Cory Doctorow, Source: Wiki
Corey Doctorow authored the novel Little Brother which focuses on four high school students in San Francisco, with the main focus on Marcus Yallow who takes on the Department of Homeland Security following a terrorist attack on the city. Marcus enjoys playing alternate reality games (ARGs) and live action role playing games (LARP). While skipping class and following clues along his favorite alternate reality game which is a type of scavenger hunt around the city, a terrorist bomb of the Bay Bridge and the BART subway explodes killing several thousand people.
In the midst of the confusion of the terrorist attacks, the friends are taken into custody by
Official Little Brother Novel, Source: YAL
the Department of Homeland Security. After days of intense interrogation, the friends are released and are forced to sign documents stating they were willingly held and questioned. All these events, coupled with the fact his best friends Darryl is missing lead Marcus to fight back against DHS. With his Xbox, be creates an underground network of young adults to fight the DHS and police in San Francisco. In the process he meets another tech savvy partner in crime and love interest Angela and discusses many these regarding violations of freedoms of American citizens by the DHS.
Little Brother engages questioned raised in a post 9/11 era of how much freedom American citizens can and should sacrifice for security and whether the government has the right to take those freedoms for security reasons and how they go about protecting their citizens. Doctorow works in these questions of security into a digitally savvy world where information always seems to be stored somewhere and can be used against you and to track you. He touches on themes such as terrorism and the effects it can have on turning a calm society into a state of paranoia, turning citizens against each other.
Technology today is becoming smaller while becoming more powerful and faster especially in terms of communication. Physical distances are no longer a major obstacle in communicating, as Marcus was able to connect with fellow supporters after the terrorist attacks. At the same time government increases surveillance, there is a balance that people cannot be contained as easily using similar technologies as the government. In all, Little Brother paints a dystopian picture of the capabilities today’s technology allow regular people and the government to do, and asks the question of how those technologies should be used.