug glands that allow for hormonal levels and other chemical secretions to be consciously monitored, released and controlled. These allow owners to secrete on command any of a wide selection of synthetic drugs, from the merely relaxing to the mind-altering: "Snap" is described in "Use of Weapons" and "The Player of Games" as "The Culture's favourite breakfast drug". "Sharp Blue" is described as a utility drug, as opposed to a sensory enhancer or a sexual stimulant, that helps in problem solving. "Quicken", mentioned in "Excession", speeds up the user's neural processes so that time seems to slow down, allowing them to think and have mental conversation (for example with artificial intelligences) in far less time than it appears to take to the outside observer. "Sperk", as described in "Matter", is a mood- and energy-enhancing drug, while other such self-produced drugs include "Calm", "Gain", "Charge", "Recall", "Diffuse", "Somnabsolute", "Softnow", "Focal", "Edge", "Drill", "Gung", "Winnow" and "Crystal Fugue State". The glanded substances have no permanent side-effects and are non-habit-forming. Phenotypes. For all their genetic improvements, the Culture is by no means eugenically uniform. Human members in the Culture setting vary in size, colour and shape as in reality, and with possibly even further natural differences: in the novella "The State of the Art", it is mentioned that a character "looks like a Yeti", and that there is variance among the Culture in minor details such as the number of toes or of joints on each finger. It is mentioned in "Excession" that: Some Culture citizens opt to leave the constraints of a human or even humanoid body altogether, opting to take on the appearance of one of the myriad other galactic sentients (perhaps in order to live with them) or even non-sentient objects as commented upon in "Matter" (though this process can be irreversible if the desired form is too removed from the structure of the human brain). Certain eccentrics have chosen to become drones or even Minds themselves, though this is considered rude and possibly even insulting by most humans and AIs alike. While the Culture is generally pan-humanoid (and tends to call itself "human"), various other species and individuals of other species have become part of the Culture. As all Culture citizens are of perfect genetic health, the very rare cases of a Culture citizen showing any physical deformity are almost certain to be a sort of fashion statement of somewhat dubious taste. Personality. Almost all Culture citizens are very sociable, of great intellectual capability and learning, and possess very well-balanced psyches. Their biological make-up and their growing up in an enlightened society make neuroses and lesser emotions like greed or (strong) jealousy practically unknown, and produce persons that, in any lesser society, appear very self-composed and charismatic. Character traits like strong shyness, while very rare, are not fully unknown, as shown in "Excession". As described there and in "Player of Games", a Culture citizen who becomes dysfunctional enough to pose a serious nuisance or threat to others would be offered (voluntary) psychological adjustment therapy and might potentially find himself under constant (non-voluntary) oversight by representatives of the local Mind. In extreme cases, as described in "Use of Weapons" and "Surface Detail", dangerous individuals have been known to be assigned a "slap-drone", a robotic follower who ensures that the person in question doesn't continue to endanger the safety of others. Artificial. As well as humans and other biological species, sentient artificial intelligences are also members of the Culture. These can be broadly categorised into drones and Minds. Also, by custom, as described in "Excession", any artefact (be it a tool or vessel) above a certain capability level has to be given sentience. Drones. Drones are roughly comparable in intelligence and social status to that of the Culture's biological members. Their intelligence is measured against that of an average biological member of the Culture; a so-called "1.0 value" drone would be considered the mental equal of a biological citizen, whereas lesser drones such as the menial service units of Orbitals are merely proto-sentient (capable of limited reaction to unprogrammed events, but possessing no consciousness, and thus not considered citizens; these take care of much of the menial work in the Culture). The sentience of advanced drones has various levels of redundancy, from systems similar to that of Minds (though much reduced in capability) down to electronic, to mechanical and finally biochemical back-up brains. Although drones are artificial, the parameters that prescribe their minds are not rigidly constrained, and sentient drones are full individuals, with their own personalities, opinions and quirks. Like biological citizens, Culture drones generally have lengthy names. They also have a form of sexual intercourse for pleasure, called being "in thrall", though this is an intellect-only interfacing with another sympathetic drone. While civilian drones do generally match humans in intelligence, drones built especially as Contact or Special Circumstances agents are often several times more intelligent, and imbued with extremely powerful senses, powers and armaments (usually forcefield and effector-based, though occasionally more destructive weaponry such as lasers or, exceptionally, "knife-missiles" are referred to) all powered by antimatter reactors. Despite being purpose-built, these drones are still allowed individual personalities and given a choice in lifestyle. Indeed, some are eventually deemed psychologically unsuitable as agents (for example as Mawhrin-Skel notes about itself in "The Player of Games") and must choose (or choose to choose) either mental reprofiling or demilitarisation and discharge from Special Circumstances. Physically, drones are floating units of various sizes and shapes, usually with no visible moving parts. Drones get around the limitations of this inanimation with the ability to project "fields": both those capable of physical force, which allow them to manipulate objects, as well as visible, coloured fields called "auras", which are used to enable the drone to express emotion. There is a complex drone code based on aura colours and patterns (which is fully understood by biological Culture citizens as well). Drones have full control of their auras and can display emotions they're not feeling or can switch their aura off. The drone, Jase, in "Consider Phlebas", is described as being constructed before the use of auras, and refuses to be retrofitted with them, preferring to remain inscrutable. In size drones vary substantially: the oldest still alive (eight or nine thousand years old) tend to be around the size of humans, whereas later technology allows drones to be small enough to lie in a human's cupped palm; modern drones may be any size between these extremes according to fashion and personal preference. Some drones are also designed as utility equipment with its own sentience, such as the gelfield protective suit described in "Excession". Minds. By contrast to drones, Minds are orders of magnitude more powerful and intelligent than the Culture's other biological and artificial citizens. Typically they inhabit and act as the controllers of large-scale Culture hardware such as ships or space-based habitats. Unsurprisingly, given their duties, Minds are tremendously powerful: capable of running all of the functions of a ship or habitat, while holding potentially billions of simultaneous conversations with the citizens that live aboard them. To allow them to perform at such a high degree, they exist partially in hyperspace to get around hindrances to computing power such as the speed of light. In Iain M. Banks's Culture series, most larger starships, some inhabited planets and all orbitals have their own Minds: sapient, hyperintelligent machines originally built by biological species, which have evolved, redesigned themselves, and become many times more intelligent than their original creators. According to "Consider Phlebas", a Mind is an ellipsoid object roughly the size of a bus and weighing around tons. A Mind is in fact a entity, meaning that the ellipsoid is only the protrusion of the larger four dimensional device into our 'real space'. In the Culture universe, Minds have become an indispensable part of the prevailing society, enabling much of its post-scarcity amenities by planning and automating societal functions, and by handling day-to-day administration with mere fractions of their mental power. The main difference between Minds and other extremely powerful artificial intelligences in fiction is that they are highly humanistic and benevolent. They are so both by design, and by their shared culture. They are often even rather eccentric. Yet, by and large, they show no wish to supplant or dominate their erstwhile creators. On the other hand, it can also be argued that to the Minds, the human-like members of the Culture amount to little more than pets, whose wants are followed on a Mind's whim. Within the Series, this dynamic is played on more than once. In 'Excession', it is also played on to put a Mind in its place—in the mythology, a Mind is not thought to be a god, still, but an artificial intelligence capable of surprise, and even fear. Although the Culture is a type of utopian anarchy, Minds most closely approach the status of leaders, and would likely be considered godlike in less rational societies. As independent, thinking beings, each has its own character, and indeed, legally (insofar as the Culture has a 'legal system'), each is a Culture citizen. Some Minds are more aggressive, some more calm; some don't mind mischief, others simply demonstrate intellectual curiosity. But above all they tend to behave rationally and benevolently in their decisions. As mentioned before, Minds can serve several different purposes, but Culture ships and habitats have one special attribute: the Mind and the ship or habitat are perceived as one entity; in some ways the Mind "is" the ship, certainly from its passengers' point of view. It seems normal practice to address the ship's Mind as "Ship" (and an Orbital hub as "Hub"). However, a Mind can transfer its 'mind state' into and out of its ship 'body', and even switch roles entirely, becoming (for example) an Orbital Hub from a warship. More often than not, the Mind's character defines the ship's purpose. Minds do not end up in roles unsuited to them; an antisocial Mind simply would not volunteer to organise the care of thousands of humans, for example. On occasion groupings of two or three Minds may run a ship. This seems normal practice for larger vehicles such as s, though smaller ships only ever seem to have one Mind. Banks also hints at a Mind's personality becoming defined at least partially before its creation or 'birth'. Warships, as an example, are designed to revel in controlled destruction; seeing a certain glory in achieving a 'worthwhile' death also seems characteristic. The presence of human crews on board warships may discourage such recklessness, since in the normal course of things, a Mind would not risk beings other than itself. With their almost godlike powers of reasoning and action comes a temptation to bend (or break) Cultural norms of ethical behaviour, if deemed necessary for some greater good. In "The Player of Games", a Culture citizen is blackmailed, apparently by Special Circumstances Minds, into assisting the overthrow of a barbaric empire, while in "Excession", a conspiracy by some Minds to start a war against an oppressive alien race nearly comes to fruition. Yet even in these rare cases, the essentially benevolent intentions of Minds towards other Culture citizens is never in question. More than any other beings in the Culture, Minds are the ones faced with interesting ethical dilemmas. While Minds would likely have different capabilities, especially seeing their widely differing ages (and thus technological sophistication), this is not a theme of the books. It might be speculated that the older Minds are upgraded to keep in step with the advances in technology, thus making this point moot. It is also noted in "Matter" that every Culture Mind writes its own , thus continually improving itself and, as a side benefit, becoming much less vulnerable to outside takeover by electronic means and viruses, as every Mind's processing functions work differently. The high computing power of the Mind is apparently enabled by thought processes (and electronics) being constantly in hyperspace (thus circumventing the light speed limit in computation). Minds do have back-up capabilities functioning with light-speed if the hyperspace capabilities fail - however, this reduces their computational powers by several orders of magnitude (though they remain sentient). The storage capability of a GSV Mind is described in "Consider Phlebas" as 1030 bytes (1 million yottabytes). The Culture is a society undergoing slow (by present-day Earth standards) but constant technological change, so the stated capacity of Minds is open to change. In the last 3000 years the capacity of Minds has increased considerably. By the time of the events of the novel "Excession" in the mid 19th century, Minds from the first millennium are referred to jocularly as minds, with a small 'm'. Their capacities only allows them to be considered equivalent to what are now known as Cores, small (in the literal physical sense) Artificial intelligences used in shuttles, trans-light modules, Drones, and other machines not large enough for a full scale Mind. While still considered sentient, a mind's power at this point is considered greatly inferior to a contemporary Mind. That said, It is possible for Minds to have upgrades, improvements and enhancements given to them since construction, to allow them to remain up to date. Using the sensory equipment available to the Culture, Minds can see inside solid objects; in principle they can also read minds by examining the cellular processes inside a living brain, but Culture Minds regard such mindreading as taboo. The only known Mind to break this Taboo, the "Grey Area" seen in "Excession", is largely ostracized and shunned by other Minds as a result. In "Look to Windward" an example is cited of an attempt to destroy a Culture Mind by smuggling a minuscule antimatter bomb onto a Culture orbital inside the head of a Chelgrian agent. However the bomb ends up being spotted without the taboo being broken. In "Consider Phlebas", a typical Mind is described as a mirror-like ellipsoid of several dozen cubic metres, but weighing many thousands of tons, due to the fact that it is made up of hyper-dense matter. It is noted that most of its 'body' only exists in the real world at the outer shell, the inner workings staying constantly within hyperspace. The Mind in "Consider Phlebas" is also described as having internal power sources which function as back-up shield generators and space propulsion, and seeing the rational, safety-conscious thinking of Minds, it would be reasonable to assume that all Minds have such features, as well as a complement of drones and other remote sensors as also described. Other equipment available to them spans the whole range of the Culture's technological capabilities and its practically limitless resources. However, this equipment would more correctly be considered emplaced in the ship or orbital that the Mind is controlling, rather than being part of the Mind itself. Minds are constructed entities, which have general parameters fixed by their constructors (other Minds) before 'birth', not unlike biological beings. A wide variety of characteristics can be and are manipulated, such as introversion-extroversion, aggressiveness (for warships) or general disposition. However, the character of a Mind evolves as well, and Minds often change over the course of centuries, sometimes changing personality entirely. This is often followed by them becoming eccentric or at least somewhat odd. Others drift from the Culture-accepted ethical norms, and may even start influencing their own society in subtle ways, selfishly furthering their own views of how the Culture should act. Minds have also been known to commit suicide to escape punishment, or because of grief. Minds are constructed with a personality typical of the Culture's interests, i.e. full of curiosity, general benevolence (expressed in the 'good works' actions of the Culture, or in the protectiveness regarding sentient beings) and respect for the Culture's customs. Nonetheless, Minds have their own interests in addition to what their peers expect them to do for the Culture, and may develop fascinations or hobbies like other sentient beings do. The mental capabilities of Minds are described in "Excession" to be vast enough to run entire universe-simulations inside their own imaginations, exploring metamathical (a fictional branch of metamathematics) scenarios, an activity addictive enough to cause some Minds to totally withdraw from caring about our own physical reality into "Infinite Fun Space", their own, ironic and understated term for this sort of activity. One of the main activities of Ship Minds is the guidance of spaceships from a certain minimum size upwards. A culture spaceship "is" the Mind and vice versa; there are no different names for the two, and a spaceship without a Mind would be considered damaged or incomplete to the Culture. Ship Mind classes include General Systems Vehicle (GSV), Medium Systems Vehicle (), Limited Systems Vehicle (), General Contact Vehicle (), General Contact Unit (GCU), Limited Contact Unit (), Rapid Offensive Unit (), General Offensive Unit (), Limited Offensive Unit (), Demilitarised ROU (), Demilitarised GOU (), Demilitarised LOU (), Very Fast Picket (–synonym for dROU), Fast Picket (–synonym for dGOU or dLOU), and Superlifter. These ships provide a convenient 'body' for a Mind, which is too large and too important to be contained within smaller, more fragile shells. Following the 'body' analogy, it also provides the Mind with the capability of physical movement. As Minds are living beings with curiosity, emotion and wishes of their own, such mobility is likely very important to most. Culture Minds (mostly also being ships) usually give themselves whimsical names, though these often hint at their function as well. Even the names of warships retain this humorous approach, though the implications are much darker. Some Minds also take on functions which either preclude or discourage movement. These usually administer various types of Culture facilities: Minds (and, as a consequence, Culture starships) usually bear names that do a little more than just identify them. The Minds themselves choose their own names, and thus they usually express something about a particular Mind's attitude, character or aims in their personal life. They range from funny to just plain cryptic. Some examples are: Names. Some humanoid or drone Culture citizens have long names, often with seven or more words. Some of these words specify the citizen's origin (place of birth or manufacture), some an occupation, and some may denote specific philosophical or political alignments (chosen later in life by the citizen themselves), or make other similarly personal statements. An example would be Diziet Sma, whose full name is Rasd-Coduresa Diziet Embless Sma da' Marenhide: Iain Banks gave his own Culture name as "Sun-Earther Iain El-Bonko Banks of North Queensferry". Death. The Culture has a relatively relaxed attitude towards death. Genetic manipulation and the continual benevolent surveillance of the Minds make natural or accidental death almost unknown. Advanced technology allows citizens to make backup copies of their personalities, allowing them to be resurrected in case of death. The form of that resurrection can be specified by the citizen, with personalities returning either in the same biological form, in an artificial form (see below), or even just within virtual reality. Some citizens choose to go into "storage" (a form of suspended animation) for long periods of time, out of boredom or curiosity about the future. Attitudes individual citizens have towards death are varied (and have varied throughout the Culture's history). While many, if not most, citizens make some use of backup technology, many others do not, preferring instead to risk death without the possibility of recovery (for example when engaging in extreme sports). These citizens are sometimes called "disposables", and are described in "Look to Windward". Taking into account such accidents, voluntary euthanasia for emotional reasons, or choices like sublimation, the average lifespan of humans is described in "Excession" as being around 350 to 400 years. Some citizens choose to forgo death altogether, although this is rarely done and is viewed as an eccentricity. Other options instead of death include conversion of an individual's consciousness into an AI, joining of a group mind (which can include biological and non-biological consciousnesses), or subliming (usually in association with a group mind). Concerning the lifespan of drones and Minds, given the durability of Culture technology and the options of mindstate backups, it is reasonable to assume that they live as long as they choose. Even Minds, with their utmost complexity, are known to be backed up (and reactivated if they for example die in a risky mission, see "GSV Lasting Damage"). It is noted that even Minds themselves do not necessarily live forever either, often choosing to eventually sublime or even killing themselves (as does the double-Mind "GSV Lasting Damage" due to its choices in the Culture-Idiran war). Science and technology. Anti-gravity and forcefields. The Culture (and other societies) have developed powerful anti-gravity abilities, closely related to their ability to manipulate forces themselves. In this ability they can create action-at-a-distance – including forces capable of pushing, pulling, cutting, and even fine manipulation, and forcefields for protection, visual display or plain destructive ability. Such applications still retain restrictions on range and power: while forcefields of many cubic kilometres are possible (and in fact, orbitals are held together by forcefields), even in the chronologically later novels, such as "Look to Windward", spaceships are still used for long-distance travel and drones for many remote activities. With the control of a Mind, fields can be manipulated over vast distances. In "Use of Weapons", a Culture warship uses its electromagnetic effectors to hack into a computer light years away. Artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligences (and to a lesser degree, the non-sentient computers omnipresent in all material goods), form the backbone of the technological advances of the Culture. Not only are they the most advanced scientists and designers the Culture has, their lesser functions also oversee the vast (but usually hidden) production and maintenance capabilities of the society. The Culture has achieved artificial intelligences where each Mind has thought processing capabilities many orders of magnitude beyond that of human beings, and data storage drives which, if written out on paper and stored in filing cabinets, would cover thousands of planets skyscraper high (as described by one Mind in "Consider Phlebas"). Yet it has managed to condense these entities to a volume of several dozen cubic metres (though much of the contents and the operating structure are continually in hyperspace). Minds also demonstrate reaction times and multitasking abilities orders of magnitude greater than any sentient being; armed engagements between Culture and equivalent technological civilisations sometimes occur in timeframes as short as microseconds, and standard Orbital Minds are capable of running all of the vital systems on the Orbital while simultaneously conversing with millions of the inhabitants and observing phenomena in the surrounding regions of space. At the same time, it has achieved drone sentiences and capability of Special Circumstance proportions in forms that could fit easily within a human hand, and built extremely powerful (though not sentient) computers capable of fitting into tiny insect-like drones. Some utilitarian devices (such as spacesuits) are also provided with artificial sentience. These specific types of drones, like all other Culture AI, would also be considered citizens - though as described in the short story "Descendant", they may spend most of the time when their "body" is not in use in a form of remote-linked existence outside of it, or in a form of AI-level virtual reality. Energy manipulation. A major feature of its post-scarcity society, the Culture is obviously able to gather, manipulate, transfer and store vast amounts of energy. While not explained in detail in the novels, this involves antimatter and the "energy grid", a postulated energy field dividing the universe from neighboring anti-matter universes, and providing practically limitless energy. Transmission or storage of such energy is not explained, though these capabilities must be powerful as well, with tiny drones capable of very powerful manipulatory fields and forces. The Culture also uses various forms of energy manipulation as weapons, with "gridfire", a method of creating a dimensional rift to the energy grid, releasing astronomical amounts of energy into a region of non-hyperspace, being described as a sort of ultimate weapon more destructive than collapsed antimatter bombardment. One character in "Consider Phlebas" refers to gridfire as "the weaponry of the end of the universe". Gridfire resembles the zero-point energy used within many popular science fiction stories. Matter displacement. The Culture (at least by the time of "The Player of Games") has developed a form of teleportation capable of transporting both living and unliving matter instantaneously via wormholes. This technology has not rendered spacecraft obsolete – in "Excession" a barely apple-sized drone was displaced no further than a light-second at maximum range (mass being a limiting factor determining range), a tiny distance in galactic terms. The process also still has a very small chance of failing and killing living beings, but the chance is described as being so small (1 in 61 million) that it normally only becomes an issue when transporting a large number of people and is only regularly brought up due to the Culture's safety conscious nature. Displacement is an integral part of Culture technology, being widely used for a range of applications from peaceful to belligerent. Displacing warheads into or around targets is one of the main forms of attack in space warfare in the Culture universe. "The Player of Games" mentions that drones can be displaced to catch a person falling from a cliff before they impact the ground, as well. Brain–computer interfaces. Through "neural lace", a form of brain–computer interface that is implanted into the brains of young people and grows with them, the Culture has the capability to read and store the full sentience of any being, biological or artificial, and thus reactivate a stored being after its death. The neural lace also allows wireless communication with the Minds and databases. This also necessitates the capability to read thoughts, but as described in "Look to Windward", doing this without permission is considered taboo. Starships and warp drives. Starships are living spaces, vehicles and ambassadors of the Culture. A proper Culture starship (as defined by hyperspace capability and the presence of a Mind to inhabit it) may range from several hundreds of metres to hundreds of kilometres. The latter may be inhabited by billions of beings and are artificial worlds in their own right, including whole ecosystems, and are considered to be self-contained representations of all aspects of Culture life and capability. The Culture (and most other space-faring species in its universe) use a form of Hyperspace-drive to achieve faster-than-light speeds. Banks has evolved a (self-confessedly) technobabble system of theoretical physics to describe the ships' acceleration and travel, using such concepts as "infraspace" and "ultraspace" and an "energy grid" between universes (from which the warp engines "push off" to achieve momentum). An "induced singularity" is used to access infra or ultra space from real space; once there, "engine fields" reach down to the Grid and gain power and traction from it as they travel at high speeds. These hyperspace engines do not use reaction mass and hence do not need to be mounted on the surface of the ship. They are described as being very dense exotic matter, which only reveals its complexity under a powerful microscope. Acceleration and maximum speed depend on the ratio of the mass of the ship to its engine mass. As with any other matter aboard, ships can gradually manufacture extra engine volume or break it down as needed. In "Excession" one of the largest ships of the Culture redesigns itself to be mostly engine and reaches a speed of 233,000 times lightspeed. Within the range of the Culture's influence in the galaxy, most ships would still take years of travelling to reach the more remote spots. Other than the engines used by larger Culture ships, there are a number of other propulsion methods such as gravitic drive at sublight speeds, with antimatter, fusion and other reaction engines occasionally seen with less advanced civilisations, or on Culture hobby craft. Warp engines can be very small, with Culture drones barely larger than fist-size described as being thus equipped. There is also at least one (apparently non-sentient) species (the "Chuy-Hirtsi" animal), that possesses the innate capability of warp travel. In "Consider Phlebas", it is being used as a military transport by the Idirans, but no further details are given. Nanotechnology. The Culture has highly advanced nanotechnology, though descriptions of such technology in the books is limited. Many of the described uses are by or for Special Circumstances, but there are no indications that the use of nanotechnology is limited in any way. (In a passage in one of the books, there is a brief reference to the question of sentience when comparing the human brain or a "pico-level substrate".) One of the primary clandestine uses of nanotechnology is information gathering. The Culture likes to be in the know, and as described in "Matter" "they tend to know everything." Aside from its vast network of sympathetic allies and wandering Culture citizens one of the primary ways that the Culture keeps track of important events is by the use of practically invisible nanobots capable of recording and transmitting their observations. This technique is described as being especially useful to track potentially dangerous people (such as ex-Special Circumstance agents). Via such nanotechnology, it is potentially possible for the Culture (or similarly advanced societies) to see everything happening on a given planet, orbital or any other habitat. The usage of such devices is limited by various treaties and agreements among the Involved. In addition, EDust assassins are potent Culture terror weapons, composed entirely of nano machines called EDust, or "Everything Dust." They are capable of taking almost any shape or form, including swarms of insects or entire humans or aliens, and possess powerful weaponry capable of levelling entire buildings. Living space. Much of the Culture's population lives on orbitals, vast artificial worlds that can accommodate billions of people. Others travel the galaxy in huge space ships such as General Systems Vehicles (GSVs) that can accommodate hundreds of millions of people. Almost no Culture citizens are described as living on planets, except when visiting other civilisations. The reason for this is partly because the Culture believes in containing its own expansion to self-constructed habitats, instead of colonising or conquering new planets. With the resources of the universe allowing permanent expansion (at least assuming non-exponential growth), this frees them from having to compete for living space. The Culture, and other civilisations in Banks' universe, are described as living in these various, often constructed habitats: Airspheres. These are vast, brown dwarf-sized bubbles of atmosphere enclosed by force fields, and (presumably) set up by an ancient advanced race at least one and a half billion years ago (see: Look to Windward). There is only minimal gravity within an airsphere. They are illuminated by moon-sized orbiting planetoids that emit enormous light beams. Citizens of the Culture live there only very occasionally as guests, usually to study the complex ecosystem of the airspheres and the dominant life-forms: the "dirigible behemothaurs" and "gigalithine lenticular entities", which may be described as inscrutable, ancient intelligences looking similar to a cross between gigantic blimps and whales. The airspheres slowly migrate around the galaxy, taking anywhere from 50 to 100 million years to complete one circuit. In the novels no one knows who created the airspheres or why, but it is presumed that whoever did has long since sublimed but may maintain some obscure link with the behemothaurs and lenticular entities. Guests in the airspheres are not allowed to use any force-field technology, though no reason has been offered for this prohibition. The airspheres resemble in some respects the orbit-sized ring of breathable atmosphere created by Larry Niven in "The Integral Trees", but spherical not toroidal, require a force field to retain their integrity, and arose by artificial rather than natural processes. Orbitals. One of the main types of habitats of the Culture, an orbital is a ring structure orbiting a star as would a megastructure akin to a bigger Bishop ring. Unlike a Ringworld or a Dyson Sphere, an orbital does not enclose the star (being much too small). Like a ringworld, the orbital rotates to provide an analog of gravity on the inner surface. A Culture orbital rotates about once every 24 hours and has gravity-like effect about the same as the gravity of Earth, making the diameter of the ring about , and ensuring that the inhabitants experience night and day. Orbitals feature prominently in many Culture stories. Planets. Though many other civilisations in the Culture books live on planets, the Culture as currently developed has little direct connection to on-planet existence. Banks has written that he presumes this to be an inherent consequence of space colonisation, and a foundation of the liberal nature of the Culture. A small number of home worlds of the founding member-species of the Culture receive a mention in passing, and a few hundred human-habitable worlds were colonised (some of them terraformed) before the Culture elected to turn towards artificial habitats, preferring to keep the planets it encounters wild. Since then, the Culture has come to look down on terraforming as inelegant, ecologically problematic and possibly even immoral. Less than one percent of the population of the Culture lives on planets, and many find the very concept somewhat bizarre. This attitude is not absolute though; in "Consider Phlebas", some Minds suggest testing a new technology on a "spare planet" (knowing that it could be destroyed in an antimatter explosion if unsuccessful). One could assume - from Minds' normal ethics - that such a planet would have been lifeless to start with. It is also quite possible, even probable, that the suggestion was not made in complete seriousness. Rings. Ringworld-like megastructures exist in the Culture universe; the texts refer to them simply as "Rings" (with a capital "R"). As opposed to the smaller orbitals which revolve around a star, these structures are massive and completely encircle a star. Banks does not describe these habitats in detail, but records one as having been destroyed (along with three Spheres) in the Idiran-Culture war. In "Matter", the Morthanveld people possesses ringworld-like structures made of innumerable various-sized tubes. Those structures, like Niven's Ringworld, encircle a star and are about the same size. Rocks. These are asteroids and other non-planetary bodies hollowed out for habitation and usually spun for centrifugal artificial gravity. Rocks (with the exception of those used for secretive purposes) are described as having faster-than-light space drives, and thus can be considered a special form of spaceship. Like Orbitals, they are usually administered by one or more Minds. Rocks do not play a large part in most of the Culture stories, though their use as storage for mothballed military ships ("Pittance") and habitats ("Phage Rock", one of the founding communities of the Culture) are both key plot points in "Excession". Shellworlds. Shellworlds are introduced in "Matter", and consist of multilayered levels of concentric spheres in four dimensions held up by countless titanic interior towers. Their extra dimensional characteristics render some products of Culture technology too dangerous to use and yet others ineffective, notably access to hyperspace. About 4000 were built millions of years ago as vast machines intended to cast a forcefield around the whole of the galaxy for unknown purposes; less than half of those remain at the time of "Matter", many having been destroyed by a departed species known as the Iln. The species that developed this technology, known as the Veil or the Involucra, are now lost, and many of the remaining shellworlds have become inhabited, often by many different species throughout their varying levels. Many still hold deadly secret defence mechanisms, often leading to great danger for their new inhabitants, giving them one of their other nicknames: Slaughter Worlds. Ships. Ships in the Culture are intelligent individuals, often of very large size, controlled by one or more Minds. The ship is considered by the Culture generally and the Mind itself to be the Mind's body (compare avatars). Some ships (GSVs, for example) are tens or even hundreds of kilometres in length and may have millions or even billions of residents who live on them full-time; together with Orbitals, such ships represent the main form of habitat for the Culture. Such large ships may temporarily contain smaller ships with their own populations, and/or manufacture such ships themselves. In "Use of Weapons", the protagonist Zakalwe is allowed to acclimatise himself to the Culture by wandering for days through the habitable levels of a ship (the GSV "Size Isn't Everything", which is described as over long), eating and sleeping at the many locations which provide food and accommodation throughout the structure and enjoying the various forms of contact possible with the friendly and accommodating inhabitants. Spheres. Dyson spheres also exist in the Culture universe but receive only passing mention as "Spheres". Three spheres are recorded as having been destroyed in the Idiran-Culture war. Interaction with other civilisations. The Culture, living mostly on massive spaceships and in artificial habitats, and also feeling no need for conquest in the typical sense of the word, possesses no borders. Its sphere of influence is better defined by the (current) concentration of Culture ships and habitats as well as the measure of effect its example and its interventions have already had on the "local" population of any galactic sector. As the Culture is also a very graduated and constantly evolving society, its societal boundaries are also constantly in flux (though they tend to be continually expanding during the novels), peacefully "absorbing" societies and individuals. While the Culture is one of the most advanced and most powerful of all galactic civilisations, it is but one of the "high-level Involved" (called "Optimae" by some less advanced civilisations), the most powerful non-sublimed civilisations which mentor or control the others. An Involved society is a highly advanced group that has achieved galaxy-wide involvement with other cultures or societies. There are a few dozen Involved societies and hundreds or thousands of well-developed (interstellar) but insufficiently influential societies or cultures; there are also well-developed societies known as "galactically mature" which do not take a dynamic role in the galaxy as a whole. In the novels, the Culture might be considered the premier Involved society, or at least the most dynamic and energetic, especially given that the Culture itself is a growing multicultural fusion of Involved societies. The Involved are contrasted with the Sublimed, groups that have reached a high level of technical development and galactic influence but subsequently abandoned physical reality, ceasing to take serious interventionist interest in galactic civilisation. They are also contrasted with what some Culture people loosely refer to as "barbarians", societies of intelligent beings which lack the technical capacity to know about or take a serious role in their interstellar neighbourhood. There are also the elder civilisations, which are civilisations that reached the required level of technology for sublimation, but chose not to, and have retreated from the larger galactic meta-civilisation. The Involved are also contrasted with hegemonising swarms (a term used in several of Banks' Culture novels). These are entities that exist to convert as much of the universe as possible into more of themselves; most typically these are technological in nature, resembling more sophisticated forms of grey goo, but the term can be applied to cultures that are sufficiently single-minded in their devotion to mass conquest, control, and colonisation. Both the Culture and the author (in his "Notes on the Culture") find this behaviour quixotic and ridiculous. Most often, societies categorised as hegemonising swarms consist of species or groups newly arrived in the galactic community with highly expansionary and exploitative goals. The usage of the term "hegemonising swarm" in this context is considered derisive in the Culture and among other Involved and is used to indicate their low regard for those with these ambitions by comparing their behaviour to that of mindless self-replicating technology. The Culture's central moral dilemma regarding intervention in other societies can be construed as a conflict between the desire to help others and the desire to avoid becoming a hegemonising swarm themselves. Foreign policy. Although they lead a comfortable life within the Culture, many of its citizens feel a need to be useful and to belong to a society that does not merely exist for their own sake but that also helps improve the lot of sentient beings throughout the galaxy. For that reason the Culture carries out "good works", covertly or overtly interfering in the development of lesser civilisations, with the main aim to gradually guide them towards less damaging paths. As Culture citizens see it these good works provide the Culture with a "moral right to exist". A group within the Culture, known as Contact, is responsible for its interactions (diplomatic or otherwise) with other civilisations (though non-Contact citizens are apparently not prevented from travelling or interacting with other civilisations). Further within Contact, an intelligence organisation named Special Circumstances exists to deal with interventions which require more covert behaviour; the interventionist approach that the Culture takes to advancing other societies may often create resentment in the affected civilisations and thus requires a rather delicate touch (see: "Look to Windward"). In "Matter", it is described that there are a number of other galactic civilisations that come close to or potentially even surpass the Culture in power and sophistication. The Culture is very careful and considerate of these groupings, and while still trying to convince them of the Culture ideal, will be much less likely to openly interfere in their activities. In "Surface Detail", three more branches of Contact are described: Quietus, the Quietudinal Service, whose purview is dealing with those entities who have retired from biological existence into digital form and/or those who have died and been resurrected; Numina, which is described as having the charge of contact with races that have sublimed; and Restoria, a subset of Contact which focuses on containing and negating the threat of swarms of self-replicating creatures ("hegswarms"). Behaviour in war. While the Culture is normally pacifist, Contact historically acts as its military arm in times of war and Special Circumstances can be considered its secret service and its military intelligence. During war, most of the strategic and tactical decisions are taken by the Minds, with apparently only a small number of especially gifted humans, the "Referrers", being involved in the top-level decisions, though they are not shown outside "Consider Phlebas". It is shown in "Consider Phlebas" that actual decisions to go to war (as opposed to purely defensive actions) are based on a vote of all Culture citizens, presumably after vigorous discussion within the whole society. It is described in various novels that the Culture is extremely reluctant to go to war, though it may start to prepare for it long before its actual commencement. In the Idiran-Culture War (possibly one of the most hard-fought wars for the normally extremely superior Culture forces), various star systems, stellar regions and many orbital habitats were overrun by the Idirans before the Culture had converted enough of its forces to military footing. The Culture Minds had had enough foresight to evacuate almost all its affected citizens (apparently numbering in the many billions) in time before actual hostilities reached them. As shown in "Player of Games", this is a standard Culture tactic, with its strong emphasis on protecting its citizens rather than sacrificing some of them for short-term goals. War within the Culture is mostly fought by the Culture's sentient warships, the most powerful of these being war-converted GSVs, which are described as powerful enough to oppose whole enemy fleets. The Culture has little use for conventional ground forces (as it rarely occupies enemy territory); combat drones equipped with knife missiles do appear in "Descendant" and "terror weapons" (basically intelligent, nano-form assassins) are mentioned in "Look to Windward", while infantry combat suits of great power (also usable as capable combat drones when without living occupants) are used in "Matter". Relevance to real-world politics. The inner workings of The Culture are not especially described in detail though it is shown that the society is populated by an empowered, educated and augmented citizenry in a direct democracy or highly democratic and transparent system of self-governance. In comparisons to the real world, intended or not, the Culture could resemble various posited egalitarian societies including in the writings of Karl Marx, the end condition of communism after a withering away of the state, the anarchism of Bakunin and Fourier et al., libertarian socialism, council communism and anarcho-communism. Other characteristics of The Culture that are recognisable in real world politics include pacifism, post-capitalism, and transhumanism. Banks deliberately portrayed an imperfect utopia whose imperfection or weakness is related to its interaction with the 'other', that is, exterior civilisations and species that are sometimes variously warred with or mishandled through the Culture's Contact section which cannot always control its intrigues and the individuals it either 'employs' or interacts with. This 'dark side' of The Culture also alludes to or echoes mistakes and tragedies in 20th century Marxist–Leninist countries, although the Culture is generally portrayed as far more 'humane' and just. Utopia. Comparisons are often made between the Culture and twentieth and twenty first century Western civilisation and nation-states, particularly their interventions in less-developed societies. These are often confused with regard to the author's assumed politics. Ben Collier has said that the Culture is a utopia carrying significantly greater moral legitimacy than the West's, by comparison, proto-democracies. While Culture interventions can seem similar at first to Western interventions, especially when considered with their democratising rhetoric, the argument is that the Culture operates completely without material need, and therefore without the possibility of baser motives. This is not to say that the Culture's motives are purely altruistic; a peaceful, enlightened universe full of good neighbours lacking ethnic, religious, and sexual chauvinisms is in the Culture's interest as well. Furthermore, the Culture's ideals, in many ways similar to those of the liberal perspective today, are to a much larger extent realised internally in comparison to the West. Criticism. Examples are the use of mercenaries to perform the work that the Culture does not want to get their hands dirty with, and even outright threats of invasion (the Culture has issued ultimatums to other civilisations before). Some commentators have also argued that those Special Circumstances agents tasked with civilising foreign cultures (and thus potentially also changing them into a blander, more Culture-like state) are also those most likely to regret these changes, with parallels drawn to real-world special forces trained to operate within the cultural mindsets of foreign nations. The events of "Use of Weapons" are an example of just how dirty Special Circumstances will play in order to get their way and the conspiracy at the heart of the plot of "Excession" demonstrates how at least some Minds are prepared to risk killing sentient beings when they conclude that these actions are beneficial for the long term good. Special Circumstances represents a very small fraction of Contact, which itself is only a small fraction of the entire Culture, making it comparable again to size and influence of modern intelligence agencies. Issues raised. The Culture stories are largely about problems and paradoxes that confront liberal societies. The Culture itself is an "ideal-typical" liberal society; that is, as pure an example as one can reasonably imagine. It is highly egalitarian; the liberty of the individual is its most important value; and all actions and decisions are expected to be determined according to a standard of reasonability and sociability inculcated into all people through a progressive system of education. It is a society so beyond material scarcity that for almost all practical purposes its people can have and do what they want. If they do not like the behaviour or opinions of others, they can easily move to a more congenial Culture population centre (or Culture subgroup), and hence there is little need to enforce codes of behaviour. Even the Culture has to compromise its ideals where diplomacy and its own security are concerned. Contact, the group that handles these issues, and Special Circumstances, its secret service division, can employ only those on whose talents and emotional stability it can rely, and may even reject self-aware drones built for its purposes that fail to meet its requirements. Hence these divisions are regarded as the Culture's elite and membership is widely regarded as a prize; yet also something that can be shameful as it contradicts many of the Culture's moral codes. Within Contact and Special Circumstances, there are also inner circles that can take control in crises, somewhat contradictory to the ideal notions of democratic and open process the Culture espouses. Contact and Special Circumstances may suppress or delay the release of information, for example to avoid creating public pressure for actions they consider imprudent or to prevent other civilisations from exploiting certain situations. In dealing with less powerful regressive civilisations, the Culture usually intervenes discreetly, for example by protecting and discreetly supporting the more liberal elements, or subverting illiberal institutions. For instance, in "Use of Weapons", the Culture operates within a less advanced illiberal society through control of a business cartel which is known for its humanitarian and social development investments, as well as generic good Samaritanism. In "Excession", a sub-group of Minds conspires to provoke a war with the extremely sadistic Affront, although the conspiracy is foiled by a GSV that is a deep cover Special Circumstances agent. Only one story, "Consider Phlebas", pits the Culture against a highly illiberal society of approximately equal power: the aggressive, theocratic Idirans. Though they posed no immediate, direct threat to the Culture, the Culture declared war because it would have felt useless if it allowed the Idirans' ruthless expansion to continue. The Culture's decision was a value-judgement rather than a utilitarian calculation, and the "Peace Faction" within the Culture seceded. Later in the timeline of the Culture's universe, the Culture has reached a technological level at which most past civilisations have Sublimed, in other words disengaged from Galactic politics and from most physical interaction with other civilisations. The Culture continues to behave "like an idealistic adolescent". As of 2008, three stories force the Culture to consider its approach to more powerful civilisations. In one incident during the Culture-Idiran War, they strive to avoid offending a civilisation so advanced that it has disengaged from Galactic politics, and note that this hyper-advanced society is not a threat to either the welfare or the values of the Culture. In "Excession", an overwhelmingly more powerful individual from an extremely advanced civilisation is simply passing through on its way from one plane of the physical Reality to another, and there is no real interaction. In the third case it sets up teams to study a civilisation that is not threatening but is thought to have eliminated aggressors in the past. Banks on the Culture. When asked in "Wired" magazine (June 1996) whether mankind's fate depends on having intelligent machines running things, as in the Culture, Banks replied: In a 2002 interview with "Science Fiction Weekly" magazine, when asked: Banks replied:

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The Centauri Device The Centauri Device is the third novel by English author M. John Harrison. The novel, originally conceived as an "anti-space opera" would ultimately go on to make a major contribution to revitalising the subgenre and influencing the works of later authors such as Iain M. Banks and Alastair Reynolds. Outline. Harrison has said that the book breaks what were then the central tenets of space opera, namely that the protagonist plays an active role in driving the plot forward, that the universe is comprehensible to humans and that the universe is anthropocentric. These preconceptions were still common in the more literary space operas of the time, such as Samuel R. Delany's "Nova" (which Harrison described as "highly readable but finally unsatisfying") and, in terms of tone, Harrison's novel more closely hews to the unconventional genre-bending of Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" and "The Paradox Men" by Charles L. Harness, with the bleak cosmic outlook being influenced by Barrington J. Bayley's "The Star Virus". The viewpoint character, John Truck, is a passive hero, a space captain in the year 2367 who ships drugs when he can find them and legitimate cargo when he cannot. The twentieth century is long forgotten and misremembered, with Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon described as "lords" and Hermann Göring as an artist. The dyne-field connects planets and yet seems to merge them, the decayed industrial wasteland "Carter's Snort" in Britain merges with the slums of Junk City on Avernus. These worlds are stagnant, controlled by corrupt politics, organised crime and the bizarre "Opener" religion, who see "honesty of bodily function [as] the sole valid praise of God." These landscapes are Truck's natural home and a hiding place from General Alice Gaw of the Israeli World Government and Colonel Gadaffi ben Barka of the United Arab Socialist Republics. (True to the strong vein of Anarchism in Harrison's work, neither of these political entities resemble their twentieth century counterparts.) Truck is being hunted because of his ancestry, as he is half-Centauran (the rest of his race having been killed by human bombing some decades earlier) and the only person who can activate the newly unearthed Centauri Device. The UASR want the device as they believe it to be a useful propaganda tool, the Openers believe it to be God, the Aesthete Anarchists (an exuberant civilization of spacefarers who travel the void in spaceships named after works of art) do not know what it is but want to possess it anyway while the World Government have correctly surmised that it is a bomb. As the Device is useless without Truck all four factions try to hunt him down. Unable to hide, he tries to fight but the forces are prepared to kill those around him. In his desperation, he takes the only step open to him and activates the devices, destroying himself, the Solar System and the Alpha Centauri system in a Hypernova. The epilogue is designed to distance the reader from the text still further, reducing the events of the book to nothing more than "a dramatised account" and offering a variety of theories on the matter, mostly, it admits, based on nothing more than guesswork. Critical reception. The novel played a major role in the formation of the "New Space Opera" of the 1980s and 1990s, inspiring authors such as Iain Banks. In particular, Banks has commented that "M. John Harrison should be a megastar, but he probably couldn’t be because he’s too rarefied a taste" and in an Arena SF interview, he gave "The Pastel City" (part of the "Viriconium" sequence) as his favourite Harrison title. Alastair Reynolds has also been influenced by Harrison's work, including a reference to "The Centauri Device" in his essay "Future Histories", which later formed the afterword to the collection "Galactic North". Ken MacLeod remembered reading it in 1975, originally thinking it would be a standard space adventure, before being inspired to seek out and ultimately write books in a similar vein. More generally, many motifs from the novel have become part of the scenery of modern space opera, in particular the excessively lengthy and baroque spaceship naming convention. However, reviews from those preparing critical surveys of Harrison's work have been tepid, with both John Clute and Rhys Hughes naming it as his least successful novel, though with some high points. Perhaps the most significant detractor of the novel is Harrison himself who, in a 2001 interview with "SF Site", described it as "the crappiest thing I ever wrote." David Pringle assessed it as: "A stylish, dark-hued but tongue-in-cheek space opera, in which anarchist space pirates, with a taste for fin-de-siecle art, fly spacecraft with names like 'Driftwood of Decadence' and 'The Green Carnation'. Self-conscious and literary, but nevertheless a virtuoso performance." Links to other works. The novel has some connection to the "Viriconium" sequence through the enigmatic character Dr. Grishkin, who appears in "The Centauri Device" as the leader of the Opener cult and in the "Viriconium" story "Lamia Mutable", first published in "Again, Dangerous Visions" and again in "The Machine in Shaft Ten". However, as this story has been delisted from all editions of "Viriconium Nights" (along with "Events Witnessed from a City" and the novella-length version of "In Viriconium") since the first Ace Books edition, it can not be taken as "canon", if such a term could be said to apply to the famously mutable dying earth in which it is set. An extract, under the title of 'The Wolf That Follows' was printed in the anthology "New Worlds 7" with an illustration by Judith Clute. A novelette version appeared in the January 1974 edition of "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction", under the title "The Centauri Device".

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True Names True Names is a 1981 science fiction novella by American writer Vernor Vinge, a seminal work of the cyberpunk genre. It is one of the earliest stories to present a fully fleshed-out concept of cyberspace, which would later be central to cyberpunk. The story also contains elements of transhumanism, anarchism, and even hints about The Singularity. "True Names" first brought Vinge to prominence as a science fiction writer. It also inspired many real-life hackers and computer scientists; a 2001 book about the novella, "True Names: And the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier", included essays by Danny Hillis, Marvin Minsky, Mark Pesce, Richard Stallman and others. It was awarded the Prometheus Hall of Fame Award in 2007. Plot summary. The story follows the progress of a group of computer hackers (called "warlocks" in the story) who are early adopters of a new full-immersion virtual reality technology, called the "Other Plane". Warlocks penetrate computers around the world for personal profit or curiosity. Forming a cabal, they must keep their true identities—their "True Names"—secret even to each other and to the "Great Adversary", the United States government, as those who know a warlock's True Name can force him to work on their behalf, or even cause a "True Death" by killing the warlock in real life. The protagonist is a warlock known as "Mr. Slippery" in the Other Plane. The government learns Mr. Slippery's True Name—Roger Pollack, a holonovelist in Arcata, California—and forces him to investigate the Mailman, a mysterious new warlock which it suspects of conducting a large-scale subversion of databases and networks. The Mailman has been recruiting others, such as the warlock DON.MAC, by promising great power in the real world, and claims to be responsible for a recent revolution in Venezuela. Because he never appears in the Other Plane, and reacts to events only after a significant delay, Mr. Slippery and fellow warlock Erythrina begin to suspect that the Mailman may be an extraterrestrial invader, subverting global databases to gradually conquer the Earth while causing True Deaths of the warlocks he recruits. Mr. Slippery and Erythrina receive permission from the government to use the old Arpanet to access massive amounts of computational power around the world as they search for the Mailman. As they become the most powerful warlocks in history they realize that DON.MAC is a sophisticated "personality simulator" working for the Mailman. It violently defends itself, and both sides use network connections to military weaponry to attack in the real world. Erythrina is forced to reveal her True Name to Mr. Slippery as the battles, real and virtual, cause global chaos. They succeed in destroying the many copies of the Mailman's AI, and although tempted to keep their power over the world realize that they do not wish to be tyrants. Ten weeks after the war and resulting worldwide economic depression from the disruption in computer systems, Mr. Slippery returns to the Coven and learns that the Mailman may have survived. Fearing that Erythrina succumbed to temptation for power, Pollack visits her—Debbie Charteris of Providence, Rhode Island—in person. The elderly Charteris, an early military computer programmer, reveals that the Mailman was not an extraterrestrial, but a National Security Agency AI research project to protect government systems. Mistakenly left running, it slowly grew in power and sophistication, and used non real-time communication to disguise its inability to fully emulate the human mind. As Charteris succumbs to senility she transfers more of her personality to the defeated Mailman's kernel, and tells Pollack that "when this body dies, I will still be, and you can still talk to me". Afterword. Minsky's afterword reviews ideas from his Society of Mind concept: the idea "that there is, inside the cranium, perhaps as many as a hundred different kinds of computers, each with a somewhat different basic architecture", which specialize in different tasks and communicate, though perhaps only crudely. Minsky considers our conscious minds to be higher-level executives, which don't really understand the inner workings of the subcomponents but rather select "simple names from menu-lists of symbols which appear, from time to time, upon our mental screen-displays." Tying this back to virtual reality, Minsky suggests that "we, ourselves, already exist as processes imprisoned in machines inside machines! Our mental worlds are already filled with wondrous, magical, symbol–signs, which add to every thing we 'see' its ‘meaning’ and ‘significance’." Reception. In 2001, "The New York Times" declared that Vinge's depiction of "a world rife with pseudonymous characters and other elements of online life that now seem almost ho-hum" had been "prophetic", while "Kirkus Reviews" called it "still compelling". "Strange Horizons" called it a "landmark".

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The Fifth Sacred Thing The Fifth Sacred Thing is a 1993 post-apocalyptic novel by Starhawk. The title refers to the classical elements of fire, earth, air, and water, plus the fifth element, spirit, accessible when one has balanced the other four. Plot. The novel describes a world set in the year 2048 after a catastrophe which has fractured the United States into several nations. The protagonists live in San Francisco and have evolved in the direction of Ecotopia, reverting to a sustainable economy, using wind power, local agriculture, and the like. San Francisco is presented as a mostly pagan city where the streets have been torn up for gardens and streams, no one starves or is homeless, and the city's defense council consists primarily of nine elderly women who "listen and dream". The novel describes "a utopia where women are leading societies but are doing so with the consent of men." To the south, an overtly-theocratic Christian fundamentalist nation has evolved and plans to wage war against the San Franciscans. The novel explores the events before and during the ensuing struggle between the two nations, pitting utopia and dystopia against each other. The story is primarily told from the points of view of 98-year-old Maya, her nominal granddaughter Madrone, and her grandson Bird. Through these and other characters, the story explores many elements from ecofeminism and ecotopian fiction. Setting. In the utopia described in the novel, the streets have been dug up and are replaced with gardens and fruit trees. Additionally, every house is equipped with a small garden plot. The food is available to everyone and access to food is not limited by money, power, or ownership. Farms where the city's fruit and vegetables grow are hidden behind the blocks of homes. There is plenty of food and everyone is said to have more than enough to eat. The gardens are lined with streams that run throughout the city. The only remnants of the pavement that once existed are narrow paths meant for walking, cycling, or rollerblading. These paths are accented with colorful stones and mosaics. The city is depicted as a beautiful locale where everything is shared yet nothing is lacking. In this ecotopian city, food and many other resources are understood as a commons, rather than a commodity. When the city is threatened by an army marching from the South, food becomes central to the non-violent philosophy and practice of the inhabitants as they grapple with how to respond to the possibility of violent attack. The inhabitants decide to invite soldiers to leave the army and to join them living in this ecotopian city. They say to the soldiers 'there is a place set for you at our table, if you will choose to join us' (p.235). This invitation, and the possibility of never going hungry, is almost incomprehensible to the soldiers who have been stripped of their given names and reduced to numbers, survive on small amounts of poor-quality food, and many have never seen running water. Reception. The novel won "Best Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror Novel" at the 6th Lambda Literary Awards. "Kirkus Reviews" described the book as "a big, shaggy, sloppy dog of a fantasy" and added, "Starhawk deserves points for her idealism, but her vision and characterizations are only half-realized here—and further muddied as she goes on far, far too long." The review from "Publishers Weekly" called it a "sometimes clumsy but compelling first novel" by Starhawk: "[she] delivers her message with a heavy hand and several cliches: her besieged utopia echoes the liberal politics and ecofeminism of her nonfiction; her dystopia features the overused SF bugbear of Christian fanaticism. However, she creates memorable characters—a young midwife, a broken musician, an old Witch-Woman—and skillfully conveys their emotions in gripping, sometimes harrowing scenes set against vivid backdrops." Prequel and sequel. A prequel, "Walking to Mercury" (), was released in 1997. A sequel, "City of Refuge" (), was released in 2016 following a Kickstarter campaign by the author.

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For the Win For the Win is the second young adult science fiction novel by Canadian author Cory Doctorow. It was released in May 2010. The novel is available free on the author's website as a Creative Commons download, and is also published in traditional paper form by Tor Books. The book is centered on massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Even though the novel is targeted toward young adults, it takes on significant concepts such as macroeconomics and labor rights. It covers the new and fast evolving concept of virtual economy. It also deals with MMORPG specific topics like gold farming and power-leveling. Plot. Part 1: The gamers and their games, the workers at their work. In the near future, virtual economies play a key role in geopolitics. These economies share a common virtual world known as “game-space”, essentially a more evolved form of the Internet with no borders or separate countries. However, in game-space, income inequality is staggeringly high and exacerbated by the exploitative practices of robber baron-type figures, including Boss Wing and Mr Banerjee. Matthew Fong lives in Shenzhen, China. He uses his talents at gold-farming to find the optimal way to earn virtual gold in a dungeon in minimal time. Together with a couple of friends and roommates, they leave their greedy employer Boss Wing, a virtual economy kingpin who steals their profits. Matthew finds a place in the fictional MMORPG Svartalfaheim Warriors where it is possible to earn much more gold in a short time, and exploits this to make a month's living in a single night, before the administrators of the game discover and block him. However, Boss Wing sends his goons to raid Matthew's home and beat him up to lure him back; they agree that Matthew can work on his own but has to surrender 60% of his income to Boss Wing, who handles turning game-gold into real money for him in turn. Leonard Goldberg is a wealthy American boy in Los Angeles. His father built up a big shipping company, but Leonard is mostly interested in playing games with his guildies in China. He teaches himself Mandarin and takes on the pseudonym "Wei-Dong" (meaning "strength of the East"). His team mentors other Angelenos in leveling up their avatars for money in another game, Savage Wonderland. After one customer makes a series of missteps, they nearly fail but Wei-Dong is able to save them with luck. His stern, disapproving father discovers him playing at night due to time differences and decides to send his son off to a boarding school, Martindale Academy, for better discipline. On the way there, they get into a car accident and amidst the confusion, Wei-Dong manages to run away to Santee Alley, where he rents a cheap room and starts to live on his own, making money as Mechanical Turk, a player who slips into NPCs when other players trigger something not implemented in the game's AI. While he barely earns enough to make a living, Wei-Dong enjoys his newfound freedom playing for Coca-Cola Games, a huge subsidiary of The Coca-Cola Company that runs some of the biggest virtual worlds. Mala moves with her mother and little brother from a small village in India to Mumbai, where her mother hopes to earn a better living. She ends up in a plastic recycling factory in Dharavi. With her friend Yasmin Gardez, Mala plays a game called Zombie Mecha in Mrs Dibyendu's internet cafe for fun after school, but her mastery of tactics and leadership skills quickly attract a huge following who call her General Robotwallah. Soon, she is approached by Mr Banerjee, who recruits her to attack his business rivals in the game, allowing her family to leave the factory and make a better living. One day, her army gets defeated by a mysterious army; their charismatic leader identifies herself to Mala as "Big Sister Nor". Nor tells her that they are trying to recruit and organize game-workers all over the world into the IWWWW (Industrial Workers of the World Wide Web, a pun on IWW). The members of the IWWWW similarly call themselves "Webblies", a pun on Wobblies and the web. While companies may move their production from one country to another whenever powerful unions arise, because no borders or separate countries exist in game-space, there will always be a chance to reach the replacement workers and have them join the union, too. Mala dismisses the idea at first, however, and begins to believe the Webblies are sabotaging her career. Part 2: Hard work at play. Connor Prikkel, a PhD student in economics at Stanford University, develops a mathematical model for predicting values of virtual goods in games based on how much fun the game is. With this discovery (which he calls "Prikkel equations"), he quits his studies and begins speculating on in-game items. Eventually, he makes big wins, and his equations and understanding of the game economies earn him the leader's post in Coca-Cola Games’ Command Central. Boss Wing locks in his employees at his main office after one of the boys discovers a new way to earn gold quickly. Angered at this lock-in, the boys in Shenzhen go on a wildcat strike, breaking out of the internet cafes, cutting their network connections and protesting in the street out front. Big Sister Nor supports them together with her two co-organizers, The Mighty Krang and Justbob. They talk to the media and spread the word about the strike to all the other Webblies. In addition, the Webblies extend the strike to the online worlds of Mushroom Kingdom, where they use their game characters to fend off Boss Wing’s replacement players attempting to earn gold in-game. Boss Wing retaliates with corrupt virtual detectives known as Pinkerton players, and the Webblies and Pinkerton players fight a huge virtual battle. Conner and his colleagues look on in interest (and even bet on the battle outcome), until they eventually block all the involved player accounts. During the fight, a group of hired bullies attack Nor’s hide-out and inflict serious injuries. Shenzhen police raid the strikers and arrest Matthew. He is sent to a labour camp for three months, while one of his co-workers, Lu, manages to escape. He briefly talks to Wei-Dong, one of his guildies in gamespace, and learns that videos of the strike and subsequent police raid are going viral in game-space and in Los Angeles. At Shenzhen railway station, Lu is recognized as one of the strikers by Jiandi, a girl who broadcasts a dissident Internet radio show centered around advice on labor organizing, with a huge following of millions of Chinese factory girls. Massive revenues from her show’s advertisements for other illegal movements, including Falun Gong, allow her to stay ahead of the police and escape arrest. She takes Lu into her custody, interviews him on her show, and they initiate a romantic relationship and travel the country together. While Mala harbors antipathy toward the Webblies, Yasmin joins them and gets expelled from Mala's army. Yasmin is recruited by Ashok Balgangadhar Tilak, an economist in Mumbai working on behalf of the Webblies. They go together to Andheri, where Ashok has scheduled a meeting with Indian union leaders. He hopes to win their support for the Webblies, and Yasmin tells them about their work as gold-farmers and gamers. However, the “old guard” of union leaders do not take them seriously and decline to provide money or other support. When they arrive back in Dharavi, Mala and her army are already waiting to attack them. Mala attempts to use a petrol bomb, but Yasmin manages to bring her down and wound her, bringing the old friends together again. Yasmin convinces Mala and her army to declare their support for the Webblies, but they secretly continue to work as double-agents for Mr Banerjee. Upon Wei-Dong’s eighteenth birthday, he resumes contact with his mother. She tells him that his father is dying in the hospital. Wei-Dong decides to come home and visit him, only to arrive too late. From then on, he moves back in with his mother, and becomes part-owner of their shipping company. Part 3: Ponzi. Wei-Dong comes into contact with the Webblies, and, partly out of his desire for adventure, helps them. Abusing his position as part-owner of his family's shipping company, he modifies a shipping container into a makeshift flat and smuggles himself into China, along with boxes of prepaid cards for games valid on servers in the United States, so the Webblies can then distribute and use the codes for their online activities. After three months in the labour camp, Matthew is released. He rejoins Lu and Jiandi in Shenzhen, along with Wei-Dong, who has successfully distributed his smuggled prepaid cards. Jiandi agrees to house more and more Webblies in her spare flats, motivating her to continue with her broadcasts. This attracts police suspicion, however, and one night, they raid her residence. Jiandi and Lu flee via a secret exit, while all the Webblies are arrested at the front door. Wei-Dong follows Jiandi and Lu, but while Jiandi and Wei-Dong escape the police, Lu is shot. The rest of the boys are also shot after being arrested. As their "chief economist", Ashok (working at the backroom of Mrs Dibyendu's cafe) devises a plan to destabilize the in-game economies. There are multiple references to Ponzi schemes in the plot, but it is not entirely clear how the plan works. One day, Ashok, Mala and her army find the cafe locked and Mrs Dibyendu gone. They are ambushed by a gang hired by Mr Banerjee; but Mala and her group drive them off. When Mr Banerjee returns with more thugs, Ashok and Mala finally persuades the union leaders to side with them, allowing them to defend themselves and keep the cafe to continue their work. Eventually, Ashok and the Webblies are able to set up a virtual doomsday device of bad financial assets based on game values. With that power in their hands, the Webblies blackmail Connor and his colleagues by demanding Coca-Cola Games give their workers more freedom to farm gold and sell it to players, in exchange for sparing the game economies. With their extensive inside knowledge, Connor and his employees reluctantly accept the Webblies’ proposal and work together with Ashok on re-stabilizing the game economy. Mala gets kidnapped by Banerjee, who refuses to set her free even after Yasmin pays him ransom. Ashok and Connor tamper with his in-game assets, getting Banerjee to finally release Mala. Police in Hong Kong raid Big Sister Nor’s house, only to find that she had already moved to an apartment above a massage parlor to continue her work. One night afterwards, arsonists attack the massage parlor. The Mighty Krang and Justbob escape, but Big Sister Nor dies in the fire. Krang and Justbob hear this and tell the other Webblies about the fire, revealing that Nor's last words were "You all lead yourselves”, giving them new hope as their unionization efforts spread to more countries. Wei-Dong, Jiandi, and their teams decide to flee China aboard another of Wei-Dong’s ships. They meet with Ashok, Yasmin, and Mala in Mumbai and see each other face to face for the first time. Connor surprises them by revealing his defection, having used his security department to hack their accounts and find their location. The book ends with the protagonists resolving to figure out what to do next. Reception. Reception of the novel has been mixed; some reviews praised its righteous message, but others said that this didacticism may detract from the novel for those who are not interested. One review from Kirkus praised the novel's coverage of social issues: "His story spans the globe and exposes levels of exploitation running from Ponzi schemes to sweatshop thuggery." However, the same publication also criticized the novel's moralizing, explaining that "it is shot through with economics lectures; regularly, the focus shifts from the large cast of characters to a gentle exposition on union history or social contracts or some other complex economic idea. Fans, future bankers and future gametechs will be in heaven; those without interest will skim or give up by the halfway mark."

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The Eye of the Heron The Eye of the Heron is a 1978 science fiction novel by American author Ursula K. Le Guin which was first published in the science fiction anthology "Millennial Women". Plot introduction. "The Eye of the Heron" is a science fiction novel set on the fictional planet of Victoria in a speculative future, probably sometime in the 22nd century, when the planet has been colonized for about a century and has no communication with Earth. The protagonist is a young woman called Luz but the story is told in the third person and the reader sees events from the point of view of several different characters. "The Eye of the Heron" is usually treated as one of Le Guin's minor novels although it exhibits her characteristic prose style and themes. Title. The title is a reference to a fictional animal on the planet Victoria which early colonists called heron because of some superficial similarities to Earth heron. The characters' encounters with these animals occur at moments of significant introspection, particularly when they are considering that which they perceive as alien, or other, in relation to themselves. Plot summary. The planet of Victoria received two waves of colonists from Earth: first two prison ships founding a penal colony and then one ship of political exiles. The descendants of the prisoners mostly inhabit the City. The descendants of the political exiles, the "People of Peace", inhabit Shantih Town, which is known to the City dwellers as Shanty Town. The Shantih Towners, whose primary occupation is farming, want to settle another valley further away from the City. The City "Bosses" do not want to lose the control they believe they have over the Shanty Towners and so they take action to try to prevent any settlement beyond their sphere of influence. Major themes. The major themes in "The Eye of the Heron" are common to much of Le Guin's fiction and include the social constructions of gender, interactions between individuals from different societies, intra-actions within societies, and contact with that which is perceived as alien or other. The novel also explores different forms of social and political organization by juxtaposing pacifist anarchism with violent oligarchy. The characters' metaphorical internal journeys are reflected in literal external journeys throughout the plot. When asked, in a 1995 interview, what role the feminist movement had played in her writing, Le Guin situated "The Eye of the Heron" in the context of her development as a writer: Allusions in other works. "The Eye of the Heron" contains the phrase "beginning place". Le Guin incorporated it into the title of her 1980 novel "The Beginning Place".

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The Death Ship The Death Ship (German title: "Das Totenschiff") is a novel by the pseudonymous author known as B. Traven. Originally published in German in 1926, and in English in 1934, it was Traven's first major success and is still the author's second best known work after "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre". Owing to its scathing criticism of bureaucratic authority, nationalism, and abusive labor practices, it is often described as an anarchist novel. Plot summary. Set just after World War I, "The Death Ship" describes the predicament of merchant seamen who lack documentation of citizenship, making him effectively stateless and therefore unable to find legal residence or employment in any nation. The narrator is Gerard Gales, a US sailor who claims to be from New Orleans, and who is stranded in Antwerp without passport or working papers. Unable to prove his identity or his eligibility for employment, Gales is repeatedly arrested and deported from one country to the next, by government officials who do not want to be bothered with either assisting or prosecuting him. When he finally manages to find work, it is on the "Yorikke" (possibly a reference to the Shakespeare play "Hamlet"), the dangerous and decrepit ship of the title, where undocumented workers from around the world are treated as expendable slaves. The term "death ship" refers to any boat so decrepit that it is worth more to its owners overinsured and sunk than it would be worth afloat. The title of the book is translated directly from the German "Das Totenschiff"; in English, they are called "coffin ships". Publication history. There are several versions of the novel: after the original German text (possibly written in English first) was translated in the United Kingdom, Traven wrote a slightly longer version in English. Just before the German version went to press, the publisher wrote to Traven asking for publicity information and photographs. The author replied: My personal history would not be disappointing to readers, but it is my own affair which I want to keep to myself. I am in fact in no way more important than is the typesetter for my books, the man who works the mill; ... no more important than the man who binds my books and the woman who wraps them and the scrubwoman who cleans up the office. Film, TV or theatrical adaptations. In 1959 it was adapted into a film of the same name (also known as "Ship of the Dead") directed by Georg Tressler. A copy of the book was seen as part of the drug-induced wreckage of Raoul Duke's Flamingo hotel room in the film adaption of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas".

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The Last of the Masters "The Last of the Masters" (also known as "Protection Agency") is a science fiction novelette by American writer Philip K. Dick. The original manuscript of the story was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on July 15, 1953, and the story was published by the Hanro Corporation in the final issue of "Orbit Science Fiction" in 1954. It has since been reprinted in several Philip K. Dick story collections, beginning with "The Golden Man" in 1980. "The Last of the Masters" depicts a society 200 years after a global anarchist revolution has toppled the national governments of the world (the exact year is unstated). Civilization has stagnated due to the loss of scientific knowledge and industry during the legendary revolt. Elsewhere, the last state, governing a highly centralized and efficient society, conceals itself from the Anarchist League, a global militia preventing the recreation of any government. When three agents of the League are sent to investigate rumors of the microstate's existence, the government arranges for them to be killed, leading to the death of one and the capture of another. Tensions rapidly escalate after the agents of the state realize that the third has escaped. Assuming he will report the state's existence, the government mobilizes for total war. In actuality, the surviving anarchist elects to attempt his comrades' rescue and assassinate the head of state: the last surviving "government robot". The primary theme of the story is the conflict between anarchism and statism, the political and ethical dimensions of which are explored through the characters' dialogue. Though the attention the story received was limited prior to the author's death in 1982, it has since seen greater circulation in Philip K. Dick story collections, and has been reviewed and analyzed for its postmodern critique of technology and its political implications. Plot summary. The last government. The title character, Bors, a 200-year-old "government integration robot"—and the last in existence—awakens after a routine maintenance check to learn that his motor system is in a state of decline. An artificially intelligent machine who displays a degree of emotion and even psychological complexity, he is informed by Fowler, a personal mechanic, that his body has begun to break down due to age. His legs no longer work, his motor system will be irreparable in a matter of months, and full paralysis will take place in under a year. Of his entire body, only five "synapse coils" have not yet begun to degrade. These memory units are irreplaceable due to the lack of skilled technicians and rare components needed to recreate them. Within them, he stores the last records of advanced science and technology, which he uses to guide his society at high efficiency as a benevolent dictator, operating according to utilitarian principles. Though he wields hegemonic control over his society, he views his dictatorship as the last bastion of humanity's scientific progress, and views himself as a guardian who oversees and protects that progress. This causes him to privately despair that he—and the knowledge only he possesses—will soon die. He also becomes increasingly paranoid, fearing to trust a loyal assistant, Peter Green, and confiding only in Fowler, his personal mechanic. Hidden in a remote mountain valley, Bors commands the world's last government. The microstate is tightly centralized around him, and he manages it bureaucratically for optimum efficiency in all sectors of the economy and military. The effect is "an accurate and detailed reproduction of a society two centuries gone." Bors is immediately established as an utterly necessary figure in his society and is quickly escorted back into service as the leader of the government by Fowler. A personal assistant as well as mechanic to Bors, Fowler maintains a pretension of loyalty to the robot, but privately recognizes that his society is stagnant and that its leader is becoming mentally unbalanced. Pessimistic, he expresses cynicism regarding the subservient role humans in his society play to Bors. He is contrasted with Peter Green, a genuinely loyal assistant to the robot, who is among the few humans trusted to oversee his body while it is unconscious for repair. Though loyal to his leader, Green nonetheless draws Bors' distrust as the robot's paranoia steadily grows. The Anarchist League. Elsewhere, three members of the "Anarchist League" are on a mission to investigate rumors of a government in existence near a remote mountain valley. The League is a global organization dedicated to seeking out and eradicating governments. Established at some unknown point during or after the global revolt, the League is organized around "League camps" which dot the landscape. Members of the League are easily recognized by their "ironite staffs": metallic walking sticks which they are trained in using as weapons. These tools are a symbol of the League—"the walking Anarchists who patrolled the world on foot, the world's protection agency." The three member team is composed of Edward Tolby, his daughter, Silvia Tolby (of unspecified age, but vaguely described as an adolescent or young adult), and their mutual friend, Robert Penn. While en route to the valley, the team arrives in a small rural town by the name of Fairfax. Fairfax is littered with ancient, decaying gadgets; the last remnants of the era of governments and high tech society, which none of the locals know how to fix or reproduce. Excited by the strangers, the locals ask about the League. Tolby answers their questions in turn, ending with an explanation of the timeline of events which led up to the great revolt. The event is summarized as having begun with revolts in Europe which overthrow the national governments. After France exists for a month free of government, millions join the by then explicitly anarchist movement to disarm the nuclear powers. At each toppled government center, millions of records are burned and government integration robots are destroyed. These events result in the setting of the story; a world full of anachronistic high-technology, interspersed in a pre-industrialized, agrarian culture. Conflict and resolution. While retelling the story of the anarchist revolution, Tolby attracts the attention of a local who invites the trio of anarchists to her home, but who is in secret a government spy ordered to kill them. The ensuing assassination plot is bungled, as the spy dies in the process, but succeeds in killing Penn. Silvia is also badly injured and left unconscious. Her father survives the tragedy largely unscathed, however, and awakens as a patrol of military scouts arrives. The scouts panic after a brief counterattack by Tolby and retreat with Silvia captive. After re-arming himself, Tolby sets out to mount her rescue. Bors is alerted to the situation and overreacts upon learning that one of the three anarchists has escaped. Fearing that the agent will alert the world to their existence, he initiates plans for a war economy and decides to question Silvia in her hospital room. Their dialogue reveals the story of his escape during the collapse of governments and the establishment of the microstate. He was damaged and in transport for repairs when the anarchist revolution began 200 years prior, allowing him to survive in hiding. Enraged by his calm indifference to the prospect of war, Silvia attacks him and attempts her escape, but is restrained by guards. Tolby infiltrates the mountain valley, sneaking past the rapidly mobilizing army of the state. After killing and outmaneuvering inexperienced soldiers, he arrives at the government center and encounters Fowler. Fowler alludes to his desire to end the government and spurs Tolby onward. Ultimately, Tolby confronts and kills Bors, sending the building into confusion as the citizens react with hysteria and grief. The condition is implied to spread outward from the city to troops in the hills, resulting in mass desertion. No longer resisted by guards, Tolby reunites with Silvia. The story concludes as Fowler secretly salvages three remaining synapse coils from Bors' remains, "just in case the times change". Publication history. The exact date Philip K. Dick wrote "The Last of the Masters" is unknown, but the original manuscript of the novelette was received by the Scott Meredith Literary Agency on July 15, 1953. 25 years old at the time, Dick was in the habit of submitting a new story to the agency weekly. Just prior to receiving "Last of the Masters", the agency received "The Turning Wheel" on July 8, and following the former, the agency received "The Father-thing" on July 21. "The Last of the Masters" was published over a year later, in the 1954 November/December issue of "Orbit Science Fiction" no.5. The issue was the last in a science fiction anthology series edited by Donald A. Wollheim. "Orbit Science Fiction" advertised "The Last of the Masters" on its cover and included Dick among an advertised list of prominent contributing authors, among them August Derleth, Gordon R. Dickson, and Chad Oliver. The novelette was republished in 1958 for the Australian market by Jubilee Publications Pty., in "Space Station 42 and Other Stories", a part of the "Satellite Series". The novelette was not published again until the 1980 release of "The Golden Man", the sixth collection of classic stories by Dick. This collection also included the only commentary Dick ever wrote regarding the story. Thereafter, "The Last of the Masters" was included in six more print collections—most of which have seen multiple print runs—and two audiobooks. Reception. While "The Last of the Masters" was little noticed in the years immediately following its publication, it was reviewed after its 1980 publication in "The Golden Man" collection. Fellow science fiction writer Thomas M. Disch reviewed Dick's "The Golden Man" collection among other works in "Fluff and Fizzles", an essay dated to 1979, but published in a 1980 edition of "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction". While celebrating several stories in the collection, and proclaiming to readers the "categorical imperative" of buying a copy, he nonetheless derided most of its contents as "turkeys", citing specifically "The Last of the Masters" as an example. Referring to the story as "a hyperkinetic foray into hairy-chested-style hugger-mugger", Disch also mocked its "action-packed denouement" involving Edward Tolby as an example of "bogus machismo". In her 1982 review of the "Golden Man" collection, Hazel Pierce lauded the sophistication of the story, summarizing the theme of "The Last of the Masters" as an examination of "the paradoxical cast of human existence." Thematic analysis. Technological critique. In his 1980 commentary on the story, Dick also suggested that his reasoning for making Bors sympathetic was a result of a form of trust he advanced towards robots, as opposed to androids. "Perhaps", he suggested, "it's because a robot does not try to deceive you as to what it is". One of the themes that runs throughout all of Dick's fiction is the "power of empathy" and he uses it as the "key element defining the authentic human being". For example, when Silvia meets the robot that runs the government, she exclaims "My God, you have no understanding of us. You run all this, and you're incapable of empathy. You're nothing but a mechanical computer." Christopher Palmer, of La Trobe University, has written on the postmodern literary themes of Dick's early short stories, analyzing stories in which "breakdown and ignorance" are the result of social upheaval. Palmer proposed that Dick often created post-apocalyptic scenarios of ruined worlds which held high tech gadgets in an attempt to present a view of postmodern materialism. Common to many of Dick's short stories were settings in which the outgrowth of modernity is a world where that which is natural is in ruin, and what is artificial is reshaped through science into a fantastically high tech form. Palmer presented "The Last of the Masters" as an example of this, as well as "The Variable Man" and "The Penultimate Truth", two other post-apocalyptic works by Dick. Palmer contended that these shared themes were "...not simply the expression of dystopian malaise, or of Luddism treacherously taking up residence in popular SF... It points to a coherent interpretation of industrialism and post-industrialism." Suggesting that many of the philosophical and political underpinnings of the author's short stories stemmed from his views on domestic life, Palmer's focus turned to Dick's common use of sterility as a metaphor. In "The Gun", "Second Variety", "The Penultimate Truth", and "The Last of the Masters", people and sometimes the earth itself have been driven to sterility. As Palmer noted of "The Last of the Masters", Bors can be interpreted as a symbol of infertility: "It is not clear why he does not replicate himself, or educate his human servants: it is simply a given that he is sterile. The old, technologically advanced, highly organized civilization is a civilization of production, but now under Bors it can do no more than maintain itself." Following an inspection of other short stories with similar references to sterility, Palmer asserts that Dick's work presented a social and existential protest. Palmer interpreted Dick's social critique to be that if the act of creation validates existence, and genuinely expresses a form of individuality, then the process of reproduction is alienating, oppressive, and retards an individual's liberty. As Palmer explains, "...this process disempowers consumers, and even technocrats, by making them dependent on a process of which they have become entirely ignorant." Existentially, Palmer interpreted Dick to further mean that reproduction violated the author's concept of what made an object unique and valuable: "A thing can't be a real thing unless it is in some sense an individual thing." In writing a biography on the author, Brian Stableford placed several of Dick's short stories in a context that established their relationship to the author's personal hardships. "...it always seemed to him [Philip K. Dick] that his career was a catalogue of undeserved disappointments and the record of his published work a travesty of his true ambitions." The personal problems which Dick struggled throughout his life provided fuel for several of the anxiety driven themes for his short stories. In Dick's early work, Stableford highlighted recurring themes in those most popular. These included paranoid suspicions; the dangerous hostility of "seemingly innocent entities"; and "the mechanization of the environment and the computerization of political decision-making". Stories in which androids and robots are a danger to the protagonist include "Autofac", "Colony", and "Vulcan's Hammer". However, "The Last of the Masters", Stableford contends, was an exception to Dick's common dystopic portrayals of technology, given Stableford's interpretation of Bors as an altruist, who was "benign" in its role. Political interpretations. In his 1980 commentary, Philip K. Dick pointed out the moral ambiguity of the story, laying out its political implications: "Should we have a leader or should we think for ourselves? Obviously the latter, in principle. But – sometimes there lies a gulf between what is theoretically right and that which is practical." This quote became part of a larger political analysis of Dick's work in "How Much Does Chaos Scare You?" by Aaron Barlow, Associate Professor of English at New York City College of Technology. In analyzing Dick's short fiction, Barlow presented their themes against the backdrop of post-September 11, 2001 America. In particular, Barlow compared many of the philosophical underpinnings of Neoconservatism, and its rise to prominence during the George W. Bush administration, to the philosophy of Philip K. Dick. "To [Dick]," writes Barlow, "the elites were both alien and dangerous. To him, the focus of vision and of political debate should never be on the rulers, but on the little person, the shopkeeper, the mechanic." In his dissection of Dick's work, Barlow compared several stories in which normal humans lose some form of liberty in their society to an elite group. Examples presented include "Autofac", "Null-O", and "Some Kinds of Life". From these stories, Barlow drew three themes important to Dick's anti-government writings: first, that humanity is often doomed by institutions of power created by the humans themselves; second, that paranoia is a natural aspect of governance, as "[n]o elite can ever completely trust the people it governs," and this distrust leaves a governed people in perpetual danger; and third, that the belief that individuality must be sacrificed—either for the sake of social stability or survival—is a constant threat. "To Dick," Barlow adds, "there are few attitudes more dangerous than this." Each of these themes would be revisited in "The Last of the Masters". Continuing his analysis, Barlow addressed "The Last of the Masters", contrasting it with an earlier work by Dick, "The Defenders". In "The Defenders", humanity has been duped by a noble lie—provided by their robot soldiers—into believing in a war which is not actually taking place. In the latter story, Barlow asserts that Dick surprisingly agreed with such neoconservative theorists as Leo Strauss in the efficacy of the deception. "Here, the [robots] have saved mankind... The 'noble lie' has served its purpose." However, Barlow concedes, "[b]ut this is an extremely early story and Dick had not yet clarified his own world view..." Comparing this story to "The Last of the Masters", Barlow took note of Dick's commentary from "The Golden Man" collection ("...sometimes there lies a gulf between what is theoretically right and that which is practical.") and concluded that the story represented Dick's understanding of "the problems at the other extreme..." in politics. Where most of Dick's stories presented government in skeptical terms to warn the reader of potential abuse, "The Last of the Master" presented an argument for the utility of government. Barlow dissected the Anarchist League and "the contradictory nature of their organization" which patrolled a "poor and dirty" world, and juxtaposed this with the "opulent organization of the (state)". In particular, he highlighted dialogue by the robot master, Bors, as illustrating the importance of his leadership to the success of the micro-state. In the story, a conversation with a mechanic leads the robot to state, "You know I'm the only one who can keep all this together. I'm the only one who knows how to maintain a planned society, not a disorderly chaos! If it weren't for me, all this would collapse, and you'd have dust and ruins and weeds. The whole outside would come rushing in to take over!" Barlow concluded that while the story ended in triumph for the anarchists, the story did not go so far as to validate their society. "Dick does not vindicate them," writes Barlow, "keeping it clear that the robot had certainly accomplished something in that valley, though it had eventually gone too far." Spiritual allegory. In a commentary made for the 1980 anthology, "The Golden Man", Philip K. Dick briefly touched on several themes of the story, including the Christian allegory of the "suffering servant", manifested in the character of Bors. This was touched upon in the Dick biography "Divine Invasions", by memoirist and biographer Lawrence Sutin. Drawing on Dick's commentary, Sutin sees Bors as part of a religious pattern in Dick's stories as a "Christ-like robot", and likens the robot to characters in other stories by Dick who suffer from illness.

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The Dispossessed The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia is a 1974 utopian science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, set in the fictional universe of the seven novels of the Hainish Cycle, e.g. "The Left Hand of Darkness". The book won the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1974, as well as winning both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1975, and received a nomination for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1975. It achieved a degree of literary recognition unusual for science fiction due to its exploration of themes such as anarchism (on a satellite planet called "Anarres") and revolutionary societies, capitalism, and individualism and collectivism. It features the development of the mathematical theory underlying a fictional "ansible", an instantaneous communications device that plays a critical role in Le Guin's novels in the Hainish Cycle. The invention of an ansible places the novel first in the internal chronology of the Hainish Cycle, although it was the fifth published. Background. In her new introduction to the Library of America reprint in 2017, reflecting back some 40 years from late in her life, the author wrote: Le Guin's parents, academic anthropologists Alfred and Theodora Kroeber, were friends with J. Robert Oppenheimer; Le Guin stated that Oppenheimer was the model for Shevek, the book's protagonist. Meaning of the title. It has been suggested that Le Guin's title is a reference to Dostoyevsky's novel about anarchists, "Demons" (, "Bésy"), one popular English-language translation of which is titled "The Possessed". Many of the philosophical underpinnings and ecological concepts came from Murray Bookchin's "Post-Scarcity Anarchism" (1971), according to a letter Le Guin sent to Bookchin. Anarres citizens are "dispossessed" not just by political choice, but by the very lack of actual resources to possess. Here, again, Le Guin draws a contrast with the natural wealth of Urras, and the competitive behaviors this fosters. Setting. "The Dispossessed" is set on Anarres and Urras, the twin inhabited worlds of Tau Ceti. Urras is divided into several states, but is dominated by its two rival superpowers, A-Io and Thu. The main character spends most of his time in A-Io while on Urras, a state with a capitalist economy and a patriarchal system. The state of Thu is never actually visited, but is said to have an authoritarian system that claims to rule in the name of the proletariat. A-Io has dissent in its borders, including a few different oppositional left-wing parties, one of which is closely linked to the rival society of Thu. When a revolution is sparked in Benbili, the third major, yet undeveloped, area of Urras, A-Io invades the Thu-supported revolutionary area, generating a proxy war. The moon, Anarres, represents a more idealist ideological structure: anarcho-syndicalism. The Anarresti, who call themselves Odonians after the founder of their political philosophy, arrived on Anarres from Urras around 200 years ago. In order to forestall an anarcho-syndicalist rebellion, the major Urrasti states gave the revolutionaries the right to live on Anarres, along with a guarantee of non-interference (the story is told in Le Guin's "The Day Before the Revolution".) Before this, Anarres had had no permanent settlements, apart from some mining facilities. The economic and political situation of Anarres and its relation to Urras is ambiguous. The people of Anarres consider themselves as being free and independent, having broken off from the political and social influence of the old world. However, the powers of Urras consider Anarres as being essentially their mining colony, as the annual consignment of Anarres' precious metals and their distribution to major powers on Urras is a major economic event of the old world. Theoretical timeline. In the last chapter of "The Dispossessed", we learn that the Hainish people arrived at Tau Ceti 60 years previously, which is more than 100 years after the secession of the Odonians from Urras and their exodus to Anarres. Terrans are also there, and the novel occurs some time in the future, according to an elaborate chronology worked out by science fiction author Ian Watson in 1975: "the baseline date of AD 2300 for The Dispossessed is taken from the description of Earth in that book (§11) as having passed through an ecological and social collapse with a population peak of 9 billion to a low-population but highly centralized recovery economy." In the same article, Watson assigns a date of AD 4870 to "The Left Hand of Darkness"; both dates are problematic — as Watson says himself, they are contradicted by "Genly Ai's statement that Terrans 'were ignorant until about three thousand years ago of the uses of zero'". Story. The chapters alternate between the two planets and between the present and the past. The even-numbered chapters, which are set on Anarres, chronologically take place first and are followed by the odd-numbered chapters, which take place on Urras. The only exceptions occur in the first and last chapters: the first takes place on both the moon and the planet; the last takes place in a spaceship. Anarres (chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12). Chapter One begins in the middle of the story. The protagonist Shevek is an Anarresti physicist attempting to develop a General Temporal Theory. The physics of the book, Principles of Simultaneity, describes time as having a much deeper, more complex structure than as it is understood. It incorporates not only mathematics and physics, but also philosophy and ethics. Shevek finds his work blocked by a jealous superior, Sabul, who controls the publication of Anarresti manuscripts. As his theories conflict with the prevailing political philosophy, Shevek believes that his ideas are discordant with Anarresti society. Throughout his time in Abbernay, runs into old acquaintances from his adolescence and his mother, Rulag. One of his old acquaintances, Takver, buds up to Shevek and the two start a relationship and have their first child together. Shevek's work is further disrupted by his obligation to perform manual labor during a drought in Anarres' anarchist society. To ensure survival in a harsh environment, the people of Anarres must put the needs of society ahead of their own personal desires, so Shevek performs hard agricultural labor in a dusty desert for four years instead of working on his research. After the drought, he arranges to go to Urras, having won a prestigious award for his work there, to finish and publish his theory with the help of the syndicate he set up to distribute his works. His contact with scholars on Urras and his decision to travel results in political turmoil on Anarres. Shevek is accused of being a traitor by Sabul and threatening the political separation between the two worlds. Believing that his theory will benefit the Anarresti and the wider society, Shevek embarks to Urras. Urras (chapters 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11). Arriving in A-Io, Urras, Shevek is feted. Shevek soon finds himself disgusted with the social, sexual, and political conventions of the hierarchical capitalist society of Urras. His grievances are further explored with the outbreak of war in neighbouring Benbili, of which A-Io is involved with rivalling Thu. At Ieu Eun University, Shevek struggles with teaching the Urrasti students and is manipulated by the physicists there, who hope that his breakthrough on the General Temporal Theory will allow them to build a faster-than-light ship. A drunken, disastrous sexual encounter further alienates Shevek from his peers; his sobering realisation that the theory he proposes will be capitalised by the Urrasti for potential warfare, not for the benefit of society. Shevek escapes the university, contacts an underground revolutionary group, joining in a labor protest that is violently suppressed. He flees to the Terran embassy, where he asks them to transmit his theory to all worlds. The Terrans provide him safe passage back to Anarres. Onboard the "Davenant" (chapter 13). For interplanetary travel to his world, Anarres, Shevek is shown around a Hainish spaceship. Hainish culture is described. A Hainishman named Ketho, who sympathizes with Odonian thought, wants to disembark with Shevek when they land on Anarres. Not knowing if the Anarresti will welcome him back with open arms, Shevek remains content thinking about his family as the spaceship begins to land. Themes. Symbolism. The ambiguity of Anarres' economic and political situation in relation to Urras is symbolically manifested in the low wall surrounding Anarres' single spaceport. This wall is the only place on the anarchist planet where "No Trespassing!" signs may be seen, and it is where the book begins and ends. The people of Anarres believe that the wall divides a free world from the corrupting influence of an oppressor's ships. On the other hand, the wall could be a prison wall keeping the rest of the planet imprisoned and cut off. Shevek's life attempts to answer this question. In addition to Shevek's journey to answer questions about his society's true level of freedom, the meaning of his theories themselves weave their way into the plot; they not only describe abstract physical concepts, but they also reflect ups and downs of the characters' lives, and the transformation of the Anarresti society. An oft-quoted saying in the book is "true journey is return." The meaning of Shevek's theories—which deal with the nature of time and simultaneity—have been subject to interpretation. For example, there have been interpretations that the non-linear nature of the novel is a reproduction of Shevek's theory. Anarchism and capitalism. Le Guin's foreword to the novel notes that her anarchism is closely akin to that of Peter Kropotkin, whose ' closely assessed the influence of the natural world on competition and cooperation. Many conflicts occur between the freedom of anarchism and the constraints imposed by authority and society, both on Anarres and Urras. These constraints are both physical and social. Physically, Odo was imprisoned in the Fort for nine years. Socially speaking, 'time after time the question of who is being locked out or in, which side of the wall one is on, is the focus of the narrative.' Mark Tunik emphasises that "the wall" is the dominant metaphor for these social constraints. Shevek hits ‘the wall of charm, courtesy, indifference.” He later notes that he let a “wall be built around him” that kept him from seeing the poor people on Urras. He had been co-opted, with walls of smiles of the rich, and he didn't know how to break them down. Shevek at one point speculates that the people on Urras are not truly free, precisely because they have so many walls built between people and are so possessive. He says, “You are all in jail. Each alone, solitary, with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is all I can see in your eyes – the wall, the wall!” ‘ It is not just the state of mind of those inside the prisons that concerns Shevek, he also notes the effect on those outside the walls. Steve Grossi says, ‘by building a physical wall to keep the bad in, we construct a mental wall keeping ourselves, our thoughts, and our empathy out, to the collective detriment of all." Shevek himself later says, “those who build walls are their own prisoners.” Le Guin makes this explicit in chapter two, when the schoolchildren construct their own prison and detain one of their own inside. The language spoken on Anarres also reflects anarchism. Pravic is a constructed language in the tradition of Esperanto. Pravic reflects many aspects of the philosophical foundations of utopian anarchism. For instance, the use of the possessive case is strongly discouraged, a feature that also is reflected by the novel's title. Children are trained to speak only about matters that interest others; anything else is "egoizing" (pp. 28–31). There is no property ownership of any kind. Shevek's daughter, upon meeting him for the first time, tells him, "You can share the handkerchief I use" rather than "You may borrow my handkerchief", thus conveying the idea that the handkerchief is not owned by the girl, but is merely used by her. Utopianism. The work is sometimes said to represent one of the few modern revivals of the utopian genre. When first published, the book included the tagline: "The magnificent epic of an ambiguous utopia!" which was shortened by fans to "An ambiguous utopia" and adopted as a subtitle in certain editions. There are also many characteristics of a utopian novel found in this book. For example, Shevek is an outsider when he arrives on Urras, which capitalizes on the utopian and scientific fiction theme of the "estrangement-setting". Le Guin's utopianism, however, differs from the traditional "anarchist commune." Whereas most utopian novels attempt to convey a society that is absolutely good, this world differs as it is portrayed only as "ambiguously good." Feminism. There is some disagreement as to whether "The Dispossessed" should be considered a feminist utopia or a feminist science fiction novel. According to Mary Morrison of the State University of New York at Buffalo, the anarchist themes in this book help to promote feminist themes as well. Other critics, such as William Marcellino of SUNY Buffalo and Sarah LeFanu, writer of "Popular Writing and Feminist Intervention in Science Fiction," argue that there are distinct anti-feminist undertones throughout the novel. Morrison argues that Le Guin's portrayed ideals of Taoism, the celebration of labor and the body, and desire or sexual freedom in an anarchist society contribute greatly to the book's feminist message. Taoism, which rejects dualisms and divisions in favor of a Yin and Yang balance, brings attention to the balance between not only the two planets, but between the male and female inhabitants. The celebration of labor on Anarres stems from a celebration of a mother's labor, focusing on creating life rather than on building objects. The sexual freedom on Anarres also contributes to the book's feminist message. On the other hand, some critics believe that Le Guin's feminist themes are either weak or not present. Some believe that the Taoist interdependence between the genders actually weakens Le Guin's feminist message. Marcellino believes that the anarchist themes in the novel take precedence and dwarf any feminist themes. Lefanu adds that there is a difference between the feminist messages that the book explicitly presents and the anti-feminist undertones. For example, the book says that women created the society on Anarres. However, female characters seem secondary to the male protagonist, who seems to be a traditional male hero; this subversion weakens any feminist message that Le Guin was trying to convey. Ansible theory. The theory Shevek is working on in the novel seeks to tie together the seemingly contradictory natures of Simultaneity and Sequentiality in temporal physics. This is also described, in the banter at a party, as being linear time versus circular time. Shevek is aware of the concept of an ansible, which would allow for instantaneous communication across space, and how his theory would allow for its development. But the implications of that theory might also allow for "the instantaneous transferral of matter across space". Critical reception. The novel received generally positive reviews. On the positive side, Baird Searles characterized the novel as an "extraordinary work", saying Le Guin had "created a working society in exquisite detail" and "a fully realized hypothetical culture [as well as] living breathing characters who are inevitable products of that culture". Gerald Jonas, writing in "The New York Times", said that "Le Guin's book, written in her solid, no-nonsense prose, is so persuasive that it ought to put a stop to the writing of prescriptive Utopias for at least 10 years". Theodore Sturgeon praised "The Dispossessed" as "a beautifully written, beautifully composed book", saying "it performs one of [science fiction's] prime functions, which is to create another kind of social system to see how it would work. Or if it would work." Lester del Rey, however, gave the novel a mixed review, citing the quality of Le Guin's writing but claiming that the ending "slips badly", a "deus ex machina" that "destroy[s] much of the strength of the novel". Adaptations. In 1987, the CBC Radio anthology program "Vanishing Point" adapted "The Dispossessed" into a series of six 30 minute episodes.

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Surface Detail Surface Detail by Iain M. Banks is a science fiction novel in his Culture series, first published in the UK on 7 October 2010 and the US on 28 October 2010. Synopsis. The events of Surface Detail take place around 2970 AD, according to Banks. The events occur six to eight hundred years after the "Chel Debacle", depicted in the earlier novel "Look to Windward" which is set seventy-eight years after the events in "Use of Weapons". Each chapter of the book covers one or more of the six main protagonists—Lededje Y'breq, a chattel slave; Joiler Veppers, an industrialist and playboy; Gyorni Vatueil, a soldier; Prin and Chay, Pavulean academics; and Yime Nsokyi, a Quietus agent. Some of the plot occurs in simulated environments. As the book begins, a war game—the "War in Heaven"—has been running for several decades. The outcome of the simulated war will determine whether societies are allowed to run artificial Hells, virtual afterlives in which the mind-states of the dead are tortured. The Culture, fiercely anti-Hell, has opted to stay out of the war while accepting the outcome as binding. Vatueil is a soldier who has fought his way up the ranks of the war game to a position where he can determine policy. He is instrumental in the decision to cheat—first by attempting to hack into and subvert the war-game, and when this fails by moving the simulated war into the real world. Prin and Chay belong to a species that use the threat of Hell to control the behaviour of their population. While still alive, they enter the Pavulean Hell on a mission to reveal the existence and details of this Hell to the general population. Prin succeeds in getting out, but has to leave his partner Chay behind, where she is subsequently tortured, restored to some semblance of sanity, and finally given a role as an angel in Hell who is able to release one soul a day by killing them. Prin testifies to the Pavulean parliament of his experience in Hell and attempts to convince them that it should be abolished. Veppers is the richest individual in his society, the multi-planet Sichultian Enablement. Y'breq, a frequent victim of rape by Veppers, is murdered by him as she attempts to escape. She is unexpectedly reincarnated ("revented," in Culture terms) aboard a Culture ship, having been secretly implanted with a neural lace some ten years before. She immediately wants to return to her homeworld, to find and kill Veppers. The book hinges on Veppers' involvement in the War in Heaven. He initially appears to be a bit-player, but his involvement is gradually revealed to be more and more critical. The final revelation is that he has made some of his fortune by providing the hardware to run the Hells of various species; over a century he has accumulated about 70% of all the Hells. The hardware is located on his country estate on the planet Sichult. He sets up a secret deal to have the Hells destroyed in an attack which is to be blamed upon the Culture. His motivation is that such an attack will release him from his contracts to run the Hells, which would have become worthless if the anti-Hell side won, but which he cannot wriggle out of in any other way. Y'breq travels back to Sichult on the "Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints", an advanced and "very slightly psychotic" Culture warship. In hot pursuit is Yime Nsokyi, a Culture agent tasked with preventing Y'breq from killing Veppers. As they and their ships arrive, things come to a head. The Culture agents conspire to arrange that the attack on Veppers' estate successfully destroys the Hells, while simultaneously appearing to attempt to stop the attack. They also conspire to ensure that Veppers' secret deal is revealed. Veppers himself is at the estate's mansion during the attack, where Y'breq finds him for the final, personal, showdown. The epilogue reveals Vatueil's identity as Zakalwe, using an alias that is an anagram of Livueta, the character in "Use of Weapons" whose forgiveness Zakalwe sought. Critical reception. Roz Kaveney of "The Independent" said that this was a poor book to introduce new readers to the Culture, but "far from the worst introduction to Banks's series." Alastair Mabbott of "The Herald" describes the story as having "murder, revenge, pursuit and subterfuge taking place against a backdrop of escalating tension [that] stands up very well, and makes the prospect of further books in the Culture series somewhat less imposing." UK book review site "The Bookbag" remarked that "... what sets this book apart is the quality of the writing and the depth of the author's imagination."

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Distress (novel) Distress is a 1995 science fiction novel by Australian writer Greg Egan. Plot summary. "Distress" describes the political intrigue surrounding a mid-twenty-first century physics conference, at which is to be presented a unified Theory of Everything. In the background of the story is an epidemic mental illness, related in some way to the imminent discovery of the TOE. The action takes place on an artificial island called "Stateless", which has earned the wrath of the world's large biotech companies for its pilfering of their intellectual property. The narrator is a journalist for a science channel called SeeNet named Andrew Worth who carries video recording software in an intestinal implant. He is offered a story on a new illness called Distress, but declines. He journeys to Stateless through a series of convoluted flights to cover a presentation by 27-year-old South African physicist Violet Mosala, supplanting the preproduction by a colleague, Sarah Knight. When he arrives, he is informed by an asex anthrocosmologist named Akili that Violet's life is in danger. Violet is finishing her Theory of Everything, which she intends to present on the conference's last day. Through interfacing with a talkative local, Worth learns that Violet plans to emigrate to Stateless after the conference to use her celebrity to provide an opportunity for South Africa and other nations to end their support for the United Nations boycott of Stateless. He also witnesses the islands' physical underpinnings: it is basically held up by the activity of millions of micro-organisms. After meeting with a faction of anthrocosmologists, he learns that they believe in the concept that the universe is created by one person's Theory of Everything. That person is called the Keystone. Worth becomes deathly ill and believes he has been infected with cholera by a faction of anthrocosmologists who wanted him to transmit the disease to Violet Mosala. He recovers and is kidnapped by this group, who are led by a rival physicist Worth saw with Violet at the conference. Worth and Akili are held on a tanker where it is explained that these cultists believe Violet's TOE will destroy the world. Worth signals for help by connecting his implant to a port on the ship. He and Akili are rescued by citizens of Stateless. Worth returns to the conference and learns that a biotech conglomerate sent a militia to Stateless, angry at the technology they have appropriated. He negotiates with the militia to let a suddenly ill Violet return to South Africa, where she dies. Before her illness, however, she tasked an AI to synthesize her final theory. The militia moves to take over the main city of Stateless, brutalizing the citizens as they evacuate to the outskirts. While seemingly helpless to do anything at first, they soon strike back at the invaders by having triggered microorganisms consume the cities structural underpinning, sinking it into the ocean. Worth is fired from SeeNet and Sarah Knight replaces him, covering the war. Worth discovers that Sarah was working with the cultists, and that AIs are exhibiting symptoms of the titular mental illness as well. Believing that the AI that wrote the paper became the Keystone and that Distress will continue until a human reads it, Worth downloads and reads the paper, and realizes that all minds, together, collaborate in being "the" Keystone, giving all of humanity an intuitive connection with the universe. Themes. The novel contains a great deal of commentary on gender identities, multinational capitalism, and postmodern thought. It also features Egan's usual playful exploration of physical, metaphysical, and epistemological theories. Gender roles. Egan uses his hypothetical future to postulate the existence of not just one but "five" new genders, and introduces a set of new pronouns for gender neutral people. One of the central characters of the novel, Akili Kuwale, provides a demonstration of this change and its implications. As an asexual human, Akili has had all reproductive organs removed entirely. Within the scope of the novel, Egan uses the pronouns 've', 'ver', and 'vis' to represent Akili's definitive gender neutrality. Anarchism. Egan also uses the hypothetical technological advances in "Distress" to explore ideas about anarchism, especially when its protagonist, Andrew Worth, a journalist, travels to the anarchistic man-made island named Stateless. Andrew meets some minor characters on Stateless who explain to him the relationship between anarchistic principles and various ideas such as quantum physics, information theory and independent spirituality. Worth also meets a painter, Munroe, who attempts to explain how anarchy functions on Stateless. Munroe is an Australian as are Andrew Worth and Greg Egan himself. Egan uses Munroe to deliver a critique of Australian culture. A major theme running through Egan's presentation of a futuristic anarchism is something called "'Technolibération"', which is to do with the liberation of technology and information from corporate control as well as the idea of using advanced technology to enable liberatory social movements.

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The Left Hand of Darkness The Left Hand of Darkness is a science fiction novel by U.S. writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Published in 1969, it became immensely popular, and established Le Guin's status as a major author of science fiction. The novel is set in the fictional Hainish universe as part of the "Hainish Cycle", a series of novels and short stories by Le Guin, which she introduced in the 1964 short story "The Dowry of Angyar". It was fourth in sequence of writing among the Hainish novels, preceded by "City of Illusions", and followed by "The Word for World Is Forest". The novel follows the story of Genly Ai, a human native of Terra, who is sent to the planet of Gethen as an envoy of the Ekumen, a loose confederation of planets. Ai's mission is to persuade the nations of Gethen to join the Ekumen, but he is stymied by a lack of understanding of their culture. Individuals on Gethen are "ambisexual", with no fixed sex; this has a strong influence on the culture of the planet, and creates a barrier of understanding for Ai. "The Left Hand of Darkness" was among the first books in the genre now known as feminist science fiction and is the most famous examination of androgyny in science fiction. A major theme of the novel is the effect of sex and gender on culture and society, explored in particular through the relationship between Ai and Estraven, a Gethenian politician who trusts and helps Ai. When the book was first published, the gender theme touched off a feminist debate over the depiction of the ambisexual Gethenians. The novel also explores the interaction between the unfolding loyalties of its two main characters, the loneliness and rootlessness of Ai, and the contrast between the religions of Gethen's two major nations. "The Left Hand of Darkness" has been reprinted more than 30 times, and received high praise from reviewers. In 1970 it was voted the Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Novel by fans and writers, respectively, and was ranked as the third best novel, behind Frank Herbert's "Dune" and Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End", in a 1975 poll in "Locus" magazine. In 1987, "Locus" ranked it second among science fiction novels, after "Dune", and literary critic Harold Bloom wrote, "Le Guin, more than Tolkien, has raised fantasy into high literature, for our time". Background. Le Guin's father Alfred Louis Kroeber was an anthropologist, and the experience that this gave Le Guin influenced all of her works. The protagonists of many of Le Guin's novels, such as "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "Rocannon's World", are also anthropologists or social investigators of some kind. Le Guin used the term "Ekumen" for her fictional alliance of worlds, a term coined by her father, who derived it from the Greek "oikoumene" to refer to Eurasian cultures that shared a common origin. Le Guin's interest in Taoism influenced much of her science fiction work. According to academic Douglas Barbour, the fiction of the Hainish universe (the setting for several of Le Guin's works) contain a theme of balance between light and darkness, a central theme of Taoism. She was also influenced by her early interest in mythology, and her exposure to cultural diversity as a child. Her protagonists are frequently interested in the cultures they are investigating, and are motivated to preserve them rather than conquer them. Authors who influenced Le Guin include Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, Italo Calvino, and Lao Tzu. Le Guin identified with feminism, and was interested in non-violence and ecological awareness. She participated in demonstrations against the Vietnam War and nuclear weapons. These sympathies can be seen in several of her works of fiction, including those in the Hainish universe. The novels of the Hainish cycle frequently explore the effects of differing social and political systems, although according to lecturer Suzanne Reid, Le Guin displayed a preference for a "society that governs by consensus, a communal cooperation without external government". Her fiction also frequently challenges accepted depictions of race and gender. The original 1969 edition of "The Left Hand of Darkness" did not contain an introduction. After reflecting on her work, Le Guin wrote in the 1976 edition that the genre of science fiction was not as "rationalist and simplistic" as simple extrapolation. Instead, she called it a "thought experiment" which presupposes some changes to the world, and probes their consequences. The purpose of the thought experiment is not to predict the future, but to "describe reality, the present world". In this case, her thought experiment explores a society without men or women, where individuals share the biological and emotional makeup of both sexes. Le Guin has also said that the genre in general allows exploration of the "real" world through metaphors and complex stories, and that science fiction can use imaginary situations to comment on human behaviors and relationships. In her new introduction to the Library of America reprint in 2017, the author wrote: Setting. "The Left Hand of Darkness" is set in the fictional Hainish universe, which Le Guin introduced in her first novel "Rocannon's World", published in 1966. In this fictional history, human beings did not evolve on Earth, but on Hain. The people of Hain colonized many neighboring planetary systems, including Terra (Earth) and Gethen, possibly a million years before the setting of the novels. Some of the groups that "seeded" each planet were the subjects of genetic experiments, including on Gethen. The planets subsequently lost contact with each other, for reasons that Le Guin does not explain. Le Guin does not narrate the entire history of the Hainish universe at once, instead letting readers piece it together from various works. The novels and other fictional works set in the Hainish universe recount the efforts to re-establish a galactic civilization. Explorers from Hain as well as other planets use interstellar ships traveling nearly as fast as light. These take years to travel between planetary systems, although the journey is shortened for the travelers due to relativistic time dilation, as well as through instantaneous interstellar communication using the ansible, a device invented during the events described in "The Dispossessed". This galactic civilization is known as the "League of All Worlds" in works set earlier in the chronology of the series, and has been reconstructed as the "Ekumen" by the time the events in "The Left Hand of Darkness" take place. During the events of the novel, the Ekumen is a union of 83 worlds, with some common laws. At least two "thought experiments" are used in each novel. The first is the idea that all humanoid species had a common origin; they are all depicted as descendants of the original Hainish colonizers. The second idea is unique to each novel. "The Left Hand of Darkness" takes place many centuries in the future—no date is given in the book itself. Reviewers have suggested the year 4870 AD, based on extrapolation of events in other works, and commentary on her writing by Le Guin. The protagonist of the novel, the envoy Genly Ai, is on a planet called Winter ("Gethen" in the language of its own people) to convince the citizens to join the Ekumen. Winter is, as its name indicates, a planet that is always cold. The inhabitants of Gethen are ambisexual humans; for twenty-four days (a period called "somer" in Karhidish, a Gethenian language) of each twenty-six-day lunar cycle, they are sexually latent androgynes. They only adopt sexual attributes once a month, during a period of sexual receptiveness and high fertility, called "kemmer". During "kemmer" they become sexually male or female, with no predisposition towards either, although which sex they adopt can depend on context and relationships. Throughout the novel Gethenians are described as "he", whatever their role in kemmer. This absence of fixed gender characteristics led Le Guin to portray Gethen as a society without war, and also without sexuality as a continuous factor in social relationships. On Gethen, every individual takes part in the "burden and privilege" of raising children, and rape and seduction are almost absent. Plot summary. The protagonist of the novel is Genly Ai, a male Terran native, who is sent to invite the planet Gethen to join the Ekumen, a coalition of humanoid worlds. Ai travels to the Gethen planetary system on a starship which remains in solar orbit with Ai's companions, who are in stasis; Ai himself is sent to Gethen alone, as the "first mobile" or Envoy. Like all envoys of the Ekumen, he can "mindspeak"—a form of quasi-telepathic speech, which Gethenians are capable of, but of which they are unaware. He lands in the Gethenian kingdom of Karhide, and spends two years attempting to persuade the members of its government of the value of joining the Ekumen. Karhide is one of two major nations on Gethen, the other being Orgoreyn. The novel begins the day before an audience that Ai has obtained with Argaven Harge, the king of Karhide. Ai manages this through the help of Estraven, the prime minister, who seems to believe in Ai's mission, but the night before the audience, Estraven tells Ai that he can no longer support Ai's cause with the king. Ai begins to doubt Estraven's loyalty because of his strange mannerisms, which Ai finds effeminate and ambiguous. The behavior of people in Karhide is dictated by "shifgrethor", an intricate set of unspoken social rules and formal courtesy. Ai does not understand this system, thus making it difficult for him to understand Estraven's motives, and contributing to his distrust of Estraven. The next day, as he prepares to meet the King, Ai learns that Estraven has been accused of treason, and exiled from the country. The pretext for Estraven's exile was his handling of a border dispute with the neighboring country of Orgoreyn, in which Estraven was seen as being too conciliatory. Ai meets with the king, who rejects his invitation to join the Ekumen. Discouraged, Ai decides to travel through Karhide, as the spring has just begun, rendering the interior of the frozen country accessible. Ai travels to a Fastness, a dwelling of people of the Handdarrata, one of two major Gethenian religions. He pays the fastness for a foretelling, an art practiced to prove the "perfect uselessness of knowing the answer to the wrong question". He asks if Gethen will be a member of the Ekumen in five years, expecting that the Foretellers will give him an ambiguous response, but he is answered "yes". This leads him to muse that the Gethenians have "trained hunch to run in harness". After several months of travelling through Karhide, Ai decides to pursue his mission in Orgoreyn, to which he has received an invitation. Ai reaches the Orgota capital of Mishnory, where he finds that the Orgota politicians are initially far more direct with him. He is given comfortable quarters, and is allowed to present his invitation to the council that rules Orgoreyn. Three members of the council, Shusgis, Obsle, and Yegey, are particularly supportive of him. These three are members of an "Open Trade" faction, which wants to end the conflict with Karhide. Estraven, who was banished from Karhide, is found working with these council members, and tells Ai that he was responsible for Ai's reception in Orgoreyn. Despite the support, Ai feels uneasy. Estraven warns him not to trust the Orgota leaders, and he hears rumors of the "Sarf", or secret police, that truly control Orgoreyn. He ignores both his feeling and the warning, and is once again blindsided; he is arrested unexpectedly one night, interrogated, and sent to a far-northern labor camp where he suffers harsh cold, is forced into hard labor, and is given debilitating drugs. He becomes ill and his death seems imminent. His captors expect him to die in the camp, but to Ai's great surprise, Estraven—whom Ai still distrusts—goes to great lengths to save him. Estraven poses as a prison guard and breaks Ai out of the farm, using his training with the Handdarrata to induce "dothe", or hysterical strength, to aid him in the process. Estraven spends the last of his money on supplies, and then steals more, breaking his own moral code. The pair begin a dangerous 80-day trek across the northern Gobrin ice sheet back to Karhide, because Estraven believes that the reappearance of Ai in Karhide will convince Karhide to accept the Ekumen treaty, knowing that Karhide will want the honour of doing so before Orgoreyn. Over the journey Ai and Estraven learn to trust and accept one another's differences. Ai is eventually successful in teaching Estraven mindspeech; Estraven hears Ai speaking in his mind with the voice of Estraven's dead sibling and lover Arek, demonstrating the close connection that Ai and Estraven have developed. When they reach Karhide, Ai sends a radio transmission to his ship, which lands a few days later. Estraven tries to cross the land border with Orgoreyn, because he is still exiled from Karhide, but is killed by border guards, who capture Ai. Estraven's prediction is borne out when Ai's presence in Karhide triggers the collapse of governments in both Karhide and Orgoreyn—Orgoreyn's because its claim that Ai had died of a disease was shown to be false. Karhide agrees to join the Ekumen, followed shortly by Orgoreyn, completing Ai's mission. Primary characters. Genly Ai. Genly Ai is the protagonist of the novel; a male native of Terra, or Earth, who is sent to Gethen by the Ekumen as a "first mobile" or envoy. He is called "Genry" by the Karhiders, who have trouble pronouncing the letter "L". He is described as rather taller and darker than the average Gethenian. Although curious and sensitive to Gethenian culture in many ways, he struggles at first to trust the ambisexual Gethenians. His own masculine mannerisms, learned on Terra, also prove to be a barrier to communication. At the beginning of the book, he has been on Gethen for one year, trying to gain an audience with the king, and persuade the Karhidish government to believe his story. He arrives equipped with basic information about the language and culture from a team of investigators who had come before him. In Karhide, the king is reluctant to accept his diplomatic mission. In Orgoreyn, Ai is seemingly accepted more easily by the political leaders, yet Ai is arrested, stripped of his clothes, drugged, and sent to a work camp. Rescued by Estraven, the deposed Prime Minister of Karhide, Genly realizes that cultural differences—specifically "shifgrethor", gender roles and Gethenian sexuality—had kept him from understanding their relationship previously. During their 80-day journey across the frozen land to return to Karhide, Ai learns to understand and love Estraven. Estraven. Therem Harth rem ir Estraven is a Gethenian from the Domain of Estre in Kerm Land, at the southern end of the Karhidish half of the continent. He is the Prime Minister of Karhide at the very beginning of the novel, until he is exiled from Karhide after attempting to settle the Sinoth Valley border dispute with Orgoreyn. Estraven is one of the few Gethenians who believe Ai, and he attempts to help him from the beginning, but Ai's inability to comprehend "shifgrethor" leads to severe misunderstanding between them. Estraven is said to have made a taboo kemmering vow (love pledge) to his brother, Arek Harth rem ir Estraven, while they were both young. Convention required that they separate after they had produced a child together. Because of the first vow, a second vow Estraven made with Ashe Foreth, another partner, which was also broken before the events in "Left Hand", is called a "false vow, a second vow". In contrast to Ai, Estraven is shown with both stereotypically masculine and feminine qualities, and is used to demonstrate that both are necessary for survival. Argaven. Argaven Harge XV is the king of Karhide during the events of the novel. He is described both by his subjects and by Estraven as being "mad". He has sired seven children, but has yet to bear "an heir of the body, king son". During the novel he becomes pregnant but loses the child soon after it is born, triggering speculation as to which of his sired children will be named his heir. His behavior towards Ai is consistently paranoid; although he grants Ai an audience, he refuses to believe his story, and declines the offer to join the Ekumen. The tenure of his prime ministers tends to be short, with both Estraven and Tibe rising and falling from power during the two Gethenian years that the novel spans. Argaven eventually agrees to join the Ekumen due to the political fallout of Estraven's death and Ai's escape from Orgoreyn. Tibe. Pemmer Harge rem ir Tibe is Argaven Harge's cousin. Tibe becomes the prime minister of Karhide when Estraven is exiled at the beginning of the novel, and becomes the regent for a brief while when Argaven is pregnant. In contrast to Estraven, he seems intent on starting a war with Orgoreyn over the Sinnoth Valley dispute; as well as taking aggressive actions at the border, he regularly makes belligerent speeches on the radio. He is strongly opposed to Ai's mission. He orders Estraven to be killed at the border at the end of the novel, as a last act of defiance, knowing that Estraven and Ai's presence in Karhide means his own downfall; he resigns immediately after Estraven's death. Obsle, Yegey, and Shusgis. Obsle, Yegey, and Shusgis are Commensals, three of the thirty-three councillors that rule Orgoreyn. Obsle and Yegey are members of the "Open Trade" faction, who wish to normalize relations with Karhide. Obsle is the commensal of the Sekeve District, and was once the head of the Orgota Naval Trade Commission in Erhenrang, where he became acquainted with Estraven. Estraven describes him as the nearest thing to an honest person among the politicians of Orgoreyn. Yegey is the commensal who first finds Estraven during his exile, and who gives Estraven a job and a place to live in Mishnory. Shusgis is the commensal who hosts Genly Ai after Ai's arrival in Mishnory, and is a member of the opposing faction, which supports the Sarf, the Orgota secret police. Although Obsle and Yegey support Ai's mission, they see him more as a means of increasing their own influence within the council; thus they eventually betray him to the Sarf, in order to save themselves. Their Open Trade faction takes control of the council after Ai's presence in Karhide becomes known at the end of the novel. Reception. "The Left Hand of Darkness" has received highly positive critical responses since its publication. In 1970 it won both the Nebula Award, given by the Science Fiction Writers of America, and the Hugo Award, determined by science fiction fans. In 1987, science fiction news and trade journal "Locus" ranked it number two among "All-Time Best SF Novels", based on a poll of subscribers. The novel was also a personal milestone for Le Guin, with critics calling it her "first contribution to feminism". It was one of her most popular books for many years after its publication. By 2014, the novel had sold more than a million copies in English. The book has been widely praised by genre commentators, academic critics, and literary reviewers. Fellow science fiction writer Algis Budrys praised the novel as "a narrative so fully realized, so compellingly told, so masterfully executed". He found the book "a novel written by a magnificent writer, a totally compelling tale of human peril and striving under circumstances in which human love, and a number of other human qualities, can be depicted in a fresh context". Darko Suvin, one of the first academics to study science fiction, wrote that "Left Hand" was the "most memorable novel of the year", and Charlotte Spivack regards the book as having established Le Guin's status as a major science-fiction writer. In 1987 Harold Bloom described "The Left Hand of Darkness" as Le Guin's "finest work to date", and argued that critics have generally undervalued it. Bloom followed this up by listing the book in his "The Western Canon" (1994) as one of the books in his conception of artistic works that have been important and influential in Western culture. In Bloom's opinion, "Le Guin, more than Tolkien, has raised fantasy into high literature, for our time". Critics have also commented on the broad influence of the book, with writers such as Budrys citing it as an influence upon their own writing. More generally it has been asserted that the work has been widely influential in the science fiction field, with "The Paris Review" claiming that "No single work did more to upend the genre's conventions than "The Left Hand of Darkness"". Donna White, in her study of the critical literature on Le Guin, argued that "Left Hand" was one of the seminal works of science fiction, as important as "Frankenstein", by Mary Shelley, which is often described as the very first science fiction novel. Suzanne Reid wrote that at the time the novel was written, Le Guin's ideas of androgyny were unique not only to science fiction, but to literature in general. "Left Hand" has been a focus of literary critique of Le Guin's work, along with her Earthsea fiction and utopian fiction. The novel was at the center of a feminist debate when it was published in 1969. Alexei Panshin objected to the use of masculine "he/him/his" gender pronouns to describe its androgynous characters, and called the novel a "flat failure". Other feminists maintained that the novel did not go far enough in its exploration of gender. Criticism was also directed at the portrayal of androgynous characters in the "masculine" roles of politicians and statesmen but not in family roles. Sarah LeFanu, for example, wrote that Le Guin turned her back on an opportunity for experimentation. She stated that "these male heroes with their crises of identity, caught in the stranglehold of liberal individualism, act as a dead weight at the center of the novel". Le Guin, who identifies as a feminist, responded to these criticisms in her essay "Is Gender Necessary?" as well as by switching masculine pronouns for feminine ones in a later reprinting of "Winter's King", an unconnected short story set on Gethen. In her responses, Le Guin admitted to failing to depict androgynes in stereotypically feminine roles, but said that she considered and decided against inventing gender-neutral pronouns, because they would mangle the language of the novel. In the afterword of the 25th anniversary edition of the novel, she stated that her opinion on the matter had changed, and that she was "haunted and bedeviled by the matter of the pronouns." Themes. Hainish universe themes. Le Guin's works set in the Hainish universe explore the idea of human expansion, a theme found in the future history novels of other science-fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov. The Hainish novels, such as "The Dispossessed", "Left Hand", and "The Word for World is Forest," also frequently explore the effects of differing social and political systems. Le Guin believed that contemporary society suffered from a high degree of alienation and division, and her depictions of encounters between races, such as in "The Left Hand of Darkness," sought to explore the possibility of "improved mode of human relationships", based on "integration and integrity". "The Left Hand of Darkness" explores this theme through the relationship between Genly Ai and Estraven; Ai initially distrusts Estraven, but eventually comes to love and trust him. Le Guin's later Hainish novels also challenge contemporary ideas about gender, ethnic differences, the value of ownership, and human beings' relationship to the natural world. Sex and gender. A prominent theme in the novel is social relations in a society where gender is irrelevant; in Le Guin's words, she "eliminated gender, to find out what was left". In her 1976 essay "Is Gender Necessary?" Le Guin wrote that the theme of gender was only secondary to the novel's primary theme of loyalty and betrayal. Le Guin revisited this essay in 1988, and stated that gender was central to the novel; her earlier essay had described gender as a peripheral theme because of the defensiveness she felt over using masculine pronouns for her characters. The novel also follows changes in the character of Genly Ai, whose behavior shifts away from the "masculine" and grows more androgynous over the course of the novel. He becomes more patient and caring, and less rigidly rationalist. Ai struggles to form a bond with Estraven through much of the novel, and finally breaks down the barrier between them during their journey on the ice, when he recognizes and accepts Estraven's dual sexuality. Their understanding of each other's sexuality helps them achieve a more trusting relationship. The new intimacy they share is shown when Ai teaches Estraven to mindspeak, and Estraven hears Ai speaking with the voice of Estraven's dead sibling (and lover) Arek. Feminist theorists criticized the novel for what they saw as a homophobic depiction of the relationship between Estraven and Ai. Both are presented as superficially masculine throughout the novel, but they never physically explore the attraction between them. Estraven's death at the end was seen as giving the message that "death is the price that must be paid for forbidden love". In a 1986 essay, Le Guin acknowledged and apologized for the fact that "Left Hand" had presented heterosexuality as the norm on Gethen. The androgynous nature of the inhabitants of Gethen is used to examine gender relations in human society. On Gethen, the permanently male Genly Ai is an oddity, and is seen as a "pervert" by the natives; according to reviewers, this is Le Guin's way of gently critiquing masculinity. Le Guin also seems to suggest that the absence of gender divisions leads to a society without the constriction of gender roles. The Gethenians are not inclined to go to war, which reviewers have linked to their lack of sexual aggressiveness, derived from their ambisexuality. According to Harold Bloom, "Androgyny is clearly neither a political nor a sexual ideal" in the book, but that "ambisexuality is a more imaginative condition than our bisexuality. ... the Gethenians "know" more than either men or women". Bloom added that this is the major difference between Estraven and Ai, and allows Estraven the freedom to carry out actions that Ai cannot; Estraven "is better able to love, and freed therefore to sacrifice". Religion. The book features two major religions: the Handdara, an informal system reminiscent of Taoism and Buddhism, and the Yomeshta or Meshe's cult, a close-to-monotheistic religion based on the idea of absolute knowledge of the entirety of time attained in one visionary instant by Meshe, who was originally a Foreteller of the Handdara, when attempting to answer the question: "What is the meaning of life?" The Handdara is the more ancient, and dominant in Karhide, while Yomesh is the official religion in Orgoreyn. The differences between them underlie political distinctions between the countries and cultural distinctions between their inhabitants. Estraven is revealed to be an adept of the Handdara. Le Guin's interest in Taoism influenced much of her science fiction work. Douglas Barbour said that the fiction of the Hainish Universe contains a theme of balance between light and darkness, a central theme of Taoism. The title "The Left Hand of Darkness" derives from the first line of a lay traditional to the fictional planet of Gethen: Suzanne Reid stated that this presentation of light and dark was in strong contrast to many western cultural assumptions, which believe in strongly contrasted opposites. She went on to say that Le Guin's characters have a tendency to adapt to the rhythms of nature rather than trying to conquer them, an attitude which can also be traced to Taoism. The Handdarrata represent the Taoist sense of unity; believers try to find insight by reaching the "untrance", a balance between knowing and unknowing, and focusing and unfocusing. The Yomesh cult is the official religion of Orgoreyn, and worships light. Critics such as David Lake have found parallels between the Yomesh cult and Christianity, such as the presence of saints and angels, and the use of a dating system based on the death of the prophet. Le Guin portrays the Yomesh religion as influencing the Orgota society, which Lake interprets as a critique of the influence of Christianity upon Western society. In comparison to the religion of Karhide, the Yomesh religion focuses more on enlightenment and positive, obvious statements. The novel suggests that this focus on positives leads to the Orgota being not entirely honest, and that a balance between enlightenment and darkness is necessary for truth. Loyalty and betrayal. Loyalty, fidelity, and betrayal are significant themes in the book, explored against the background of both planetary and interplanetary relations. Genly Ai is sent to Gethen as an envoy of the Ekumen, whose mission is to convince the various Gethenian nations that their identities will not be destroyed when they integrate with the Ekumen. At the same time, the planetary conflict between Karhide and Orgoreyn is shown as increasing nationalism, making it hard for citizens of each country to view themselves as citizens of the planet. These conflicts are demonstrated by the varying loyalties of the main characters. Genly Ai tells Argaven after Estraven's death that Estraven served mankind as a whole, just as Ai did. During the border dispute with Orgoreyn, Estraven tries to end the dispute by moving Karhidish farmers out of the disputed territory. Estraven believes that by preventing war he was saving Karhidish lives and being loyal to his country, while King Argaven sees it as a betrayal. At the end of the novel Ai calls his ship down to formalize Gethen's joining the Ekumen, and feels conflicted while doing so because he had promised Estraven that he would clear Estraven's name before calling his ship down. His decision is an example of Le Guin's portrayal of loyalty and betrayal as complementary rather than contradictory, because in joining Gethen with the Ekumen, Ai was fulfilling the larger purpose that he shared with Estraven. Donna White wrote that many of Le Guin's novels depict a struggle between personal loyalties and public duties, best exemplified in "The Left Hand of Darkness", where Ai is bound by a personal bond to Estraven, but must subordinate that to his mission for the Ekumen and humanity. The theme of loyalty and trust is related to the novel's other major theme of gender. Ai has considerable difficulty in completing his mission because of his prejudice against the ambisexual Gethenians and his inability to establish a personal bond with them. Ai's preconceived ideas of how men should behave prevents him from trusting Estraven when the two meet; Ai labels Estraven "womanly" and distrusts him because Estraven exhibits both male and female characteristics. Estraven also faces difficulties communicating with Ai, who does not understand "shifgrethor", the Gethenians' indirect way of giving and receiving advice. A related theme that runs through Le Guin's work is that of being rooted or rootless in society, explored through the experiences of lone individuals on alien planets. "Shifgrethor" and communication. "Shifgrethor" is a fictional concept in the Hainish universe, first introduced in "The Left Hand of Darkness". It is first mentioned by Genly Ai, when he thinks to himself "shifgrethor—prestige, face, place, the pride-relationship, the untranslatable and all-important principle of social authority in Karhide and all civilizations of Gethen". It derives from an old Gethenian word for shadow, as prominent people are said to "cast darker [or longer] shadows". George Slusser describes "shifgrethor" as "not rank, but its opposite, the ability to maintain equality in any relationship, and to do so by respecting the person of the other". According to University of West Georgia Professor Carrie B. McWhorter, "shifgrethor" can be defined simply as "a sense of honor and respect that provides the Gethenians with a way to save face in a time of crisis". Ai initially refuses to see a connection between his sexuality and his mode of consciousness, preventing him from truly understanding the Gethenians; thus he is unable to persuade them of the importance of his mission. Ai's failure to comprehend "shifgrethor" and to trust Estraven's motives leads him to misunderstand much of the advice that Estraven gives him. As Ai's relationship to Estraven changes, their communication also changes; they are both more willing to acknowledge mistakes, and make fewer assertions. Eventually, the two are able to converse directly with mindspeech, but only after Ai is able to understand Estraven's motivations, and no longer requires direct communication. Style and structure. The novel is framed as part of the report that Ai sends back to the Ekumen after his time on Gethen, and as such, suggests that Ai is selecting and ordering the material. Ai narrates ten chapters in the first person; the rest are made up of extracts from Estraven's personal diary and ethnological reports from an earlier observer from the Ekumen, interspersed with Gethenian myths and legends. The novel begins with the following statement from Ai, explaining the need for multiple voices in the novel: The myths and legends serve to explain specific features about Gethenian culture, as well as larger philosophical aspects of society. Many of the tales used in the novel immediately precede chapters describing Ai's experience with a similar situation. For instance, a story about the dangers of foretelling is presented before Ai's own experience witnessing a foretelling. Other stories include a retelling of the legend of the "place inside the storm" (about two lovers whose vow is broken when societal strictures cause one to kill themself); another retelling the roots of the Yomeshta cult; a third is an ancient Orgota creation myth; a fourth is a story of one of Estraven's ancestors, which discusses what a traitor is. The presence of myths and legends has also been cited by reviewers who state that Le Guin's work, particularly "Left Hand", is similar to allegory in many ways. These include the presence of a guide (Estraven) for the protagonist (Ai), and the use of myths and legends to provide a backdrop for the story. The heterogeneous structure of the novel has been described as "distinctly post-modern", and was unusual for the time of its publication, in marked contrast to (primarily male-authored) traditional science fiction, which was straightforward and linear. In 1999, literary scholar Donna White wrote that the unorthodox structure of the novel made it initially confusing to reviewers, before it was interpreted as an attempt to follow the trajectory of Ai's changing views. Also in contrast to what was typical for male authors of the period, Le Guin narrated the action in the novel through the personal relationships she depicted. Ai's first-person narration reflects his slowly developing view, and the reader's knowledge and understanding of the Gethens evolves with Ai's awareness. He begins in naivety, gradually discovering his profound errors in judgement. In this sense, the novel can be thought of as a "Bildungsroman", or coming of age story. Since the novel is presented as Ai's journey of transformation, Ai's position as the narrator increases the credibility of the story. The narration is complemented by Le Guin's writing style, described by Bloom as "precise, dialectical—always evocative in its restrained pathos" which is "exquisitely fitted to her powers of invention". Adaptations. In December 2004, Phobos Entertainment acquired media rights to the novel and announced plans for a feature film and video game based on it. In 2013, the Portland Playhouse and Hand2Mouth Theatre produced a stage adaptation of "The Left Hand of Darkness" in Portland, Oregon. On April 12 and 19, 2015, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a two-part adaptation of the novel, starring Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Genly Ai, Lesley Sharp as Estraven, Toby Jones as Argaven, Ruth Gemmell as Ashe, Louise Brealey as Tibe and Gaum, Stephen Critchlow as Shusgis, and David Acton as Obsle. The radio drama was adapted by Judith Adams and directed by Allegra McIlroy. The adaptation was created and aired as part of a thematic month centered on the life and works of Ursula Le Guin, in honor of her 85th birthday. In early 2017, the novel was picked up for production by Critical Content as a television limited series with Le Guin serving as a consulting producer. The first university production of "Left Hand of Darkness" premiered in the University of Oregon's Robinson Theater on November 3, 2017 with a script adapted by John Schmor. Many works of the transgender artist Tuesday Smillie exhibited at the Rose Art Museum take inspiration from the book.

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Masks of the Illuminati Masks of the Illuminati is a 1981 novel by Robert Anton Wilson, co-author of "The Illuminatus! Trilogy" and over thirty other influential books. Although not a sequel to the earlier work, it does expand information on many of the topics referred to in the trilogy. Plot summary. The novel features numerous real-life historical figures in its narrative, including a first person description of reality by scientist Albert Einstein and Irish author James Joyce, while the plot involves English author and occultist Aleister Crowley, British nobles, the Loch Ness Monster and mystical experiences. The plot revolves primarily around the description by a young English gentleman, Sir John Babcock, of his initiation into the Argenteum Astrum. Ancestors of Sir John are major characters in "The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles." Reception. Greg Costikyan reviewed "Masks of the Illuminati" in "Ares Magazine" #9 and commented that ""Masks of the Illuminati" is an essentially minor work by a master, but for all of that makes amusing and thoughtful reading. Those unacquainted with Wilson's work would do well to pick up a copy."

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The Player of Games The Player of Games is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 1988. It was the second published Culture novel. A film version was planned by Pathé in the 1990s, but was abandoned. Plot. Jernau Morat Gurgeh, a famously skillful player of board games and other similar contests, lives on Chiark Orbital, and is bored with his successful life. The Culture's Special Circumstances (SC) inquires about his willingness to participate in a long journey but won't explain further unless Gurgeh agrees to participate. While he is considering this offer, one of his drone friends, Mawhrin-Skel, which had been ejected from SC due to its unstable personality, convinces him to cheat in one of his matches in an attempt to win in an unprecedentedly perfect fashion. The attempt fails, but Mawhrin-Skel uses its recording of the event to blackmail Gurgeh into accepting the offer, so that he can use his connections with SC to request that Mawhrin-Skel be admitted back into SC as well. Gurgeh spends the next two years travelling to the Empire of Azad in the Small Magellanic Cloud, where a complex game (also named Azad) is used to determine social rank and political status. The game itself is sufficiently subtle and complex that a player's tactics reflect their own political and philosophical outlook. By the time he arrives, he has grasped the game but is unsure how he will measure up against opponents who have been studying it for their entire lives. Gurgeh lands on the Empire's home planet of Eä, accompanied by another drone, Flere-Imsaho. As a Culture citizen, he naturally plays with a style markedly different from his opponents, many of whom stack the odds against him one way or another, such as forming backroom agreements to cooperate against him (which is allowed by the game's rules). As he advances through the tournament he is matched against increasingly powerful Azad politicians, and ultimately the Emperor himself in the final round. The final contests take place on Echronedal, the Fire Planet, which undergoes a natural conflagration fueled by native plants that produce huge amounts of oxygen. The final game is timed to end when the flames engulf the castle where the event takes place, symbolically renewing the Empire by fire. However, faced with defeat, the Emperor orders his men to kill all the spectators and attempts to kill Gurgeh. Instead, the Emperor is killed by a shot from his own weapon that was deflected by Flere-Imsaho (who later refuses to tell Gurgeh if it was coincidental). Flere-Imsaho reveals that Gurgeh's participation was part of a Culture plot to overthrow the corrupt and savage Empire from within, and that he, the player, was in fact a pawn in a much larger game. He is further told that in the aftermath of the final game, the Empire of Azad collapsed without further intervention from the Culture. Although Gurgeh never discovers the whole truth, in the final sentences of the novel the narrator is revealed to be Flere-Imsaho, who had been disguised as Mawhrin-Skel to manipulate Gurgeh into taking part in the game. Azad. Azad is a game played in the Empire of Azad. In the language of the fictional Empire, the word "Azad" means "machine" or "system", but is applied to any complex entity such as animals, plants or artificial machines. The game is described in detail; however, the actual rules are never given to the reader. It is primarily tactical and played on three-dimensional boards of various shapes and sizes, though earlier rounds may be played exclusively in cards. Typically the boards are large enough for players to walk around inside them to move or interact with their pieces. The number of players differs from game to game and also influences the tactics, as players can choose to cooperate or compete with one another. As well as skill and tactics, random events may influence gameplay (often as card or other games of chance), and sometimes may change the outcome critically. Game elements. The game consists of a number of minor games, such as card games and elemental die matching, which allow the players to build up their forces for use on the game's three giant boards (in order: the Board of Origin, the Board of Form, and finally the Board of Becoming) and a number of minor boards. The game uses a variety of pieces to represent a player's units (military, resource or even philosophical premises). Some of the pieces are genetically engineered constructs, which may change form during the game according to their use and environment. These respond to their handling by a player and appear difficult to understand — during his training, Gurgeh is encouraged to sleep while holding some of the more important pieces so he can better understand them in play. Significance. In the empire, the game is the main determinant of one's social status. The game is played in a tournament every "Great Year" (roughly every six Culture years), initially consisting of some 12,000 players in the main series. Through the various rounds, these are all whittled down until the final game, the victor of which becomes emperor. Players knocked out from the main series may take part in further games to determine their careers. The complexity of the game aims to represent reality to such a degree that a player's own political and philosophical outlook can be expressed in play (the idea being that rival ideologies are essentially "tested" in the game before the winners can apply them in reality). As the protagonist discovers, the game embodies the incumbent preferences of the social elite, reinforcing and reiterating the pre-existing gender and caste inclinations of the empire, putting the lie to the "fairness" which is generally perceived to govern the outcome of the tournament and thus the shape of Azadian society. In the novel, the protagonist ultimately finds that his (successful) tactics reflect the values of his own civilization, the Culture, though he also recognises that his own thought and behaviour have been markedly influenced by the manner in which he has been forced to compete. In a private audience with the emperor on the penultimate eve of the tournament, when confronted with the seeming absurdity of the possibility that a novice with a mere two years of experience at the game could systematically defeat players whose whole lives were devoted to its mastery, the protagonist comes to understand that his proficiency is merely a reflection of his experience with strategic games of all sorts. Given that, the Culture had intended all along to use him to discredit the brutality of the Azadian system by publicly giving the lie to the game's representation of social reality. SpaceX tribute. In 2015, two SpaceX autonomous spaceport drone ships—"Just Read the Instructions" and "Of Course I Still Love You"—were named after ships in the book, as a posthumous tribute to Banks by Elon Musk. Reception. "Kirkus Reviews" described it as "Predictable, certainly, and less imaginative than "Consider Phlebas", but technically much more solid: honorably crafted work, often engrossing despite some sluggish patches."

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Look to Windward Look to Windward is a science fiction novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks, first published in 2000. It is Banks' sixth published novel to feature the Culture. The book's dedication reads: "For the Gulf War Veterans". The novel takes its title from a line in T. S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land": "Look to Windward" is loosely a sequel to "Consider Phlebas", Banks's first published Culture novel. "Consider Phlebas" took its name from the following line in the poem and dealt with the events of the Idiran-Culture War; "Look to Windward" deals with the results of the war on those who lived through it. Plot summary. The Chelgrians are a race of centaur-like cat aliens with three hind-limbs and a humanoid catlike torso. Major Quilan, a Chelgrian, has lost the will to live after the death of his wife, killed during the Chelgrian civil war that resulted from the Culture's interference. A high-ranked Chelgrian priest offers Quilan the chance to avenge the Chelgrians who died by taking part in a suicide mission to strike back at the Culture. His "Soulkeeper" (a device normally used to store its owner's personality upon their death) is equipped with both the mind of a long-dead Chelgrian admiral and a device given to the Chelgrians by a mysterious group of Involved aliens that can transport wormholes through which weapons can be delivered. Quilan is then sent to the Culture's Masaq' Orbital, ostensibly to persuade the renowned composer Mahrai Ziller to return to his native planet Chel, but in reality on a mission to destroy the Orbital's Hub Mind. To protect him from detection at Masaq', Quilan's memory is selectively blanked until he reaches his target, thus preventing the Mind from reading his thoughts. Ziller lives in self-imposed exile on Masaq', having renounced his privileged position in Chel's caste system. He has been commissioned to compose music to mark a climactic event in the Idiran-Culture War. Upon hearing of Quilan's visit, and suspicious of his reason for travel, Ziller scrupulously avoids him. Quilan succeeds in placing the wormholes in the Orbital's Hub, but the Mind was already aware of the plot because Quilan's operator, the long dead admiral housed in his Soulkeeper, is actually a turncoat spy for the Culture. Although unable to track the locations on the other ends of the wormholes, the Mind suggests that the Involved "aliens" assisting Quilan's mission may have been a group of bellicose Culture minds seeking to keep the Culture from being too complacent. Having struggled with painful memories of the Idiran-Culture war, when it was the General Systems Vehicle "Lasting Damage", the Mind reveals to Quilan that it intends to destroy its own higher functions, essentially committing suicide, and offers to take Quilan with it. Quilan, who had become unsure of his own mission after experiencing dreams of his dead wife wearing the silvery skin of the Mind's avatar, agrees. They both commit suicide simultaneously during the climax of Ziller's concerto, leading to much shock and outrage. At the end of the novel, a nightmarishly efficient E-Dust Assassin is unleashed by the Culture in 'retribution' against the Chelgrian priest who acted as a pawn for the bellicose Culture Minds, as well as his immediate co-conspirators. The assassin kills the priest gruesomely by transforming into a swarm of insects that eat him from the inside out. Throughout the book there is a subplot about a Culture ethologist named Uagen Zlepe spending his time on a distant alien air sphere and discovering hints about the Chelgrian plot to destroy the Masaq' Orbital's Hub Mind. He attempts to warn the Culture, and the reader is led to believe that his intervention is the reason why the Mind knew about Quilan's sabotage, but ultimately he fails to get his message out and dies. His dead body is resurrected using alien technology an entire galactic grand cycle later, long after all the events of the story have ended. Back in the present, the Chelgrian admiral Huyler's personality, kept alive from Quilan's Soulkeeper, and the real source of the Mind's foreknowledge regarding the attack, is given a new body and becomes an ambassador to the Culture, enjoying a very high standard of living. He says he is close to convincing Ziller to return to Chel, fulfilling Quilan's cover mission. The T.S. Eliot poem which the novel takes its name from is, in full: The fate of Phlebas in the poem is similar to that of Uagen Zlepe in the novel. The title may also refer to the state of mind of the Masaq' Orbital Hub Mind and Major Quilan, both already having died in spirit during their respective wars. Reception. Phil Daoust in "The Guardian" said the story was an "enjoyable romp" and described Quilan as "one of the misguided yet decent villains who are a feature of these [Culture] tales". He went on to complain of the heavy emphasis given to the consequences of war and that the Chelgrians were too thinly disguised humans. Gerald Jonas in "The New York Times" praised the sophistication of Banks' writing and said "he asks readers to hold in mind a great many pieces of a vast puzzle while waiting for a pattern to emerge". Jonas suggested the ending might appear to rely too much on a deus ex machina. "Kirkus Reviews" described it as "By turns imposing, ingenious, whimsical, and wrenching, though too amorphous to fully satisfy."

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The Cornelius Quartet The Cornelius Quartet is the collective name for the Jerry Cornelius novels by Michael Moorcock, although the first one-volume edition was entitled "The Cornelius Chronicles". It is composed of "The Final Programme", "A Cure for Cancer", "" and "The Condition of Muzak". The collection has remained continuously in print for 30 years. The four novels are set in an ever shifting, yet always fashionable, alternate "multiverse" of anarchist revolutionaries and English popart turmoil. They chart the adventures of a wide range of recurring characters, notably Jerry Cornelius and his sister Catherine, Una Persson and Colonel Pyat. The books are neither straight science fiction nor pure fantasy, Moorcock himself commented "Much of my work borrowed from the iconography and vocabulary of science fiction in the 1960s but I would not, for instance, classify the Jerry Cornelius tetralogy as a genre work". The "Complete Review" said that it comprised "an arc of Jerry Cornelius-adventures, from the (fairly) straightforward action-adventure of the first, The Final Programme, to the metaphysical summa of The Condition of Muzak." It observes that "Cornelius is a superhero, but a flawed one. He is indestructible and yet has weaknesses. He is both a former Jesuit and a physicist. Party-animal and solitary soul. By the end of the tetralogy he is a messiah – yet another role he is not ideally suited for." Reviewing the 974-page volume, Matthew Wolf-Meyer noted its influence on a host of contemporary artists in music and literature, writing that : Moorcock wrote "A note on the Jerry Cornelius Tetralogy" in 1976 in which he outlined the 'disciplined logic' which underpinned the work as a unified whole. In an interview for "The Zone" science fiction magazine, Moorcock later commented that the stories in the Cornelius saga were "more criticism and commentary on their times than they were celebration, I knew there wasn't enough hard political infrastructure to make the sentiment come true. I said while it was happening that I knew it was a Golden Age. I sensed it couldn't last." The collection was first published as "The Cornelius Chronicles" in 1977 by Avon Books and a revised version under this name appeared in 1979 with an introduction by John Clute. It first appeared under the title of "The Cornelius Quartet" in 1993 in Britain and 2001 in the United States. It was published as "Les Aventures de Jerry Cornelius" in France. The current American edition was published by Four Walls Eight Windows in June 2001. The collection was republished in 2013 by Gollancz with some further revisions.

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V for Vendetta V for Vendetta is a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd (with additional art by Tony Weare). Initially published, starting in 1982, in black-and-white as an ongoing serial in the short-lived UK anthology "Warrior", it morphed into a ten-issue limited series published by DC Comics. Subsequent collected editions have been typically published under DC's more specialized imprint, Vertigo. The story depicts a dystopian and post-apocalyptic near-future history version of the United Kingdom in the 1990s, preceded by a nuclear war in the 1980s that devastated most of the rest of the world. The Nordic supremacist, neo-fascist, outwardly Christofascistic, and homophobic fictional "Norsefire" political party has exterminated its opponents in concentration camps, and now rules the country as a police state. The comics follow the story's title character and protagonist, V, an anarchist revolutionary dressed in a Guy Fawkes mask, as he begins an elaborate and theatrical revolutionist campaign to kill his former captors, bring down the fascist state, and convince the people to abandon fascism in favour of anarchy, while inspiring a young woman, Evey Hammond, to be his protégée. DC Comics sold more than 500,000 copies of the graphic novel in the United States by 2006. Warner Bros. released a film adaptation of the same name in 2005. Publication history. The first episodes of "V for Vendetta" appeared in black-and-white between 1982 and 1985, in "Warrior", a British anthology comic published by Quality Communications. The strip was one of the least popular in that title; editor/publisher Dez Skinn remarked, "If I'd have given each character their own title, the failures would have certainly outweighed the successes, with the uncompromising 'V for Vendetta' probably being an early casualty. But with five or six strips an issue, regular [readers] only needed two or three favorites to justify their buying the title." When the publishers cancelled "Warrior" in 1985 (with two completed issues unpublished due to the cancellation), several companies attempted to convince Moore and Lloyd to let them publish and complete the story. In 1988, DC Comics published a ten-issue series that reprinted the "Warrior" stories in colour, then continued the series to completion. The first new material appeared in issue No. 7, which included the unpublished episodes that would have appeared in "Warrior" No. 27 and No. 28. Tony Weare drew one chapter ("Vincent") and contributed additional art to two others ("Valerie" and "The Vacation"); Steve Whitaker and Siobhan Dodds worked as colourists on the entire series. Collected editions. The entire series has appeared collected in paperback () and hardback () form, including Moore's "Behind the Painted Smile" essay and two "interludes" outside the central continuity. Later collections include reissued paperbacks, published in the US by DC's Vertigo imprint () and in the UK by Titan Books (). A new hardback edition was published in 2005 featuring improved printing and coloring. In August 2009 DC published a slipcased Absolute Edition (); this includes newly coloured "silent art" pages (full-page panels containing no dialogue) from the series' original run, which have not previously appeared in any previous collected edition. Background. David Lloyd's paintings for "V for Vendetta" in "Warrior" first appeared in black and white. In writing "V for Vendetta", Moore drew upon a comic strip idea submission that the DC Thomson scriptwriting competition rejected in 1975. "The Doll" involved a transsexual terrorist in white face makeup who fought a totalitarian state during the 1980s. Years later, Skinn reportedly invited Moore to create a dark mystery strip with artist David Lloyd. "V for Vendetta" was intended to recreate something similar to their popular Marvel UK Night Raven strip in a 1930s noir. They chose against doing historical research and instead set the story in the near future rather than the recent past. Then "V for Vendetta" emerged, putting the emphasis on "V" rather than "Vendetta". David Lloyd developed the idea of dressing V as Guy Fawkes after previous designs followed the conventional superhero look. During the preparation of the story, Moore made a list of what he wanted to bring into the plot, which he reproduced in "Behind the Painted Smile":Orwell. Huxley. Thomas Disch. "Judge Dredd". Harlan Ellison's ""Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman", "Catman" and "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World" by the same author. Vincent Price's "Dr. Phibes" and "Theatre of Blood". David Bowie. "The Shadow". "Night Raven". "Batman". "Fahrenheit 451". The writings of the New Worlds school of science fiction. Max Ernst's painting "Europe After the Rain". Thomas Pynchon. The atmosphere of British Second World War films. "The Prisoner". Robin Hood. Dick Turpin... The influence of such a wide number of references has been thoroughly demonstrated in academic studies, above which dystopian elements stand out, especially the similarity with George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four" in several stages of the plot. The political climate of Britain in the early 1980s also influenced the work, with Moore positing that Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government would "obviously lose the 1983 elections", and that an incoming Michael Foot-led Labour government, committed to complete nuclear disarmament, would allow the United Kingdom to escape relatively unscathed after a limited nuclear war. However, Moore felt that fascists would quickly subvert a post-holocaust Britain. V, an anarchist, initially murders members of the fascist government, but as the story develops, Moore deliberately made V's actions "very, very morally ambiguous" with the aim that "I didn't want to tell people what to think, I just wanted to tell people to think." Moore's scenario remains untested. Addressing historical developments when DC reissued the work, he noted:Naïveté can also be detected in my supposition that it would take something as melodramatic as a near-miss nuclear conflict to nudge Britain towards fascism... The simple fact that much of the historical background of the story proceeds from a predicted Conservative defeat in the 1983 General Election should tell you how reliable we were in our roles as Cassandras. Plot. Book 1: Europe After the Reign. On Guy Fawkes Night in 1997 London, a young girl goes to see her boss after curfew when she is sexually attacked by three men who are actually members of the state secret police, called "The Finger." Preparing to rape and kill her, the Fingermen are dispatched by V, a cloaked anarchist wearing a mask, who later remotely detonates explosives at the Palace of Westminster before bringing Evey to his contraband-filled underground lair, the "Shadow Gallery." Evey tells V her life story, which reveals her own past and England's recent history. During a dispute over Poland in the late 1980s the Soviet Union and the United States, under the presidency of Ted Kennedy, entered a global nuclear war which left continental Europe and Africa uninhabitable. Although Britain itself was not bombed due to the Labour government's decision to remove American nuclear missiles, it faced environmental devastation and famine due to the nuclear winter. After a period of lawlessness in which Evey's mother died, the remaining corporations and fascist groups took over England and formed a new totalitarian government, Norsefire. Evey's father, a former socialist, was arrested by the regime. Meanwhile, Eric Finch, a veteran detective in charge of the regular police force ("The Nose"), begins investigating V's terrorist activities. Finch often communicates with the other top government officials, collectively known as "The Head." These individuals include Derek Almond, who supervises the Finger, and Adam Susan, the reclusive Leader of Norsefire, who obsessively oversees the government's "Fate" computer system. Finch's case thickens when V kidnaps Lewis Prothero, a propaganda-broadcasting radio personality, and drives him into a mental breakdown by forcing him to relive his actions as the commander of a "resettlement" camp near Larkhill with his treasured doll collection as inmates. Evey agrees to help V with his next assassination by disguising herself as a child prostitute to infiltrate the home of Bishop Anthony Lilliman, a paedophile priest, whom V forces to commit suicide by eating a poisoned communion wafer. He prepares to murder Dr. Delia Surridge, a medical researcher who once had a romance with Finch. Finch suddenly discovers the connection among V's three targets: they all used to work at Larkhill. That night, V kills both Almond and Surridge. Surridge leaves a diary revealing that V—a former inmate and victim of Surridge's cruel medical experiments—destroyed and fled the camp and is now eliminating the camp's former officers for what they did. Finch reports these findings to Susan, and suspects that this vendetta may actually be a cover for V, who, he worries, may be plotting an even bigger terrorist attack. Book 2: This Vicious Cabaret. Four months later, V breaks into Jordan Tower, the home of Norsefire's propaganda department, "the Mouth"—led by Roger Dascombe—to broadcast a speech that calls on the people to resist the government. V escapes using an elaborate diversion that results in Dascombe's death. Finch is soon introduced to Peter Creedy, the Finger's new head, who provokes Finch to strike him and thus get sent on a forced vacation. All this time, Evey has moved on with her life, becoming romantically involved with a much older man named Gordon. Evey and Gordon unknowingly cross paths with Rose Almond, the widow of the recently killed Derek. After Derek's death, Rose had reluctantly begun a relationship with Dascombe. With both of her lovers murdered, she is forced to perform demoralizing burlesque work, increasing her hatred of the unsupportive government. When a Scottish gangster named Ally Harper murders Gordon, a vengeful Evey interrupts a meeting between Harper and Creedy, the latter of whom is buying the support of Harper's thugs in preparation for a coup d'état. Evey attempts to shoot Harper but is suddenly abducted and then imprisoned. Amidst interrogation and torture, Evey finds an old letter hidden in her cell by an inmate named Valerie Page, a film actress who was imprisoned and executed for being a lesbian. Evey's interrogator finally gives her a choice of collaboration or death; inspired by Valerie, Evey refuses to collaborate and, expecting to be executed, is instead told that she is free. Stunned, Evey learns that her supposed imprisonment is a hoax constructed by V so that she could experience an ordeal similar to the one that shaped him at Larkhill. He reveals that Valerie was a real Larkhill prisoner who died in the cell next to his and that the letter is not a fake. Evey forgives V, who has hacked into the government's "Fate" computer system and started emotionally manipulating Adam Susan with mind games. Consequently, Susan, who has formed a bizarre romantic attachment to the computer, begins to descend into madness. Book 3: The Land of Do-As-You-Please. The following 5 November (1998), V blows up the Post Office Tower and Jordan Tower, killing "the Ear" leader Brian Etheridge, in addition to effectively shutting down three government agencies: the Eye, the Ear, and the Mouth. Creedy's men and Harper's associated street gangs violently suppress the subsequent wave of revolutionary fervor from the public. V notes to Evey that he has not yet achieved what he calls the "Land of Do-as-You-Please," meaning a functional anarchistic society, and considers the current chaotic situation an interim period of "Land of Take-What-You-Want." Finch has been mysteriously absent, and his young assistant, Dominic Stone, one day realises that V has been influencing the "Fate" computer all along, which explained V's consistent foresight. All the while, Finch has been traveling to the abandoned site of Larkhill, where he takes LSD to conjure up memories of his own devastating past and to put his mind in the role of a prisoner of Larkhill, like V, to help give him an intuitive understanding of V's experiences. Returning to London, Finch suddenly deduces that V's lair is inside the abandoned Victoria Station, which he enters. V takes Finch by surprise, resulting in a scuffle that sees Finch shoot V, and V wounds Finch with a knife. V claims that he cannot be killed since he is only an idea and that "ideas are bulletproof"; regardless, V is indeed mortally wounded and returns to the Shadow Gallery deeper within, dying in Evey's arms. Evey considers unmasking V but decides not to, realizing that V is not an identity but a symbol. She then assumes V's identity, donning one of his spare costumes. Finch sees the large amount of blood that V has left in his wake and deduces that he has mortally wounded V. Occurring concurrently to this, Creedy has been pressuring Susan to appear in public, hoping to leave him exposed. Sure enough, as Susan stops to shake hands with Rose during a parade, she shoots him in the head in vengeance for the death of her husband and the life she has had to lead since then. Following Rose's arrest, Creedy assumes emergency leadership of the country, and Finch emerges from the subway proclaiming V's death. Due to his LSD-induced epiphany, Finch leaves his position within "the Nose." The power struggle between the remaining leaders results in all of their deaths: Harper betrays and kills Creedy at the behest of Helen Heyer (wife of "the Eye" leader Conrad Heyer, who had outbid Creedy for Harper's loyalty), and Harper and Conrad Heyer kill each other during a fight precipitated by Heyer's discovery that his wife Helen had had an affair with Harper. With the fate of the top government officials unknown to the public, Stone acts as leader of the police forces deployed to ensure that the riots are contained should V remain alive and make his promised public announcement. Evey appears to a crowd, dressed as V, announcing the destruction of 10 Downing Street the following day and telling the crowd they must "...choose what comes next. Lives of your own, or a return to chains", whereupon a general insurrection begins. Evey destroys 10 Downing Street by blowing up an Underground train containing V's body, in the style of an explosive Viking funeral. She abducts Stone, apparently to train him as her successor. The book ends with Finch quietly observing the chaos raging in the city and walking down an abandoned motorway whose lights have all gone out. Norsefire government. The highest-level officials in the Norsefire government form a council known as "The Head." The five individual departments are named after sensory organs or appendages that reference their functions. Themes and motifs. The two conflicting political viewpoints of anarchism and fascism dominate the story. Moore stated in an interview that V is designed as an enigma, as Moore "didn't want to tell people what to think" but wanted them to consider some extreme events that have recurred throughout history. Adaptations. Film. In December 2005 Warner Bros. released a feature-film adaptation of "V for Vendetta", directed by James McTeigue from a screenplay by the Wachowskis. Natalie Portman stars as Evey Hammond and Hugo Weaving as V. Alan Moore distanced himself from the film, as he has with other screen adaptations of his works. He ended co-operation with his publisher, DC Comics, after its corporate parent, Warner Bros., failed to retract statements about Moore's supposed endorsement of the movie. After reading the script, Moore remarked: He later adds that if the Wachowskis had wanted to protest about what was going on in the United States, then they should have used a political narrative that directly addressed the issues of the US, similar to what Moore had done before with Britain. The film arguably changes the original message by having removed any reference to actual anarchism in the revolutionary actions of V. An interview with producer Joel Silver reveals that he identifies the V of the comics as a clear-cut "superhero... a masked avenger who pretty much saves the world," a simplification that goes against Moore's own statements about V's role in the story. Co-author and illustrator David Lloyd, by contrast, embraced the adaptation. In an interview with "Newsarama" he states: Steve Moore (no relation to Alan Moore) wrote a novelisation of the film's screenplay, published in 2006. Television series. In October 2017, it was announced that Channel 4 was developing a television series based on the comic book. Legacy. The February 1999 issue of "The Comics Journal" ran a poll on "The Top 100 (English-Language) Comics of the Century": "V for Vendetta" reached 83rd place. On November 5, 2019, the "BBC News" listed "V for Vendetta" on its list of the 100 most influential novels. Cultural impact. Since the film adaptation, hundreds of thousands of Guy Fawkes masks from the books and film have been sold every year since the film's release in 2005. Time Warner owns the rights to the image and is paid a fee with the sale of each official mask. Anonymous, an Internet-based group, has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask as their symbol (in reference to an Internet meme). Members, and supporters, wore such masks, for example, during Project Chanology's protests against the Church of Scientology in 2008 and although V for Vendetta did not pioneer, only popularized, it the link to the movie remained so strong, it prompted Alan Moore to comment on the use of the Guy Fawkes motif adopted from his comic "V for Vendetta", in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly": According to "Time", the protesters' adoption of the mask has led to it becoming the top-selling mask on Amazon.com, selling hundreds of thousands a year. The film allegedly inspired some of the Egyptian youth before and during the 2011 Egyptian revolution. On 23 May 2009, protesters dressed up as V and set off a fake barrel of gunpowder outside Parliament while protesting over the issue of British MPs' expenses. During the Occupy Wall Street and other ongoing Occupy protests, the mask appeared internationally as a symbol of popular revolution. Artist David Lloyd stated: "The Guy Fawkes mask has now become a common brand and a convenient placard to use in protest against tyranny – and I'm happy with people using it, it seems quite unique, an icon of popular culture being used this way." On 17 November 2012 police officials in Dubai warned against wearing Guy Fawkes masks painted with the colours of the UAE flag during any celebration associated with the UAE National Day (2 December), declaring such use an illegal act after masks went on sale in online shops for 50 DHS. Guy Fawkes masks also made an appearance in Hong Kong protests in 2014 and in 2019.

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The Monkey Wrench Gang The Monkey Wrench Gang is a novel written by American author Edward Abbey (1927–1989), published in 1975. Abbey's most famous work of fiction, the novel concerns the use of sabotage to protest environmentally damaging activities in the Southwestern United States, and was so influential that the term "monkeywrench" has come to mean, besides sabotage and damage to machines, any sabotage, activism, law-making, or law-breaking to preserve wilderness, wild spaces and ecosystems. In 1985, Dream Garden Press released a special 10th Anniversary edition of the book featuring illustrations by R. Crumb, plus a chapter titled "Seldom Seen at Home" that had been deleted from the original edition. Crumb's illustrations were used for a limited-edition calendar based on the book. The most recent edition was released in 2006 by Harper Perennial Modern Classics. Plot summary. The book's four main characters are ecologically minded misfits—"Seldom Seen" Smith, a Jack Mormon river guide; Doc Sarvis, an odd but wealthy and wise surgeon; Bonnie Abbzug, his young Jewish feminist assistant; and a rather eccentric Green Beret Vietnam veteran, George Hayduke. Together, although not always working as a tightly knit team, they form the titular group dedicated to the destruction of what they see as the system that pollutes and destroys their environment, the American West. As the gang's attacks on deserted bulldozers and trains continue, the law closes in. For the gang, the enemy is those who would develop the American Southwest—despoiling the land, befouling the air, and destroying nature and the sacred purity of Abbey's desert world. Their greatest hatred is focused on the Glen Canyon Dam, a monolithic edifice of concrete that the monkey-wrenchers seek to destroy because it dams a beautiful wild river. Legacy. In his book "Screw Unto Others", George Hayduke states that Edward Abbey was his mentor, and mentions "The Monkey Wrench Gang" as the origin of the term "monkey-wrenching". Hayduke says "The Monkey Wrench Gang" inspired environmentalist David Foreman to help create "Earth First!" a direct action environmental organization that often advocates much of the minor vandalism depicted in the book. Many scenes of vandalism and ecologically motivated mayhem, including a billboard burning at the beginning of the book and the use of caltrops to elude a group of vigilantes, are presented in sufficient detail as to form a skeletal how-to for would-be saboteurs. The actions are presented in a larger-than-life format, because much of what Hayduke, and the rest of the characters in the story face are larger-than-life obstacles that require larger-than-life approaches. The symbol of the Earth Liberation Front is a monkey wrench and stone hammer. In his book "", author Matt Ruff notes: Film, TV or theatrical adaptations. As of 2012, a film adaptation of the book, to be directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, was being planned. The film rights holders for the book filed suit against the producers of "Night Moves", charging that the film's plot is significantly similar to the story of book.

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Political fiction Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantastic, reality". The political novel overlaps with the social novel, proletarian novel, and social science fiction. Plato's "Republic", a Socratic dialogue written around 380 BC, has been one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically. The "Republic" is concerned with justice (), the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. Other influential politically-themed works include Thomas More's "Utopia" (1516), Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726), Voltaire's "Candide" (1759), and Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852). Political fiction frequently employs satire, often in the utopian and dystopian genres. This includes totalitarian dystopias of the early 20th century such as Jack London's "The Iron Heel", Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here", and George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Political satire. The Greek playwright Aristophanes' plays are known for their political and social satire, particularly in his criticism of the powerful Athenian general, Cleon, in plays such as "The Knights". Aristophanes is also notable for the persecution he underwent. Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease. His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian Menander, whose early play, "Drunkenness", contains an attack on the politician, Callimedon. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" (1729) is an 18th-century Juvenalian satirical essay in which he suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. The satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward the Irish in general. George Orwell's "Animal Farm" (1945) is an allegorical and dystopian novella which satirises the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Soviet Union's Stalinist era. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and was hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism—an attitude that had been shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. Orwell described his "Animal Farm" as "a satirical tale against Stalin", and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946) he wrote that "Animal Farm" was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole." Orwell's most famous work, however, is "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (published in 1949), many of whose terms and concepts, such as "Big Brother", "doublethink", "thoughtcrime", "Newspeak", "Room 101", "telescreen", "2 + 2 = 5", and "memory hole", have entered into common use. "Nineteen Eighty-Four" popularised the adjective "Orwellian", which describes official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. 16th century. The poet Jan Kochanowski's play, "The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys" (1578), the first tragedy written in the Polish language, recounts an incident leading up to the Trojan War. Its theme of the responsibilities of statesmanship resonates to the present day. 18th century. The political comedy, "The Return of the Deputy" (1790), by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz—Polish poet, playwright, statesman, and comrade-in-arms of Tadeusz Kościuszko—was written in about two weeks' time while Niemcewicz was serving as a deputy to the historic Four-Year Sejm of 1788–92. The comedy's premiere in January 1791 was an enormous success, sparking widespread debate, royal communiques, and diplomatic correspondence. As Niemcewicz had hoped, it set the stage for passage of Poland's epochal Constitution of 3 May 1791, which is regarded as Europe's first, and the world's second, modern written national constitution, after the United States Constitution implemented in 1789. The comedy pits proponents against opponents of political reforms: of abolishing the destabilizing free election of Poland's kings; of abolishing the legislatively destructive "liberum veto"; of granting greater rights to peasants and townspeople; of curbing the privileges of the mostly self-interested noble class; and of promoting a more active Polish role in international affairs, in the interest of stopping the depredations of Poland's neighbors, Russia, Prussia, and Austria (who will in 1795 complete the dismemberment of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). Romantic interest is provided by a rivalry between a reformer and a conservative for a young lady's hand—which is won by the proponent of reforms. 19th-century novel. An early example of the political novel is "The Betrothed" (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian historical novel. Set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years of direct Spanish rule, it has been seen sometimes as a veiled attack on the Austrian Empire, which controlled Italy at the time the novel was written. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language. In the 1840s British politician Benjamin Disraeli wrote a trilogy of novels with political themes. With "Coningsby; or, The New Generation" (1844), Disraeli, in historian Robert Blake's view, "infused the novel genre with political sensibility, espousing the belief that England's future as a world power depended not on the complacent old guard, but on youthful, idealistic politicians." "Coningsby" was followed by "Sybil; or, The Two Nations" (1845), another political novel, which was less idealistic and more clear-eyed than "Coningsby"; the "two nations" of its subtitle referred to the huge economic and social gap between the privileged few and the deprived working classes. The last of Disraeli's political-novel trilogy, "Tancred; or, The New Crusade" (1847), promoted the Church of England's role in reviving Britain's flagging spirituality. Ivan Turgenev wrote "Fathers and Sons" (1862) as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw between Russia's liberals of the 1830s and 1840s, and the growing Russian nihilist movement among their sons. Both the nihilists and the 1830s liberals sought Western-based social change in Russia. Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with the Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality. Turgenev's novel was responsible for popularizing the use of the term "nihilism", which became widely used after the novel was published. The Polish writer Bolesław Prus' novel, "Pharaoh" (1895), is set in the Egypt of 1087–85 BCE as that country experiences internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom. The young protagonist Ramses learns that those who would challenge the powers that be are vulnerable to co-option, seduction, subornation, defamation, intimidation, and assassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of knowledge. Prus' vision of the fall of an ancient civilization derives some of its power from the author's intimate awareness of the final demise of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, a century before he completed "Pharaoh". This is a political awareness that Prus shared with his 10-years-junior novelist compatriot, Joseph Conrad, who was an admirer of Prus' writings. "Pharaoh" has been translated into 20 languages and adapted as a 1966 Polish feature film. It is also known to have been Joseph Stalin's favourite book. 20th-century novel. Joseph Conrad wrote several novels with political themes: "Nostromo (1904)", "The Secret Agent" (1907), and "Under Western Eyes" (1911). "Nostromo" (1904) is set amid political upheaval in the fictitious South American country of Costaguana, where a trusted Italian-descended longshoreman, Giovanni Battista Fidanza—the novel's eponymous "Nostromo" (Italian for "our man")—is instructed by English-descended silver-mine owner Charles Gould to take Gould's silver abroad so that it will not fall into the hands of revolutionaries. The role of politics is paramount in "The Secret Agent", as the main character, Verloc, works for a quasi-political organisation. The plot to destroy Greenwich Observatory is in itself anarchistic. Vladimir asserts that the bombing "must be purely destructive" and that the anarchists who will be implicated as the architects of the explosion "should make it clear that [they] are perfectly determined to make a clean sweep of the whole social creation." However, the political form of anarchism is ultimately controlled in the novel: the only supposed politically motivated act is orchestrated by a secret government agency. Conrad's third political novel, "Under Western Eyes", is connected to Russian history. Its first audience read it against the backdrop of the failed Revolution of 1905 and in the shadow of the movements and impulses that would take shape as the revolutions of 1917. Conrad's earlier novella, "Heart of Darkness" (1899), also had political implications, in its depiction of European colonial depredations in Africa, which Conrad witnessed during his employ in the Belgian Congo. John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) is a depiction of the plight of the poor. However, some Steinbeck's contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack writes: "Steinbeck was attacked as a propagandist and a socialist from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The most fervent of these attacks came from the Associated Farmers of California; they were displeased with the book's depiction of California farmers' attitudes and conduct toward the migrants. They denounced the book as a 'pack of lies' and labeled it 'communist propaganda'". Some accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. Steinbeck had visited the camps well before publication of the novel and argued that their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers' spirit. "The Quiet American" (1955) by English novelist Graham Greene questions the foundations of growing American involvement in Vietnam in the 1950s. The novel has received much attention due to its prediction of the outcome of the Vietnam War and subsequent American foreign policy since the 1950s. Graham Greene portrays a U.S. official named Pyle as so blinded by American exceptionalism that he cannot see the calamities he brings upon the Vietnamese. The book uses Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for "The Times" and "Le Figaro" in French Indochina in 1951–54. "The Gay Place" (1961) is a set of politically-themed novellas with interlocking plots and characters by American author Billy Lee Brammer. Set in an unnamed state identical to Texas, each novella has a different protagonist: Roy Sherwood, a member of the state legislature; Neil Christiansen, the state's junior senator; and Jay McGown, the governor's speech-writer. The governor himself, Arthur Fenstemaker, a master politician (said to have been based on Brammer's mentor Lyndon Johnson) serves as the dominant figure throughout. The book also includes characters based on Brammer, his wife Nadine, Johnson's wife Ladybird, and his brother Sam Houston Johnson. The book has been widely acclaimed one of the best American political novels ever written. 21st Century Novels. Since 2000, there has been a surge of Transatlantic migrant literature in French, Spanish, and English, with new narratives about political topics relating to global debt, labor abuses, mass migration, and environmental crises in the Global South. Political fiction by contemporary novelists from the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America directly challenges political leadership, systemic racism, and economical systems. Fatou Diome, a Senegalese immigrant living France since the 1990s, writes political fiction about her experiences on France's unwelcoming borders that are dominated by white Christian culture. The work of Guadeloupean author Maryse Condé also tackles colonialism and oppression; her best known titles are "Ségou" (1984) and "Ségou II" (1985). Set in historical Segou (now part of Mali), the novels examine the violent legacies of the slave trade, Islam, Christianity, and colonization (from 1797 to 1860). A bold critic of the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, French novelist Marie Ndiayes won the Prix Goncourt for "Three Strong Women"(2009) about patriarchal control. Proletarian novel. The proletarian novel is written by workers, mainly for other workers. It overlaps and sometimes is synonymous with the working-class novel, socialist novel, social-problem novel (also problem novel, sociological novel, or social novel), propaganda or thesis novel, and socialist-realism novel. The intention of the writers of proletarian literature is to lift the workers from the slums by inspiring them to embrace the possibilities of social change or of a political revolution. As such, it is a form of political fiction. The proletarian novel may comment on political events, systems, and theories, and is frequently seen as an instrument to promote social reform or political revolution among the working classes. Proletarian literature is created especially by communist, socialist, and anarchist authors. It is about the lives of the poor, and the period from 1930 to 1945, in particular, produced many such novels. However, proletarian works were also produced before and after those dates. In Britain, the terms "working-class" literature, novel, etc., are more generally used. Social novel. A closely related type of novel, which frequently has a political dimension, is the social novel – also known as the "social-problem" or "social-protest" novel – a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". More specific examples of social problems that are addressed in such works include poverty, conditions in factories and mines, the plight of child labor, violence against women, rising criminality, and epidemics caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation in cities. Charles Dickens was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". On the other hand, George Orwell, in his essay on Dickens, wrote: "There is no clear sign that he wants the existing order to be overthrown, or that he believes it would make very much difference if it were overthrown. For in reality his target is not so much society as 'human nature'." Dickens's second novel, "Oliver Twist" (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime: it destroyed middle-class polemics about criminals, making any pretence to ignorance about what poverty entailed impossible. Charles Dickens's "Hard Times" (1854) is set in a small Midlands industrial town and particularly criticizes the effect of Utilitarianism on the lives of cities' working classes. John Ruskin declared "Hard Times" his favourite Dickens work due to its exploration of important social questions. Walter Allen characterised "Hard Times" as an unsurpassed "critique of industrial society", Notable examples. "This is a list of a few of the early or notable examples; others belong on the main list"

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Hypothetical Axis victory in World War II A hypothetical Axis victory in World War II has become a common concept of alternative history and counterfactual history. Such writings express ideas of what the world would be like had the Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan won World War II. Numerous examples exist in several languages worldwide. The term Pax Germanica and Pax Japonica, Latin for "German peace" and "Japanese peace" respectively, is sometimes used for this theoretical period, by analogy to similar terms for peaceful historical periods. In some cases, this term is used for a hypothetical Imperial German victory in World War I as well, having a historical precedent in Latin texts referring to the Peace of Westphalia. The subject of Axis supremacy as a fictional dramatic device began in the English-speaking world before the start of World War II, with Katharine Burdekin's novel "Swastika Night" coming out in 1937. Subsequent popular fictional depictions of an Axis-powers victory include: "The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick (1962), "SS-GB" by Len Deighton (1978), and "Fatherland" by Robert Harris (1992). Some have viewed the enduring interest in the "what-ifs" of an Axis-powers victory as the result of the resonance of related themes; for example, how ordinary individuals deal with the humiliation and anger of being dominated. Depiction of Axis victory in fiction. Central themes and motifs. In terms of tone, the concept of an Axis victory usually creates a background of depressing melancholy, audiences seeing plots unfold in a dark, strained atmosphere. In general, works on this topic have been predominantly produced by and for Britons or Americans meaning that they tend to include a focus on the experience of defeat and occupation. As noted by Helen White, a hypothetical world where the Nazis won is by definition a far more harsh and grim place than the actual world. Still, many of the writers in this sub-genre leave the reader with at least some reason for hope. In Leo Rutman's "Clash of Eagles", brave New Yorkers eventually rebel and throw off the Nazi Yoke; Len Deighton's SS-GB ends with the Americans raiding Nazi-occupied Britain and rescuing British nuclear scientists, with the British Resistance hoping for eventual liberation from across the Atlantic; at the end of Robert Harris' "Fatherland", the protagonists manage to expose to the American public the hitherto hidden facts of the Jewish Genocide, thereby foiling the aging Hitler's hope for rapprochement with the US to solve Germany's growing economic crisis; Harry Turtledove's "In the Presence of Mine Enemies" depicts a world where the Nazis gained a complete military victory, but after two generations the regime undergoes a process of democratization similar to Perestroyka, and the secret Jews "hiding in plain sight" in the capital Berlin itself have some cautious reasons to expect a better future. Conversely, "The Ultimate Solution" by Eric Norden presents the Nazi-dominated United States which is totally hideous and monstrous, with not the slightest room for hope left. Norden's plot concludes with the world about to be destroyed in an all-out nuclear war between Nazi Germany and its erstwhile ally Imperial Japan - and the plot is so constructed as to make the reader feel this might be a good idea. Early depictions. "Swastika Night", authored by Katherine Burdekin under the pseudonym "Murray Constantine" in 1937, is a unique case given that it came out before World War II even began. It is thus a novel of future history rather than an "alternative" one. Writing in 2009 for "The Guardian", journalist Darragh McManus remarked that "[t]hough a huge leap of imagination, Swastika Night posits a terrifyingly coherent and plausible" story-line. He also wrote, "And considering when it was published, and how little of what we know of the Nazi regime today was then understood, the novel is eerily prophetic and perceptive about the nature of Nazism". The journalist particularly noted the "violence and mindlessness" as well as the "irrationality and superstition" found in the post-victory dictatorship. In 1941, the travel-writer Henry Vollam Morton wrote "I, James Blunt", a propaganda work set in September 1944 where Britain has lost the war and is under Nazi rule. The story is in the form of a diary describing the consequences of occupation, such as British workers being transported to Germany and Scottish shipyards building warships for an attack on the USA. The novella ends with an exhortation to the reader to make sure the story remains fiction.’ The first Nazi-victory 'alternate history' as such, in any language, was published in 1945, months after Hitler's suicide and written by the Hungarian author Lászlo Gáspár. Titled "We, Adolf I" (Adolf the First), the novel envisages German success after fighting in Stalingrad eventually leading to the victorious Hitler crowning himself a new modern 'Emperor'. Erecting in Berlin a huge Imperial Palace incorporating elements of the French Eiffel Tower and the U.S. Statue of Liberty among other spectacles, the narcissistic despot prepares a dynastic marriage with a Japanese princess to produce an heir who would rule the whole world. Often known in English by the title "The Last Jew", the Hebrew work "Ha-Yehudi Ha'Aharon" (היהודי האחרון) by the Revisionist Zionist physician and political activist Jacob Weinshall came out in Tel Aviv in 1946. In it, hundreds of years in the future, a completely Nazi-dominated world ruled by a "League of Dictators" discovers a last surviving Jew hiding in Madagascar. The Nazi rulers plan to publicly execute this last Jew during the forthcoming Olympic Games. However, before this can take place, the Moon moves close to the Earth as a result of the Nazis' misguided attempt to colonize it. The catastrophe causes the end of human civilization and thus of Nazi rule. Weinshall's Hebrew text, as of 2000, has never received a full, formal translation into other languages. The novel should not be confused with Yoram Kaniuk's novel "The Last Jew", which has been translated to English. The work "Peace in Our Time" explored a fascist-dominated London and the deleterious effects of occupation on regular people. English playwright and Secret Service agent Noël Coward, whose name appeared on a Gestapo arrest list in the event of a ground invasion of the UK, authored the drama, and it received its stage debut in 1947. Although facing a muted response at first, lingering interest in Coward's work, as well as the specific themes of "Peace in Our Time", have meant that subsequent productions have gone on, even into the 21st century. Later depictions. Additional notable depictions of Axis victory include: Literature. Counterfactual scenarios are also written as a form of academic paper rather than necessarily as fiction and/or novel-length fiction. The "All About History" Bookazine series came out with "What if...Book of Alternate History" (2019). Among the articles are "What if...Germany had won the Battle of Britain?" and "What if...The Allies had lost the Battle of the Atlantic?" Cultural studies. Academics, such as Gavriel David Rosenfeld in "The World Hitler Never Made: Alternate History and the Memory of Nazism" (2005), have researched the media representations of 'Nazi victory'.

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We Want the Colonels We Want the Colonels () is a 1973 Italian comedy film directed by Mario Monicelli. It was entered in the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. It is a satire of the attempted far-right Borghese Coup.

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The Rise of the Meritocracy The Rise of the Meritocracy is a book by British sociologist and politician Michael Dunlop Young which was first published in 1958. It describes a dystopian society in a future United Kingdom in which intelligence and merit have become the central tenet of society, replacing previous divisions of social class and creating a society stratified between a merited power-holding elite and a disenfranchised underclass of the less merited. The essay satirised the Tripartite System of education that was being practised at the time. The book was rejected by the Fabian Society and then by 11 publishers before being accepted by Thames and Hudson. Meritocracy is the political philosophy in which political influence is assigned largely according to the intellectual talent and achievement of the individual. Michael Young coined the term, formed by combining the Latin root "mereō" and Ancient Greek suffix "cracy", in his essay to describe and ridicule such a society, the selective education system that was the Tripartite System, and the philosophy in general. The word was adopted into the English language with none of the negative connotations that Young intended it to have and was embraced by supporters of the philosophy. Young expressed his disappointment in the embrace of this word and philosophy by the Labour Party under Tony Blair in "The Guardian" in an article in 2001, where he states: It is good sense to appoint individual people to jobs on their merit. It is the opposite when those who are judged to have merit of a particular kind harden into a new social class without room in it for others. Journalist and writer Paul Barker points out that "irony is a dangerous freight to carry" and suggests that in the 1960s and '70s it was read "as a simple attack on the rampant meritocrats", whereas he suggests it should be read "as sociological analysis in the form of satire". Synopsis. Introduction to the Transaction Edition. The author had difficulties publishing the book. A first publisher wanted a new "Brave New World". Another told him they did not publish PhD theses. Finally, a friend published it. The book is about "Meritocracy". It is a word with a Latin prefix and a Greek suffix. The plot of the book is about a fictional change in society. Before, there were castes. Now with the industrial era, there are classes. People are defined by their achievements rather than by the families they are born into. Social inequality can be justified. A meritocratic education and society can lead to issues. The rich and powerful are encouraged by the general culture and become arrogant. The poor are demoralised. Education is not only a way to get productive people. It could enrich them too. Introduction. In 2034, a revolution with deep historical roots is approaching in the UK. The narrator wants to explain the rise of the meritocracy in a socialist essay. Part One: Rise of the Elite. Chapter One: Clash of Social Forces. Before, the job you exercised was the job of your parents; lawyers were sons of lawyers. It was a pity, because people were not always suited to their jobs. It was the reign of nepotism, which survived because of tradition and the weight of family. Midwives of progress successfully introduced another education system - one which was free and elitist. Chapter Two: Threat of Comprehensive Schools. Exceptional brains require exceptional teaching. Although society has changed, it has remained hierarchical. Aristocracy of birth has turned into an aristocracy of talent. When comprehensive schools appeared, later in the cursus, parents were not ready to send their children. The idea behind them was to construct a social ladder at school. The problem is the following one: if you start to study too old, it is too hard to become knowledgeable. Comprehensive schools did not work and less importance was given to them. Chapter Three: Origins of Modern Education. Everyone was against the comprehensive school, including the socialists. Secondary school became free. By 1950, entering grammar school no longer depended on social origins. But if the lower classes entered, they did not stay. To solve this problem, a system of allowances was set up. You were paid if you came to school. Engineering and science were judged as better than Latin. Intelligence tests called "QI" were set up, with different QI tests at different ages. There were attacks against them, but statistics showed that they worked. Some people were frustrated, not because of the idea of segregation but because of the idea of being deprived of a superior education. Chapter Four: From seniority to merit. Industry is as important as education and there were tests in industries too. Adult merit is as important as childhood merit. Having a person giving orders just because he is older is useless and so seniority ceased to be a distinguishing feature for those at the top of the social ladder. A judge could become a taxi-driver at the end of his life. Change in the mental climate happened because merit became progressively more measurable. Intelligence and effort together make up merit; a lazy genius is useless. The narrator wonders if the stupid persons were upset. Psychologists said that they suffered but were unable to express themselves. Part 2: Decline of the lower classes. Chapter Five: Status of the Worker. No society is completely stable. There was an age where merit was important and the distance between classes became wider. The upper classes were proud and did not have sympathy for those who they governed. Meanwhile, the lower classes experienced difficulties and saw themselves as "dunces" who could turn into bad citizens or bad technicians. The schools of the upper classes tried to teach humility, and a mythos around sport, the "mythos of muscularity", was created in the education of the lower classes. Some of the latter became sports professionals, but the majority became TV-watching sport fans. The lower classes grew to esteem physical achievement, whereas the narrator and the upper classes value mental achievement. Another solution was to make psychological treatment free to help people fulfill their own potential. The idea that the lower classes's children could be successful was spread. Machines replaced unskilled men. Therefore, 1/3 of all adults were unemployed and became servants. Chapter Six: Fall of the Labour movement. Religion had to change. Christianity kept the idea of equality of opportunity, but constructed a world of ambition. Regarding the political field, the selection of clever people replaced elections. No one responded to the appeal of "labour". "Worker" became a discredited word and was replaced by "technician" instead. Cleverness became the quality required for a union leader. The socialists agreed with the new system and instead populists acted for the technicians. Chapter Seven: Rich and Poor. With meritocracy, the differences between the high salaries of the upper classes and the small ones of the lower classes are justified. The salaries within each class are exactly the same and only change once every year. The populists say that it is unfair and clamour for more justice. Chapter Eight: Crisis. Girls from the elite have started to fight on behalf of the technicians, who do not mind. An idea develops that all jobs are equal. The populists argue for schools to promote more diversity. Women want equality. Until now, their cleverness has only been used to educate their children. They are judged for their warmth of heart and not for their worldly success. Men choose their wives according to their QIs. Women do not, instead choosing by physical appearance. Elite status is becoming hereditary. Now, there is no hope anymore because the ability of someone is known before they are even born. There is a traffic in babies to get clever ones. The conservatives want this hereditary status to continue. A latent crisis is growing and a revolution is coming; the people are rising up, but they are more against the conservatives than for the populists.

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Tanner on Tanner Tanner on Tanner is a 2004 4-part comedy miniseries. It is the sequel to the 1988 Robert Altman-directed and Garry Trudeau-written miniseries about a failed presidential candidate, "Tanner '88". The sequel focuses mostly on Alex Tanner (Cynthia Nixon), a struggling filmmaker and the daughter of onetime presidential candidate Jack Tanner (Michael Murphy). Plot. Alex Tanner is working on a documentary about her father's run for president in 1988. After her documentary, "My Candidate", is met with an underwhelming response at an independent film festival, Robert Redford advises her that her film is lacking and that she should do follow-ups with all the people from the 1988 campaign to see what they are doing now, and get their reflections on their past roles. Alex does just this, interviewing most of the old campaign staffers and her father before going to the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston with her film crew to compare and contrast it with the 1988 Democratic National Convention where her father lost the nomination. Along the way, one of her crew members, Salim (Aasif Mandvi), is repeatedly stopped and frisked by police because of his Arab ethnicity. There she meets up with TJ, her father's old campaign manager, who is now advising John Kerry. While TJ provides assistance to Alex, she also advises Jack that he is being considered for a position in the administration, should Kerry win the election. She says he would need to make sure footage from Alex's documentary of him attacking the Iraq War is removed and destroyed, so as not to potentially embarrass Kerry. Jack asks Alex to remove and destroy the footage, which she considers the best part of her documentary. Alex becomes very upset and disillusioned with her father. (It is also implied that she has had a falling out with him.) She eventually destroys her whole film, looking to move on with her life. Production. As with the first film, this film features many cameos by politicians and celebrities including Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Joe Lieberman, Tom Brokaw, Ron Reagan Jr., Alexandra Kerry, Michael Dukakis, Luke Macfarlane, Chris Matthews, Dee Dee Myers, Dick Gephardt, Barack Obama, Michael Moore, Steve Buscemi, Bill Clinton, Charlie Rose, Mario Cuomo and Martin Scorsese.

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The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film) The Manchurian Candidate is a 1962 American neo-noir, psychological political thriller about the Cold War and sleeper agents. The film was directed and produced by John Frankenheimer. The screenplay was written by George Axelrod and based on the 1959 Richard Condon novel "The Manchurian Candidate". The film's leading actors are Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, and Angela Lansbury, co-starring Janet Leigh, Henry Silva, and James Gregory. The plot centers on Korean War veteran Raymond Shaw, part of a prominent political family. Shaw is brainwashed by communists after his Army platoon is captured. He returns to civilian life in the United States, where he becomes an unwitting assassin in an international communist conspiracy to subvert and overthrow the U.S. government. The film was released in the United States on October 24, 1962, at the height of U.S.–Soviet hostility during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was widely acclaimed by critics and was nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress (Lansbury) and Best Editing. It was selected in 1994 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Plot. Soviet and Chinese soldiers capture a U.S. Army platoon during the Korean War and take the men to Manchuria in communist China. Three days later, Sergeant Raymond Shaw and Captain Bennett Marco return to UN lines. Upon Marco's recommendation, Shaw is awarded the Medal of Honor for saving his soldiers' lives in combat, though two men are killed in action. Shaw returns to the United States, where his heroism is exploited by his diabolical, politically motivated mother, Eleanor Iselin, whose subversive plans are to further the career of her husband, Senator John Iselin. When asked to describe Shaw, the other soldiers in his unit robotically respond, "Raymond Shaw is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I've ever known in my life." On the contrary, Raymond Shaw is a cold, sad, unsympathetic loner. After Marco is promoted to major and assigned to Army Intelligence, he has a recurring nightmare: a hypnotized Shaw blithely murders the two soldiers from his own platoon before an assembly of communist military leaders to demonstrate their revolutionary brainwashing technique. Marco learns that another soldier from the platoon, Alan Melvin, has the same nightmare. When he and Melvin separately identify photos of the same two men from their dreams—leading figures in communist governments—Army Intelligence agrees to help Marco investigate. During captivity, Shaw was programmed as a sleeper agent who blindly obeys orders to kill without any memory of his crimes. His battle heroism was a false memory implanted during the platoon's brainwashing. Agents trigger Shaw by suggesting he play solitaire; the queen of diamonds activates him. Eleanor masterminds the ascent of John, a McCarthy-like demagogue who makes baseless claims that communists work within the Department of Defense. Shaw repudiates his mother and stepfather by taking a job at a newspaper published by their rival Holborn Gaines. Communist agents have Shaw murder Gaines to confirm that his brainwashing still works. Chunjin, a Korean agent who posed as a guide for Shaw's platoon, infiltrates his apartment as a valet and butler. Marco recognizes Chunjin when he visits Shaw's apartment; he violently attacks him and demands to know what really happened during the platoon's captivity. After Marco is arrested for assault, Eugenie Cheyney, a woman he met on a train, posts his bail and breaks her engagement to date him. Shaw rekindles a romance with Jocelyn Jordan, the daughter of liberal Senator Thomas Jordan, the Iselins' chief political foe. Eleanor arranges their reunion to garner Senator Jordan's support for John's vice presidential bid. Unswayed, Jordan insists he will block Iselin's attempts to seek the party's nomination. After Jocelyn inadvertently triggers Shaw's programming by wearing a queen of diamonds costume at a party for her thrown by the Iselins, they elope. Furious at Senator Jordan's rebuff, Eleanor—who perversely is Shaw's American handler— sends him to kill Jordan at his home. Shaw also kills Jocelyn when she stumbles upon the murder scene. Afterwards, Shaw has no memory of killing the Jordans and is grief-stricken when he learns they are dead. After discovering the card's role in Shaw's conditioning, Marco uses a forced deck to deprogram him, hoping he will reveal his next assignment. Eleanor primes Shaw to assassinate their party's presidential nominee at the height of its convention so that Senator Iselin, as the vice-presidential candidate, will become the nominee by default. In the uproar, he will seek emergency powers to establish a strict authoritarian regime. Eleanor tells Shaw that she requested a programmed assassin, never knowing it would be her own son. She vows to exact revenge on the communists for selecting him. Shaw enters Madison Square Garden disguised as a priest and takes up a sniper's position in an empty spotlight booth high above. Marco and his supervisor, Colonel Milt, race to the convention to stop him. At the last moment Shaw aims away from his intended target, the presidential nominee, and instead kills Eleanor and Senator Iselin. When Marco arrives inside the lighting booth, Shaw tells him that not even the Army could not have stopped them, so he had to. Then Shaw, wearing the Medal of Honor around his neck, immediately commits suicide. Later that evening, Marco, speaking to Eugenie, privately mourns Shaw's death. Production. Sinatra suggested Lucille Ball for the role of Eleanor Iselin, but Frankenheimer, who had worked with Lansbury in "All Fall Down", insisted that Sinatra watch her performance in that film before a final choice was made. Although Lansbury played Raymond Shaw's mother, she was in fact only three years older than Laurence Harvey, who played Shaw. An early scene in which Shaw, recently decorated with the Medal of Honor, argues with his parents was filmed in Sinatra's own private plane. Janet Leigh plays Marco's love interest. In a short biography of Leigh broadcast on Turner Classic Movies, actress Jamie Lee Curtis reveals her mother had been served divorce papers on behalf of her father, actor Tony Curtis, the morning that the scene where she and Sinatra first meet on a train was filmed. In the scene where Marco attempts to deprogram Shaw in a hotel room opposite the convention, Sinatra is at times slightly out of focus. It was a first take, and Sinatra failed to be as effective in subsequent retakes, a common factor in his film performances. In the end, Frankenheimer elected to use the out-of-focus take. Critics subsequently praised him for showing Marco from Shaw's distorted point of view. In the novel, Eleanor Iselin had been sexually abused by her father as a child. Before the dramatic climax, she uses her son's brainwashing to have sex with him. Concerned with blowback over even a reference to a taboo topic like incest in a mainstream film at that time, the filmmakers instead had Eleanor kiss Shaw on the lips to imply her incestuous attraction to him. Nearly half of the film's production budget of $2.2 million went to Sinatra's salary for his performance. Another $200,000 went to Harvey. Reception. Critical response. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, "The Manchurian Candidate" holds an approval rating of 97% rating based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 8.70/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "A classic blend of satire and political thriller that was uncomfortably prescient in its own time, "The Manchurian Candidate" remains distressingly relevant today." On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film has a score of 94 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Film critic Roger Ebert listed "The Manchurian Candidate" on his "Great Movies" list, declaring that it is "inventive and frisky, takes enormous chances with the audience, and plays not like a 'classic' but as a work as alive and smart as when it was first released". Awards and honors. In 1994, "The Manchurian Candidate" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The film ranked at No. 67 on the "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies" when that list was first compiled in 1998, but a 2007 revised version excluded it. It was also No. 17 on AFI's "AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills" lists. In April 2007, Angela Lansbury's character was selected by "Time" as one of the 25 greatest villains in cinema history. Releases. According to a false rumor, Sinatra removed the film from distribution after the John F. Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963. Michael Schlesinger, who was responsible for the film's 1988 reissue by MGM/UA, has helped debunk the rumor. According to him, the film was not removed, but there was little public interest in it immediately before the assassination. The autumn 1962 release had run its course. Box office successes in the United States immediately before the shootings in Dallas were comedies, notably "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", and movie distributors avoided reviving a thriller with a creepy ending that millions of people had seen barely a year earlier. Newspaper display ads indicate that after the assassination, "The Manchurian Candidate" was not rereleased as frequently or as widely as other movies from 1962, but it was indeed revived and never was banned. The movie played at a Brooklyn, New York cinema two months after the assassination (January 1964) and, that same month, in White Plains and Jersey City, NJ. The film was subsequently televised nationwide on "CBS Thursday Night at the Movies" on September 16, 1965. Sinatra's representatives acquired rights to the film in 1972 after the initial contract with United Artists expired. The film was rebroadcast on nationwide television in April 1974 on "NBC Saturday Night at the Movies". After a successful showing at the New York Film Festival in 1987 increased public interest in the film, the studio reacquired the rights and it became again available for theater and video releases.

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The Best Man (1964 film) The Best Man is a 1964 American political drama film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner with a screenplay by Gore Vidal based on his 1960 play of the same title. Starring Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, and Lee Tracy, the film details the seamy political maneuverings behind the nomination of a presidential candidate. The supporting cast features Edie Adams, Margaret Leighton, Ann Sothern, Shelley Berman, Gene Raymond, and Kevin McCarthy. Lee Tracy was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance, and it was his final film. Plot. In May 1964, former Secretary of State William Russell (Henry Fonda) and Senator Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson) are the two leading candidates for the presidential nomination of an unspecified political party. Both have potentially fatal vulnerabilities. Russell is a principled intellectual, but his sexual indiscretions and lack of attention to his wife Alice (Margaret Leighton) have alienated her. In addition, he has a past nervous breakdown to live down. Cantwell portrays himself as a populist "man of the people" and patriotic anti-communist campaigning to end "the missile gap". He is a ruthless opportunist, willing to go to any lengths to get the nomination. Neither man can stand the other; neither believes his rival qualified to be president. At the nominating convention in Los Angeles, they lobby for the crucial support of dying former President Art Hockstader (Tracy). The pragmatic Hockstader prefers Russell, but worries about his indecision and principles; he despises Cantwell for his lack of intellect, but appreciates his toughness and willingness to do whatever it takes. Hockstader decides to support Cantwell, but the candidate blunders badly. When the two speak privately, Cantwell attacks Russell using illegally obtained psychological reports obtained by Don Cantwell, his brother and campaign manager. Cantwell mistakenly assumed that Hockstader was going to endorse Russell. The former President tells Cantwell that he does not mind a "bastard", but objects to a stupid one. He endorses neither man. The candidates try to sway undecided delegates, Russell appealing to their principles and Cantwell using blackmail. Russell finds out to his chagrin that Hockstader has offered the vice-presidential spot on his ticket to all three of the minor candidates, Senator Oscar Anderson (Richard Arlen), Governor John Merwin (William R. Ebersol), and Governor T.T. Claypoole (John Henry Faulk). One of Russell's aides finds Sheldon Bascomb (Shelley Berman), who served in the military with Cantwell and is willing to link him to homosexual activity while stationed in Alaska during World War II. Hockstader and Russell's closest advisors press Russell to seize the opportunity, but he refuses to do so. After the first ballot, Russell arranges to meet Cantwell privately, but when Bascomb is confronted face-to-face by Cantwell, Cantwell angrily counters the charges. Russell threatens to use the allegation anyway, but Cantwell knows Russell does not have the stomach for such smear tactics. As the rounds of balloting continue, neither man has enough votes to win though Cantwell holds a narrow lead. Cantwell offers Russell the second spot on his ticket, but Russell shocks him by instead releasing his delegates and recommending they throw their support behind Merwin, who then secures the nomination. Cast. Character names are not indicated in the on-screen credits. The closing credits feature film clips depicting the faces and names of cast members Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Edie Adams, Margaret Leighton, Shelley Berman, Lee Tracy, Ann Sothern, Gene Raymond, Kevin McCarthy and John Henry Faulk. Tracy received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination for repeating the role of Hockstader that he had originated on stage. Faulk was a Texas-based radio personality who was blacklisted during the 1950s and won a lawsuit that helped restore his reputation. Kevin McCarthy was a cousin of Eugene McCarthy, who became a presidential contender in 1968. Production. It was Ebersol's only film and he does not speak. It was the first American film to feature the word "homosexual". Reception. Bosley Crowther's review of the film in "The New York Times" cited William R. Ebersol in the role of Governor John Merwin as one of those who "stand out in a cast that is notable for its authenticity". The film has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 5 reviews. Ben Cosgrove of Time said, "Considering how ruthless the film is in dissecting the amoral machinations employed in virtually any national political endeavor, "The Best Man" is remarkable not for its scorn or its misanthropy, but for the even-handedness of its vision."

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Ecofiction Ecofiction (also "eco-fiction" or "eco fiction") is the branch of literature that encompasses nature-oriented (non-human) or environment-oriented (human impacts on nature) works of fiction. While this super genre's roots are seen in classic, pastoral, magical realism, animal metamorphoses, science fiction, and other genres, the term ecofiction did not become popular until the 1970s when various movements created the platform for an explosion of environmental and nature literature, which also inspired ecocriticism. Ecocriticism is the study of literature and the environment from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. Environmentalists have claimed that the human relationship with the ecosystem often went unremarked in earlier literature. According to Jim Dwyer, author of "Where the Wild Books Are: A Field Guide to Ecofiction", "My criteria for determining whether a given work is ecofiction closely parallel Lawrence Buell's": Definitions and explanations. "The terms 'environmental fiction,' 'green fiction,' and 'nature-oriented fiction,' might better be considered as categories of ecofiction...[Ecofiction] deals with environmental issues or the relation between humanity and the physical environment, that contrasts traditional and industrial cosmologies, or in which nature or the land has a prominent role…[It is] made up of many styles, primarily modernism, postmodernism, realism, and magical realism, and can be found in many genres, primarily mainstream, westerns, mystery, romance, and speculative fiction. Speculative fiction includes science fiction and fantasy, sometimes mixed with realism, as in the work of Ursula K. Le Guin." -Jim Dwyer [Ibid. Chapter 2.] "Stories set in fictional landscapes that capture the essence of natural ecosystems...[They] can build around human relationships to these ecosystems or leave out humans altogether. The story itself, however, takes the reader into the natural world and brings it alive...Ideally the landscape and ecosystems--whether fantasy or real--should be as "realistic" as possible and plot constraints should accord with ecological principles." -Mike Vasey The distinction of true and false ecofiction was made by Diane Ackerman. "Often in fiction nature has loomed as a monstrous character, an adversary dishing out retribution for moral slippage, or as a nightmare region of chaos and horror where fanged beasts crouch ready to attack. But sometimes it beckons as a zone of magic, mysticism, inspiration, and holy conversion. "False ecofiction is based on the fear that something will go wrong, but true ecofiction is based on an integrative view of reality." -Gabriel Navarre Another perspective is that ecofiction is not divided between true and false, but into three categories: "Works that portray the environmental movement and/or environmental activism, works that depict a conflict over an environmental issue and express the author's beliefs, and works that feature environmental apocalypse." -Patricia D. Netzley "Ecofiction is an elastic term, capacious enough to accommodate a variety of fictional works that address the relationship between natural settings and the human communities that dwell within them. The term emerged soon after ecology took hold as a popular scientific paradigm and a broad cultural attitude in the 1960s and 1970s." -Jonathan Levin "Ecofiction forms a literature-based path towards an invigorated understanding of nature's place in human life and is part of a new phase in nature writing that seeks to include a modern consciousness in narratives of place. "The Hopper" believes that in order to refashion our lives to accommodate the knowledge we have of our environmental crisis, we have a lot of cultural heavy lifting to do. To reacquaint ourselves meaningfully with the natural world we have to turn our interpretive, inquisitive, and inspired faculties upon it." Dede Cummings, Green Writers Press Ashland Creek Press often states that "ecofiction is fiction with a conscience." -John Yunker Characteristics. Given that "Ecocriticism seems to be inherently interdisciplinary, cross-cultural, syncretic, holistic, and evolutionary in its nature," it would seem useful to apply these traits to the large field of literature that is ecofiction, especially given its history, reach, and continuity. Interdisciplinary and holistic: Ecofiction can be seen as an umbrella for, or laterally relative to, many genres and subgenres and works well within the parameters of the main categories of speculative fiction, contemporary fiction, Anthropocene fiction, climate fiction, literary fiction, eco-futurist and solarpunk fictions, magical realism, ecological weird fiction, and more. Further, while ecofiction is "fiction with a conscience," per John Yunker, as shown above, it reveals integrity in the concern for our natural world as well as what can be found on numerous storytelling platforms: mystery, thriller, suspense, romance, dystopian, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic, Arcadian, futuristic, crime, detective, and so on. Given the upstream and downstream effects of such issues as climate change, fracking, coal mining, animal justice, pollution, deforestation, and so on, this branch of fiction is not inclusive and has no demarcation other than the environmental and nature impacts by which it is defined and explained. Cross-cultural and syncretic: Ecofiction is written by authors all over the world. Environmental issues, the desire to protect our natural ecological systems, and the praise of nature is an all-encompassing intention of many authors, which crosses all borders, languages, ethnicities, and belief systems. Many ecofiction novels incorporate LGBT and other egalitarian social issues that mirror sustainable, peaceful, and just environmental futures. Developing: Dwyer's field guide has hundreds of examples of ecofiction across time, from the roots and precursors---the earliest cave drawings, pastoral and classic, etc.--up through the 21st century. The continuity goes on. In May 2017, writing in "The New York Times," Yale scholar Wai Chee Dimock reviewed Jeff VanderMeer's novel "Borne" and said, "This coming-of-age story signals that eco-fiction has come of age as well: wilder, more reckless and more breathtaking than previously thought, a wager and a promise that what emerges from the 21st century will be as good as any from the 20th, or the 19th." Two months later, The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment's (ASLE) 17th biennial conference focused on ecofiction as one of its main streams. Ecofiction continues to be alive and relevant, evolving into contemporary study and a way of thinking about new literature. Ecofiction, true to its evolutionary nature, encapsulates the most recent of our environmental crises: climate change. By the time Dwyer's big field study was published in 2010, already climate change had been engaging authors to write cautionary or disaster tales for a few decades. In his field guide, Dwyer cited such examples of climate change fiction as "The Swarm" and "The Day After Tomorrow"—also noting that "Ecofiction rarely fares well in escapist Hollywood." [Ibid. p. 92.] The first anthropogenic global warming (AGW) novel may have been Arthur Herzog's "Heat", published in 1977, though plenty of novels up until then imagined or speculated climate change or events. While ecofiction has included AGW fiction since the 1970s, the past decade has also introduced newer specific genres to handle climate change, such as climate fiction, Anthroprocene fiction, and solarpunk. Thus, true to the evolutionary characteristic of ecofiction, from early pastoralism to modern science's understanding of global warming, hundreds of authors have taken up the issue of climate change in the least as a backdrop to their novels or, more heavily, as a moral, didactic cautionary tale centering around this foreboding, current, and very real environmental catastrophe. An environmental fiction database lists hundreds of climate and other novels falling into the ecofiction genre. History. While the term "ecofiction" is contemporary, as of the 1970s, its precursors are ancient and include many First People's fictionalizing nature in written form, including pictograms, petroglyphs, and creation myths. Classical literature, such as Ovid's "Metamorphoses" and Latin pastoral literature, continued this exaltation of nature as did Medieval European literature, such as Arthurian lore and Shakespeare's tales, followed by Romanticism, traditional pastoralism, and transcendentalism. Dwyer notes that Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind and The Willows", as well as many nonfiction authors, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Burroughs, Margaret Fuller, and John Muir, had "strong influences on modern ecological thought, environmentalism, and ecofiction." Up through the late 19th century, classics such as Herman Melville's "Moby Dick", Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", H.G. Wells' "The Island of Dr. Moreau", W.H. Hudson's "A Crystal Age", and Sarah Orne Jewett's "The White Heron and Other Stories" and "The Country of Pointed Firs", among many others, had eco-themes. In the 20th and 21st centuries, nature-related fiction evolved and continued, including eco-feminist fiction writers such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Mary Austin. Four "radical" authors also came on the scene: Jack London, D.H. Lawrence, B. Traven, and Upton Sinclair. Environmental science fiction also became popular from authors like Laurence Manning, George Orwell, William Golding, and Aldous Huxley. Regional environmentalists and authors, such as Zora Neale Hutson, William Faulkner, and John Steinbeck, also wrote about problems in their locales. Conservationists and environmentalists, such as Wallace Stegner and George R. Stewart, also contributed. J.R.R. Tolkien's mythology classics went down into history showing famous and iconic battles of industrialization vs. nature. Postwar ecofiction writers arrived too, such as science fiction authors who were cautionary about the environment: Clifford Simak, Jack Vance, Ray Bradbury, and Kurt Vonnegut, to name a few. Enter Peter Matthiessen and Edward Abbey, which Dwyer says are "arguably the most important and enduring new green voices to emerge in this period." And others, such as Jack Kerouac, Gary Snyder, and Michael McClure, represented "presentations of the nascent environmental consciousness of the Beat movement." [Ibid.] This brings us up to the 1970s, when, as Dwyer points out, "ecofiction in all genres truly flourished...which might be considered the "década de oro" (golden age)," heralded by John Stadler's anthology "Eco-fiction", containing science and mainstream ecofiction written between the 1920s and 1960s. [Ibid.] "Eco-fiction", the anthology, starts with this premise: "The earth is an eco-system. It possesses a collective memory. Everything that happens, no matter how insignificant it may seem, affects in some way at some time the existence of everything else within that system. Eco-fiction raises important questions about man's place in the system: Will man continue to ignore the warnings of the environment and destroy his source of life? Will he follow the herd into the slaughterhouse?" The anthology included the authors Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck, Edgar Allan Poe, A. E. Coppard, James Agee, Robert M. Coates, Daphne du Maurier, Robley Wilson Jr., E. B. White, J. F. Powers, Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Sarah Orne Jewett, Frank Herbert, H. H. Munro, J. G. Ballard, Steven Scharder, Isaac Asimov, and William Saroyan. Dwyer stated that the title of Stadler's "Eco-fiction" was his first knowledge of the term ecofiction. [Ibid.] Jonathan Levin goes on to explain, "Two key events helped spark this new environmental awareness [leading to ecofiction]: the controversy surrounding proposed dams on the Colorado River that led ultimately to the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam (begun in the mid-1950s and completed about ten years later), and the 1962 publication of "Silent Spring", Rachel Carson's exposé of the environmental impact of toxic pesticides like DDT. Both generated widespread media coverage, bringing complex and urgent environmental issues and the ecological vocabularies that helped explain them into the American lexicon." Social impact. Ecofiction is often said to be an agent for social change. For example, in 2016, the World Economic Forum's Rosamund Hutt listed "9 novels that changed the world." Among these were two novels that may be considered ecofiction, including John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" (about the dust bowl, which was caused by farmers failing to use smart ecological principles) and Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" (about Chicago's meat-packing industry). Both novels reached far and wide, and are considered to be among the classics of social change novels. Researchers have recently begun to empirically examine the influence of environmentally engaged literature on its readers. For example, scholars have found that literary fiction can make readers more concerned about animal welfare and climate change and raise awareness of environmental injustice.

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Blood on the Forge Blood on the Forge is a migration novel by the African-American writer William Attaway set in the steel valley of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during 1919, a time when vast numbers of Black Americans moved northward. Attaway's own family was part of this population shift from South to North when he was a child. His novel follows the Moss brothers as they escape the inequality of sharecropping in the South only to encounter inequality in the mills of the North. Their story illustrates the tragedy and hardships many Black Americans faced during the Great Migration. "Blood on the Forge" touches on themes such as the destruction of nature, the emptiness and hunger that the working characters experience, the complications of the individual in a depersonalized world, and the myth of the American Dream. Background. During his childhood in the 1910s, author William Attaway traveled with his family from the segregated south of Mississippi to the northern city of Chicago, Illinois; in doing so his family became part of what would be known as the Great Migration. From 1910 to 1930, approximately six million African Americans moved from the rural southern United States to the industrialized North. The northern states of Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, New York and Michigan received the majority of the migrating African Americans. Factors motivating blacks to migrate north included the plentiful job opportunities in Northern industry, and the desire to escape the harsh racial climate of the South. As a result, neighborhoods in Northern cities saw drastic changes in population and an increase in issues concerning housing. Many cultural movements were spawned due to the large influx in black populations in the North, including the Harlem Renaissance and the spread of jazz music. Plot summary. The novel opens in Kentucky, in the year 1919; sharecropping half-brothers Big Mat, Chinatown, and Melody Moss are in dire straits. After their mule dragged their mother to her death, Big Mat killed the animal in a fit of rage. Now without a mule, the brothers are unable to work their land, and are likely to starve. The landowner, Mr. Johnston, agrees to give the brothers another mule. When Big Mat goes to Mr. Johnston's riding boss to collect the mule he had been promised, the riding boss refuses to give him the mule, and makes a racist comment about the departed Mrs. Moss. Big Mat's anger again overcomes him and he attacks and possibly kills the riding boss. Earlier that day, Chinatown and Melody are visited by a white man on horseback who gives them a ten-dollar bill, promising much more if the brothers leave that night on a train that would take them North, to work. When Big Mat returns that evening and Melody and Chinatown tell him what the stranger said, Big Mat decides that he and his brothers will head North that very evening. Part Two, the shortest of the novel, chronicles the inhumane conditions of the train in which the Moss brothers are shipped north to Pennsylvania. The Moss brothers arrive at a mill town near Pittsburgh, where they get work in the steel mill and live together in a bunkhouse with the other workers of the mill. On their time off, Chinatown and Melody go to a Mexican madam named Sugar Mama, where they meet her niece Anna, whom Melody becomes infatuated with. Chinatown and Melody convince Big Mat to come with them to a dog fight. When Anna rushes into the ring to prevent the death of one of the dogs, she is hit by the dog's owner. Big Mat responds by punching the man, which leads to a riot. After the fight breaks up, Anna rushes up to Big Mat and kisses him before running away again. Big Mat takes Anna away from Sugar Mamma and sets up house with her in a small shack. Melody brings a letter from Big Mat's wife Hattie to the shack only to find Anna there alone. When he tells Anna about the letter she tries to snatch it from him; the two wrestle over the letter. The struggle culminates in Melody raping Anna. There is a catastrophic accident at the mill that kills 14 men and blinds Chinatown. After this tragedy, the labor union becomes very active and gains many new members. The atmosphere of the town becomes increasingly hostile as the foreign mill workers come to resent the African American workers, who are the only group that refuse to join the union. Big Mat is recruited by the sheriff, who is impressed with Big Mat's strength, to be a deputy and help combat the growing union. Once deputized, Mat is told that he is a boss in the town; after a lifetime of oppression, this new feeling of authority goes to Big Mat's head. Melody decides to cheer Chinatown up after his accident by taking him to visit some prostitutes. Once at the brothel, Melody finds out that Anna has been working there. Melody returns home and tries to convince Anna to run away with him. When Big Mat overhears them, he once again is overpowered by his rage and beats Anna with his brass-studded belt. Later that night Big Mat, along with the sheriff and his deputies, raid the union headquarters. In the midst of the action, Big Mat is repeatedly hit on the back of the head with a pickaxe handle by a young Slavic union member. Big Mat is killed by the blows. The book ends with Melody and Chinatown leaving the mill town as they take a train to Pittsburgh, where they plan to rebuild their lives. Genre. Proletarian literature. "Blood on the Forge" is an example of proletarian literature, a genre whose works usually represented the years surrounding the Great Depression. The experience of the characters in the novel mirror the class struggles during the Great Migration, specifically the hardships of African American workers during this period. The Moss brothers are realistically depicted as "emerging black proletariat." Migration narrative. Attaway's novel is also a migration narrative, as it traces the journey of African American brothers from Southern farm life to the industrial North. Lawrence R. Rodgers states that there are four kinds of migration narratives, the Early Migration Novel, the Harlem Renaissance, the Fugitive Migration Novel, and finally the Communal Migrant Novel, which is post-Depression. "Blood on the Forge" would be considered an Early Migration Novel, as it takes place during the early 20th century and because of its industrial subject matter. Rodgers explains that Harlem Renaissance works do not discuss the actual migration, only what came of it, and in her review of Rodgers' "Canaan Bound: The African-American Great Migration Novel", Farrah Jasmine Griffin states, "If the Harlem Renaissance writers failed to make the most of the migration novel form, the generation that followed—fueled by the depression economy, personal deprivation, and a strong sense of displacement—put migration at the center, not the periphery, of its artistic imagination." In particular, Chicago writers such as Attaway were responding to the failures of Harlem Renaissance writers to express the first wave of African American migration. One important aspect of the migration narrative is its emphasis on the differences between the traditional (or folk) and the modern. Migration narratives typically include references to ancestors and strangers, with ancestors being linked to the South and strangers to the North. In "Blood on the Forge," the immigrants the Moss brothers work with in the mills would be considered strangers. Ancestors are also linked with folklore and tradition, such as music and food. Melody tries to keep the brother's heritage alive with his guitar. Each brother experiences his own shift from the folk to the industrial that is characteristic of the Great Migration. Melody changes the way he plays the guitar from slicking the chords, as he did at home, to picking them. Chinatown loses his eyes in an accidental explosion in the mills, forcing him to adapt to the industrial world as a blind man. Big Mat is the last one to leave behind his tradition. While at home he lashed out in anger against his oppressors, such as the riding boss, in the North Big Mat joins the oppressor as he becomes a deputy, using his anger to break his fellow workers' strike. Edward E. Waldron describes him as becoming "as destructive as the exploding furnace". Style. Form of the migration narrative. In her book, "Who Set You Flowin'?: The African American Migration Narrative", Farah Jasmine Griffin explains that the migration narrative is a dominant form in African American culture. Griffin cites Lawrence Rodgers as the first to identify migration with the emergence of a new genre: the Great Migration Novel. This type of work that "Blood on the Forge" is associated with has a specific narrative form. In relation to the dominant white society, all migrants are strangers: foreigners driven by persecution to wander in search of a new home. In Attaway's novel, the mill workers all fall under this category. The Moss brothers work with foreign immigrants as well as other Southern migrants like themselves. Within the context of the African American community, the stranger is that figure who possesses no connections to the community. As they migrate to the industrial North, the Moss brothers leave their home and traditions, and start over in a place where they have no connections. Griffin describes four moments that occur in migration narratives. Not all migration narratives have all four, and they need not occur in this order. 1) An event that propels action north. In "Blood on the Forge", this event is the opportunity for new jobs and a better life. 2) Presentation of the initial confrontation within the urban landscape. The first confrontation the Moss brothers have is when they get off the train and arrive in the city for their new job. As they do this, they meet immigrants and are confronted with the diversity and entirely different atmosphere of the urban landscape. 3) Illustration of attempt to negotiate. The bulk of the novel is the brothers trying to adapt to their new lifestyle. 4) Vision of possibilities or limitations of the North. We see both limitations and possibilities of the North in this novel. At the end as Melody and Chinatown leave for a new opportunity in a new city, there is a sense of possibility for a better situation than the previous one. Limitations of the North can be seen in several instances throughout the story. Chinatown loses his eyes in a fatal explosion in the mills, and Big Mat loses his life trying to gain respect. Characters. Major characters. Big Mat. Big Mat is the eldest of the three Moss brothers. In Part One of Attaway's novel he is employed as a sharecropper on Mr. Johnston's farm in Kentucky. Of the three brothers Big Mat's most notable attributes are his physical size/strength, his rage, and his constant need to be a provider for his family. After the brothers migrate to Pennsylvania Big Mat focuses his energies on doing well at his new job, and scrupulously saves his money so that he might bring his wife Hattie North. Eventually his resolve breaks and Big Mat enters into a relationship with the prostitute Anna. Mat continues to use his physical strength as a weapon against others until his death during the raid of the Union Headquarters. According to Phillip H. Vaughan's article "From Pastoralism to Industrial Antipathy in William Attaway's "Blood on the Forge"" Attaway uses Big Mat's character to represents "the plodding strength and endurance of all Southern Negroes under their particular color-caste system". Edward E. Waldron claims that Big Mat represents "the last side of the complete folk culture, religion, and an equally important tie to the soil. " John Claborn asserts that while Melody and Chinatown become destroyed in the North, Big Mat "thrives" in his new home, as he, "identifies more with the machines than with his fellow white workers, for they allow him to flourish in a way denied him by Jim Crow. " Chinatown Moss. Chinatown is a younger half sibling to Big Mat. Chinatown resists sharecropping work, instead enjoying a lazy and carefree lifestyle on the Kentucky farm. Chinatown focuses on his own needs before those of the family, using his money on frivolous items such as a gold tooth. After leaving the farm, Chinatown, succumbing to the temptations offered by city life in Pennsylvania, becomes fascinated with drinking, gambling, and hiring prostitutes. Midway through the novel, Chinatown is left blind after an accident at the steel mill and is forced out of work and into the care of Big Mat and Melody. Phillip H. Vaughan argues that Chinatown's "lazy, happy-go-lucky attitude reflects in part a psychological response to the subjugated position of the Negroes" following the abolition of slavery. Edward E. Waldron claims that Chinatown's main concern in life is to make himself unique, to be noticed as special; his gold tooth provides relief for this concern, and "looking at the tooth shining back at him from his mirror image gives Chinatown a real sense of being somebody. " Stacy I. Morgan claims that the tooth represents Chinatown's "fragile sense of self-esteem," and that he "fixes on the gold tooth as a way of struggling to affirm his individuality and humanity in the face of a socioeconomic system that would otherwise reduce him to a faceless sharecropper. Melody Moss. Melody, like Chinatown, is a younger half-sibling to Big Mat. Melody's most prominent characteristic is his love for music, which is expressed through his guitar playing. Once the brothers migrate to Pennsylvania, Melody is forced to work in the steel mills alongside his brothers; this harsh new way of life alienates Melody from his guitar, and he ceases to play. Melody develops feelings for Anna, despite her relationship with Big Mat, and tries to convince her to run away with him. According to Vaughan, Melody's blues singing "recreates and sustains the pastoral myth... and an existence characterized by images of hunger, barrenness, and drudgery". Minor characters. Hattie. Hattie is Big Mat's wife. When the Moss Brothers travel North, Hattie is left behind pregnant. Big Mat receives a letter from Hattie saying that she fell and lost the baby. Sugar Mama. Sugar Mama is a prostitute from "Mex Town." Anna. Anna is fourteen or fifteen years old and Sugar Mama's niece. Sugar Mama sent for Anna from New Mexico, thinking she would bring more business. At first, Anna tries to sleep with Melody, but when Big Mat defends Anna after an owner at the dog fight hits her, she becomes infatuated with Big Mat. Anna moves into a shack with Big Mat, where she endures his beatings. Smothers. Smothers is a crippled laborer. In an article published in "MFS Modern Fiction Studies", John Claborn claims that Smothers is "a prophetic spokesman for the earth's pain." Claborn notes that Smother's legs have been mutilated in a violent steel mill incident, and claims that "Smothers's shrill prophecies are the product of wisdom gained through suffering, of a heightened sense of what the ground feels as it is mined, smelted, and made into steel. " After Smothers dies in a mill accident, his co-workers memorialize him by turning the steel scraps from the accident into watch fobs, wearing these around their necks for luck. Mr. Johnston. The Moss brothers sharecrop on Mr. Johnson's land in Kentucky. Mr. Johnston had stopped giving the family food credit after Big Mat killed the mule Mr. Johnston had lent them, and claims the Moss family's share of the crop for the next two years to pay for the loss of the animal. However, Mr. Johnston wants to prevent the brothers from leaving to work in the North, so he tells Big Mat that he will give the Moss' a mule so that they can continue to work their land, and offers Melody and Chinatown work doing odd jobs around his farm. Riding Boss. Big Mat identifies the Kentucky riding boss as the son of a poor white sharecropper. When Big Mat goes to get the mule he was promised by Mr. Johnston, the riding boss, eager to exert his power, insults and whips Big Mat. Big Mat loses his temper and attacks the riding boss, prompting the brothers' departure to the north. Bo. Bo is the "boss of stove gang" who catches Chinatown and Melody staring at the woman with the "rotted" breast. Bo points Chinatown and Melody in the right direction of the bunkhouse. Mike. Mike is an Italian open-hearth worker who helps the brothers learn the ropes around the mill. O'Casey. O'Casey is the diminutive pit boss in charge of the brothers' group at the mill. Zanski. Zanski is an old, Slavic laborer who works with the brothers in the pit and works at the lunch car with his granddaughter, Rosie. He's eventually fired from the mills. Rosie. Rosie is Zanski's granddaughter who waitresses at the lunch car. Later in the novel it is revealed that she also works as a prostitute. Themes. Nature. There is something very timely in Attaway's implicit warning against the industry of the North, as Edward Margolies suggests in his introduction to the 1969 edition of the novel: possibly he [Attaway] saw his worst fears realized in the rapid spread industrial wastelands and the consequent plight of urban Negroes. From one point of view Attaway's feelings about the sanctity of nature now seem almost quaint in an age of cybernetics. The Moss brothers idealize nature, looking back on their homeland of Kentucky with a certain pastoral fondness. Although the nature of the South is idealized, in both the North and the South nature is dying. In the South, Attaway highlights the overworked land, Big Mat's barren wife Hattie, the family’s extreme hunger, and the drudgery of plowing all day with no reward. Likewise, the urban landscape of the North is also painted as dismal and dying. In the North, Attaway shows the defilement of natural landscape, evident "in the pollution of the 'dirty-as-a-catfish-hole river with a beautiful name: the Monongahela," as well as the "'mountains of red ore, yellow limestone, and black coke,' that line the river banks." Attaway's use of "mules" in both the South and North, in different contexts, highlights the Moss brothers' "unfamiliarity of the artifacts of industrial technology" as well as the similarities between the two places." "Mule" refers both to the animal in the South, and the "small engines that hauled steel along the river front" in the Northern mills." The mules, though in the South a part of nature and the pastoral nostalgia felt by the Moss brothers, essentially serve the same function as the mules of the mills; both types of mules perform a mechanized, repetitive task. Stacy I. Morgan argues that Attaway calls attention to the mechanical mules not only to contrast with the animals of sharecropping, but to call attention to the mule's prominence within African American history and folklore. Morgan also claims that Attaway "indirectly evokes America's unfulfilled promises of enfranchisement ('forty acres and a mule') as well as the long-standing identification of African American men with the mule as a creature that stubbornly endures despite being much abused as a beast of burden." Attaway exposes the danger of destroying nature through the voice of the mill worker Smothers, who repeatedly warns his fellow workers of the destructive power of the machines. Though the workers seem to see Smothers' prophecies as merely "half-mad, shrill rants," Claborn argues that "Attaway goes out of his way to invest [Smothers] with a strange dignity and characterize him as a Tiresian speaker of truth. " Smothers sees that destruction of nature "can lead to can lead to industrial accidents, understood as the land avenging itself against humans. " Hunger. Attaway depicts how African American sharecroppers were forcibly deprived of many of life's necessities. In Kentucky, the Moss brothers had to use newspapers attached to the wall in order to provide a bit of insulation, and they are so hungry that they chose to smoke or chew tobacco in an attempt to suppress their appetites. One way that they deal with this hunger is through music, and the novel opens with Melody playing the "hungry blues" on his guitar, which he hopes will distract his family members from their empty stomachs. Metaphorically, the Moss brothers are also "hungry" for other possessions, those that would not satisfy their physical hunger but rather that part of themselves that desired for a comfortable, leisurely life. This hunger is expressed by the brothers through their "wishing game," where Melody and Chinatown fantasize about their ideal day. When the game is played in the South this idyllic day takes place in the city, where the brothers imagine that they are dressed in fine clothes, gamble all day, and eat and drink their favorite things. Once they migrate to the Northern city, this fantasy day takes place back home in the country. They experience this emotional, existential hunger in both locations. Stacy I. Morgan argues that they desire things that remain "ever out of reach," which shows that "the existential dimension of Attaway's hunger metaphor arises precisely out of this perpetually deferred set of desires." North vs South. In an article published by "Negro American Literature Forum", Edward E. Waldron claims that Attaway depicts an intricate examination of the "death of the blues", or the death of folk culture, with the Moss brothers' move from the South to the North. The changes in Melody and Chinatown reflect the overall changes that southern blacks experienced in the Great Migration, as they have to leave their folk ways behind in order to survive their new, "industrially-oriented environment." Stacy I. Morgan also alludes to the ways in which the brothers' mind-set has shifted upon migrating to the North. Their vastly increased income in the North allows them new opportunities and multiple ways to spend their new capital, emphasizing instant gratification " Morgan also notes that the Moss brothers' fear in the train scene, during which their inability to see each other fills each brother with a terrifying sense of isolation, may be Attway's way of highlighting an issue that confronted many who moved during the Great Migration: the "absence of material links to the family, community, and lifeways of former homes, which w[as] frequently demanded by the circumstances of the migration journey northward—a journey that, for many African Americans, did necessarily commence under cover of night. " Morgan asserts that with the absence of these links to their former selves, it was especially difficult for the migrants to retain any former cultural identity in their new homes. Mechanization. Edward E. Waldron claims that "Blood on the Forge" is a story of "man's changing nature in the face of ever-increasing mechanization." Stacy I. Morgan states that the physical injuries experienced in the mills are extreme examples of the larger process going on: the "transforming [of] workers' sense of time and of their own bodies." Phyllis R. Klotman looks at the ways in which the three brothers bodies became tools, a part of machine: "Chinatown is blinded in an accident which eats up the lives of fourteen men; Melody’s hand is smashed so that he is no longer able to play the guitar; Big Mat is killed during the strike which he has become as unwitting tool the bosses wield against the white workers," suggesting that "the three brothers are systematically unmanned by the dehumanizing process of forging steel." One of the tragic outcomes in the novel, according to Klotman, is the loss of continuity in the lives of men who are almost human sacrifices to the industrial Moloch created by an unseen hand grasping for profits. By wearing scraps of the steel that killed Smothers, John Claborn argues that the workers "give the steel a ritual value that escapes the logic of exchange value; these scraps open up a space for resistance, insofar as they signify the workers' communal bonding." With this act, Attaway may signify a "shift in the workers' consciousness," as "the narration itself seems to gain a heightened awareness of the connection between steel and the ground." In addition, Claborn feels that "Smothers is ritually sacrificed for the sake of more direct commentary on steel production as a globally interdependent process." As Attaway wrote, "The nearness of a farmer to his farm was easily understood. But no man was close to steel. It was shipped across endless tracks to all the world." Claborn claims that Big Mat embodies the link between mechanic and racial violence. Once he is deputized, given power by the white law enforcement, and charged to "suppress the white workers," he "relishes the terror he inspires." Claborn notes that, "once the strike begins and the furnaces start to cool down because there are not enough workers to keep them burning, Big Mat single-handedly tries to keep the machines functioning," and claims that this "impossible effort" shows that "Big Mat has himself become a machine." "Only as he dies […] does Big Mat glimpse the reality that, in siding with the mill owners and in becoming a machine, he has become an agent of oppression." Myth of the American Dream and the working class. Attaway's novel depicts how industrial technology dehumanizes working class laborers, alienates workers from the products of their labors, and also highlights how capitalism moved towards mechanized standardization and away from individualized artistry and craftsmanship. The character Anna in particular illustrates another aspect of the American myth, according to Stacy I. Morgan, as Anna dreams of becoming "like the Americanos." However, Morgan writes, Anna attempts to move up in class by wearing shiny heels and an elaborate gown, and thereby "misapprehends the complexity of American class identity by reducing it to material cultural signs." Eventually, her dress becomes filthy from being dragged in the mud, and Anna must wear it "pinned like a diaper between her legs," which Morgan claims illustrates how that "the icon intended as a symbol of maturity and class status" becomes a symbol of "Anna's childishness." In addition, Morgan notes that Anna is "tragically pathetic," forbidden by Big Mat to go out in public, the space "for which such ostentatious apparel is designed." Critical reception. Attaway's novels were not a major attraction to critics at their time of publication. Although Attaway's novels were received well, they have not been as critically acclaimed as other novels written during the 1940s, including "The Grapes of Wrath" (Steinbeck, 1939) and "Native Son" (Wright, 1941) which have both maintained an exceptional reputation for radical novels written during the Great Depression. Attaway did not continue writing novels after "Blood on the Forge", but instead went on to successfully write and produce songs, music and screenplays.

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Shirley (novel) Shirley, A Tale is a social novel by the English novelist Charlotte Brontë, first published in 1849. It was Brontë's second published novel after "Jane Eyre" (originally published under Brontë's pseudonym Currer Bell). The novel is set in Yorkshire in 1811–12, during the industrial depression resulting from the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The novel is set against the backdrop of the Luddite uprisings in the Yorkshire textile industry. The novel's popularity led to Shirley's becoming a woman's name. The title character was given the name that her father had intended to give a son. Before the publication of the novel Shirley was an uncommon but distinctly male name. Today it is regarded as a distinctly female name. Background. While Charlotte Brontë was writing "Shirley" three of her siblings died. Her brother Branwell died in September 1848, and her sister Emily fell ill and died in December. Brontë resumed writing, but then her only remaining sibling, her sister Anne, became ill and died in May 1849. Some critics believe that the character of Caroline Helstone was loosely based on Anne and it has been speculated that Brontë originally planned to let Caroline die but changed her mind because of her family tragedies. However, Ellen Nussey, Charlotte's lifelong friend, claimed that the character of Caroline was based on herself. Charlotte Brontë told Elizabeth Gaskell that Shirley is what she believed her sister, Emily Brontë, would have been if she had been born into a wealthy family. Again, Ellen Nussey, who knew Emily as well as anyone outside the family, did not recognise Emily in Shirley. The maiden name of Mrs Pryor is Agnes Grey, the name of the main character in Anne's first novel. She was based on Margaret Wooler, the principal of Roe Head School, which Brontë attended as both student and teacher. Locations. The novel is set in and around the Spen Valley in what is now called West Yorkshire (then the West Riding of Yorkshire). This area is now known as "Shirley country" to some locals. Briarmains, a house mentioned in the novel, is based on the Red House in Gomersal, where Mary Taylor, a friend of Charlotte, lived. The house is now open as a museum. Fieldhead, another house in the novel, is based on the Elizabethan manor house Oakwell Hall, which is also now a museum. The attack on Robert Moore's mill was based on the Luddite attack on Cartwright's Mill at Rawfolds, Liversedge, though it is believed that Charlotte also took some inspiration from Taylor's Mill at Hunsworth. Charlotte's father Patrick Bronte had lived in the Hightown area of Liversedge for a while, and Charlotte knew the area well. Plot. Robert Moore is a mill owner noted for apparent ruthlessness towards his employees. He has laid off many of them, and is apparently indifferent to their consequent impoverishment. In fact he had no choice, since the mill is deeply in debt. He is determined to restore his family's honour and fortune. As the novel opens Robert awaits delivery of new labour-saving machinery for the mill, which will enable him to lay off additional employees. Together with some friends he watches all night, but the machinery is destroyed by "frame-breakers" on the way to the mill. Robert's business difficulties continue, due in part to continuing labour unrest, but even more to the Napoleonic Wars and the accompanying Orders in Council, which forbid British merchants from trading in American markets. Robert is very close to his cousin Caroline Helstone, who comes to his house to be taught French by his sister, Hortense. Caroline worships Robert. Caroline's father is dead and her mother has abandoned her, leaving her to be brought up by her uncle, Rev. Helstone. To keep himself from falling in love with her Robert keeps his distance, since he cannot afford to marry for pleasure or for love. Caroline realises that Robert is growing increasingly distant and withdraws into herself. Her uncle does not sympathise with her "fancies". She has no money of her own, so she cannot leave, which is what she longs to do. She suggests that she might take up the role of governess, but her uncle dismisses the idea and assures her that she need not work for a living. Caroline recovers somewhat when she meets Shirley, an independent heiress whose parents are dead and who lives with Mrs Pryor, her former governess. Shirley is lively, cheerful, full of ideas about how to use her money and how to help people, and very interested in business. Caroline and Shirley soon become close friends. Caroline becomes convinced that Shirley and Robert will marry. Shirley likes Robert, is very interested in his work, and is concerned about him and the threats he receives from laid-off millworkers. Both good and bad former employees are depicted. Some passages show the real suffering of those who were honest workers and can no longer find good employment; other passages show how some people use losing their jobs as an excuse to get drunk, fight with their previous employers, and incite other people to violence. Shirley uses her money to help the poorest, but she is also motivated by the desire to prevent any attack on Robert. One night Rev. Helstone asks Shirley to stay with Caroline while he is away. Caroline and Shirley realise that an attack on the mill is imminent. They hear the dog barking and realise that a group of rioters has come to a halt outside the rectory. They overhear the rioters talking about entering the house, but are relieved when they decide to go on. The women go to the mill together to warn Robert, but they are too late. They witness the ensuing battle from their hiding place. The whole neighbourhood becomes convinced that Robert and Shirley will marry. The anticipation of this event causes Caroline to fall ill. Mrs Pryor comes to look after her and learns the cause of Caroline's sorrow. She continues her vigil even as Caroline worsens daily. Mrs Pryor then reveals to Caroline that she is Caroline's mother. She had abandoned her because Caroline looked exactly like her father, the husband who tortured Mrs Pryor and made her life miserable. She had little money, so when her brother-in-law offered to bring up the child, she accepted the offer, took up the name of Pryor and went off to become a governess. Caroline now has a reason to live, since she knows that she can go and live with her mother, and begins to recover. Shirley's uncle and aunt come to visit her. They bring with them their daughters, their son, and their son's tutor, Louis Moore. He is Robert's younger brother and taught Shirley when she was younger. Caroline is puzzled by Shirley's haughty and formal behaviour towards Louis. Two men fall in love with Shirley and woo her, but she rejects both of them because she does not love them. The relationship between Shirley and Louis, meanwhile, remains ambivalent. There are days when Louis can ask Shirley to come to the schoolroom and recite the French pieces she learned from him when she was younger. On other days Shirley ignores Louis. However, when Shirley is upset the only person she can confide in is Louis. After a supposedly mad dog bites Shirley and makes her think that she is to die early no one except Louis can make her reveal her fears. Robert returns one dark night, first stopping at the market and then returning to his home with a friend. The friend asks him why he left when it seemed so certain that Shirley loved him and would have married him. Robert replies that he had assumed the same, and that he had proposed to Shirley before he left. Shirley had at first laughed, thinking that he was not serious, and then cried when she discovered that he was. She had told him that she knew that he did not love her, and that he asked for her hand, not for her sake, but for her money. Robert had walked away filled with a sense of humiliation, even as he knew that she was right. This self-disgust had driven Robert away to London, where he realised that restoring the family name was not as important as maintaining his self-respect. He had returned home determined to close the mill if he had to, and go away to Canada to make his fortune. Just as Robert finishes his narration his friend hears a gunshot and Robert falls from his horse. The friend takes Robert to his own home and looks after him. After a turn for the worse Robert slowly gets better. A visit from Caroline revives him, but she has to come secretly, hiding from her uncle and his friend and his family. Robert soon moves back to his own home and persuades his sister that the very thing their house needs to cheer it up is a visit from Caroline. Robert asks for Caroline's forgiveness. Louis proposes to Shirley, despite the difference in their relative situations, and Shirley agrees to marry him. At first Caroline is to be Shirley's bridesmaid, but Robert proposes to her and she accepts. The novel ends with Caroline marrying Robert and Shirley marrying Louis. Style. Unlike "Jane Eyre", which is written in the first person and narrated by the title character, "Shirley" is narrated by an omniscient but unnamed third-person narrator. For her third novel "Villette", Brontë returned to first-person narration. Adaptations. The novel has been filmed only once, in 1922. The silent adaptation was done by A. V. Bramble and Carlotta Breese starred as the title character. In March 2014 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a ten-episode dramatisation by Rachel Joyce in the station's "15 Minute Drama" slot. Narrated by Lesley Sharp, the series starred Joanne Froggatt as Caroline and Jemima Rooper as Shirley. Critical reception. Coming soon after "Jane Eyre", which was extremely successful, "Shirley" originally received a muted reception from critics. Characters. The four central characters are studies in contrast: the two friends Caroline Helstone and Shirley Keeldar, and their lovers, the brothers Robert and Louis Gérard Moore. Other characters in the novel include:

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The Game and Playe of the Chesse The Game and Playe of Chesse is a book by William Caxton, the first English printer. Published in the 1470s, it was for a time thought to be the first book published in English, but that title now goes to "Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye", also by Caxton. It was based on a book by Jacobus de Cessolis. The book is an "allegory of fixed social structures where each rank has its allotted role."

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The Political Machine (series) The Political Machine is a government simulation game series from Stardock, in which the player leads a campaign to elect the President of the United States. The player accomplishes this goal by traveling from state to state and engaging in a variety of activities to either raise money or raise poll numbers. Games. "The Political Machine". "The Political Machine" is the first game in the series. "The Political Machine 2008". "The Political Machine 2008" is the second game in the series. "The Political Machine Express 2008". "The Political Machine Express 2008" is the third game in the series and was free to download upon release. "The Political Machine 2012". "The Political Machine 2012" is the fourth game in the series. "The Political Machine 2016". "The Political Machine 2016" is the fifth game in the series. "The Political Machine 2020". "The Political Machine 2020" is the sixth game in the series. Candidates and characters. 21 Presidents of the United States and 69 other candidates have appeared as playable throughout the series, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, George Bush, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Paul Ryan, Jim Webb, and Jill Stein. Candidates are added and removed as candidates announce themselves and as Stardock chooses. Aside from candidates, the player can be invited onto cable news shows parodying real life equivalents. Such parodies have included takes on "The Colbert Report", "The O'Reilly Factor", "Good Morning America", "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", "Tucker Carlson Tonight", and "The Ben Shapiro Show".

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Serious game A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. The "serious" adjective is generally prepended to refer to video games used by industries like defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, and politics. Serious games are a subgenre of serious storytelling, where storytelling is applied "outside the context of entertainment, where the narration progresses as a sequence of patterns impressive in quality ... and is part of a thoughtful progress". The idea shares aspects with simulation generally, including flight simulation and medical simulation, but explicitly emphasizes the added pedagogical value of fun and competition. History. The use of games in educational circles has been practiced since at least the twentieth century. Use of paper-based educational games became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, but waned under the Back to Basics teaching movement. (The Back to Basics teaching movement is a change in teaching style that started in the 1970s when students were scoring poorly on standardized tests and exploring too many electives. This movement wanted to focus students on reading, writing and arithmetic and intensify the curriculum.) Clark C. Abt is credited for coining the term "serious game" in the 1970s, defined as "games have an explicit and carefully thought-out educational purpose and are not intended to be played primarily for amusement." Abt also recognized that this "does not mean that serious games are not, or should not be, entertaining." The early 2000s saw a surge in different types of educational games, especially those designed for the younger learner. Many of these games were not computer-based but took on the model of other traditional gaming systems both in the console and hand-held formats. In 1999, LeapFrog Enterprises introduced the LeapPad, which combined an interactive book with a cartridge and allowed kids to play games and interact with a paper-based book. Based on the popularity of traditional hand-held gaming systems like Nintendo's Game Boy, they also introduced their hand-held gaming system called the Leapster in 2003. This system was cartridge-based and integrated arcade–style games with educational content. Also in the 2000s, educational games saw an expanse into sustainable development with titles such as Learning Sustainable Development in 2000 and Climate Challenge in 2006. Other directions for serious video games beyond education began to emerge in the early 2000s, with "America's Army" in 2002 as an early example. The game was a first-person shooter developed by the United States Army as a recruitment tool, and later used as an early training tool for new recruits. By 2010, serious games had evolved to incorporate actual economies like "Second Life", in which users can create actual businesses that provide virtual commodities and services for Linden dollars, which are exchangeable for US currency. In 2015, Project Discovery was launched as a serious game. Project Discovery was launched as a vehicle by which geneticists and astronomers with the University of Geneva could access the cataloging efforts of the gaming public via a mini-game contained within the "Eve Online" massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). Players acting as citizen scientists categorize and assess actual genetic samples or astronomical data. This data was then utilized and warehoused by researchers. Any data flagged as atypical was further investigated by scientists. Applications. Health. On the one hand, the health sector includes digital games for the professional area of doctor training, e.g. to train an operation or to impart specialist knowledge, and on the other hand they address the private end user who uses them, for example, as motivation tools for a healthier lifestyle, nutrition or for rehabilitation purposes. In addition, Serious Games can be used as a training measure for patients who acquire knowledge about their clinical pictures and possible therapy options. There is also an increasing use of serious games in health education programs. On 15 June 2020, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first video game treatment, a game for children aged 8–12 with certain types of ADHD called "EndeavorRx". It can be downloaded with a prescription onto a mobile device, and is intended for use in tandem with other treatments. Patients play it for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, over a month-long treatment plan. Exercise therapy. These include serious games that animate the player to sport and movement. For example, hand-eye coordination and upper body muscles can be trained using "Wii Sports", regardless of age and physical disabilities, alone or with others. Even simple Jump-'n'-Run games can have an educational purpose, depending on the user. They are partly used in rehabilitation therapies to restore the user's finger mobility, reaction speed and eye-finger coordination. Politics, culture and advertising. Persuasive games are developed for advertisers, policy makers, news organizations and cultural institutions. They are politically and socially motivated games that serve social communication. They cover areas such as politics, religion, environment, urban planning and tourism. The aim is to lead to create a demand for product due to a generated positive exposure to the product in the game or introduce new ways of thinking through experience. Security. Serious games in the field of security are aimed at disaster control, the defense sector and recruitment. Public, private and municipal institutions, such as fire brigades, police, Federal Agency for Technical Relief (Technisches Hilfswerk - Germany THW), DRK as well as crisis centres and NGOs benefit from them. Scenarios such as natural disasters, acts of terrorism, danger prevention and emergency care are simulated. Challenges such as acting under time and pressure to succeed can thus be realistically tested with fewer resources and costs. This area formed the second focal point. An example of serious games from this sector is the "Emergency" game series or the possibility to explore the response of communities in a game in disaster management. Psychological effect that exist in real life-threatening situation are not realistic in a serious game but the training in a serious game and exposure to the requirements and constraints in disaster management can prepare to a better response of the teams in a real disaster management case and lead to an improved risk mitigation strategies. Military games. Games like America's Army are training simulations that are used in the training and recruitment of soldiers. The games try to represent warfare as realistically as possible in order to familiarize users with the dangers, strategies, weapons, tactics and vehicles. Recruitment games. This type of serious games is intended to bring the user closer to tasks that would otherwise be less in the limelight. Companies try to present and profile themselves through such games in order to attract apprentices and applicants. Future tasks will be presented and carried out in a large context, for example "TechForce", in which various technical areas are combined into an end product with the aim of winning a race. Product creation games. The aim here is to give the user an understanding of a company's products. The user can test the products in a simulation under real conditions and convince himself of their functionality. Technical basics, handling and security risks can be taught to the user. Adult education. Real simulations and simulation games provide the user with the opportunity to gain experience. Actions generated from knowledge can be tested here according to the trial and error principle. Theoretical knowledge can either be acquired beforehand or imparted during the game, which can then be tested in a virtual practice. There is an educational policy interest in the professionalisation of such offers. With the research project NetEnquiry, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research supports a corresponding research project for education and training, implemented here with the focus on mobile learning. In addition, there is an increasing incorporation of serious games within university curricula which students can use to consolidate learning or enhance knowledge. Youth education. The user is given tasks and missions that they can only solve with the knowledge that they will gradually discover during the game. The theoretical aspects of the game are always taught in small quantities at the right time to be able to solve the next task and thus test the theoretical approaches in practice. Art Games. An "art game" uses the medium of computer games to create interactive and multimedia art. For the first time, the term was described scientifically in 2002 to emphasize games that attach more importance to art than to game mechanics. Mostly they convince by a special aesthetics and atmosphere and use the interactivity for creativity and the thought stimulation of the player. Art created by or through computer games is also called Art Game.

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Disco Elysium Disco Elysium is a role-playing video game developed and published by ZA/UM. The game takes place in a large city still recovering from a war decades prior to the game's start, with players taking the role of an amnesic detective who has been charged with solving a murder mystery. During the investigation, he comes to recall events about his own past as well as current forces trying to affect the city. Inspired by Infinity Engine–era role-playing games, particularly "", "Disco Elysium" was written and designed by Karelian-Estonian novelist Robert Kurvitz. It features a distinctive oil painting art style, and music by the band British Sea Power. It was released for Microsoft Windows in October 2019 and macOS in April 2020. An expanded version of the game, subtitled "The Final Cut", featuring full voice acting and new content, was released for consoles in 2021 alongside a free update for the PC versions. "Disco Elysium" is a non-traditional role-playing game featuring no combat. Instead, events are resolved through skill checks and dialog trees via a system of 24 skills that represent different aspects of the protagonist, such as his perception and pain threshold. In addition, a system called the Thought Cabinet represents his other ideologies and personality traits, with players having the ability to freely support or suppress them. The game is based on a tabletop role-playing game setting that Kurvitz had previously created, with him forming ZA/UM in 2016 to work on the game. "Disco Elysium" was critically acclaimed, with it being named as a game of the year by several publications along with numerous other awards for its narrative and art. A television series adaptation was announced in 2020. Gameplay. "Disco Elysium" is a role-playing video game that features an open world and dialogue-heavy gameplay mechanics. The game is presented in an isometric perspective in which the player character is controlled. The player takes the role of a detective, who suffers from alcohol and drug-induced amnesia, on a murder case. The player can move the detective about the current screen to interact with non-player characters (NPC) and highlighted objects or move onto other screens. Early in the game they gain a partner, Kim Kitsuragi, another detective who acts as the protagonist's voice of professionalism and who may be able to offer advice or support in certain dialog options. Other NPCs may be influenced to become temporary companions that join the group and provide similar support. The gameplay features no combat in the traditional sense; instead, it is handled through skill checks and dialogue trees. There are four primary abilities in the game: Intellect, Psyche, Physique, and Motorics, and each ability has six distinct secondary skills for a total of 24. The player improves these skills through skill points earned from leveling up. The choice of clothing that the player equips on the player-character can impart both positive and negative effects on certain skills. Upgrading these skills help the player character pass skill checks, made based on a random dice roll, but could also potentially result in negative effects and character quirks. For instance, a player character with high Drama may be able to detect and fabricate lies effectively, but may also become prone to hysterics and paranoia. Likewise, high Electrochemistry shields the player character from the negative effects of drugs and provides knowledge on them, but may also lead to substance abuse and other self-destructive behaviors. "Disco Elysium" features a secondary inventory system known as the "Thought Cabinet". Thoughts are unlockable through conversations with other characters, as well as through internal dialogues within the mind of the player character himself. The player is then able to "internalize" a thought through a certain amount of in-game hours, which, once completed, grants the player character permanent benefits but also occasionally negative effects, a concept that ZA/UM compared to the trait system used in the "Fallout" series. A limited number of slots are available in the Thought Cabinet at the start, though more can be gained with experience levels. For example, an early possible option for the Thought Cabinet is the "Hobocop" thought, which the character ponders the option of living on the streets to save money, which reduces the character's composure with other NPCs while the thought is internalized. When the character has completed the Hobocop thought, it then allows them to find more junk on the streets that can be sold for money. The 24 skills also play into the dialogue trees, creating a situation where the player-character may have an internal debate with one aspect of their mind or body, creating the idea that the player is communicating with a fragmented persona. These internal conversations may provide suggestions or additional insight that can guide the player into actions or dialogue with the game's non-playable characters, depending on the skill points invested into the skill. For example, the Inland Empire, a subskill of the Psyche, is described by ZA/UM as a representation of the intensity of the soul, and may come into situations where the player-character may need to pass themselves off under a fake identity with the conviction behind that stance, should the player accept this suggestion when debating with Inland Empire. Synopsis. Setting. "Disco Elysium" takes place in the fantastic realism world of Elysium that had been developed by Kurvitz and his team in the years prior, which includes a fleshed-out six-thousand-year history of conflicts, with the game taking place during the setting's most modern period known as "The Fifties". Elysium is made of landmasses known as isolas that are separated by the Pale, a mysterious connective tissue in which the laws of reality begin to break down. Prolonged exposure to the Pale can cause mental instability, and traversing the Pale is considered highly dangerous. Nations and people within "Disco Elysium" follow four main ideologies: communism, fascism, moralism, and ultraliberalism. The setting's political and cultural history is also markedly different. The philosophy of communism was founded by an economist and a historical materialist named Kras Mazov, and rather than being associated with the color red and symbols like hammer and sickle, the ideology is instead represented by the color white and symbolised by deer antlers surrounding a pentagram. Moralism, meanwhile, despite being a centrist ideology, carries religious overtones due to its association with Elysium's largest religion, Dolorianism. One of Dolorianism's dominant features is its "Innocences", saint-like figures who wielded great religious and political power during their lives, akin to the position of pope. The greatest and most influential among the historical Innocences is Dolores Dei, a woman of mysterious origins, who allegedly had glowing lungs and founded many of the world's modern institutions. Due to Dolores Dei's influence, the symbol of love in "Disco Elysium" world is a set of lungs rather than a heart. Events in the game take place in the fictional city of Revachol on the isola of Insulinde, specifically in Martinaise, a district plagued by poverty, crime, and corruption. Five decades before the start of the game, a communist revolution took place in Revachol and successfully overthrew the old monarchy that controlled the city. A commune was formed afterwards, but it was soon toppled by an invasion of an alliance of capitalist nations calling themselves "the Coalition". Revachol has since been designated a Special Administrative Region under the Coalition, which holds a strong grip over the city's local economy and keeps its autonomy at a minimum. One of the few governmental functions that Revachol is allowed to handle itself is upholding day to day law and order, which is the task of the Revachol Citizens Militia (RCM). While starting as a voluntary citizens brigade, the RCM has since grown and evolved into a semi-professional police force. Plot. The player character wakes up in a trashed cafeteria motel room with a severe hangover and no memory of his own identity. He is greeted by Lieutenant Kim Kitsuragi, who informs him that they have been assigned to investigate the death of a hanged man in the cafeteria's backyard. His identity is unclear and initial investigation indicates that he was lynched by a group of people. The detectives set out to explore the rest of the district, following up on leads while investigating smaller cases, helping residents with a variety of tasks. These tasks allow the player to begin to fill in gaps in the detective's identity, revealing him to be Lieutenant Double-Yefreitor Harrier "Harry" Du Bois. A decorated RCM detective, Harry experienced an event several years ago that began a mid-life crisis, culminating in a self-destructive bender around Martinaise in which he dismissed the rest of his squad. Through their work, they discover the killing appears to be connected to an ongoing strike by the Martinaise's dockworkers union against the Wild Pines corporation. They seek out representatives of the dockworkers and the Wild Pines corporation, meeting up with union boss Evrart Claire and Wild Pines negotiator Joyce Messier. Joyce reveals to the detectives that the hanged man, named Lely, was the commander of a squad of mercenaries sent by Wild Pines to break the strike and warns that the rest of the squad has gone rogue and will likely seek retribution. This leads them to discover that Lely was killed before the hanging. The Hardie Boys, a group of dockworkers who act as vigilantes in Martinaise, claim responsibility for the murder. They assert that Lely attempted to rape a cafeteria guest by the name of Klaasje. They meet with Klaasje, who reveals that Lely was shot in the mouth while the two were having sex. Unable to figure out the origin of the bullet and fearful of the authorities due to her past as a corporate spy, Klaasje enlisted the help of a truck driver and union sympathizer named Ruby, who with the rest of the Hardie Boys staged Lely's death. The detectives find Ruby hiding within an abandoned building, where she incapacitates them with a Pale device. She claims that the cover-up was Klaasje's idea and has no idea who shot Lely. The player manages to resist or disable the Pale device and tries to arrest her. Ruby, who believes Harry to be a corrupt cop, either escapes or kills herself. The detectives return to find themselves in a standoff between the mercenaries and the Hardie Boys, the former seeking revenge over Lely's death. A firefight breaks out and the player is wounded, blacking out and waking up a few days later. Most or all the mercenaries are killed and Kim may be hospitalized, in which case street urchin Cuno offers to take his place. The detectives begin chasing down their last leads, determining that the shot that killed Lely came from an old sea fort just off the shore of Martinaise. The detectives explore the fort and find the shooter, a former Commissar from the Revachol communist army named Iosef Lilianovich Dros. Iosef reveals that he shot Lely in a fit of anger and jealousy; his motivations are born out of his bitterness towards the capitalist system Lely represented, as well as sexual envy for Klaasje. The detectives arrest him for the murder. At this point, an insectoid cryptid known as the Insulindian Phasmid appears from the reeds. The player may have a psychic conversation with the Phasmid, who tells Harry that it finds the notion of his unstable mind to be fearful, but is in awe at his ability to continue existing day after day. It comforts Harry, telling him to move on from the wreck of his life. Harry and his partner are confronted by his old squad upon their return to Martinaise. They reflect on Harry's actions during the game, whether he has solved the case and how he handled the mercenaries. Harry's usual partner Lieutenant Jean Vicquemare confirms that Harry's emotional breakdown was the result of his ex-fiancé leaving him years ago. Depending on player choices, the squad expresses hope that Harry's state will improve in the future, and invites him and either Kim or Cuno to a special RCM unit. Development. "Disco Elysium" was developed by ZA/UM, a company founded in 2016 by Karelian-Estonian novelist Robert Kurvitz, who served as the game's lead writer and designer. Kurvitz since 2001 had been part of a band called Ultramelanhool, and in 2005, while in Tallinn, Estonia, with the group struggling for finances, conceived of a fictional world during a drunken evening while listening to Tiësto's "Adagio for Strings". Feeling this had a solid idea, the group created a collective of artists and musicians, which included oil painter Aleksander Rostov, to expand upon the work of that night and developed a tabletop RPG based on "Dungeons & Dragons" on this steampunk-like concept. During this period, Kurvitz met Estonian author Kaur Kender who helped him to write a novel set in this world, "Sacred and Terrible Air", which was published in 2013 but only sold about one thousand copies. Kurvitz fell into a period of depression and alcoholism for about three years following the book's failing. Kurvitz eventually managed to overcome this period of alcoholism and helped Kender to also overcome his own alcoholism. As a sign of gratitude, Kender suggested to Kurvitz that instead of pursuing a novel, that he try capturing his world as a video game instead as to draw a larger interest. Kurvitz had no experience in video games before, but once he had seen artwork of the game's setting of Revachol as easily fitting into an isometric format, as well as Rostov's agreement that they might as well continue taking the risk of failing on a video game together, Kurvitz proceeded with the idea. Kurvitz wrote a concise description of what the game would be: "D&D meets '70s cop-show, in an original 'fantastic realist' setting, with swords, guns and motor-cars. Realised as an isometric CRPG – a modern advancement on the legendary Planescape: Torment and Baldur's Gate. Massive, reactive story. Exploring a vast, poverty-stricken ghetto. Deep, strategic combat." Kender was impressed by the strong statement, investing into the game's development, with additional investment coming from friends and family. The game was announced as an upcoming 2017 game under the title "No Truce With the Furies", taken from the poem "Reflections" by R.S. Thomas and published in Thomas' "No Truce with the Furies" in 1995. Kurvitz established the ZA/UM team to create the game, using the name "za um", a reference to the Zaum constructed language created by Russian avant-garde poets in the early 1900's. Its name can be read in Russian as either "for the mind" or "from the mind", while the use of all-capitals and the slash to present the team as "something that definitely exists and weighs eight tonnes". Work on the game started around 2016, with the local team working out of a squat in a former gallery in Tallinn. They were able to secure venture capital into the game during that first year which allowed Kurvitz to seek out the band British Sea Power for their music for the game's soundtrack. While in Birmingham to speak to the band, Kurvitz realised England was a better location for the main development team as there were more local resources for both development and for voice-overs. During development, some of the staff relocated from Estonia to London and Brighton, with other designers working out of Poland, Romania, and China. Overall, by the time of the game's release, ZA/UM had about 20 outside consultants and 35 in-house developers, with a team of eight writers assisting Kurvitz in the game's dialog. The majority of the game's funding was provided by Estonian businessman . As originally planned, the game was to focus on action in a single city location to make the 2017 release. However, as ZA/UM had indicated to investors that this was to be a game that spanned a larger world, they found the need to spread beyond that single location, forcing them to delay the game's release, along with the name change to "Disco Elysium". This title plays on a few double meanings related to the word "disco"; in one sense, it refers to ideas that briefly gain the spotlight before burning out similar to the fad of disco music, and reflected in the protagonist's clothing style, while in a more literal sense, "disco" is Latin for "I learn", thus reflecting on the protagonist's overcoming his amnesia to learn about the world of Elysium. Kurvitz had always anticipated the "No Truce" title to be more of a working title and wanted to reserve it for when they had bundled "Disco Elysium" with a second planned game. Though ZA/UM had initially planned to publish the game through Humble Bundle, they ultimately chose to self-publish it. Design and influences. The game's art, drawn mostly in a painterly style, was led by Aleksander Rostov, while the game's soundtrack was written by the English indie rock band British Sea Power. The voice-acting cast includes progressive metal musicians Mikee Goodman of SikTh and Mark Holcomb of Periphery, Dasha Nekrasova of the cultural commentary podcast "Red Scare", and some of the hosts from the podcast "Chapo Trap House". ZA/UM cited several works that influenced the writing and style of "Disco Elysium". One of the game's major influences include the 1999 video game "", as the player-character in both games starts off in an amnesic state, as well as its heavy emphasis on dialogue. The television show "The Wire" was also used as an influence for the game's working class setting, while Émile Zola's writings shared stories on the misery of human life that narrative writer Helen Hindpere said they felt resonated within the game. Other works that influenced "Disco Elysium" included: the video game "Kentucky Route Zero"; television shows "True Detective" and "The Shield"; the literary works of Dashiell Hammett, China Miéville, and the Strugatsky brothers; and artists Rembrandt, Ilya Repin, Jenny Saville, Alex Kanevsky, and Wassily Kandinsky. Release. "Disco Elysium" was released for Microsoft Windows on 15 October 2019. The macOS version was released on 27 April 2020. One of the first languages that ZA/UM had translated the game for was Chinese, which was released in March 2020. Its release had bypassed the typical approval process needed to release games in China as the virtue of its content, which included themes of communism, did not meet the Chinese governmental typical restrictions on content. After its release, reviews left by Chinese players had stated that they were drawn to the game as it reflected similar periods of communism that they had gone through. In May 2020, ZA/UM released an update that improved some of the game's performance on lower-end hardware, as well as adding support for additional language translations, which are being developed by the community and by the localization firm Testronic Labs. After its original release, Kurvitz announced plans for an expansion for the game as well a full sequel. In addition, a tabletop RPG based on the systems the game used, tentatively titled "You Are Vapor", was also announced, with Kurvitz also announcing plans to translate his novel "Sacred and Terrible Air" in English, which narratively takes place 20 years after the events of "Disco Elysium". ZA/UM launched a limited edition clothing line, Atelier, in March 2021, featuring pieces based on the game. "The Final Cut". An expanded edition of the game, subtitled "The Final Cut", was announced in December 2020. According to lead writer Helen Hindpere, "The Final Cut" was directed based on input from players of the original game. It included complete voicework for the nearly 300 characters including the game's narration and the player-character skills, encompassing over 1.2 million words according to Hindpere. Because of the importance of the characters to the game, ZA/UM kept voice directing in-house rather than outsourcing the task as typically done with RPG games of this nature. It took about fourteen months to complete the global casting and recording processing for the additional voice overs. While they brought back some of the prior voice actors who had read introductory dialog lines in conversation trees for their respective characters, ZA/UM sought out new voice actors they felt were a better fit for many roles, especially for minor characters. They came upon jazz musician Lenval Brown for the voice of the narrator and of the player skills, representing nearly half of the game's dialog, and considered him essential to "The Final Cut". Brown spent about eight months with the vocal directors in recording his lines, keeping his voice otherwise constant, slow and meticulous for all of the different characters skills since these were explaining things to the player, but including small nuances to try to distinguish the various facets of each skill's personality. "The Final Cut" allows players the option to use a selection of voice acting for the game, such as only having the narrator's voiceover while the other characters presented as text. There are four quests that were cut from the original game but reworked to explore some of the political implications of the game's story, now called Political Vision Quests. These quests were designed to encourage the player to consider how they have developed their player-character and where their decisions have taken the character, and how committed they are to seeing that out, according to Hindpere. Additionally, the expansion includes new art and animations, including two additional songs from British Sea Power. "The Final Cut", was released on 30 March 2021 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Stadia, and as a free update for existing copies of the game on PC. It will also be released for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch later in 2021. While the original game was not submitted for rating for the Australian Classification Board as it was only released digitally for personal computers, the planned console release of "The Final Cut" required a Board review. The game was refused classification by the Board, making it illegal to sell in the country, due to its depiction of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, and violence, as well as showing "revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency, and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults"; the ban was appealed by ZA/UM, and the game was subsequently dropped to an adults-only R18+ rating, as the Board acknowledged that the game "does provide disincentives related to drug-taking behavior, to the point where regular drug use leads to negative consequences for the player's progression in the game", and reclassified the title as R 18+, allowing it to be sold. Reception. "Disco Elysium" received "universal acclaim" according to review aggregator Metacritic, with it being praised for its narrative and conversational systems. "PC Gamer" praised the game for its depth, freedom, customization, and storytelling and called it one of the best RPGs on the PC. "IGN" praised the game's open world and compared it favorably to "The Witcher 3" and "Red Dead Redemption 2", despite being much smaller. "The Washington Post" said that the game is "conspicuously well written". "GameSpot" awarded it a 10 out of 10, their first perfect score since 2017. "PCGamesN" wrote that the game set new genre standards for exploration and conversation systems. Conversely, "Eurogamer" criticized the game for not offering enough choice in role-playing and for a distinct lack of focus. The game was nominated for four awards at The Game Awards 2019 and won all of them, the most at the event. "Slant Magazine", "USGamer", "PC Gamer", and "Zero Punctuation" chose it as their game of the year, while "Time" included it as one of their top 10 games of the 2010s. The game was also nominated for the 2020 Nebula Award for Best Game Writing. "The Final Cut" was re-reviewed by "IGN" and "Game Informer", both which praised the addition of voice lines and new quests. The PlayStation releases were initially found to have game-breaking bugs that made some of the quests impossible to finish. In June 2020, ZA/UM and dj2 Entertainment announced that a television series based on the game was under development.

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Shattered Union Shattered Union is a turn-based tactics video game developed by PopTop Software and published by 2K Games in October 2005. Plot. In 2008, David Jefferson Adams becomes the 44th President of the United States following a disputed election and a tie vote in the Electoral College (and subsequent tie-breaker by the United States House of Representatives), becoming the most hated and unpopular president in U.S. history. A combination of foreign terrorist attacks and poor economic conditions contributes to civil unrest. As a result, rioting springs up all throughout the United States, resulting in domestic terrorism. In response, President Adams uses the Homeland Security Act and declares martial law on many areas of the country, but it is particularly concentrated on the West Coast. Four years later, during the 2012 U.S. Presidential Election, the Supreme Court of the United States disqualifies all the popular presidential candidates from several states, effectively handing Adams his reelection. The public reacts violently when incumbent Adams accepts a second term. During the Inauguration Ball in Washington, D.C. on the night of January 20, 2013, a low-yield tactical nuclear weapon is detonated in an apparent groundburst, presumably having been concealed there in advance. The yield is sufficient to destroy most of the city, killing Adams, his cabinet, and most of the U.S. Congress, effectively wiping out the presidential line of succession and thrusting the United States into total chaos. The European Union Parliament meets in an emergency session, and votes to send peacekeepers to the Washington Metropolitan Area to secure international interests and protection of European citizens in the United States. As secessionist sentiment rises in America, the governor of California declares home rule, and California secedes from the Union on April 15, 2013. Texas follows a few days later, on April 17, 2013, taking neighboring states with it and re-forming the Republic of Texas. Other factions form in the following months, and by 2014, all hopes for a peaceful resolution are gone, and the Second American Civil War begins. Early in the war, Russia invades and occupies Alaska, using the expanded operations of the European Union as an excuse. The invasion is personally led by President Nicholai Vladekov, an ex-general and former Soviet hardliner, who claims that Alaska was never really part of the United States and that Russia is merely reclaiming its former territory. What little resistance does occur is confused and disorganized, making the invasion largely unopposed. Later, Interpol reveals the results of its investigation regarding the Inauguration Day bombing. President Vladekov had been dealing weapons on the black market for more than thirty years and masterminded the D.C. bombing as part of his goal to disrupt the world economy so that Russia could regain its military dominance, and more easily control Europe. Protests throughout Russia force Vladekov to declare martial law in Moscow. After the former contiguous United States is unified under one faction, the independent Commonwealth of Hawaii agrees to join the new government. Vladekov refuses to cede control of Alaska, so the faction's forces prepare to invade the state and drive the Russians out of North America. A closing cinematic depicts the aftermath of the war. If the invasion fails, the reunified U.S. is still suffering unrest and faces an uncertain future. If the invasion succeeds and the player faction's reputation is very good, the troubled American states are "united again under uncommon greatness" – a leader whose merciful acts and strategic and tactical brilliance will be spoken of for centuries to come. If the player faction's reputation is very bad, the U.S. transforms into a new fascist state, "one that will never again feel the sting of dissent". Factions. The factions in the game include the entirety or portions of the following states: Gameplay. The game is based on a hex grid system. The various factions left over when the country broke apart (see below) wage warfare in numerous territories. The amount of income the player gets each round of attacks is based on how many territories he controls. When attacking a territory, the player selects which of his units to deploy to that area on the Deployment screen. If a unit is deployed to one area, it cannot be redeployed to another until that round of attacks is over. Each side can choose to either manually place their units on the battlefield where they want them to be, or have the computer do it for them automatically, with the Manual and Auto buttons on the deployment screen. In each area there are various forms of terrain, each with its own effect on how a unit moves. Roads enable much faster movement, but decrease the unit's defense score. Forests, mountains, swamps, and other such terrain greatly decrease unit movement, but most increase defense. Cities do not have much of an effect on a unit's movement (unless a road runs through it, in which case it is increased), but increase the unit's defense. If not crossed by a bridge, rivers heavily hinder unit movement, slowing down infantry, requiring a whole day (turn) to cross for some vehicle units, and completely blocking other units, which must search for an intact bridge. Two units, enemy or allied, can never occupy the same hex at once. Combat itself takes the form of one unit directly engaging another, without outside interference from any other units which might be in the area. The attacking unit always fires first. If the defending unit is still alive following the first strike, it will retaliate against the attacking unit. Each unit can only attack once per turn and retaliate once per turn, unless a sidebar power enables another attack. Air attacks are always retaliated against, provided that the unit has an anti-air score and will not get killed by the air unit's attack first. Each unit type has three statistics for attacking: effectiveness against infantry (EI), effectiveness against vehicles (EV), and effectiveness against air units (EA). If the attacker's effectiveness stat against the unit type of the defender is higher than the defender's armor rating, damage will be done according to Attacker Effectiveness # - Defender Armor #. If not, no damage or extremely low damage will be done. Some units are specialized to only be able to attack a single type of unit. If enough damage is done to a unit, it will be destroyed. The objective of the battle is either to destroy all the enemy's units or capture enough objective towns to control the battlefield. Objective towns can be identified for both their Objective Point worth and position on the Map screen, and can be made visible on the main battle screen using the Objective button (flag). On the left side of the screen are the Sidebar Powers. These powers recharge over time, and the amount of time until they are usable again is shown over their picture/button. In the campaign, depending on his political rating (judged by how much Collateral Damage (see below) he inflicts), the player will get more powers of varying type. Unit data. In battle, if the player clicks on one of his own units, a bar will appear in the lower right corner. This bar shows all the immediate stats for the unit, including EI, EV, and EA stats, their armor rating (how much attack power a unit can shrug off before it takes damage), their health rating (how much more damage the unit can take until it dies) and their gas level. Gas is required for vehicle and helicopter units to move- moving one hex drains one point of gas. If a unit runs out of fuel, it can still attack within its range, but it cannot move for a turn or so until it is resupplied. Infantry, obviously, do not require fuel. There will also be a question-mark button next to the basic stats. Clicking this gives the player a more detailed setup of stats, including its Movement rating (the tire; how many hexes a unit can move per turn), its Attack Range (the target; how many hexes away from itself the unit can attack), its line-of-sight (binoculars; how far away from itself the unit can see), and its collateral damage rating (explosion; how much damage the unit will do depends on the surrounding environment when it attacks). As units survive multiple combats they also increase in rank. Higher ranked units gain bonuses to their attack, defense, and health. Specific units. There are three general types and nine general classes of units. The types are Infantry, Vehicles, and Aircraft. The classes are One-Time Use units, Infantry, Light Armor, Medium Armor, Heavy Armor, Artillery, Anti-Aircraft, Helicopters, and Aircraft. Each class has a variety of specific units, varying in effectiveness with cost. One-time use units. These are units that a faction can purchase for use in a single battle. These include defensive towers and bunkers, fixed artillery, and light infantry. Infantry. There are three varieties of infantry units, each with its own specialized purpose. Commando-style units are effective against infantry and vehicles, but have no anti-air ability. Heavy infantry are able to attack aircraft and vehicles. Engineers are the weakest in direct combat, but have the ability to construct and place barbed wire, dragon's teeth (an anti-vehicle barricade), and land mines that damage enemies which move over them. Light, medium, and heavy armor. All three of these are varieties of armor, with similar abilities and differing mainly in cost to attack points. Armor is a primarily anti-vehicle class, but some varieties are more effective against infantry. Light armor is armored personnel carriers like the M2/M3 Bradley, medium armor is light tanks like the EU's French-made AMX-30, and heavy armor consists of main battle tanks like the M1 Abrams and the EU's German-made Leopard 2. In addition, 6 out of the 7 factions fields a unique, more expensive heavy armor unit, such as the slow-moving but extremely well armed and armored Hood tank fielded by the Republic of Texas. Artillery. Similar to fighters and bombers, artillery units are powerful support units, but possessing many significant limitations. A target must be at least two hexes away for artillery to fire on it, leaving such units vulnerable to close-up attacks. Artillery units can also do little to defend themselves in most cases, with only a few out of all in the game having any real armor and/or anti-air capability. However, artillery units have the longest firing range of any unit type in the game- up to five hexes away. Though they require extensive support and are vulnerable by themselves, artillery units are extremely powerful and can prove devastating if used in significant numbers. One of the factions fields a unique self-propelled artillery. Anti-air. Anti-air units have low or nonexistent ratings against armor and moderate to nonexistent ratings against infantry, but they are unparalleled in their ability to destroy any airborne unit. In addition, each anti-air unit has a "radius of protection" around it; any fighter or bomber unit attacking another unit within that radius gets attacked by the AA unit as well as the defending unit. Helicopters. With the longest line-of-sight, the highest per-turn movement rate, and unimpeded by terrain, helicopters make both good scout and combat units. They can move from one front of attack to another with high speed, and are effective against most types of units. A significant downside to helicopters is that they cannot capture or hold objectives, which means they can only act as support. Helicopters also attract considerable attention from enemy fighter aircraft and AA units, meaning they ultimately require much support from a faction's other air and ground forces. Aircraft. Aircraft do not move along the field like other units- they are based at an Airfield and are called in via the Air Strike command menu. There are two types of aircraft: fighter and bomber. Both are extreme in their cost of purchase and capability in combat, but have significant limitations. AA fire and enemy fighters are a significant threat to both types of aircraft- if the enemy has two or more such units in range of an area where a fighter or bomber is ordered to attack, the aircraft will be destroyed. Fighter craft have no ground attack capability- they can only fight against other aircraft. Fighters can also "patrol" an area from around a hex visible to the player, lending their line-of-sight to it and their protection to the units below- if an enemy aircraft tries to attack a unit within the radius of the fighter's patrol sweep, it is intercepted- but not always shot down- by the fighter. Patrols reset after one turn of both the player and the enemy. Fighters always cause damage to other fighters in battles, even if the other fighter shoots them down; however, a patrolling fighter attacking another craft coming into its patrol radius (if not directly attacked itself) does not suffer retaliatory attack. Bombers, on the other hand, have no anti-air capability. They cannot patrol as fighters do, but instead are called into attack a single target and leave. The attacks of bombers can cause devastating damage to enemy units, and bombers are able to withstand more enemy fire than fighters. They are some of the most expensive units in the game, and the loss of even one to AA fire can sometimes mean an irreparable blow to that faction. Reception. "Shattered Union" received "average" reviews on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The gameplay was praised as being "simple but deep", and the concept was well liked, while criticisms included unbalanced AI and a total lack of any diplomacy features. Legacy. Film adaptation. In 2009, "Variety" and "Gamasutra" reported that Jerry Bruckheimer was creating a movie adaptation of the video game to be distributed by Touchstone Pictures. J. Michael Straczynski was set to write the script.

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m2d2_wiki

Volume (video game) Volume is an indie stealth video game developed by Mike Bithell Games. It was released for Microsoft Windows, OS X, and PlayStation 4 in August 2015, and the PlayStation Vita in January 2016. The game uses stealth mechanics inspired by "Metal Gear Solid" series, allowing the player to plan courses of action to work through levels without being detected by guards, dogs, and automated security turrets to reach specific objectives. In addition to the game's levels, "Volume" supports user-made levels that can be shared with others. The game presents a modern take on the Robin Hood legend, where a young thief discovers a plot for a military coup involving various heists, and uses a device called "Volume", with the assistance of its artificial intelligence to perform these heists in a virtual manner and broadcasting them to the world at large to make the coup known. The story is presented with the help of voice actors Charlie McDonnell, Danny Wallace, Dan Bull, Jim Sterling, and Andy Serkis. Plot. "Volume"s story is based on a modern take of the Robin Hood legend. Robert Locksley (voiced by Charlie McDonnell) is a petty thief that finds a device called "Volume", which allows the user to simulate heists that is part of a secret military "coup" attempt. The device has an artificial intelligence built into it named Alan (Danny Wallace) that acts as "the Microsoft Office paperclip as a military training program", according to Bithell, and guides Robert on how to use the device. Robert decides to use the device to broadcast the simulations of high-profile crimes across the Internet in the same manner as Let's Play videos. Locksley eventually faces off against Guy of Gisbourne (Andy Serkis), re-envisioned for the game as the CEO of a company that has taken over the country of England and runs the nation as a corporatocracy. It is hinted in-game that "Volume" is set in the same timeline as that of "Thomas Was Alone", also developed by Mike Bithell, but set after the events of that game. Gameplay. "Volume"s gameplay has been designed by Bithell similar to the stealth elements of the "Metal Gear Solid" series. The game is presented in a top-down third-person view of the Volume simulation, showing a floor layout, Robert's avatar, and several guards and other antagonists that patrol the area. Several different variety of guards exist, each of which have different patterns of movement and how they respond to seeing the player character; such guards include archers that have a long range of vision, rogues that can see in a full circle around them, dogs that work by sense of smell and track the player by proximity, and automated turrets that react much faster than other guards. When spotted, the player has a short amount of time to attempt to break the line of sight and take cover, otherwise the simulation will restart, either fully or at the most recent checkpoint that the player has crossed. Guards behave in established patterns, and the player can disrupt these by making noise, such as flushing a toilet, or purposely cross their line of sight to draw them away from a patrol route. The player is unable to kill these foes, but over the course of the story, gain an arsenal of tools to distract them and avoid detection; once the player has one or more such tools, they can create a loadout for their character to select which gadgets they wish to take into a level. The goal is to sneak through the level without being spotted to complete various heists. En route, the player needs to collect gems that are scattered through the level before the exit point will become available. Players can track global leaderboards based on how fast they completed a level, with the game allowing players to revisit earlier levels to improve their times. The game contains 100 story-based levels. Additionally, the game includes a level editor, allowing users to create their own simulated missions. Players are required to complete their own levels before uploading them to be shared with others. Development and release. Bithell's inspiration for "Volume" was directly from his earlier enjoyment of playing the "Metal Gear" games since he was a teenager. Though several other stealth games have come out since then, Bithell felt the newer games lost the "purity" of the stealth experience that "Metal Gear" provided. The user-generation aspects for "Volume" were inspired by "The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2" that was on the ' disc, during which "Metal Gear"s game designer, Hideo Kojima, designed prototypes of levels in real-life using Lego bricks. Bithell designed the in-game level editor to work similar to Lego, allowing the player to snap-in predesigned elements onto new or existing levels, including the game's core levels. Bithell hopes that "Volume" would have an active user-community that will continue to evolve the game over many years, similar to that of ' where the player community has continued to work on improving the game five years after release. Bithell expected that "Volume" would still have a limited budget, compared to the he needed for "Thomas Was Alone", but the extra funding has been used to hire additional programming help and 3D modelers. On the New Year of 2014, Bithell had to be taken to a hospital due to overworking himself on "Volume". Following his treatment, he opted to bring on more staff to help complete the more ambitious title, with a 15-man team by the game's completion. Some included his former colleagues at Blitz Games, where he had worked during the development of "Thomas Was Alone", and additional help came from members of Curve Digital, who had previously ported "Thomas" to the PlayStation platforms. David Housden, who composed the "Thomas" soundtrack, would also create the music for "Volume". Bithell announced the game in August 2013, using a carefully managed approach to assure the news was widely disseminated on a specific day, promising further announcements on its voice cast and story at future gaming conventions. "Volume" was originally planned to be a timed exclusive for the PlayStation 4 and Vita platform sometime in 2015, with the Windows and OSX releases set a month later. Later, the release was set to be simultaneous across all platforms on 18 August 2015; while the PlayStation 4, Windows, and OS X versions were released on this day, Bithell stated that the Vita version was delayed by a few weeks to better refine the title. Bithell later confirmed that the game would be released as a CrossBuy title for the Vita in January 2016, the additional time used to polish the game based on player feedback. The Vita version was released on 6 January 2016. Limited Run Games published a limited edition physical release of the game: PS Vita version on 11 November 2016, and PS4 version on 4 May 2018. Bithell had already worked with Danny Wallace from "Thomas Was Alone". For the role of Gisborne, Bithell had listed Andy Serkis high on his list of desired actors. Serkis has responded positively to Bithell's script, and they were able to arrange for his voice acting between Serkis' busy schedule. Bithell contends that Serkis brought "a great amount of gravitas" to the character to help flesh out the game. With Serkis' involvement, Bithell changed the character of Gisborne to better suit Serkis' acting style, making the character more fiendish than an evil genius. A free expansion, "Volume: Coda", has been announced to be released in 2016 alongside Sony's PlayStation VR unit. It includes 30 additional levels, and enables the game to be played on the VR unit, though it is not required. The new levels extend the game's story, following the trials of "The Troubleshooter", a person that was captured by the government forces after the actions of Locksley in the main story, and includes new voice actors for additional characters. Reception. "Volume" received mostly positive reviews. Aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 78.40% based on 21 reviews and 80/100 based on 33 reviews and the PlayStation 4 version 71.67% based on 12 reviews and 71/100 based on 15 reviews.

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m2d2_wiki

Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill is a platform video game developed by Realtime Associates for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game stars Socks, the real-life presidential pet of the Clinton family during Bill Clinton's tenure in office. Originally scheduled for release in the fall of 1993, "Socks the Cat" experienced delays until it was ultimately canceled due to the closure of publisher Kaneko's U.S. branch in the summer of 1994. The game was complete, however, and review copies were still distributed to gaming publications. A prototype cartridge of the SNES version eventually entered the hands of private collectors, and a Kickstarter campaign to fund a relaunch of the game was started. The campaign was successfully funded and the game originally anticipated a July 2017 release, but it was delayed until February 1, 2018. Its ROM image was soon released to the public. Set in Washington D.C., "Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill" follows the title character as he makes his way past spies, politicians, and the news media to warn the Clinton family of a stolen nuclear missile launch device. The game makes heavy use of political satire, including bosses designed as caricatures of former U.S. presidents and other political figures. Nintendo reportedly liked the game despite their censorship policies during the era which condemned games with political content. The political satire was also praised by critics, although the game was otherwise found to be average. Synopsis. The game begins with Socks observing foreign spies stealing a nuclear missile launch unit in the basement of a foreign embassy. He embarks on a journey through eleven stages through landmarks in the Washington D.C. area like The Pentagon to return to the Oval Office in the White House and alert the Clinton family. Throughout the game, Socks must overcome the likes of foreign spies, politicians, the United States Secret Service, and the news media. The bosses are caricatures of political figures, such as Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ross Perot. In one situation, Socks must push Millie the dog, pet of former president George H. W. Bush, out the front door to avoid Arab terrorist felines. Also, Richard Nixon calls in bomb raids and Ted Kennedy is seen driving a car on a bridge. History. Kaneko originally planned two entirely different games to feature Socks, one for the Super NES to be developed by Realtime Associates, and the other by an undisclosed developer for the Genesis. The SNES and Genesis games were both occasionally referred to as "Socks the Cat Rocks the House" in some early publications; however, this title would later refer to the Genesis game only. The "Socks the Cat" license was not owned by the Clinton family, but rather a fan club known as the Presidential Socks Partnership. Kaneko purchased the license from the fan club, with some of the profits given to The Humane Society of the United States and the Children's Defense Fund, one of Hillary Clinton's favorite charities. "Socks the Cat" was first unveiled and demonstrated by Kaneko on June 2, 1993, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago. The first release window provided was for fall 1993. Shortly before its scheduled release that summer, "Socks the Cat" was canceled due to the closure of Kaneko's U.S. division. Although Nintendo's censorship policies during the late 1980s and early 1990s condemned games that had "subliminal political messages or overt political statements", Nintendo reportedly liked the game. Former Realtime Associates employees have stated the game was finished. One former developer, David Warhol, stated the game "was very irreverent...maybe it's better it didn't come out after all!" Some time after its cancellation, a prototype copy was sold by a former Kaneko employee to video game collector Jason Wilson. In 2011, a five-minute video was uploaded to YouTube showing gameplay from the cartridge, giving proof of the game's existence. In 2012, Wilson sold the game to collector Tom Curtin for the same amount as a "decent used car". The sale was made in part because Curtin wished to release the game. He acquired the rights to the "Socks the Cat" trademark in 2015 and planned to launch a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to fund a release of the game. The campaign was launched on October 10, 2016 and finished 110% funded on November 8, 2016, the same day as the 2016 US presidential election (in which Hillary Clinton was the Democratic nominee). The campaign anticipated a 2017 release; the game finally released on February 1, 2018. Reception. Although never released, "Socks the Cat Rocks the Hill" was reviewed by multiple publications who generally saw it as an average platformer albeit with excellent boss design and political satire. "Nintendo Power" found the boss characters to be humorous but criticized the poor controls. "GamePro" also praised the bosses and the satire, but were more critical with the flat graphics and poor sound. They provided scores of 3.0 for graphics, 2.5 for sound, 3.5 for controls, and 3.5 for "fun factor" (out of 5). "Nintendo Power" believed poor controls made the game challenging, but "GamePro" found the game easy and thought the controls "take practice but prove effective." "Electronic Gaming Monthly" dubbed it "a cute run-and-jump, claw the enemies game."

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m2d2_wiki

World of Darkness (video game) World of Darkness, also known as World of Darkness Online, was a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in development by CCP Games from 2006 until its cancellation in 2014. It was based on the "World of Darkness" series' setting, which several of White Wolf Publishing's tabletop role-playing games take place in. Players were to have assumed the roles of humans who could be turned into vampires of one of seven vampire clans with various abilities. The gameplay was going to be nonlinear and focus on social interaction and politics, with goals reached both through combat and through players forming alliances with each other. The game's development was long and troubled, with organization and management issues including staff from the development team being moved to other CCP Games projects for months at a time, significantly slowing down progress and leading to work being abandoned and redone repeatedly. The team size was also significantly decreased throughout the production, with several rounds of layoffs. Although "World of Darkness" was considered one of the highest-profile games to have been canceled in the 2010s, the cancellation and layoffs were not unusual for the video game industry, something "The Guardian" considered a scandal in itself. Preview impressions of the game were generally positive, particularly of its visuals and experimental gameplay, while later impressions based on leaked screenshots were less favorable. Gameplay. "World of Darkness" was planned to be an open world, single-server massively multiplayer online role-playing game. It was meant to take place at night and have a supernatural horror theme, and was based on the "World of Darkness" series' setting – the shared fictional universe of several of White Wolf Publishing's tabletop role-playing games, including "". Players were planned to start the game as humans, with the possibility of being turned into a vampire from one of seven vampire clans with access to various vampiric powers, such as sucking blood, running quickly, and leaping high in the air. Other "World of Darkness" character types such as werewolves or mages were not planned to be playable at launch, but would possibly appear as non-player characters (NPCs) or as player characters in an expansion pack or in a separate game; ghouls were planned to be included as minions to the player characters, which could be sent on missions. The gameplay was going to be nonlinear, and focused on social interaction and politics among players, with web-based communication tools available. The game was to emulate the politics of "World of Darkness" tabletop games, allowing players things such as achieving the role of a vampire prince by being voted into office and rule a stylized version of one of several real-life capital cities, and communicate with other cities. Cities were to be divided into different kinds of zones, including social zones like a coffeehouse district where players could meet up, and zones where players could fight territory battles. Like in "Vampire: The Masquerade", combat and killing was not going to be necessary, as players instead were to be able to reach their goals through creating alliances with other players; player-versus-player and player-versus-environment combat was however also going to be to an option, and permanent death would be applied to player characters who die. The game was also planned to include tools to create items, distinctly different from typical item crafting systems in games. Development. Production and cancellation. "World of Darkness" was developed by the Icelandic developer CCP Games, and was directed by Reynir Hardarson and produced by Chris McDonough, with concept art by Erling Sævarsson. The game was said to be in its early planning stages during the announcement of CCP Games' merger with White Wolf in late 2006; in June 2007, CCP Games estimated that the game would take them four to five years to finish. The game was eventually unveiled three years later along with a trailer and concept art at White Wolf's Grand Masquerade event in New Orleans in 2010, with a planned release date of 2012. The next year, CCP Games laid off 20% of its staff, about 120 people, as they had been stretching their resources too thin; they moved their focus to their MMORPG "Eve Online", but did not cancel "World of Darkness", instead letting its development continue with a significantly reduced development team; by 2012, the game was still in its pre-production phase, with a team of 60 working full-time on it. The team had grown to 70 by early 2013, 15 of which were laid off later in the year. By early 2014, CCP Games described the game as still "years away". In April of the same year, the game was canceled, and 54 staff members at CCP Atlanta were laid off, with remaining staff there shifting to working on "Eve"-related games. According to "World of Darkness" staff, the cancellation came after a troubled development, which they described as having issues relating to management and organization; staff often had to switch to working on other projects for 3–6 months, and at times the entire "World of Darkness" team was working on "Eve" projects, particularly leading up to the 2009 "Eve" expansion "Apocrypha". Because staff kept getting moved between "World of Darkness" and other projects, progress was significantly slowed down, and partially-finished features and systems ended up getting abandoned and re-started several times. According to former CCP Games developer Nick Blood, very little of the core game was implemented five years into the production, with nothing to appreciate for people who were not already fans of the setting. After Paradox Interactive acquired the "World of Darkness" series in 2015, including the produced assets from the video game, they said that the art and ideas that had been created for it would be used in other "World of Darkness" projects. Design. CCP Games wanted the game to be more similar to live action role-playing games than massively multiplayer online games; to achieve this, they focused on encouraging human interactions and social gameplay by rewarding players for creating social networks, similarly to those in the "World of Darkness" tabletop games. Comparing it to "Eve Online", they were hoping to attract a larger number of female players, citing "Eve Online" lack of accessibility, its complexity, and bad game design as reasons women would be less likely to be interested in it, as well as its science-fiction setting compared to "World of Darkness" supernatural horror. Influenced by the games "DayZ" and "Rust", CCP Games wanted "World of Darkness" to have an open world and unstructured game mechanics, allowing for natural player interactions. The developers also wanted the game to focus on traversal and movement in a vampiric, "super-powered individual" manner, something McDonough described as akin to a "vampire simulator"; they did not plan to put much focus on developing functionality for human player characters at launch, but considered developing expansions for human characters who are hunters or mages. The developers chose to set the game in the original "World of Darkness" setting rather than its successor, "Chronicles of Darkness", despite the original "World of Darkness" line of tabletop games already having ended; this was because of how "Vampire: The Masquerade" was what White Wolf was known for, and was the more influential game, even though some tabletop players might care more about the "Chronicles of Darkness" setting. Reception. Although "GameSpot" described "World of Darkness" as one of the most notable games to have been canceled in the last few years as of 2019, other publications found it typical for the industry: "The Guardian" wrote that the "real scandal" was that job cuts like those are common in the video game industry, "Polygon" described it as neither shocking nor unusual, and "Kotaku" called it disappointing but unsurprising. Preview impressions of "World of Darkness" were positive, praising its visuals and how it felt new and experimental; "PCGamesN" considered it one of the most interesting MMOs in development at the time, with a lot of potential, and "IGN" described it as "super-stylish". Following the cancellation, "Polygon" echoed these sentiments, calling the experience it was promising unique, and noting its freedom and ability to manipulate game politics interesting; because of this, and how there were no future "World of Darkness" games expected at the time, they thought the cancellation hit particularly hard for fans of the series. Following the emergence of leaked screenshots and a manual from the game, however, "Rock, Paper, Shotgun" thought that the game looked poor, describing it as feeling "too MMORPG-y" and not enough like "World of Darkness", lacking its mystique, sexiness and excitement. "Gamereactor" similarly considered it a good example of the lacklusterness of CCP Games' projects outside of "Eve Online".

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m2d2_wiki

Abenteuer Europa Abenteuer Europa is a 1994 German video game developed by Ego Software and publsihed by Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands for DOS. The SPD had the point-and-click adventure produced by journalist Fred Beck in the run-up to the 1994 European elections in order to reach younger voters. 40,000 copies of the game were originally produced. The SPD ended up winning 40 of the 99 German seats in the European Parliament.

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m2d2_wiki

NationStates NationStates (formerly "Jennifer Government: NationStates") is a multiplayer government simulation browser game. It was created by Max Barry and was publicly released on 13 November 2002, based loosely on his novel "Jennifer Government". Barry founded the site as an independent vehicle publicising the novel one week before its release. NationStates continues to promote books written by Barry, but has developed to be a sizeable online community, with a large accompanying forum board. Since its release, over 7.2 million user-created nations having been founded on the site, with nearly 246,300 being active as of March 2021. Influence. In an interview, Max Barry said the influence for the game began with a questionnaire he took: "NationStates was influenced by a little political quiz I did once, where you answer a bunch of multiple-choice questions and have your politics categorised. ... It was fun, but I also wanted to see what kind of country my policies created, and have to deal with the consequences." Gameplay. Nations. Players set up their nation by answering a short questionnaire about their intentions for its economy, civil rights and political freedoms, though these specific questions are not required. However, choosing a name, a flag from current countries and territories or their own custom one, a national animal, a currency, and an official motto is required to be able to create a nation. Over time, nations unlock new customizable fields, such as the ability to declare a national religion, among other customizations. A player's response to the initial questionnaire defines the type of government they are running, though it can change over time as players answer "issues" within the game. Other settings change the appearance of the website. After 28 days, a nation ceases to exist, however they can be "refounded" by logging in again. If certain criteria are met, then the nation's name can be used again, and the older nation becomes ancient. "Issues" gameplay Issues gameplay hinges on deciding government policies. Multiple times each day the player is presented with an automatically assigned "issue", such as choosing whether to allow a Nazi march, or dealing with food shortages in their country. The player chooses a government stance from a list of options, or may choose to dismiss the problem. Choices may have unforeseen consequences: granting greater political freedom may lead to more civil unrest. Some issues are written by the game's developers, while others are submitted by players. Originally, nations would only receive issues #0 through #30 in the first month of their existence, but in 2016 this system was scrapped. The player's responses to issues affect the nation's status across three main statistics: the level of "political freedoms" and "civil rights" and the strength of the "economy". Some issues take the part of "Issue Chains", which are series of Issues that cover more significant political scenarios. As of 15 November 2020, there are four Issue Chains in-game: "An International Incident", where the player responds to a non-player character nation kidnapping its citizens, "The Enemy Within", where they player responds to a 9/11-style terrorist attack, "[CAPITAL]gate" ([CAPITAL] is replaced with the player nation's capital city), where the player responds to allegations of a Watergate-style wiretapping incident, and "MADness", where the player responds to escalating political tensions among nuclear-armed nations. Based on the nation's civil, economic and political freedoms, the nation is assigned to one of 27 government types, from Anarchy, to Inoffensive Centrist Democracy, to Psychotic Dictatorship. Although there is no way of "winning" the game, daily reports are compiled for each region and the entire world, ranking nations on anything from economic strength to cheese exports to the most liberal public nudity laws; thus allowing a nation or region to outperform and thus outrank other nations and regions. As of 27 March 2021, there are 1,448 different issues that nations can be confronted with. The World Assembly. The World Assembly is a voluntary body concerned with the drafting and passage of international law in NationStates. It has two entirely separate chambers: the General Assembly and the Security Council. While the General Assembly is concerned with passing legislation on various topics – such as human rights, free trade, and environmental protection – the Security Council recognises various nations and regions for good or bad deeds, through commendations, condemnations, and liberations. World Assembly membership is also commonly used to as a check against sockpuppeting as, while players may have multiple nations, only one nation may be a member of the World Assembly. The Security Council is concerned with recognition of nations or regions for actions that are deemed either good or bad. It can take several actions: commendations, condemnations, and liberations. Commendations and condemnations are broadly seen as badges of honour for remarkable or important player actions. The types of actions rewarded vary and include things such as achievements in roleplay and gameplay. Liberations are applied to regions, striking down delegate-imposed passwords that make it difficult to move into the region. They are used at times to defend against raiders or offensively to open opportunities to raid. Members of the World Assembly are able to endorse other World Assembly members in their region. The person with the most endorsements in a region becomes a delegate. Regions. A region is a group of nations which come together in order to interact. They do this on a Regional Message Board, which functions much like a chat room or on regional forums off site. Many regions also use Discord or a forum for off site messaging. Furthermore, many regions, particularly larger ones, have "regional governments", which involve themselves in the World Assembly, in inter-regional gameplay, and domestic regional affairs. Some of these regions have adopted liberal governmental models, while others prefer anarchy or other, more restrictive models. New nations appear in one of five main game-created regions (known in the game as "feeders") themed after the Pacific Ocean (the North, South, East, and West Pacifics, along with 'the Pacific'). Nation are able to move to other regions or create their own. Nations deleted for inactivity, when revived, are put into three "sinker" regions called Osiris, Balder, and Lazarus, all named after entities that purportedly rose from the dead. Nations ejected or banned from a region are moved to a region known as "The Rejected Realms"; nations cannot be ejected or banned from this region, but can move to another region at anytime. Raiding/defending gameplay. Outside of manipulating the player's own nation, players can also move between regions, places where nations reside. They use their nations' World Assembly memberships to "endorse" each other, making one of them a regional World Assembly Delegate, a tactic commonly called "raiding". Depending on the regional settings, raiding sometimes gives the invaders power over regional settings like appearance, border control, and "embassies" with other regions. Certain regions and organizations specialize in raiding, and are known as "raider" organizations. This has led to the rise of other, "defender" regions and organizations who seek to prevent raiders from doing so. "Defending" works in much the same way as raiding; however, its intent is to counter raiding. Trading Cards. After answering an issue, a player will occasionally be given a pack containing five trading cards depicting nations in NationStates. These cards can be "junked" to gain a set amount of the in-game currency "bank" or traded to other nations. Trading cards were originally introduced as a one off April Fools' event for the first week of April in 2018, but was later added as a permanent feature of the game in December 2018. Forum board. NationStates has a large and active forum board. The board was hosted from 2004–9 by Jolt. The site started to self-host its forums when Jolt was acquired by OMAC Holdings. There are a variety of categories in which a plethora of topics can be found; including but not limited to nation and region-oriented roleplaying, World Assembly discussions and drafting, raiding and liberations, and discussions of current events and creative arts. The board lacked moderation from its creation in November 2002 alongside the main NationStates site until April 2003. As of November 2020 approximately 31 million posts have been made on the forum within approximately 400,000 forum threads, with just over 1.41 million users being registered on the forums. The board has anywhere between 50 to 250 users online at any given time, with the most users online at the same time being 590 in April 2013. Reception. Critical reception. "Jay Is Games"s Jerrad praised the game stating "the real beauty in this game is that it's accessible on so many levels." In the 2008 book "The Video Game Theory Reader 2", Lars Konzack critiqued that it promoted libertarianism but says "open to experimentation and reflection on politics rather than being merely political propaganda. It becomes a philosophical game in which the player is invited to become part of an examination of political ideas. This game takes advantage of the potential in games to truly put the player in control and let him reflect on his own decisions, investigating political theory turned into meaningful game aesthetics." In the 2008 book "The Art and Science of Interface and Interaction Design, Volume 1", C. Paul said "NationStates" "is an interesting take on the interplay of freedom and control (and governance without government)". "ProgrammableWeb"s Kevin Sundstrom listed "NationStates" among the "30 New APIs" remarking its application programming interface "provides a developer interface for automate game world data collection". Popularity. The game attracted a thousand nations within two weeks, and had 20,700 by the end of the first year. Barry was surprised by the popularity of the game, and saw its discussion forums developing into an arena for political debate. He was impressed by some of the activity in the forums, relating how "One nation accused another of conducting secret missile tests and posted photos to prove it. That escalated into an international crisis that was only solved by sending in teams of independent weapons inspectors". United Nations dispute. In 2008, Barry received a cease and desist order from the United Nations for using the UN name and logo for the international ruling body on the website. In response, he changed the logo and changed the name to the World Assembly on 1 April, which many initially took as one of Barry's annual April Fool's Day jokes.

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Toba Tek Singh (short story) "Toba Tek Singh" ( ) is a short story written by Saadat Hasan Manto and published in 1955. It follows inmates in a Lahore asylum, some of whom are to be transferred to India following the 1947 Partition. The story is a "powerful satire" on the relationship between India and Pakistan. Plot summary. The story is set two or three years after the 1947 partition, when the governments of India and Pakistan decided to exchange some Muslim, Sikh and Hindu lunatics, and revolves around Bishan Singh, a Sikh inmate of an asylum in Lahore, who is from the town of Toba Tek Singh. As part of the exchange, Bishan Singh is sent under police escort to India, but upon being told that his hometown Toba Tek Singh is in Pakistan, he refuses to go. The story ends with Bishan lying down in the no man's land between the two barbed wire fences: "There, behind barbed wire, was Hindustan. Here, behind the same kind of barbed wire, was Pakistan. In between, on that piece of ground that had no name, lay Toba Tek Singh." Bishan Singh's mutterings. In the story, whenever Bishan Singh gets irritated he mutters or shouts a mix of Punjabi, Urdu and English which, though nonsensical, is indirectly pejorative of both India and Pakistan. For instance, "Upar di gur gur di annexe di bedhiyana di moong di daal of di Pakistan and Hindustan of di durr phitey mun", which means: "The inattention of the annexe of the rumbling upstairs of the dal of moong of the Pakistan and India of the go to bloody hell!" Adaptations. A film based on a play adaptation of this story was made in 2005 by Afia Nathaniel. A short film named "Toba Tek Singh" was released in 2018 in India. This film is directed by Ketan Mehta. In popular culture. On the sixtieth anniversary of Partition, the Pakistani theatre group Ajoka, as part of a series of plays and performances, performed a play adaptation in India. It was described as a "commentary on the state of affairs between the two countries, where sub-committees, committees and ministerial-level talks are the panacea for all problems". In 2017, Naatak, America's Biggest Indian Theater, staged a grand musical based on the story. Staged at the Woodside Theater, with original music composed by Nachiketa Yakkundi of the RSV School of Music and dance choreographed by Shaira Bhan and Snigdha Singh of Dance Identity. The musical was written and directed by Sujit Saraf and is available to stream anytime. In 2018, the British Broadcasting Corporation named the work among the 100 stories that shaped the world, alongside works by authors like Homer and Virginia Woolf. The 2018 biographical film Manto featured the popular rant of the main protagonist in Toba Tek Singh. It is one of the five short stories by Manto that are featured in the film. In 2020, British Pakistani rapper Riz Ahmed released a song titled ”Toba Tek Singh” on his album "A Long Goodbye", and there are multiple references in his film Mogul Mowgli.

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Waste (play) Waste is a play by the English author Harley Granville Barker. It exists in two wholly different versions, from 1906 and 1927. The first version was refused a licence by the Lord Chamberlain and had to be performed privately by the Stage Society in 1907; the second was finally staged in public at the Westminster Theatre in 1936. Plot. The plot centres around ambitious independent politician Henry Trebell, his plans for a bill to disestablish the Church of England and his fall from grace and suicide after his affair with married woman Amy O'Connell, who dies after a botched abortion. The title may refer to the waste of his potential talents due to the scandal, the loss of the disestablishment bill and the termination of Amy's pregnancy. Production history. Recent productions include John Barton's in 1985 for the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Barbican, with Daniel Massey as Trebell and Judi Dench as Amy, one in 1997 at the Old Vic by the Peter Hall Company (with Michael Pennington as Trebell, Anna Carteret as Frances and Peter Blythe as Charles Cantilupe) and a well-received one at the Almeida Theatre (directed by Samuel West and starring Will Keen as Trebell, Nancy Carroll as Amy and Phoebe Nicholls as Frances). Recent North American productions include one in 1995 at the Shaw Festival (directed by Neil Munro) and one in 2000 directed by Bartlett Sher. In November 2015, the National Theatre revived the play, directed by Roger Michell and starring Charles Edwards as Trebell and Olivia Williams as Amy, using the 1927 version of the text. The first radio production was produced by Val Gielgud on the Third Programme in 1947 and starred Andrew Cruickshank. Stephen Murray starred in a 1959 version of 1947 adaptation on the Home Service. The most recent dramatisation was broadcast on the World Service in 1995 and featured Rachel Weisz, Penelope Wilton and Timothy West.

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Pilot (Designated Survivor) "Pilot" is the first episode in the American political drama series "Designated Survivor". It was aired on ABC on September 21, 2016 in the United States, CTV in Canada, and on Netflix worldwide. The episode shows Thomas "Tom" Kirkman (Kiefer Sutherland), a low-ranking member of the US Cabinet, unexpectedly ascending to the rank of President of the United States after his predecessor and every other member of the presidential line of succession is killed in a terrorist attack. Synopsis. On the night of January 20, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Thomas Kirkman and his wife Alex are watching the State of the Union address from a secure location. Earlier that day, he had been offered the position of Ambassador to the International Civil Aviation Organization (which, in practice, was a way of firing him). He is not in attendance himself because, as a final snub, he has been nominated the designated survivor – a custom used every time the President, Vice President, and other members of the line of succession are gathered in a single place (such as at State of the Union addresses and Presidential inaugurations), where a low-ranking person in the line of succession is kept in a secret location to ensure that someone can succeed to the Presidency in the event of a catastrophe. Unexpectedly, the news feed cuts out. Moments later, his security detail rushes into the room, and when Kirkman opens the security shutter on the window, an enormous fireball has engulfed the Capitol Building. Kirkman and his wife are rushed from their safe house, while another security detail goes off to find their children. En route to the White House, Kirkman’s body guard receives confirmation that the blast has killed everyone who attended the State of the Union, including President Richmond, the Vice President, the Speaker of the House, the rest of the Cabinet, everyone in both houses of Congress, many of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and all nine of the Supreme Court Justices. Under the Presidential Succession Act, Kirkman is now President of the United States. Upon arrival at the White House, Kirkman (dressed in jeans and a hoodie) is sworn in by a DC appellate judge. He is then escorted by Richmond’s Deputy Chief of Staff Aaron Shore to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, which is abuzz with chaos in the aftermath of the bombing. The most senior military officer in the room, General Harris Cochrane, demands that the US immediately move onto a war footing. Overwhelmed, Kirkman goes to the bathroom to vomit, in the next cubicle, speech writer Seth Wright offers sympathy and, not realizing who it is, expresses doubt in Kirkman due to his lack of political experience and seniority (as his position would normally put him twelfth in the line of succession). When he emerges, Kirkman brushes aside his embarrassment and asks Seth to write him a speech. Meanwhile, after some difficulty locating the President’s son Leo, both of the President’s children arrive at the White House, as does his Chief of Staff Emily Rhodes. President Kirkman is informed that the Iranian Navy is moving several destroyers to the Strait of Hormuz, a major provocation. General Harris suggests a swift show of force, but Kirkman decides instead to call a meeting with the Iranian Ambassador, and orders Harris to scramble bombers. At the meeting, Kirkman – in a surprising display of strength – warns the Ambassador that he is willing to authorize an attack on Tehran if the destroyers are not pulled back. Kirkman then delivers Seth’s speech to the nation, while Aaron and Harris discuss whether he should be removed. Elsewhere in DC, FBI agent Hannah Wells attempts to phone Senator Scott Wheeler, her lover who was present at the State of the Union, but receives no answer. She is then called away by her boss to join the investigation into the bombing. Instead of going back to HQ, she goes to the bomb site, and convinces Deputy Director Jason Atwood to let her join in. After another unsuccessful attempt at trying to reach Scott, a bomb is located amongst the rubble, which turns out not to be active. Upon investigating the bomb, it is discovered to be a Soviet anti-tank mine most commonly used by jihadist terror groups. However, Hannah expresses doubt that this is the case, because there was no chatter from any such groups. This could additionally suggest that the group who bombed the Capitol has not yet finished. Reception. The episode received mixed-to-positive reviews, with Laura Akers of Den of Geek noting that the show had similarities with political drama "The West Wing", and, while stating that the pilot episode had a somewhat shaky start, observing that the “split focus” between Kirkman and Wells’ storylines was “unwieldy,” it had “all the ingredients of an interesting and possibly even compelling series.” Brian Moylan of "The Guardian", meanwhile, gave a negative review, with particular criticism focusing on the dialogue. Terri Schwartz of IGN praised the episode for its storyline, and in particular Sutherland’s performance.

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Saucer Country Saucer Country is a discontinued UFO mythology comic book series written by Paul Cornell and drawn by Ryan Kelly, published by Vertigo in 2012 and 2013. The series is about a US presidential candidate, Governor Alvarado, who has come to believe she may have been abducted by aliens. The series began publication in March 2012. The series is a blend of a political environment and stories of aliens and UFOs. Starting in May 2017, a sequel miniseries, Saucer State, began publication at IDW. "Saucer State" lasted for six issues, and serves as a story conclusion. Overview. The main plot of "Saucer Country" is about Arcadia Alvarado, the Hispanic governor of New Mexico now running for presidency. Arcadia believes that she had been abducted by aliens one night, and embarks on a mission to get to the bottom of the mystery while running for the position of President at the same time. Describing the series on his website, Cornell wrote- The series also features short stand-alone stories besides the main plot. These stories are "true stories"- accounts of people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. Plot. Arcadia Alvarado functions as the governor of New Mexico and is considered to be the primary Democratic candidate for the position of the President of the United States. Arcadia is caught in the middle of a volatile political situation as she is running for Presidency and dealing with her duties as governor at the same time. Arcadia also has to deal with her alcoholic ex-husband Michael. However, Arcadia claims to have been "abducted by aliens" one night, but only retains glimpses of her encounter with the extraterrestrial beings and does not remember the entire story. Thus, with the help of her fellow workers and staff, Arcadia tries to solve the mystery about her apparent abduction by the aliens. A former Harvard professor, Professor Kidd, is also keen on getting to the bottom of Arcadia's claim. Reception. The series received generally positive reviews. James Hunt of Comic Book Resources commented on the first issue, noting "Doubtlessly, "Saucer Country's" success is due to the combined and prodigious talents of Cornell and Kelly. " but also criticized the issue for ending too quickly. Geeks of Doom described it as "what’s sure to become a beloved classic comic book series and that one day we will look back on this first issue in wonderment and think 'I can’t believe all that’s happened since then" Comics reviewer and writer Joey Esposito of IGN have the first issue an 8 out of a possible 10, and summarised- "Out of the gate, Saucer Country looks to be another solid entry worthy of the pedigree of Vertigo Comics." However, he also pointed out that writer Paul Cornell focuses too much attention on Arcadia and "bizarre elements" and in doing so "ultimately subtracts from the grounded base that is established here." He also praised Ryan Kelly's art, especially his characters' body language and expressions, but criticized the colouring of the issue. The series was cancelled after 14 issues. The first volume was nominated for the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story, but lost to the first volume of "Saga".

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The Almost Royal Family The Almost Royal Family is an American television teen comedy that aired as an "ABC Afterschool Special" on October 24, 1984. The program was based on the 1973 novel "Meanwhile, Back At the Castle", by Hope Campbell. Premise. When the Henderson family learn that they had inherit a small island located in the middle of the St. Lawrence Seaway, this does not please some of the younger members of this New York City family, especially the eldest daughter Suzanne, who would rather enjoy another fun "Summer in the city". She idolizes Diana, Princess of Wales and wishes for a life of royalty. That wish is about to come true when, while attempting to buy supplies at a US general store, they learn that the island is the subject of a border dispute between the United States and Canada. Suzanne, miffed that the family just became part of a political issue between the two countries, decide to solve the problem: by suggesting that the family declare their independence... from both the US and Canada! The implications causes the family to face a lot more than just their nationality.

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Sugat ng Alaala Sugat ng Alaala ("Wound of Memory") is a 1995 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Lazaro Francisco. The 376-page novel was published in the Philippines by the Ateneo de Manila University Press. Description. "Sugat ng Alaala" is a romance and war novel. The novel was set during World War II. It portrayed the realities of war, the nationalism of the Filipinos, and the "inhumanity, treachery, and opportunism" committed by the novel's protagonists.

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The Fatwa Girl The Fatwa Girl is a 2011 novel by Pakistani author Akbar Agha. It is story of love and innocence lost in the Pakistan of today, where modernity is symbolized by the possession of a nuclear bomb, but where religious hatreds are as old as time itself. Plot summary. "Amor vincit omnia"—love conquers all, but in a land which has been conquered from the Moguls to the British and now where the Taliban and fundamentalists strive for hegemony, a young man named Omar faces a battle in winning the hand of the girl he loves. It is in this milieu that two lovers try to forge not only a relationship for themselves but also a society where peace and sanity prevail, battling the forces of hatred and sectarianism that threaten to tear their worlds —and a nation— apart. At once a quirky exploration of a society on edge and a tender tale of shattered innocence, "The Fatwa Girl", reveals a deep understanding of the human heart and its often mysterious attachments.

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Sultan of Najd Sultan of Najd (Arabic: سلطان نجد) is a political economic novel by Abdullah Al-Salloum. The novel (Subtitled: "The throne advocating for fair wealth distribution -" Arabic: الحكم المناصر لعدالة توزيع الثروة) interprets –within the ancient Ukhaydhariya State– a series of events that exposed what was unknown by the throne, not only within the monetary scope, but the state politics, where the Emir gets introduced to reforming schemes meant to achieve the state’s sustainability. The title was ranked the third bestseller on Amazon's Arabic Literature and Fiction category.

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Pinaglahuan Pinaglahuan (literally "the point or place where someone or something disappeared" or "fading point") is a Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Faustino S. Aguilar. Aguilar completed the manuscript on September 25, 1906. The novel was published by Manila Filateco in Manila, Philippines in 1907. The novel was written during the American period in Philippine history (1898-1946). Description. According to Soledad Reyes, Faustino's "Pinaglahuan" was a pioneer novel in Philippine literature that tackled social realism in the Philippines, meaning it was one of the first books to focus on the realistic state of Philippine society. Faustino wrote the novel after being influenced by the socialist teaching of 19th century European thinkers. Pinaglahuan was Faustino's response against imperialism and colonialism. Characters. Among the characters of the novel were Luis Gatbuhay, Don Nicanor, Danding, and Rojalde. Luis Gatbuhay was a labor leader. Danding is Gatbuhay's girlfriend and daughter of Don Nicanor. Rojalde was a wealthy mestizo to whom Don Nicanor wanted to betroth Danding, instead of Gatbuhay. Gatbuhay was the representation of the masses or the common Filipino people. Plot. Set during the early 20th century in the Philippines, Pinaglahuan narrates the story of the life of Luis Gatbuhay, the labor leader whose life was ruined by the mestizo class, represented by Rojalde. The first scene in Pinaglahuan depicted a meeting inside the Teatro Zorilla (Zorilla Theatre). The purpose of the gathering was about the call to free the Philippines from the American occupiers. Another scene depicted the confrontation between Gatbuhay and Don Nicanor while inside a carriage. Don Nicanor wanted to marry off Danding to Rojalde because the purpose of paying off his gambling debt. Luis lost his job because of Rojalde's power and influence. In addition, Rojalde implicated Gatbuhay to a crime and was imprisoned for four years. Rojalde and Danding became husband and wife, but Danding gave birth to Gatbuhay's child. At the ending scene of the novel, Gatbuhay was killed by a bomb explosion inside the prison.

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Mga Anak-Bukid Mga Anak-Bukid (literally "Children of the Farmlands", the title can be translated simply as "The Farmlanders") is a 1911 Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Rosauro C. Almario. Published by the Limbagang Cultura Filipina in Manila, Philippines, the novel narrates how the Filipinos who became the so-called "pensionados" undermined the traditional values and mores in the Philippines, including the people who acted as supporters and upholders of those conventional customs and norms. Description. "Mga Anak-Bukid" is about the life of an ordinary farming couple, namely Tonyo and Juli. They were supposed to get married, but on the day before the wedding ceremony, Juli was raped by the "pensionado" (literally "pensioner", someone receiving a salary or pension) named George, a Filipino representing the government of the United States. Through his job as a journalist, George criticized and attacked the traditional values and mores of the Filipinos in the Philippines. Through his newspaper columns, George dismissed the long-established rituals and practices in the Philippines as laughable, old-fashioned, and as things that should remain only in the past. In the meantime, Tonyo was still willing to marry Juli despite of the circumstances. However, Juli was no longer enthusiastic in accepting Tonyo as her husband because her honor as a woman had been defiled. Honor and virginity is important in traditional Filipino culture. Tonyo avenged himself and Juli by tricking George. Unaware of the trap set by Tony and Juli, George agreed to meet with Juli. When George went to the appointed place, he was slain by Tonyo. Then Tonyo and Juli ran away into the mountains, both in agreement that there was no righteousness and hope for them if they stay in the lowlands. The book is made up of 78 pages.

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Xin Zhongguo weilai ji Xin Zhongguo weilai ji (, translated as The Future of New China) is an unfinished 1902 novel by Liang Qichao. Liang described a China in 1962 that was a utopia, a world power, wealthy, Confucian, and a constitutional monarchy. He believed that it would be in a "perfect mood". Author David Der-wei Wang described most of the novel as "an instructional political treatise where the virtues of various modes of government are lucidly debated." Plot. In the preface the author apologizes for what is paraphrased in "The Unfinished History of China's Future" by John Fitzgerald as a "rambling quality" due to the inability to put it in a particular genre due to its content, as it was not a historical account, nor was it an orthodox fictional story. The novel begins at the ending and then continues at the beginning of the story; this is called the "flashback technique", a concept that was newly introduced in late Qing China. The novel begins in 1962, or year of Confucius 2513, and shows a 50th anniversary celebration of a Shanghai-based reform movement in which a World Expo and peace treaty signings occur. The celebrated reform movement was the Constitutional Party (xianzhengdang), an umbrella movement of secret society and pro-reform or revolution groups. By 1962 there were three political parties: the Patriotic Self-Government Party (Aiguo zizhidang), the Liberal Party (ziyoudang), and the State Power Party (guoquandang). These three are decentralist, individualist, and centralist, respectively. The "Hungarian Conference" resulted in the 1962 International Peace Conference, held in Shanghai in January of that year, in which China is recognized as the most dominant county on Earth. In the story people in foreign countries, including those in the West, study Chinese to get ahead, and foreign students in China remain in China after the conclusion of their studies, causing brain drain in the West. In Chapter 2, Kong Hongdao (孔弘道; meaning "expander of the Dao"), style name Juemin (; meaning "enlightener of the people"), a 72nd generation descendant of Confucius, gives a lecture in which he discusses how a reformed China came to be, covering the period 1903-1962. The lectures are called "China's History These Sixty Years Past." The audience includes 1,000 students from various countries, with each one having total fluency in Chinese. Kong Hongdao had studied in the West before returning to China. Kong Hongdao describes the genesis of the Constitutional Party (Xianzheng dang), which guides China's reform. Kong Hongdao states that China underwent six stages before being reformed, but the novel describes only a portion of the first stage. Kong states that the stages are: preparation, autonomy of various districts, unification of all of China, building things and producing goods, competing with other countries, and finally becoming the global superpower. The historical overview is a small portion of Kong's lecture. This section includes debates between the characters Huang Keqiang (黄克強) and Li Qubing (李去病), who discuss whether China should experience a revolution or be reformed. Huang Keqiang's father, an academic from Guangdong, sent him and Li Qubing to Oxford University; due to the Hundred Days Reform they do not immediately return to China, and they experience anti-Chinese sentiment from the Europeans. On their way back to China, Li Qubing argues the Qing Dynasty government needs to be abolished, while Huang Keqiang argues it can be reformed. The debates, transcribed verbatim within Kong Hongdao's speech, make up the bulk of the speech. Huang Keqiang and Li Qubing established the Constitutional Party. There is no more content after Chapter 5. David Wang stated that the absence of the middle portions of the storyline means that the novel does not have its "progressive "narrative"" or "the "historical" time to make the future accessible and intelligible." Development. Liang Qichao, who believed that China would later adopt a parliamentary democracy as its form of government, was influenced by the 1888 American novel "Looking Backward" and the 1886 Japanese novel "Setchubai" ("Plum Blossoms in the Snow"). As part of his research he visited Australia for six months. Liang Qichao considered making two sequels, with the second being "The Future of Old China", and the third being "New Peach Blossom Spring". The second would be about a China that decides not to adapt to a new era and therefore falls into ruin, while the third would be about the descendants of Chinese who had established a civilization on an island away from China; these people come back to China to improve it. According to Chloë F. Starr, the author of "Red-light Novels of the late Qing", the novel stopped publication due to a decline in the sale of serial magazines. David Wang stated in "" that Liang Qichao had changed his vision of how a new China would be established, and that this and several other factors resulted in a halt in the novel's development. David Wang concluded that the fact that the book was never completed was "symptomatic of Liang's inabilities to come to terms with a new temporal paradigm." Reception. David Wang compared this novel with "Taiwan Straits: 1999" by Yao Chia-wen arguing that they both had nationalistic elements. Several works had been inspired by this novel, including "Xin Zhongguo", a 1910 novel by Lu Shi'e; and "New Era", a 1908 novel by Bigehuan zhuren.

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Luha ng Buwaya Luha ng Buwaya or, "Crocodile's Tear" in translation, is a novel written by Palanca Awardee and Filipino novelist Amado V. Hernandez. It consists of 53 chapters. The story is about poor farmers uniting against the greedy desires of the prominent family of the Grandes. In Filipino idioms, "crocodiles" were used to symbolize those people who are corrupt. The "buwaya" (crocodile) in the title refers to the Grandes family, who were greedy for money. Description. "Luha ng Buwaya", together with Hernandez's other novel "Mga Ibong Mandaragit", was based on his personal experiences while imprisoned in the New Bilibid Prison from 1951 until his release on parole in 1956. The novel was about peasants from a barrio and their leader, in the person of a school teacher, fighting against oppression and greed. Through their action, the people find renewed belief in their capabilities. In a larger perspective, "Luha ng Buwaya" was Hernandez's realistic embodiment of the socio-political crisis happening in the Philippines during the 1930s until the 1950s. Hernandez wrote the novel employing an "easy style" and contemporary Pilipino language. While writing the manuscript for Luha ng Buwaya, Hernandez was also acting as the editor of the prison newspaper named "Muntinglupa Courier".

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Democracy or Demo Crazy Democracy or DemoCrazy is a political satire novel wrote by Seyyed Mahdi Shojaee in Persian and translated to English by Caroline Croskery. Democracy or DemoCrazy was published by Candle and Fog Publishing in 2014. This book also published by Createspace Publishing in 2015. Synopsis. The government has changed from a monarchy to a democracy by order of a king who had ascended to the throne by succession. While the people have now attained the right to vote, the only candidates are the king's twenty-four sons, who will each serve for terms lasting two years. In the successive reign of each brother, oppression and injustice abound, and they spend their terms feasting, pillaging and plundering the country as much as possible, lining their pockets with enough cash to live out their days in luxury. Each time heading up to the new election, the people take refuge in their wishful thinking that the administration of the “next” prince will make things better. But things never change. The princes had all inherited their grandfather's first name, “Demo” as a prefix to their names. The king had named his twenty-fifth son who was lacking in both appearance, intelligence and character, Demo C’est Assez (meaning Demo “is enough”) but this last prince became known among the people instead as Demo Crazy because of his devious mind and volatile behavior. In an effort to deny any of the twenty-four brothers a second chance at the throne, the people finally decide to vote for prince number twenty-five, Demo Crazy, who is in no way considered qualified for the position. The people actually do not believe that he will win, but they vote for him because they believe that he will most likely be the least brutal, and less of a tyrant than any of the other brothers. Demo Crazy forms a circle of cohorts and enacts his own Demo Crazian principles which consist of a combination of oppression and deception of the masses. He embarks upon a mission to destroy the country, playing off his actions as a “service” to the people. As it turns out, he is really in fact an enemy agent, who after ultimately fleeing his own country and ta king refuge in enemy lands, surrenders his nation to them. The behavior and documented speeches of Demo Crazy are truly astonishing, and even more unusual are the laws and regulations he exercised in ruling over his country. The question of whether or not the standard and conventional democracy in the world today is predicated upon the principles and methods that Demo Crazy carried out in this book is presented only as food for thought and not as a steadfast claim. The answer to this question will be left for the reader to decide. About the Author. Seyyed Mahdi Shojaee was born on August 1960 in Tehran. He is famous for his outstanding books on spiritual themes. After obtaining his high school diploma in mathematics, Shojaee entered the Dramatic Arts Faculty where he was conferred a bachelor's degree in Dramatic Literature. Simultaneously, he studied Political Science at Tehran University's Faculty of Law and Political Science, but left his studies unfinished to pursue a career in writing. About the Translator. Caroline Croskery was born in the United States and moved to Iran at the age of twenty-one. She holds a bachelor's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in Iranian Studies. For many years she has been active in three fields of specialization: Language Teaching, Translation and Interpretation, and Voiceover Acting. She has taught English at the Iran Language Institute in Iran, translated feature films for subtitling at Farabi Cinema and Hozeh Honari, and performed actor dubbing of Persian films into English at IRIB, Sahar. Having lived in Iran for thirteen years, she returned to the US and began a ten-year career as a Persian-language interpreter for the Los Angeles County Superior Courts. She is an accomplished voiceover talent, and currently continues her voiceover career in both English and Persian.

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Political fiction Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantastic, reality". The political novel overlaps with the social novel, proletarian novel, and social science fiction. Plato's "Republic", a Socratic dialogue written around 380 BC, has been one of the world's most influential works of philosophy and political theory, both intellectually and historically. The "Republic" is concerned with justice (), the order and character of the just city-state, and the just man. Other influential politically-themed works include Thomas More's "Utopia" (1516), Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (1726), Voltaire's "Candide" (1759), and Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1852). Political fiction frequently employs satire, often in the utopian and dystopian genres. This includes totalitarian dystopias of the early 20th century such as Jack London's "The Iron Heel", Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here", and George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four". Political satire. The Greek playwright Aristophanes' plays are known for their political and social satire, particularly in his criticism of the powerful Athenian general, Cleon, in plays such as "The Knights". Aristophanes is also notable for the persecution he underwent. Aristophanes' plays turned upon images of filth and disease. His bawdy style was adopted by Greek dramatist-comedian Menander, whose early play, "Drunkenness", contains an attack on the politician, Callimedon. Jonathan Swift's "A Modest Proposal" (1729) is an 18th-century Juvenalian satirical essay in which he suggests that the impoverished Irish might ease their economic troubles by selling their children as food for rich gentlemen and ladies. The satirical hyperbole mocks heartless attitudes towards the poor, as well as British policy toward the Irish in general. George Orwell's "Animal Farm" (1945) is an allegorical and dystopian novella which satirises the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the Soviet Union's Stalinist era. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and was hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism—an attitude that had been shaped by his experiences during the Spanish Civil War. The Soviet Union, he believed, had become a brutal dictatorship, built upon a cult of personality and enforced by a reign of terror. Orwell described his "Animal Farm" as "a satirical tale against Stalin", and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946) he wrote that "Animal Farm" was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole." Orwell's most famous work, however, is "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (published in 1949), many of whose terms and concepts, such as "Big Brother", "doublethink", "thoughtcrime", "Newspeak", "Room 101", "telescreen", "2 + 2 = 5", and "memory hole", have entered into common use. "Nineteen Eighty-Four" popularised the adjective "Orwellian", which describes official deception, secret surveillance, and manipulation of recorded history by a totalitarian or authoritarian state. 16th century. The poet Jan Kochanowski's play, "The Dismissal of the Greek Envoys" (1578), the first tragedy written in the Polish language, recounts an incident leading up to the Trojan War. Its theme of the responsibilities of statesmanship resonates to the present day. 18th century. The political comedy, "The Return of the Deputy" (1790), by Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz—Polish poet, playwright, statesman, and comrade-in-arms of Tadeusz Kościuszko—was written in about two weeks' time while Niemcewicz was serving as a deputy to the historic Four-Year Sejm of 1788–92. The comedy's premiere in January 1791 was an enormous success, sparking widespread debate, royal communiques, and diplomatic correspondence. As Niemcewicz had hoped, it set the stage for passage of Poland's epochal Constitution of 3 May 1791, which is regarded as Europe's first, and the world's second, modern written national constitution, after the United States Constitution implemented in 1789. The comedy pits proponents against opponents of political reforms: of abolishing the destabilizing free election of Poland's kings; of abolishing the legislatively destructive "liberum veto"; of granting greater rights to peasants and townspeople; of curbing the privileges of the mostly self-interested noble class; and of promoting a more active Polish role in international affairs, in the interest of stopping the depredations of Poland's neighbors, Russia, Prussia, and Austria (who will in 1795 complete the dismemberment of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth). Romantic interest is provided by a rivalry between a reformer and a conservative for a young lady's hand—which is won by the proponent of reforms. 19th-century novel. An early example of the political novel is "The Betrothed" (1827) by Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian historical novel. Set in northern Italy in 1628, during the oppressive years of direct Spanish rule, it has been seen sometimes as a veiled attack on the Austrian Empire, which controlled Italy at the time the novel was written. It has been called the most famous and widely read novel in the Italian language. In the 1840s British politician Benjamin Disraeli wrote a trilogy of novels with political themes. With "Coningsby; or, The New Generation" (1844), Disraeli, in historian Robert Blake's view, "infused the novel genre with political sensibility, espousing the belief that England's future as a world power depended not on the complacent old guard, but on youthful, idealistic politicians." "Coningsby" was followed by "Sybil; or, The Two Nations" (1845), another political novel, which was less idealistic and more clear-eyed than "Coningsby"; the "two nations" of its subtitle referred to the huge economic and social gap between the privileged few and the deprived working classes. The last of Disraeli's political-novel trilogy, "Tancred; or, The New Crusade" (1847), promoted the Church of England's role in reviving Britain's flagging spirituality. Ivan Turgenev wrote "Fathers and Sons" (1862) as a response to the growing cultural schism that he saw between Russia's liberals of the 1830s and 1840s, and the growing Russian nihilist movement among their sons. Both the nihilists and the 1830s liberals sought Western-based social change in Russia. Additionally, these two modes of thought were contrasted with the Slavophiles, who believed that Russia's path lay in its traditional spirituality. Turgenev's novel was responsible for popularizing the use of the term "nihilism", which became widely used after the novel was published. The Polish writer Bolesław Prus' novel, "Pharaoh" (1895), is set in the Egypt of 1087–85 BCE as that country experiences internal stresses and external threats that will culminate in the fall of its Twentieth Dynasty and New Kingdom. The young protagonist Ramses learns that those who would challenge the powers that be are vulnerable to co-option, seduction, subornation, defamation, intimidation, and assassination. Perhaps the chief lesson, belatedly absorbed by Ramses as pharaoh, is the importance, to power, of knowledge. Prus' vision of the fall of an ancient civilization derives some of its power from the author's intimate awareness of the final demise of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795, a century before he completed "Pharaoh". This is a political awareness that Prus shared with his 10-years-junior novelist compatriot, Joseph Conrad, who was an admirer of Prus' writings. "Pharaoh" has been translated into 20 languages and adapted as a 1966 Polish feature film. It is also known to have been Joseph Stalin's favourite book. 20th-century novel. Joseph Conrad wrote several novels with political themes: "Nostromo (1904)", "The Secret Agent" (1907), and "Under Western Eyes" (1911). "Nostromo" (1904) is set amid political upheaval in the fictitious South American country of Costaguana, where a trusted Italian-descended longshoreman, Giovanni Battista Fidanza—the novel's eponymous "Nostromo" (Italian for "our man")—is instructed by English-descended silver-mine owner Charles Gould to take Gould's silver abroad so that it will not fall into the hands of revolutionaries. The role of politics is paramount in "The Secret Agent", as the main character, Verloc, works for a quasi-political organisation. The plot to destroy Greenwich Observatory is in itself anarchistic. Vladimir asserts that the bombing "must be purely destructive" and that the anarchists who will be implicated as the architects of the explosion "should make it clear that [they] are perfectly determined to make a clean sweep of the whole social creation." However, the political form of anarchism is ultimately controlled in the novel: the only supposed politically motivated act is orchestrated by a secret government agency. Conrad's third political novel, "Under Western Eyes", is connected to Russian history. Its first audience read it against the backdrop of the failed Revolution of 1905 and in the shadow of the movements and impulses that would take shape as the revolutions of 1917. Conrad's earlier novella, "Heart of Darkness" (1899), also had political implications, in its depiction of European colonial depredations in Africa, which Conrad witnessed during his employ in the Belgian Congo. John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939) is a depiction of the plight of the poor. However, some Steinbeck's contemporaries attacked his social and political views. Bryan Cordyack writes: "Steinbeck was attacked as a propagandist and a socialist from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. The most fervent of these attacks came from the Associated Farmers of California; they were displeased with the book's depiction of California farmers' attitudes and conduct toward the migrants. They denounced the book as a 'pack of lies' and labeled it 'communist propaganda'". Some accused Steinbeck of exaggerating camp conditions to make a political point. Steinbeck had visited the camps well before publication of the novel and argued that their inhumane nature destroyed the settlers' spirit. "The Quiet American" (1955) by English novelist Graham Greene questions the foundations of growing American involvement in Vietnam in the 1950s. The novel has received much attention due to its prediction of the outcome of the Vietnam War and subsequent American foreign policy since the 1950s. Graham Greene portrays a U.S. official named Pyle as so blinded by American exceptionalism that he cannot see the calamities he brings upon the Vietnamese. The book uses Greene's experiences as a war correspondent for "The Times" and "Le Figaro" in French Indochina in 1951–54. "The Gay Place" (1961) is a set of politically-themed novellas with interlocking plots and characters by American author Billy Lee Brammer. Set in an unnamed state identical to Texas, each novella has a different protagonist: Roy Sherwood, a member of the state legislature; Neil Christiansen, the state's junior senator; and Jay McGown, the governor's speech-writer. The governor himself, Arthur Fenstemaker, a master politician (said to have been based on Brammer's mentor Lyndon Johnson) serves as the dominant figure throughout. The book also includes characters based on Brammer, his wife Nadine, Johnson's wife Ladybird, and his brother Sam Houston Johnson. The book has been widely acclaimed one of the best American political novels ever written. 21st Century Novels. Since 2000, there has been a surge of Transatlantic migrant literature in French, Spanish, and English, with new narratives about political topics relating to global debt, labor abuses, mass migration, and environmental crises in the Global South. Political fiction by contemporary novelists from the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America directly challenges political leadership, systemic racism, and economical systems. Fatou Diome, a Senegalese immigrant living France since the 1990s, writes political fiction about her experiences on France's unwelcoming borders that are dominated by white Christian culture. The work of Guadeloupean author Maryse Condé also tackles colonialism and oppression; her best known titles are "Ségou" (1984) and "Ségou II" (1985). Set in historical Segou (now part of Mali), the novels examine the violent legacies of the slave trade, Islam, Christianity, and colonization (from 1797 to 1860). A bold critic of the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, French novelist Marie Ndiayes won the Prix Goncourt for "Three Strong Women"(2009) about patriarchal control. Proletarian novel. The proletarian novel is written by workers, mainly for other workers. It overlaps and sometimes is synonymous with the working-class novel, socialist novel, social-problem novel (also problem novel, sociological novel, or social novel), propaganda or thesis novel, and socialist-realism novel. The intention of the writers of proletarian literature is to lift the workers from the slums by inspiring them to embrace the possibilities of social change or of a political revolution. As such, it is a form of political fiction. The proletarian novel may comment on political events, systems, and theories, and is frequently seen as an instrument to promote social reform or political revolution among the working classes. Proletarian literature is created especially by communist, socialist, and anarchist authors. It is about the lives of the poor, and the period from 1930 to 1945, in particular, produced many such novels. However, proletarian works were also produced before and after those dates. In Britain, the terms "working-class" literature, novel, etc., are more generally used. Social novel. A closely related type of novel, which frequently has a political dimension, is the social novel – also known as the "social-problem" or "social-protest" novel – a "work of fiction in which a prevailing social problem, such as gender, race, or class prejudice, is dramatized through its effect on the characters of a novel". More specific examples of social problems that are addressed in such works include poverty, conditions in factories and mines, the plight of child labor, violence against women, rising criminality, and epidemics caused by overcrowding and poor sanitation in cities. Charles Dickens was a fierce critic of the poverty and social stratification of Victorian society. Karl Marx asserted that Dickens "issued to the world more political and social truths than have been uttered by all the professional politicians, publicists and moralists put together". On the other hand, George Orwell, in his essay on Dickens, wrote: "There is no clear sign that he wants the existing order to be overthrown, or that he believes it would make very much difference if it were overthrown. For in reality his target is not so much society as 'human nature'." Dickens's second novel, "Oliver Twist" (1839), shocked readers with its images of poverty and crime: it destroyed middle-class polemics about criminals, making any pretence to ignorance about what poverty entailed impossible. Charles Dickens's "Hard Times" (1854) is set in a small Midlands industrial town and particularly criticizes the effect of Utilitarianism on the lives of cities' working classes. John Ruskin declared "Hard Times" his favourite Dickens work due to its exploration of important social questions. Walter Allen characterised "Hard Times" as an unsurpassed "critique of industrial society", Notable examples. "This is a list of a few of the early or notable examples; others belong on the main list"

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From the Fatherland, with Love is a novel by Ryū Murakami, first published in Japanese in 2005 and translated into English in 2013 by Ralph McCarthy, Charles De Wolf, and Ginny Tapley. The novel depicts an alternate history in which North Korea invades and then occupies Japan in 2011. Awards. "From the Fatherland With Love" was awarded the 59th and the 58th Noma Literary Prize in 2005.

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Maganda pa ang Daigdig Maganda pa ang Daigdig (officially translated as "The World Be Lovely Still"; the literal translation is "The World is Still Beautiful") is a Tagalog-language novel written by Filipino novelist Lázaro Francisco. Plot. The novel is about Lino Rivera, a gardener, who lost faith in an "oppressive social system" in the Philippines. Lino was accused of committing robbery and homicide. Lino escapes from prison to live a life of a fugitive. He defended an “enlightened landlord” against the Hukbalahap of Central Luzon and against former guerrillas who were active during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Convinced by Colonel Roda, Padre Amando, among other "kindhearted people", Lino comes down from the mountain, turning his back from living the life of a fugitive. Description. The novel was first appeared as a serial in 1955 on the pages of "Liwayway" magazine. It was first published in book form by the Ateneo de Manila University Press in 1982. The 362-page novel was republished in 1989. In 1992, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) chose "Maganda pa ang Daigdig" as a less known literary work authored by a Filipino writer that has "high artistic merit" and "worthy of translation to introduce to an international readership".

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Sherds (novel) Sherds (“fragments of pottery” or "potsherds") is a 2007 short novel or novelette written by Filipino National Artist for Literature and multi-awarded author F. Sionil José. According to Elmer A. Ordoñez, a writer from "The Manila Times", in "Sherds" José achieved “lyrical effects”, specially in the novel’s final chapters, by putting into “good use” Joseph Conrad’s and Ford Madox Ford’s so-called "progression d’effet" (literally "progression of the effect"). "Sherds" is the latest and last novel by José. According to "The Atlantic" National Correspondent James Fallows, the novel is dedicated to the author’s wife Teresita José. The novel, which can be read in one sitting, was described by Li-an de la Cruz-Busto, a reporter for "Sun.Star Davao" as “very light but candid and insightful”, a description that complements "The Manila Times" reporter Perry Gil S. Mallari’s calling José’s "Sherds" as an “easy read and a guaranteed page-turner”. A novel composed of twelve chapters with a "tight and palpable" narrative pacing, "Sherds" deals with topics related to "personal conscience, greed and the position of art" in social class struggle, thus serving as a cogitation on "what is wrong" with the Philippines as a nation. José wrote "Sherds" while he was in Japan. Description. Like José’s other novels and stories such as the "Rosales Saga", "Sherds" is another presentation and “meditation” by the author regarding “class conflict” and “malaise in society” in the Philippines through the use of “non-ideological terms” and sharing of his personal knowledge of the “travails of the original tillers of the soil” and the dispossession of the land-tillers through the workings of the oligarchs. Employing a story-telling technique that begins with the “ending of the story, in "medias res"”, José narrates the tale of the discovery made by Peter Gregory Golangco (also known simply as PG Golangco), a pottery-and-ceramics artist, art professor, and aesthete, through the “Pygmalion-like nurturing” of Guia Espiritu, Golangco’s student who has an elemental idea of art that is “grounded in the clay of oppressed people” of the Philippine countryside. As an “art and society” novel, the ninth chapter of "Sherds" showed Golangco as an aesthete questioned about his pose and position regarding social protest and his views about Pablo Picasso and Francisco Goya during an art exhibit. Golangco is a believer that “art thrives on freedom”. However, a guest during the exhibition countered Golangco’s belief by saying that freedom is a “political condition” and that Golangco is a free person because of influence and the financial means to buy freedom, which is contrary to the so-called unpampered and unfree “artists of the people”. Despite such "questioning", Golangco was applauded. Surprised, Golangco retreated to Café Guernica, where he became “almost inconsolable” until Golangco was reassured by two female companions. According to Elmer A. Ordoñez, this scene in "Sherds", is where Golangco’s “education of the aesthete” started. The novel is full of symbolism. The primary example of such usage of symbolism is the clay used by PG Golangco in making pots. The clay symbolizes the oppressed villagers in Espiritu's barrio. As a symbolic element of the narrative, the clay has a fundamental function at the finale of the novel. Principal characters. The major protagonists of the novel are Peter Gregory Golangco and Guia Espiritu. Golangco, a recognized art scholar abroad and a member of a hacienda-owning clan, was a student, artist, academic, and occasional “sybaritic delights” indulger who decided to return to the Philippines. Golangco was oblivious to the fact that the Golangcos who stayed in the Philippines were the source of oppression, death, and poverty in the village in his hometown. The Golangco clan has a thriving business enterprise inside and outside the Philippines. The clan also participated in Philippine politics through elections and accepting appointments to positions at the “higher echelons” of the Philippine Government. PG Golangco had a “long-standing affair” with the dean of the university where he is teaching. The dean was a former student of Golangco. PG Golangco was unaware that the Golangcos were responsible for the demise of the parents of Guia Espiritu, Golangco's student. Guia Espiritu is Golangco’s student-assistant and “protégé in grooming”. Espiritu described the Philippines as a country and society that remained semi-feudal and semi-colonial. Despite being the art student, Espiritu became Golangco’s “educator of the aesthete”. Espiritu introduced and mentored Golangco about the clay and pottery practices of her parents and in her village. Such introduction and mentoring lead Golangco to the “aesthetics and pedagogy” of the oppressed and the dispossessed, and eventually to Golangco’s discovery of Espiritu’s origins. Golangco became intrigued by of the “strange happenings in his own household and dealings” with Espiritu.

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Jagari Jagari or Jagori (, English: "The Vigil" or "Awake") is a Bengali novel written by Satinath Bhaduri. The novel is considered to be a master-piece of Indian literature and it was first published in 1945. It is a semi-autobiographical novel and it is set the 1940s's during the Quit India Movement. Plot. The novel is written in first-person narrative, but from four different people's point of view. During India's freedom movement Bilu, an Indian revolutionary is sentenced to death. The novel starts in the jail custody at the last night before the convict is to be hanged. The first chapter is written from that Bilu's perspective, where he narrates his own life and experiences. It also tells the inhuman trials and tortures he faced. The second, third and fourth chapter narrate the same story from his father, mother and brother's perspectives. All of them await the capital punishment while explaining their own thoughts, anxiety and experiences. Theme. The novel is written in the background of the Quit India Movement (1942). It narrates common Bengali people's involvement in India's freedom movement. Satinath Bhaduri had direct experience of contemporary Indian politics and the Quit India movement. He added many autobiographical elements in the plot. Publication. The novel was first published in 1945. It was author's debut novel. Right after the publication it became popular among Bengali readers. Sisir Kumar Das, in his book "History of Indian Literature: 1911-1956, struggle for freedom : triumph and tragedy" wrote that this novel is "one of the finest political novel" written in Bengali. In a 2014 "Scroll.in" article, the novel was included in one of the "five must-read books of Bengali literature". Awards. The book received the following awards: