- Brunner, John.
Stand on Zanzibar.
New York, Orb Books, [1968] 2011.
ISBN 978-0-7653-2678-2.
-
In 1968, veteran British science fiction writer
John Brunner
(his first novel was published in 1951) decided to show those
upstart
“New
Wave” authors how it's done.
The result, Stand on Zanzibar, won the Hugo award
for best novel in 1969 and became the quintessential 1960s
science fiction novel. Set in 2010, it explores The Happening
World through parallel interwoven plots and a huge cast of
characters, using a chaotic narrative with sections titled
“Context”, “Continuity”,
“Tracking with Closeups”, and, of course,
“The Happening World”.
How does it hold up more than half a century later, with 2010
already receding in the rear view mirror? Astonishingly well:
the novel is not at all dated and in many ways prophetic.
Brunner foresaw the ability of giant technology companies to
manipulate public opinion and make government increasingly
irrelevant; the mainstreaming of homosexuality and recreational
drugs; the influence of pop philosophers on culture; the hook-up
culture; chaos in Africa; the authoritarian governance model
in Asia; the collapse of printed newspapers and all media
moving down-market; stagnation in technological innovation
compared to the first half of the 20th century; the end of the
Cold War and its replacement by economic competition; the risk
of a genetically-engineered plague originating in China, which
remains nominally communist but is becoming a powerhouse that
rivals the West. A prominent political figure on the world stage
is a West African named Obomi.
Stand on Zanzibar forever changed my own writing
style and influenced the way I look at the future and this
increasingly crazy world we inhabit. It is a landmark of
science fiction and a masterpiece worth revisiting today.
May 2020 