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Saturday 10 April 2010

Little Brother

This is a story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside-down. Now I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there, I'll tell you how I stayed up way too late reading an incredible story.

Yesterday, while researching the Digital Economy Bill, I stumbled across mention of an ebook called Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. I knew the author's name, of course; Doctorow is something of a big noise on the interwebs, though I'd never read anything of his before. The Creative Commons license on Little Brother and the price tag (£0.00) intrigued me, so I downloaded the PDF and decided to come back to it later.

That night, I was in Gavin's spare room. Our sleeping patterns are so different (me being a student and all) that I usually bring a book with me to read until I get tired. In the absence of a book, however, I resorted to reading on my phone; PDF wasn't an option, but such is the magic of Creative Commons that it was available in loads of different formats. I ended up reading the HTML version.

For five hours.

I got wrapped up in the story: a teenage boy and his hacker friends. A government that responds to terrorism with shows of force. A prison kept secret from the public. All these elements caught me up and kept me reading, long past the point where it was just 'something to do until I got tired.' For the first three hours, I told myself that when my already-low phone battery died, I'd go to sleep; but when it finally did, I went downstairs and got my phone charger. I endured multiple phone crashes, every time patiently restarting and scrolling to where I'd left off.

At some points, I had to stop reading just to catch my breath and let my heart slow down. At others, I completely forgot where I was - I couldn't have cared less, all that mattered was the story! It's hard to classify, exactly. It's technically a dystopic, futuristic sci-fi, I suppose; but it could be non-fiction within a couple of years. That alone makes it deeply unsettling, and thoroughly in the spirit of Orwell's 1984, for which it was named.

Being the excitable little fellow that I am, I couldn't even wait until I finished it before telling the world. I announced on Twitter: "Head full of thoughts. Too excited to sleep. Damn... You KNOW when you're reading something that will change you." It's been an awfully long time since a book's done that to me.


Obviously, I can't promise that you'll react the way I did, or even that you'll like it. But I feel compelled to share it. There's a lot of information in the book about what you can legally do with it and why, and Doctorow's kindly allowed for the fact that I want EVERYBODY to read it. I have the PDF on my USB key; I will leave a copy on the desktop of everyone I feasibly can. Is he losing money on it? No, I fully intend to buy a copy, something I wouldn't have done previously. Another small victory for the new way of doing things, I think.


Read Little Brother for yourself. The link will go in my 'interesting things' sidebar.

PS I'm listening to a Podcast of the Lib Dem debate on the DE Bill, it makes for very interesting listening.
PPS For something less serious and more noodly, check out Spaghatta Nadle.

11 comments:

  1. Got me hooked, I'll check it out for sure! Thanks for the tip. :)

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  2. Fascinating.
    I'm always interested in books that have real impact.
    I'll have to read it too. (I've never read any of Cory's fiction either)

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  3. It's an amazing book and I'm delighted you've discovered it too.

    I once gave that Doctorow a lift to Oxford station, and en route I got zapped by a speed camera. The irony was not lost on me.

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  4. Wow, really? How d'you know him?

    I usually don't even notice the cameras. I've never felt so uncomfortable about that. Considered taking photos of all the CCTV cameras I could find, and seeing how long it took to get arrested.

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  5. Oh, we go way back.

    Actually we don't - I've met him precisely twice. Once was last year in Montreal where we both sat on a panel discussing writing for young people and I was able to tell him the speed camera anecdote. The first was the time of the anecdote, in 2003, when he gave a talk at one of the Oxford colleges and because we were both going the same way after, I offered him a lift ...

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  6. Have just ordered a copy from Amazon on the strength of your enthusiasm. (Oh, and I also loved the photos you'd posted under 'Found on Flickr 9' by the way)

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  7. Thanks Erin, I'd love to hear what you think of it! x

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  8. Hi Anna, it's me again. I started Little Brother earlier today and I've just finished it - like you I couldn't put it down. I LOVED it!!! So glad I happened upon your blog and your review of the book. Like you I want to tell everyone about this little gem. It is so thought-provoking. I loved the bit about 99% 'accuracy' of spotting likely terrorists, meaning that 10,000 innocent people would get wrongly profiled as such. The best kind of fiction makes you look at the real world in a whole new light. What are we doing to our freedoms in the name of anti-terrorist security measures? What are we doing to our ethics, our humanity? The argument that innocent people with nothing to hide shouldn't mind when privacy is invaded is blown apart.

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  9. Hi Erin, that's great! I'm SO glad you enjoyed it, it really is thought-provoking isn't it. Yes, the 99% part made me stop and think too - maths isn't my strong point, but he explained it well.

    I was still wrestling with some ideas for days after I finished it - the public / private key thing, for example - and I'll definitely read it again.

    Please stop by again Erin, I've really enjoyed your comments!
    A x x

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  10. On the strength of this post, I downloaded and read 'Little Brother', and think that I'll join you in recommending it to everyone I know. A really powerful book, considering how relatively short it is, and one that's made me a bit more thoughtful about technology and security-related issues.

    Most of all, I like it because I know that it has had exactly the same effect on me that reading '1984' had on my father - books like these need to be written, and (although it's sad that such dystopian topics are still relevant) I think there's something slightly magical about different generations realising the same things through literature written decades apart.

    Thank you :)

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  11. I'm so glad you like it, Miki. You're right, these books do need to be written. They're a wake up call. I only recently read 1984 myself, and definitely felt the same enjoyable unease from it.

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