Little Brother is a novel written by Cory Doctorow, a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author. The novel focuses on a high school boy named Marcus Yellow (also known as w1n5ton), and his three friends, Darryl, Van, and Jolu, who attempt to protect themselves from the ever-infringing government’s use of technology. Marcus himself is a techno-geek, who in the first few pages of the novel has already hacked into the school’s server and tricked it’s gait-recognition cameras. The overall plot revolves around a terrorist strike, and the subsequent response of the Department of Homeland Security, who attempt to use technology to relieve us of our basic human rights. Marcus and his friends strike back, using technology against itself. It’s a fight between freedom and oppression — and technology is the weapon being used by both sides.
The novel takes place in San Francisco. I’m not exactly sure what year this is — it could almost be happening right now. The Tenderloin is still a run-down mess, cable-cars are still in use, people still have library books, and cell phones are still limited to incoming calls and SMSes. All the technology mentioned is already in existence (gait and face recognition cameras, trackers, microwaves…), making this seem more contemporary than science fiction.
Doctorow’s novel was written in response to the overwhelming use of technology as a means to spy on people. He believed that we were in a transition into a “new kind of technological state” in which anything and everything we did was either illegal or being tracked. This novel speaks out against these concerns, both through the story itself, and through the unique way in which Doctorow has presented it to the people. He has left his novel to be manipulated, attributed, adapted, and redistributed, with little to no restrictions. It is essentially a novel without copyrights. He gives his readers the freedom to do what they wish with the novel he has written.
This book is meant to be part of the conversation about what an information society means: does it mean total control, or unheard-of liberty? It’s not just a noun, it’s a verb, it’s something you do.
Little Brother reminds me of the Choose-Your-Fate Goosebumps books I used to read when I was younger — but on some serious steroids. Instead of being limited to the multiple paths R. L. Stine had written, we are now the authors. It’s a great concept for what Doctorow advocates — and it only seems logical. He advocates for social activism against the potential oppression of technology, as well as the sustainment of basic civil liberties. What better way to advocate this than give us freedom over his novel? While this approach may not work for some authors, it’s an interesting approach to the subject. I can only wonder what various ways readers have adapted what he has written.