Stand on Zanzibar
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Stand on Zanzibar is a dystopic New Wave science fiction novel written by John Brunner and first published in 1968 (ISBN 0345254864195). The book won a Hugo for best SF novel at the 27th World Science Fiction Convention in 1969.
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[edit] Plot introduction
A lengthy book, it was innovative within its genre for mixing narrative with entire chapters dedicated to providing background information and world building, creating a sprawling narrative that presents a complex and multi-faceted view of the story's future world. Such information-rich chapters were often constructed from many short paragraphs, sentences, or fragments thereof - pulled from sources such as slogans, snatches of conversation, advertising text, songs, extracts from newspapers and books, and other cultural detritus. The result is reminiscent of the concept of information overload.
The narrative itself follows the lives of a large cast of characters, carefully chosen to give a broad cross-section of the future world. Some of these interact directly with the central narratives, while others add depth to Brunner's world. Brunner appropriated this basic narrative technique from the U.S.A. Trilogy of John Dos Passos. On the first page of the novel, Brunner provides a quote from The Gutenberg Galaxy by Marshall McLuhan that approximates such a technique, entitling it "the Innis mode" as an apparent label.
[edit] Explanation of the novel's title
The novel's main driver is overpopulation and its projected consequences. Its title refers to an early twentieth century claim that the world's population could fit onto the Isle of Wight (area 381 km²) if they were all standing upright. Brunner remarked that the growing world population now required a larger island—the 3.5 billion people living in 1968 could stand together on the Isle of Man (area 572 km²), while the 7 billion people whom he projected would be alive in 2010 would need to stand on Zanzibar (area 1554 km²). Throughout the book, the image of the entire human race standing shoulder-to-shoulder on a small island is a metaphor for a crowded world where each person feels hemmed in by a prison made not of metal bars, but of other human beings. By the end of the book, some of that crowd is (metaphorically) getting its feet wet in the Indian Ocean surrounding the island.
[edit] Books within the book
Quotations from books by Chad C. Mulligan, an iconoclastic social commentator, appear throughout the novel. The quotes illustrate or contrast plot points. Mulligan later emerges from self-imposed exile and joins Elihu Masters in his Beninia project.
The books are:
- The Hipcrime Vocab, which is not unlike the Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. "Hipcrime" is one of Mulligan's own neologisms. It's only definition is "You committed one when you opened this book. Keep it up. It's our only hope."
- You're an Ignorant Idiot, a series of pieces poking holes in "common sense" and received wisdom.
- Better ? than ?
- You : Beast
[edit] Plot summary
The story is set in 2010, mostly in the United States. A number of plots and many vignettes are played out in this future world, based on Brunner's extrapolation of social, economic and technological trends. The key main trends are based on the enormous population and its impact: social stresses, eugenic legislation, widening social divisions, future shock, extremism. Certain of Brunner's guesses are fairly close, others not, and some ideas clearly show their 1960s mind-set.
Many futuristic concepts, products and services, and slang are presented. The Hipcrime Vocab and other works by the fictional sociologist Chad C. Mulligan are frequent sources of quotations. Some examples of slang include "codder" (man), "shiggy" (woman), "whereinole" (where in hell?), "prowlie" (an armored police car), "offyourass" (possessing an attitude) and "mucker" (a person running amok). A new technology introduced is "eptification" (education for particular tasks), a form of mental programming.
The book centres on two New York men, Donald Hogan and Norman Niblock House. House is a rising executive at General Technics, one of the all-powerful corporations. Using his "Afram" (African American) heritage to advance his position, he has risen to vice-president at age twenty-six.
Hogan is introduced with a single paragraph rising out of nowhere, "Donald Hogan is a spy". Donald shares an apartment with House and is undercover as a student. Hogan's real work is as an analyst, although he is a commissioned officer and can be called up for duty.
The two main plots concern the fictional African state of Beninia (a name reminiscent of the real-life Benin, though that nation was known as the Republic of Dahomey when the book was written) making a deal with General Technics to take over the management of their country, in a bid to speed up development from third world to first world status. A second major plot is break-through in genetic engineering in the fictional Australasian nation of Yatakang (which seems to be a disguised Indonesia), which Hogan is soon sent by the U.S. government ("State") to investigate. The two plots eventually cross, bringing potential implications for the entire world.
[edit] Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
The country of Yatakang is described as being spread over more than 100 islands, the largest of which is Shongao, area 1790 sq. mi. Shongao is also described as being shaped like a sword. The description closely matches Palawan, which lies between the main Philippine Islands and Sarawak. This location is consistent with small scale "aqua-bandit" guerilla attacks on the Philippines from Yatakang.
[edit] Philosophy
The central question asked at the end of the book was posed by one of the characters, Chad C. Mulligan, when he said, "What good is it to be human if it takes a machine to save us?" The question here refers to the machine Shalmaneser, a super-computer owned by General Technics. As the two plot lines intertwine we find that mankind's hope of breeding out violence in subsequent generations has been lost. While it might be possible for man to achieve and implement a limited solution, Norman House suggests that the problem be handed over to Shalmaneser and solved. Perhaps the question can be rephrased to say, "What good is it to be human if we can't save ourselves?" The title of the book, 'Stand on Zanzibar', alludes to the growing problems of the world John Brunner invisioned as the future in 2010 from which we need to be saved.
