Every figure who approaches the dark, central truth of this book—that we are doomed, we are hopeless, because we don’t deserve survival—shies away from that revelation. They know about it, yet they dare to hope against it. They always leave the author some plausible deniability for his own creeping despair, but the darkest truth of all is that John Brunner, the wild inventor of this racked dystopia, is a kind-hearted man. He’s a sentimental idealist who loves humanity and wants everybody to thrive. He has to choke that admission out of himself, but he truly loves all of them, with a big, rambling, Dickensian kind of humane pity and affection. He loves the monsters because all human beings are monsters.
This is a great science fiction novel that only a great science fiction writer could create. It’s not a “great novel,” but no merely “great novelist” could ever mimic a fantastic creation of this kind. It’s the unique product of a daring and prolonged smash-and-grab raid of the imagination, a planet-sized jackdaw-nest made of straw, barbed-wire, and emeralds. It’s a true monument to genre sensibility, and although John Brunner died in 1995—at a science fiction convention, as one might guess—time cannot much harm this book of his. It was very strange when he wrote it, and time only makes it feel stranger.
Walter Benjamin once described the Angel of History as an entity blown backward into futurity by an endless storm. As a good Hegelian, Walter Benjamin thought that a proper history should concern itself with the Angel. That’s what this old-fashioned, very futuristic, alarmingly timeless book is entirely not-about. It’s not of our own time and space, and it has no Angel. It’s not about the History, and it’s not about the Future. It’s about the happening world—about how worlds happen to people. It’s about the endless storm.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Foreword
context (0) THE INNIS MODE
context (1) SCANALYZE MY NAME
the happening world (1) READ THE DIRECTIONS
tracking with closeups (1) MR. PRESIDENT
context (2) EDITORIAL SLOT
continuity (1) THE GUILT-EDGED SECURITY
tracking with closeups (2) YONDERBOY
context (3) YOU HAVE TO PUSH HIM OVER
continuity (2) THE DEAD HAND OF THE PAST
the happening world (2) THE SOFT CELL
context (4) THE SUBJECT MATTER
tracking with closeups (3) NO YOU DON’T!
continuity (3) AFTER ONE DECADE
the happening world (3) DOMESTICA
tracking with closeups (4) MASKER AID
continuity (4) ROOMIE NATION
context (5) THE GRAND MANOR
tracking with closeups (5) SCENESHIFTER
context (6) ONE COMES OUT WHERE …
continuity (5) HEAR HEAR
the happening world (4) SPOKEN LIKE A MAN
tracking with closeups (6) WHICH SIDE AM I ON?
context (7) BULL FIGHT
continuity (6) AUCTION BLOCK FOR ME
the happening world (5) CITIZEN BACILLUS
tracking with closeups (7) THE TOO MUCH STRAIN
context (8) ISOLATION
continuity (7) ARMS AND IDLENESS
the happening world (6) STREET SEEN
tracking with closeups (8) ILL WIND
continuity (8) THE CAMEL’S BACK
context (9) GUNCRIT
tracking with closeups (9) POPPYSEED
context (10) THE BABY AND THE BATHWATER
continuity (9) DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF
the happening world (7) THE STATE OF THE ART
tracking with closeups (10) SMOTHERLOVE
continuity (10) DUE PROCESS
context (11) COME OUTSIDE AND SAY THAT
tracking with closeups (11) THE SEALED TRAIN
continuity (11) THE SOUND OF FALLING ROCK
context (12) THE SOCIOLOGICAL COUNTERPART OF CHEYNE-STOKES RESPIRATION
continuity (12) IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE AUTOMATIC BUT ACTUALLY YOU HAVE TO PRESS THIS BUTTON
tracking with closeups (12) IF YOU CAN’T BEAT THEM BEAUT THEM
the happening world (8) BE KIND TO YOUR FORFEITED FRIENDS
context (13) THE OLD NEWSPAPER
continuity (13) MULTIPLY BY A MILLION
tracking with closeups (13) THE GOOSEBERRY BUSH
continuity (14) THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB
tracking with closeups (14) LIGHT THE TOUCHPAPER AND RETIRE
continuity (15) DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT
context (14) STORM CENTRE
the happening world (9) SHAMBLES
context (15) BRED AND BORN
continuity (16) THE REVISED VERSION
tracking with closeups (15) OUR PARENTS’ FEET WERE BLACK
context (16) MR. & MRS. EVERYWHERE: CALYPSO
continuity (17) TIMESCALES
the happening world (10) SOUR GRAPES
tracking with closeups (16) THE MESSENGER OF THE GOSPEL OF UNIVERSAL LOVE
continuity (18) THE WALLS OF TROY
tracking with closeups (17) BRIGHTER THAN A THOUSAND MEN
continuity (19) SEMPER ALIQUID NOVI
context (17) FEELING THE OVERDRAFT
continuity (20) THE SHADOW OF GRANDFATHER LOA
tracking with closeups (18) IN MY YOUNG DAYS
continuity (21) MORE HASTE
context (18) ZOCK
continuity (22) THE PRICE OF ADMISSION
tracking with closeups (19) SMALL WANTS AND THOSE EASILY SATISFIED
continuity (23) HE STUCK IN HIS THUMB
the happening world (11) HOW TO
context (19) A FREE RENDERING OF TWO NATIONAL ANTHEMS
continuity (24) THIS SCENE NOT SHIFTED
context (20) THE PROS AND CONS OF A LUNATIC SOCIETY
continuity (25) DADDY OF THEM ALL
context (21) LETTER
continuity (26) HERE COMES A CHOPPER
the happening world (12) THE GENERAL FEELING
continuity (27) MANSCAPE
tracking with closeups (20) THE OLD LADY UNDER THE JUGGERNAUT
continuity (28) FROM HERE ON DOWN IT’S UPHILL ALL THE WAY
context (22) MOTHER AND BABY DOING WELL?
tracking with closeups (21) THE DRY CHILD
continuity (29) I BEG TO REPORT
context (23) TO BE AVOIDED
continuity (30) TURN HER ON AND LET HER ROLL
the happening world (13) RÉSUMÉ
tracking with closeups (22) THE CLIMAX OF MORE THAN A LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT
continuity (31) GROUNDWORK
tracking with closeups (23) BEGI AND THE ORACLE
continuity (32) FIRST WITH THE NEWS
the happening world (14) RECRUITING POSTERS
continuity (33) GOT IT AND GONE
context (24) ONE OF MANY ESSENTIALLY IDENTICAL PRINTOUTS FROM SHALMANESER