Plot Summary
This dystopian novel imagines a not-too-distant moment in the U.S. after a major terrorist attack has occurred in San Francisco. Marcus aka "w1n5t0n" is a seventeen year old Bay Area tech genius who has already figured out his way around all of his high school's surveillance systems. In the wake of the terrorist attacks which blew up the Bay Bridge and killed hundreds, he and his tech-savvy friends have become a target of his government's anti-terrorist campaign. After he and his friends are taken in by Department of Homeland Security and mercilessly interrogated for days, Marcus realizes that what had been a surveillance-heavy society has now become a police state. Marcus, who used to cut school regularly to play online role playing games with his friends and hang out in the Mission, still knows the Declaration of Independence inside and out and can recite key passages from memory. Recognizing that his rights and those of others are being trampled, Marcus takes matters into his own hands and incites a techno-rebellion against a government that no longer cares for citizens’ constitutional rights.
Critical Evaluation
This novel is told from the perspective of tech genius Marcus and thus provides an inside line into the thought patterns of a teenager whose entire existence is saturated with technology and whose relationships with other teens is largely negotiated through wireless technology. In addition to being a treatise on the dangers of surveillance in the modern age, it is also a thought-provoking view on the social ecology of digital natives. For anyone who wants to get a better handle on the implications of the far reaches of surveillance or teen culture, Little Brother is a thought-provoking read. In a good way, this novel may make more readers feel paranoid (or at least aware) of their own technology use patterns and how this information is being used. Some readers may also despair of the foreign culture that they encounter in the novel--do we, just a generation away from today’s teenagers, even speak the same language?
Reader’s Annotation
To what extremes could our government go to control its citizens? Are your guaranteed freedoms protected when the government has such easy access to all of your information?
Information about the Author
According to the author’s bio on his website, “Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction novelist, blogger and technology activist. He is the co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing (boingboing.net), and a contributor to The Guardian, the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Wired, and many other newspapers, magazines and websites. He was formerly Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (eff.org), a non-profit civil liberties group that defends freedom in technology law, policy, standards and treaties. He is a Visiting Senior Lecturer at Open University (UK) and Scholar in Virtual Residence at the University of Waterloo (Canada); in 2007, he served as the Fulbright Chair at the Annenberg Center for Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California.
His novels are published by Tor Books and HarperCollins UK and simultaneously released on the Internet under Creative Commons licenses that encourage their re-use and sharing, a move that increases his sales by enlisting his readers to help promote his work. He has won the Locus and Sunburst Awards, and been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and British Science Fiction Awards. His New York Times Bestseller LITTLE BROTHER was published in May 2008, a followup young adult novel called FOR THE WIN was published in 2010. His latest short story collection is WITH A LITTLE HELP, available in paperback, ebook, audiobook and limited edition hardcover. In 2008, Tachyon Books published a collection of his essays, called CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE (with an introduction by John Perry Barlow) and IDW published a collection of comic books inspired by his short fiction called CORY DOCTOROW'S FUTURISTIC TALES OF THE HERE AND NOW. His latest adult novel is MAKERS, published by Tor Books/HarperCollins UK in October, 2009.”
GenreScience Fiction/ Thriller/ Dystopian Literature
Curriculum Ties
Technology Studies/ Constitution/ Declaration of Independence
Booktalking Ideas
Take the perspective of Marcus and describe the moment when you decide that you’re going to take on the Department of Homeland Security.
Reading Level/ Interest Age
14+
Challenge Issues
Challenges to adult authority, references to underage drinking. If the book were challenged, I would turn to ALA's Strategies and Tips for Dealing with Challenges to Library Materials.
Why Included?
This book was required reading for my LIBR 265 course. I’m glad to have it in my materials collection because it raises such timely issues and is also a very enjoyable read.
No comments:
Post a Comment