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Little Brother (Little Brother, #1)

Cory Doctorow

Start date: July 1, 2013

Finish date: July 31, 2013

Discussion: Little Brother

Why we're reading this: Dystopian near-future novel, which has a few things to say about learning and the way education might be …more
[close] Dystopian near-future novel, which has a few things to say about learning and the way education might be headed.

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Little Brother

Potential Question for discussion
By Rick · 11 posts · 10 views

last updated Aug 03, 2013 06:42AM

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What Members Thought

Aug 01, 2013 Chris rated it it was ok

Full of ideas about how we live now, and how me might live. Cory in an interview said he doesn't try to predict the future in his fiction, rather the present. So, if you want to educate yourself on technology, privacy, internet, surveillance, hacking etc etc his books are essential reading. However, as a work of literature I personally didn't like it. The characters, language, and phrasing annoyed me throughout. For example describing the Golden Gate Bridge, "it was picturesque as hell". I know Full of ideas about how we live now, and how me might live. Cory in an interview said he doesn't try to predict the future in his fiction, rather the present. So, if you want to educate yourself on technology, privacy, internet, surveillance, hacking etc etc his books are essential reading. However, as a work of literature I personally didn't like it. The characters, language, and phrasing annoyed me throughout. For example describing the Golden Gate Bridge, "it was picturesque as hell". I know "as hell" is a phrase, but couldn't he have chosen a different similie here?! In "Catcher in the Rye" for instance, I could believe Holden Caulfield saying this because he is a sarcastic, disgruntled character. I didn't think the main character in this book had an authentic voice in that sense. He just seemed to want coffee all the time because he was so grown up and sophisticated. Another line later on, "..showing up amongst the ultimate Frisbee players and the dog walkers. Some of them played Frisbee or dog walked" just does not make sense. Was it not proof read? There was another point in the book where a bird is described flying into a window. I thought this could have been a great recurring metaphor or analogy - lack of freedom, mistaken sense of direction, transparency etc etc - but it is just described as it happens.

But then I didn't think it was the point of the book to be a character study or provide metaphors and delicate writing. It's more like a call to arms to be informed about technology and educate yourself about what is happening now. For that, it is a good book to read, but I think it would have been better as an article or comic book story. Cory Doctorow is very smart and a prolific writer, and I wondered whether he could come up with a new type of fiction - one that utilised the internet in a clever way. So, the actual act of writing and reading it would make you question what you were reading and, say, how reliable the narrator was.

I would recommend following it up by listening to Cory Doctorow's podcasts or interviews. You will definitely learn something from listening to him. ...more

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