Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a science fiction novella set in Walt Disney World. It tells the story of Jules, who has finally realised his life long dream of living in the Magic Kingdom.

Disney World, the greatest achievement of the twentieth century is now under the care of a network of volunteer “ad-hocs” who keep the attractions running as they always have, with only small high-tech enhancements. However there is a small groups of ad-hocs who want to bring Disney World into the modern era with new technology. Jules and his friends oppose this because they want to keep the park the way it was in the 20th century, technology, story lines, and all. For Jules this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself. But what can he do?

This book is a fascinating portrayal of how our social interactions might change in a digital world. When most commodities can be replicated at no cost, scarce resources like reputation and skill acquire new value. This economy of regard has already taken hold in some parts of the internet and Doctorow has extended this structure to society at large and shows how an individuals fortune can rise and tumble with the whims of the crowd.

I will admit this book has a few problems. The story was very rushed at some points which made it difficult to understand, the last 20 pages in particular. However even though I was a tad confused in some places I really enjoyed this book. I mean seriously, how many books do you come across that are set in Walt Disney World.

Originally posted on bluchickenninja.com

Forgive me if this review is a little fuzzy. I'm fighting a nasty virus which has left me able to do very little besides lie on the couch all day and watch the position of the sun change. During that time, I did manage to finish this book, so thoughts:

This book answered the pressing question of how to make Valerie interested in political drama: Set your drama in Disneyworld. Doctorow found the perfect microcosm universe in which to meditate on his philosophies. The book is a love letter to Disneyworld, and the theme I found most compelling was the idea of preserving the old attractions hundreds of years into the future when they are still just as beloved. It's nice to see speculative fiction that shows people don't really want everything to change. Doctorow's world has ended scarcity, plugged people into the net 24/7, and even learned to cheat death, but people still enjoy a trip down the Caribbean (with or without Jack Sparrow). Upgraded and tweaked sure, but Doctorow's future Magic Kingdom is still perfectly recognizable. I had a lot of fun just imagining the very serious conversations happening in full Haunted Mansion costumes.

This book deals with a ton of speculative themes which my stuffy brain is not really up to exploring, but I'll try anyway. First, the idea of Whuffie and meritocracy which I find both intriguing and terrifying. I'm glad that Doctorow doesn't give us too many details on Dan and Julius' arguments on the subjects because that would have been too forced philosophic, but I still have a lot of questions on how a Whuffie-based economy works. On how the whole Bitchun society works, really. We all like to think that based purely on our own karma, we'd do okay in the world, but if I really stopped to analyze mine, I'm not sure I'd come out on top. I'm also still curious about the different kinds of Whuffie. Again, I'm thankful Doctorow never departs from the story to expound, but I'd have loved to see more of these pieces of the world in action.

Dead-heading is another curiously blase topic. I love the logic that no one complains about it because everyone who had a philosophical bone to pick is already dead. Everyone left was raised to pretty much accept it. You were murdered? Oh big deal, ya baby. Get over it. I love that Julius feels bad about feeling bad about his own murder.

The theme that really hit home with me though was when Julius goes offline. As one of the few people left who haven't gone smartphone, I often feel like a backwater hick, but too much connection leaves me drained and ... well, disconnected. It's when Julius is offline that he has his idea of bringing in the human elements of the Mansion, crowd-sourcing its cast, and making it a social experience over an individual one. That's the part where we cheer for him, however melodramatic he may be at other points in the book. The idea that he will permanently lose life events because he is offline and doesn't want to visit a doctor, is terrifying and creates tension where a death-free society should have none. This part is just masterful.

I can't say I really like Julius (or Dan or Lil for that matter). I think I was so focused on the themes and the settings, I never really bonded with any of the people. The themes and setting were interesting enough to keep me plowing through the pages, though. The Julius/Dan/Lil triangle was a bit predictable and seemed an easy way of building strife. I could have done without that, and Julius and Lil had enough problems as a couple that I didn't think Dan was necessary to make things worse. Dan changing his opinion from death to dead-heading was also kind of an anti-climax. It's one of those where I'm happy he's not dying, but I have no idea why he suddenly went back on all his principles. Dan and Julius' relationship is so complex, and they so often just ignore the awful things that go down between them. I guessed Dan was part of the murder conspiracy in the beginning, but it's interesting that this doesn't really damage their friendship, less even than Dan's affair with Lil. Murdering someone is like stealing 20 bucks from their wallet. It's an awful thing to do, but really no harm done, right pal? A dynamic I do not understand, but did enjoy reading.

I'm definitely curious to read more of Doctorow's recent works now and see how he's matured after this first novel. He has such a crisp, easy to read style and never gets bogged down by science. It's the brand of social-science fiction that I enjoy the most. A great weekend read for anyone who loves Disney and Science Fiction.

See this review and others over at my blog: http://lazerbrain.wordpress.com

I've never read anything by Cory Doctorow before, but I know he has a fairly big presence on the internet as co-editor of boingboing.net, and is a very vocal propponent of liberalizing copyright law, as well as proponent of creative commons law, which this particular book was published under. This is his first novel (published a while ago), and I was actually pretty interested to see whether his writing as going to include a polemic against digital rights management or not. Luckily this turned out to not be the case.

Down and out in the Magic Kingdom takes place in what I guess could be described as a post-scarcity world. Death has been conquered by the means of regular brain backups, socioeconomic problems have been overcome by the advent of an idealized “meritocracy” where how wealthy you are depends on how much the people around you admire and respect you. And even if you don't have any respect, you can still get the essentials to keep you alive. On top of all this, everyone is connected by “hyperlink” implants which connect them 24/7 to a future version of the internet. The story follows Julius, who is basically an average joe, who after having lived for lifetimes and acquired a couple of doctorates and a penchant for studying crowds, ends up working at a future incarnation of Disney World. Here he makes a series of well meaning but stupid decisions in an attempt to prevent the encroachment of a rival “team” on his team's territory running the haunted mansion. In the process he more or less dismantles his life, one piece at a time.

So the positives. The prose was good. No cringe inducing sentences. That always gets a book at least two stars from me. The plotting was pretty good, and those two things together usually get at least three stars out of me, but in this case I just couldn't do it. I also thought Cory did a pretty good job of speculating what a post-scarcity society might look like. However . . .

I think the biggest issue is that I was just super ambivalent about the main character. The other side of this is that he made so many obviously stupid decisions throughout the course of the book, well, it just seemed gratuitous. Maybe I would have liked the character more if he even made just one logical decision, but Cory Doctorow seemed to think up all the different ways Julius could respond to a given situation and then pick the worst one every single time. I know this can be a kind of plot device that adds some tension to a novel, and even Jim Butcher admits to thinking this exact way in his Dresden Files books (over at his live journal somewhere), but whereas I still felt invested in Harry Dresden, I didn't much care for Julius. The only thing I can say is that there must be a fine line somewhere in when using this technique and Butcher and Doctorow fall on opposite sides of it.

The other big issue I had was with the plausibility of the merit based wealth system. Usually I try not to critique this sort of thing because, hey, the author can do what he wants. On the other hand if the author does something implausible he/she had better be good making me suspend my disbelief (admittedly that's not too hard in my case). In Doctorow's system, wealth is based on public opinion. If people like you and think you do good work, you are automatically wealthy by some nebulous “whuffie” score. While reading, I kept thinking, “why is this world not run by used car salesmen?” Doctorow implies that only the best people for the job would be doing the job, because everyone would recognize that they are the best. Two fundamental assumptions here are a) everyone's opinion is based on logical thought, and b) everyone has all the facts needed to form an logical opinion. I find it much more likely that those with the best rhetoric/publicity would end being the wealthiest. Anyway, I kept thinking about this the whole time I was reading the book, and felt it detracted from the experience.

So I guess, in summary, technically speaking its not a bad book, but I had enough issues with it for the read to not be as enjoyable as I had hoped.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is the story of Julius who decides to pursue his childhood dream of living in Disney World's The Magic Kingdom after finishing his fourth doctorate. Set in the future, the Earth's new Bitchun Society is a place where technology has made material goods overly abundant and death a minor annoyance. Julius finds a girlfriend and a new life in Walt Disney World, working to maintain some of the Parks iconic attractions like the Presidents Hall and The Huanted Mansion. Things start to get a bit strange when it seems like a group of Imagineers want to take over and change some of the most historic aspects of the Magic Kingdom. Julius, his girlfriend Lil, and his college buddy Dan must go to extremes to try and preserve the soul of the park.

Despite having a somewhat light premise (living inside Disney World), Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom actually explores some rather dark and serious themes. In a world where you can live forever, would you want to? And, if you didn't, how would you know when it would be time to go? Would living forever be worth losing your memories? Or would it be better to restore yourself from backup before a point of major emotional damage? It's the sort of book that probably would make you feel better if you couldn't totally identify with the main character. I mean, sure, he does some things that I wouldn't necessarily condone, but all of the big question life stuff he ponders... Yup. Been down those roads before.

Overall I would have to say this was a surprisingly deep book for such a quick and easy read. I don't know - maybe the idea of running away to Disney World after finishing up a chemistry degree holds a special appeal to me - but I found myself to be very empathetic with the main character. I mean, sure, I don't have to deal with the possibility of an infinite future, but otherwise I can very much understand why he is so distraught over the choices he has to make, and why he so desperately wants to preserve relics from a time before this overly technological society took over. Some of the science fiction elements seem sort of ridiculous yet surprisingly prophetic - especially the concept of “Whuffie” - where the amount of respect you garner is the most important aspect of your social standing. In an age where everyone reminds you to “Hit the Like button,” I can totally see how this could relate to people gaining overwhelming influence in society. Despite the outward levity (I mean, Disney World, “Bitchun” Society, and Whuffie?) this book packed a surprising punch of reality and honesty about things that we have to think about in today's world, and makes us ponder what it would be like if we had the option to erase them from our minds or deal with them for an eternity. I can see how the crazy science fiction terms could put people off, but I think this book is definitely worth a read, especially for anyone who “grew up Disney” and has a soft spot for The Haunted Mansion.

I really like the premise of the story and how it is realized in the world-building by the author. In this case the world is the Magic Kingdom of Disney World - a place for which I too have great affection. Doctorow's trans-human future of embedded, always on devices is interesting - particularly in how this networking allows for the currency of the future to be how much popularity one is able to generate from those encountered. I found the idea of backing up one's being, killing the body, and placing consciousness into a cloned body both intriguing and terrifying. And the way the Magic Kingdom is sketched and developed is pretty awesome too.

My rating dropped though as I made it through a rather pedestrian plot to a conclusion which was both odd and incongruous to the rest of the story. I'd like to visit this world again in a sequel, but one which emphasizes both plot and environment.