Homeland Cover by Cory Doctrow

I’ll talk about Doctrow’s  “Little Brother”, a fiction book about Marcus who plays a cyber-game through a terrorist Attack in America. In chapters 10-20 of Doctrow’s “Little Brother”, Marcus and Jolu attempt to rebel against the DHS, a corrupt organization. Marcus, through his pseudo avatar on XNET (M1k3y) and his new-found love Ange plot to take over DHS and take down the corrupt organization. Xnet, is run by Xbox, and is a great way for anonymous communication for teenagers.  Marcus is able to trick the DHS by creating fake terrorist results; he is regarded therefore as both a terrorist and an hero. After learning of Darryl still being alive, Marcus decides to come clean to his parents who take it surprisingly well and even support him in his endeavors. Marcus also comes clean to an reporter and is quickly captured after the release of his identity. While captured and tortured, CHP officers find Marcus and him, his girlfriend, and Darryl are released and return to a normal life.

Cory Doctrow’s sequel Homeland holds a similar premise of Marcus fighting corruption. This time, Marcus receives an USB drive filled with information about government corruption. This time, Marcus is a little older, and holds a job as a webmaster for a politician, so he faces more challenges in releasing tips.

Both these stories: Little Brother and Homeland highlight issues of anonymity and public information. They are centered around the ‘hacking culture’ that encompasses much of the silicon valley. Although fiction, their premise seems very real in our time and society more so than other fictional reads. Another issue of modern concern we’re studying ethically is the use of both torture in preventing terrorism and finding information as well as wiretapping and privacy issues concerning the post-9-11 debacle. Cory Doctrow is great at highlighting prevalent issues in our society in an exciting manner.