little brother and tomorrow

[AlexReid]

As we have remarked Little Brother is about tomorrow. There are no futuristic technologies to speak of. Yes, it's a world that's more techie than the one we live in, but it could be tomorrow. Doctorow brings together quite strongly the important cyberpunk themes of technology, ideology, and human agency. In effect he shows us a near-future where the struggle for freedom will occur through networks, information, and surveillance. In this future, encryption is one of the most important tools. It is the primary means of ensuring privacy.

I think this issue is an integral theme to the art of the novel. The novel is primarily an art form of the industrial era. It comes to age with the urbanization of society and the slow globalization of economies. It is during this time that notions of public and private spaces develop. The novel develops particularly as an art form for exploring that most private of spaces that develops during this period: one's consciousness. I realize that sounds a little strange, but what I mean is that the idea of our psychic interiority really develops during this time, in conjunction with the novel.

Cyberpunk shows us a world where the divisions of public and private no longer function. Privacy still exists, if you can secure it, but it is fragmented spatially. Our interior conscious is now splayed open and distributed across a global network.

Of course these things didn't happen overnight. During the Modernist era we could already see the fragmentation of consciousness and space in Joyce or Picasso or Eisenstein or Dos Passos and so on. Back then it was technological too: the film camera, the typewriter, the gramophone, the automobile, etc.

Literature has long played a role in helping us understand these experiences. Sometimes, as with Little Brother, it does so in a very deliberate, up-front way. The introduction to Doctorow's book (part of the PDF; I'm not sure if it's in the hard copy you have) makes these claims quite clear.

He writes

If you love freedom, if you think the human condition is dignified by privacy, by the right to be left alone, by the right to  explore your weird ideas provided you don't hurt others, then you have common cause with the kids whose web­browsers and cell phones are being used to lock them up and follow them around.

In short, Doctorow wants to inspire you to action. Is he effective?

[Judith Piccione]

I honestly don't feel like Doctorow's "tomorrow" is all that different from today. Like I've posted before in a couple of discussions...the high school I went to has recently been implementing ID cards with chips in them. They're supposed to keep kids from abusing "open campus" priviledges. It's also used to detect students that slip into school late, leave early, etc. I feel like that in and of itself is a HUGE leap in the direction of Doctorow's world. Also...we can go online with our Playstations, Xboxes, and the like. My sister-in-law uses her house's Playstation to go on Myspace constantly. These ideas really aren't that out of the ordinary. Do I think that San Francisco is going to turn into a police state tomorrow? Probably not, but if another bombing occurs like 9/11...who's to say it won't?

Doctorow isn't really effective in calling me to action in the fight against the theft of privacy and individuality. I don't feel like my personaly privacy is in any way being threatened. However, as I listened to the radio this morning, I heard that Miley Cyrus' cell phone was hacked into and pictures of her showing her "booty" while bending over were posted all over the internet (Do we remember the Paris Hilton incident?). The technology is there...the events of Doctorow's novel are really not impossible.

I have to mention..I really did love the introduction to his book (I downloaded the copy off the internet and printed it out). It made me want to read the book so badly. He totally drew me in talking about a lack of privacy and kids and whatnot. It made me start swirling ideas about what kinds of things go through my students' heads on a daily basis (I'm such a teacher). Also, I loved the afterwords. I liked that REAL people were telling their stories about how they do things like this for a living! The one guy that works for security. He made a particularly valid point about how shopkeepers think they're doing themselves a favor by getting security systems, but are they just pawning the thieves off on their shopkeeping neighbors? That really struck me. I wonder what the stats are on that. The kid that hacked into the Xbox was very interesting. He was a student at MIT, and did it just because he could. How many kids commit crimes and "hack" into things...just because they are bored and have the know-how. I see/hear about it so often in the school I teach at.

In summary (haha)...in answer to the actual question...No, I don't think Doctorow's effective in inspiring me to action...but he definitely got my creative juices flowing and my ideas rolling.

[Kelli Voltz]

I agree with Judith in that I don't feel like personal life is being threatened at all but after reading Doctorow's book I feel that it could be part of our future. Seeing how things were and still are after 9/11 is kind of scary and if there were to be another attack it will just become more and more like the world in Little Brother.

[Lauren Steates]

I think that a lot of what Doctorow is saying is true today, especially in youth. Kids today lose a part of their privacy to technology. Everything that they say through a text or an instant message can, and usually is, forwarded to someone that shouldn't have it. In addition, pictures can be taken and forwarded and posted all over the web. But is the problem the new technology or that kids are accustomed to putting their feelings in a tangible form?

[Megan Morrissey-Kelley]

i agree--i think Doctrow's Little Brother is a work that can inspire and call people to action, but i don't see it for me personally. i think it's a great tool for teenagers who tend to be apathetic or even adults who have given up on affecting change or feel they can't make a difference. i'm not that jaded yet--i like to hope and believe that my vote counts somehow (though i've been waiting for most of my voting life to see this evidenced). i don't believe that freedom is universal. i believe there is a great need for change in the world.

What Little Brother did for me was confirm that my paranoia in regard to technology and concern for loss of autonomy is not necessarily unwarranted.

[Judith Piccione]

Haha! I agree about the paranoia with technology. I mean who's never gotten a virus on their computer before. I pay bills online, purchase things online, and I always wonder if someone's sitting at a computer watching my ever move. I guess reading this novel might also be a great scare-tactic to the poptarts who want to post all of their half-naked pictures on Myspace so that the boys at school can see how cool they are. Wouldn't it freak a lot of young girls out if they knew that 54 year old men are sitting at their computers hacking into their Facebook accounts to see how "cool" pretty little girls really are? It freaks me right out and I don't even post "cool" pictures of myself all over the internet!

[Rachel Alexander]

The rights of privacy and of self expression have always conflicted with the responsibility to protect all of society from harm. It is a matter of individualism versus group safety, and it is a very complicated issue. I'm not sure what specific action Doctorow would be inspiring us to take, other than supporting the broad idea of protecting individual rights within society. In some ways, our society tends to support the globalization of consiousness, as in the 'one laptop per child' project that we have discussed before, and the huge popularity and rapid advancement of the internet. The fragmentation of consciousness seems to be brought back together into a greater whole through these methods. It is interesting to me that in order for someone to gain privacy in a society such as the one set up in Little Brother, one must fragment consciousness even further by devoting a large amount of time and brain power to learning how to subvert the overwhelming forces that oppose privacy.

[Megan Morrissey-Kelley]

agreed. i also believe there's a message about propaganda and hype as a tool to inspire fear.

[Nicole Brady]

YES YES YES! I was just thinking about this earlier today. Teens, and others, who read this book would realize how near this future is. A future where we are being tracked and nothing is truly private. It is frightening enough to inspire people to act. Unlike previous posters, I DO feel it personally. However, my actions would not be as dramatic as Marcus's. As I have posted in a previous blog, I already am very wary about EZPass. While it is easy and discounted, just like the FasTrak in the book, it's just too much Big Brother. I use my fiance's, but if I was going somewhere that I wouldn't want people to find out-no EZ Pass. I also do not put stuff out there online that I wouldn't want people reading. And I do not have a cell-phone-only one that is in my car for 911 calls (they don't charge for that). Maybe I am paranoid but I don't think enough people are paranoid. I don't think that people understand the extent to which we are being tracked. It's not enough to make my life bothered by it. Yet. Let's wait until the next big event and see what happens.

[Amanda McK]

wow...I never even thought about my EZpass....! Good thinking

[Rebecca Burtram]

I was not particularly inspired into action, but I definitely was inspired to think more about my use of technology in how it is tracked or not tracked. I am not particularly concerned with people reading my emails or things like that. I do, like others have mentioned, worry about my online banking though :-)
When I had tech issues the guy at Verizon accessed my computer remotely and fixed it for me. I told him how freaky I thought that was. Sure I had to give him permission.... but only because that is company policy. I'm sure people can access my computer remotely without my permission. I don't keep anything in files that I am worried about.... but I wonder about my financial information being accessed somehow. I guess if I was really worried I wouldn't bank online!
I often found myself just as frustrated with Marcus as I was with the DHS. I felt as though I fit in more with Marcus's dad than Marcus a lot of times :-) "Don't trust anyone over 25" I guess I am just too old to be trusted ;-)
I tried to think of myself living in a situation where I was constantly monitored and under suspicion. I could kind of see myself joining a counter movement under those circumstances. I just like the message in the book that if you really believe something, you can cause awareness and make things happen. You may not always have complete success, but that shouldn't stop you from trying. Things will never change if no one is willing to do anything.

[Amanda McK]

I am a very private person, so naturally, I had considered many of the issues that Doctorow raises in this book regarding my privacy before reading his text. I shop online, have online banking, send text messages, all of which I go about very carefully, as not to leave a trace of personal information lying around. I am especially paranoid about what pictures get posted online, even for family and friends. I have younger sisters and I don't like thinking that some perv out there somewhere is able to access and look at them. I pick and choose carefully what information I divuldge and what networks I access. I am a wary person, and this book has reinforced my wariness...for the better. So while I feel inspired to act, somewhat out of fear, I am not sure, exactly, what actions to take?

I certainly don't agree with most of what the current administration has done in the past 8 years, (those references to offshore torture institutions didn't escape you did they!??) and continues to do, but as one person, how am I a contender? The only way I can see myself making a difference, is being a part of a bigger movement...In Distraction, Oscar said, "You can't pay people enough to start a revolution", but I disagree. I don't think people have to be paid at all, simply informed, which I would argue that the majority of the population is not and therefore explains why no such movement is in the works.

At the same time, I have to point out that like Marcus, I strongly believe that terrorism succeeds in part by creating and maintaining a world that lives in fear. While I don't deny that it is a real, constant and ongoing threat, I don't think many of the events that occur in this book, on behalf of the government, in the name of anti-terrorism, are morally acceptable. Nor do I think that any community should live in fear, because shit happens, it always has and always will.... and it sucks when it does, but by retreating and creating a climate of anti-trust among friends, family and neighbors, they win, just as Marcus said. Thus, Doctorow also calls to action the need for reformative measures in government, especially with how they will handle threats/perceived threats in the future.

[Judith Piccione]

Turn the television onto Nancy Grace if you're into fear. Gosh! She makes everything something to be paranoid about. Our country lives off of fear and putting people into it. Just today, I was watching CNN and they were talking about how something like 45% of bridges in the USA are about to crumble and the situation that happened in Minneapolis just a year ago could happen again anywhere because no one's doing the mandatory every 2 year inspections they're supposed to do. Our country will do anything to make people fearful. It's a way of maintaining control. We had a principal at our school that all the kids were afraid of because he'd instill the fear of God into them by telling them all the things that would happen to them if they misbehaved. But...I have to say...they were good. Our current principal is one of those "behind the door" kind of principals and the kids go buckwild and basically do as they please because they don't see anything happening to them. I think a bit of fear is good, but when people are deathly afraid to even talk on the phone because they think our President has them wiretapped...that's just nonsense!