Disneyworld has apparently been colonized in the near future, becoming its own city-state with factions residing in the different lands. Julius is a cast member overseeing the Haunted Mansion, who falls into a political struggle with Debra, who maintains the Hall of Presidents. As Julius fights to be heard in the supposed meritocracy (very clique-y and not so different from politics today) the story becomes a satirical look at what entertainment means, as a crowd pleaser versus having a basis in actual merit - or what 'merit' or reputation actually even mean.

The book is chock-full of classic sci-fi conventions: death has been eradicated, everyone has a brain feed to everything all the time, there's space travel and ray guns and everything. And all of the characters are terribly unlikeable and make some pretty inscrutable decisions. Unfortunately these detract from a fun concept that could have been crafted into a good story. ( )

The premise was what caught my eye. Julius lives in Walt Disney World in the not-so-distant future, in a world ruled by the Bitchun Society. That society has managed to eradicate both death and money: if you die you simply restore yourself using a quick-grown clone made with a backup of your brain, and all wealth is based on reputation - the higher people's opinions of you, the more you can "buy." The world is not run by governments, but rather small committee-like groups called adhocracies. This particular story revolves around the ad-hocs that run the Hall of Presidents and Haunted Mansion in the Magic Kingdom.I spent a little too much of this book feeling exasperated - Julius is hot-headed and does some pretty stupid stuff for no particular reason - but things work out in the end, and it's short enough (just over 200 pages) that it's worth the minor amount of effort required to stick it out. It's a clever little what-if story and I enjoyed the sly pop-culture jokes (like the name of the Bitchun Society, for one). If you're looking for something that deals with the headier questions of immortality, economics, and social interaction, this book would probably be a bit too shallow for you. However, if you're interested in a quick bit of light Sci Fi, check this one out. ( )

Electronic Frontier Foundation true believer applies concepts of free software to life in general. Interesting SF concept, but weak character development

The underlying ideas are good (an entirely reputation-based economy, immortality, built-in electronics) but I didn't find the plot compelling. Not surprisingly, it may appeal more to people with a fascination for the Disney theme parks. ( )

Very enjoyable read about how social networking can be taken an extreme that enables it to replace the financial economy an allows people to live in new ways. The novel follows the life of a guy as he lives in Disney land, which is run using an ad-hoc consensus process.

I found it a little predictable and naive, but thoroughly enjoyed the ideas that he explores. ( )

This futuristic tale points out some dystopian features of a society that has cured most of its historic problems. Everyone is fed and taken care of. The economy is no longer monetary but based on Whuffie points, a measure of a person's worth as exhibited by his actions. Aging and decease have been overcome by the ability to backup one's memory (conciousness?) and restore it to a new model. Individuals can elect to deadhead and lie dormant for extended periods of time when life gets too tedious or boring. Despite all of these marvels, several of the characters in this book can't overcome their very human lack of motivation and purpose.

In the future, what you have done earns you money. Interesting concept and story ( )

My feelings about Down and Out are a little ambivalent. I thought it had wonderful ideas and in many ways the writing seemed of even higher caliber than in Jennifer Government. It all came down to plot and execution in the last quarter or third of the book. It felt rushed somehow near the end or anti-climactic or something. I haven't been able to put a finger on what exactly it was that disappointed me with the end of this book but I ended up that way. It was still very much worth reading because of the wonderfully inventive ideas and the interesting characters but don't expect a boffo finish. ( )

This very short, approaching novella length, novel is an amusing piece of writing by a highly acclaimed young writer of the "new" generation. While it was entertaining, I found it to be little more than that.

The premise involves a future society in which "death" has been abolished along with currency. All means of subsistence (food, clothing, shelter) are available without the need to work. Items of scarcity are allocated through the accumulation of "Whuffie", a currency substitute. Essentially, Whuffie is accumulated through the good will and good deeds which you perform for others.

The brains and memories of the inhabitants are frequently "backed up". In the event of death or disfigurement, a clone is generated and the downloaded memories installed therein. Those tiring of immortality can elect to "deadhead", essentially entering a state of suspended animation for periods of time. There are apparently no corporations as such. All "production" and services are provided by "adhocracies", commune like organizations.

This story is set in a future Disney World, where various ad hocs manage the theme park through a division of labor. A power struggle between two such ad hocs is the central theme of the story. An interesting concept, presented in an entertaining manner, but not in any way remarkable in my opinion. Nevertheless, it is worth the 3-4 hours it takes to polish off. ( )

Doctorow's debut science fiction/post-cyberpunk novel is a short but engaging read. It's one of those SF works where the author focuses on quickly establishing several technological advancement premises and a unique setting, and then allows the characters to explore the resulting ramifications of the setup. Almost more thought experiment than novel, but definitely interesting. ( )

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom was an extremely engrossing read for me. As a small, futuristic, science fiction book it did a wonderful job. Doctorow did not build up a complete picture of the entire world during these events, or show all the pieces to the system, but he did a wonderful job of telling the main character's story and laying out his experiences. I was pulled in as the story unfolded, and satisfied with the length, style, and writing. ( )

http://yet.org/2008/08/deche.html ( )

4/5 ( )

A competently written techno-mystery SF book. I should have been more interested in it than I was, given that I generally like attempts to envision future post-scarcity anarchist societies. But this one envisions social credit being run via reputational economics a la every Web 2.0 person-rating site out there. That wasn't a new idea in 2003, it's not a new idea now, and it smells like the usual attempt to fence in something free that so enlivened the Internet bubble. Since the people in the book evidently are mostly satisfied with it without being under duress, you have to feel that they're really pretty dull. ( )

I wanted more out of this book. I was uncomfortable with the shallowness of the characters. I found myself bored and wishing that the main character would make some sort of decision. ( )

"I lived long enough to see the cure for death; to see the rise of the Bitchun Society; to learn ten languages; to compose three symphonies; to realize my boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World; to see the death of the workplace and of work."

This was my first book by Cory Doctorow, who has a good reputation, and whose work in internet-land I admire. I was looking forward to it, but I came away disappointed.

The ideas, as you'd expect, are great. The book is a clever look at a fairly plausible post-scarcity society. Luxury items are purchased with a currency based on respect and contribution -- the more you do for people, and the more they like what you do, the richer you get. I'd have liked more detail (Only basic sustenance is free -- but why? Is everywhere similar to the America he portrays?), more history of how society got to where he shows it -- but still, it's good stuff.

The characterisation, though, is poor. Jules, the protagonist, spends much of the book uncertain of his own motivation, possibly mad, certainly angry and obsessive. It's possible for a novel to succeed with an unlikeable hero, but it takes a very good writer to pull it off. Doctorow doesn't manage it. You often feel that Jules ought to fail, because he's being such an idiot.

He also misses a great opportunity with another character -- Dan, who's struggling for motivation in his life, who's only thrived when outside the comfort and safety of the have-it-all society. He has been visiting communities which have stayed isolated out of fear or mistrust or ideology, living with them, and convincing them to join everyone else. When he's convinced them all, he runs out of interest in living. But how does he feel about what he's done? Can he not see the conflict there? Doctorow doesn't even glance at these questions.

Also, Disney World as the rock upon which defenders of the "real" base their fight against the virtual? What's up with that? If it's meant to be ironic, the idea needed to be given more bite.

Cory Doctorow is great to have around, but on this evidence, he's not a great novelist. ( )

A very nice book. The best thing is Doctorow's idea of the near future, where wealth is measured by how much other people respect you, where people have overcome death, and where Disney World is the place to be. His "Bitchun Society" is a bitchin' idea. :)

The plot of the book is very weird with groups of people fighting for the ownership of different rides in Disney World, but it's hilarious and very interesting to follow. Also Doctorow's language is spot on for the book, with hip expressions abounding.

Short and sweet, this is a book I'll definitely read again in the future. ( )

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/8086

I will admit to being biased, I can't stand Disneyland, so that left me predisposed to dislike this book. As it turned out, that bit wasn't too horrible, but plenty of fetishising of a place you have to pay me to go to.

The society parts are interesting, where reputation is everything, and there is no need to work for subsistence as such, and you can check people's reputation on a network as it ebbs and flows.

Personality backup is also available, and there is the odd slaying in this book.

It also seems a bit like ghosts of ex girlfriends are haunting Doctorow here.

http://freesf.blogspot.com/2006/12/down-and-out-in-magic-kingdom-cory.html ( )

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Okay, so it's finally time; time for me to finally make my way through the complete works of cutting-edge science-fiction author Cory Doctorow. After all, he's one of the four editors of my favorite website of all time, the profoundly unique pop-culture journal Boing Boing; and Doctorow's also a big champion of the exact political issues CCLaP cares about as well, including copyright reform, the elimination of so-called "Digital Rights Management" (or DRM) malware, the importance of do-it-yourself artists and the like. And besides, Doctorow also puts his money where his mouth is; that he's arguably* the most famous artist yet to offer digital versions of his projects for free download, meaning that a person can technically read his entire body of work without spending a dime, if one wants. All of these things mean that I should've become a completist of Doctorow a long time ago, and am in fact a little ashamed that I'm not; then add the fact that this thirtysomething's ouevre is not yet that large to begin with (only three novels, two story collections, and one book of essays), and I now really have no excuse.

I've decided, then, to tackle Doctorow's work in the order it was written; and that brings us at first to his explosive debut novel, 2003's "gonzo sci-fi" tale Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which has been heralded by not only critics but also peers and fans since almost the first day of its release. And indeed, now that I've read it myself, I understand why; because it turns out that Doctorow is not just a great cultural essayist, not only a dedicated technology activist, but in fact a legitimate creative genius as well, able to craft a story out of the dense tendrils of theoretical science and economics that nonetheless has a huge humanistic heart at the core of it, not to mention a pretty large amount of sincerely laugh-out-loud humor too. To start with, for example, the novel is set in a far-future society where scarcity is no longer a survival issue; where a form of free energy has been discovered and is now in use, where replicator-type machines can now create food and clothing from scratch, where even death has been eliminated through the dual perfection of both cloning and the digitization of consciousness. (So in other words, in the world of Down and Out, people can have their entire brain and all its memories "backed up" regularly to a computer system, which is then "uploaded" into a new body whenever the old one dies.)

Among many other profound changes to society, this has led to the elimination of money in the future; but as humanity quickly realized when this first occurred, it was actually money that motivated most human beings to be kind and productive towards their fellow humans in the first place. (A small example -- being nice to your co-workers increases your chances of getting a raise, while being a prick to them increases your chances of getting fired. Now multiply this by several thousand other situations and several billion other people.) The solution, according to Doctorow, was to create an entirely new system of currency for a post-scarcity world, one based on a person's reputation alone; called "Whuffies," they are basically digital "merits" and "demerits" that citizens are constantly giving and taking away from other citizens. Be nice to your neighbor, for example, and you might get a couple of Whuffies from them sent your way; create a movie that a lot of people enjoy, and you're suddenly receiving millions of Whuffies from complete strangers. The amount of Whuffies a person has, then, is a public figure and can be instantly seen by any other person, because of humanity at this point basically having internet access directly in their brains; not only do most people determine how they think of you based on your Whuffie score, but it is also the way to access the few things left in this society that are truly scarce (like a good table at a restaurant, front-row tickets at a theatre, etc).

This is what I mean by Doctorow being so brilliant; that he's able to take all these disparate theoretical subjects, stuff usually only discussed in dry dissertations by PhD candidates, and not only combine them all into one intriguing action-based plot, but also explore the humanity behind all these theories and especially if they were ever put into practice. For example, Doctorow is quick to point out that in a post-scarcity world, not everyone would participate in a reputation-based economy; that there would be plenty of people happy to just accept their free basic food, their free basic house, their free basic clothes, and spend their lives basically hanging out at cafes or watching television, not really caring what anyone else thinks of them. And this is perfectly okay in a post-scarcity world, Doctorow further argues; that in a world where technology has eliminated the need for anyone to be a "productive member of society" anymore, some people will simply choose not to be, while those who still make the effort are now doing so merely for the extra benefits it affords them (like companionship, camaraderie, a feeling of accomplishment, even better food and other traditional consumerist-style perks).

And if this weren't enough, Doctorow then adds the master stroke of setting the entire book at a far-future Walt Disney World in Florida, hundreds of years after the collapse of the Disney corporation itself (indeed, hundreds of years after the collapse of all corporations), where an "ad-hocracy" of thousands of individuals has swooped in to voluntarily run the park themselves, with it turning out there being lots of humans who still need this emotional link back to humanity's roots in order to feel human in the first place. In a world where one's very body can be carelessly discarded at a moment's notice (with many people in this future society, for example, who will commit suicide at the onset of a cold, just so they can start over with a healthy body later that afternoon), turns out that there's something special about the continuity of the old Disney rides, a reassurance about humanity's permanence in all those creaky old animatronics that are still being lovingly maintained.

If you want any further proof of how strong a debut novel Down and Out is, consider this -- that I've now written almost a thousand words on the subject, and still haven't had time to mention one thing about the plot itself. Which of course is partly a shame, because the sheer lunacy and entertainment value of the storyline is a major reason as well to love this book -- turns out that the entire thing is a murder mystery on top of everything else (with the victim of course able to investigate his own murder), with some mad-scientist elements thrown in for good measure, and with a minor love triangle complicating things as well. But then again, that's also a sign of a tremendously great book, when a critic can find all kinds of fascinating things to say about it besides spending half the review simply retelling the plot. It's been a real shock to me this week, to tell you the truth, learning just how genius this book is; I mean, I've always understood that Doctorow is an award-winning novelist, that he's a highly popular one as well, but I guess it never occurred to me that he'd be such a mindblowing one too, especially considering that he's arguably more famous as a political activist than as an author. (For those who don't know, Doctorow was actually raised as an activist by two Trotskyist public teachers in Toronto; he's done work on the administrative end of such groups as Greenpeace since he was literally a child.) I was blown away by Down and Out, to be frank, at a point when I was merely expecting it to get me warmed up for Doctorow's "mature" work; I can't wait now to see where his other books might take me.

*There are of course a growing amount of highly popular artists these days making some of their work available as free digital downloads; just this week, for example, the insanely popular indie-rock band Radiohead announced that they're going to let their fans pay whatever they want for a digital copy of their new album, including "nothing" if that's what they choose. Doctorow, however, offers free digital copies of each and every full-length project he's ever done, which definitely makes him the most famous artist now to do so. ( )

Summary: Living in Disney World isn't all it's cracked up to be when someone is trying to kill you.

The Take-Away: What if you could live forever without aging? What if the opponents to this plan were eliminated simply because they died and you didn't?

Cory Doctrow explores what happens when humankind is "perfect." Wuffie, or popularity, is important because that regulates your basic necessities, but work is only what you "want" to do, since you use it to increase your Wuffie. Sounds like high school, right?

And then there's the real drawback to this futuristic high school. To combat aging, a back of your memories and body can be made and uploaded into a clone whenever you want. No more illness or disease. If you get sick, just grow a new you. Changing your looks is easy too, including age lines, wrinkles, and bad joints. But what if something goes wrong with a back-up? Or you don't have the most recent one on file?

I can't say more without giving away a major plot point (and I might have said too much as it is) but it was this twist that I loved.

The other thing that I really liked was how Doctrow is managing his electronic rights. He has made an electronic copy available through DailyLit.com. A short segment is delivered to your inbox on a schedule you set-up. The next fragment is always a click a way.

Recommendation: I liked it, but it's not for everyone, I'm sure. ( )

http://www.schlaikjer.net/reviews/136... ( )

The debut novel by one of the co-founders of BoingBoing. I liked his book Eastern Standard Tribe, but not this one so much – possibly because it’s set in Disneyland and written with an obsessive enthusiasm for the place that I simply don’t share. It doesn’t help that Doctorow’s a little too good at creating protagonists that are, basically, annoying single-minded assholes. That’s my problem, not his, and it’s a decent story, but I just couldn’t get into it. ( )

I wasn’t sure about this book when I first started, but once the main character had been killed, it picked up dramatically and I quite enjoyed it.

I’m glad I did, as I’d purchased another book by Doctorow at the same time. ( )

Disappointing, Disney-fetishistic ( )