Cory Doctorow: Final Thesis

So this was the last book I needed to read and prepare for my coursera course. If I pass, I will let you know. But for the time being, let us just enjoy the fact that it is DONE! Ha! I did it! *tap dances*

Ahem. Anyway. Back to Doctorow's Little Brother. Basically it follows on Orwell's 1984 Big Brother, and asks who will put Big Brother in check? In today's world, who fights against the Police State? Whoever this person is, or this outfit, one can assume it has to be a darn hard job to get even with the Big Man with all the power. And yet who but a teenager could have the reckless bravado required? And thus we reach the novel, which you can find on the author's website. Or, you could just read on this post, which summarizes, analyses and (hypo)thesizes this novel. Onwards!

Quick Summary

The following summary has been taken from Wikipedia - because it's a long book okay, so sue me! Anyway, here it is:

Marcus Yallow is a 17-year-old hacker/techno whiz from San Francisco. One day at his high school named after Cesar Chavez, Marcus is accused of hacking into the school by vice principal Frederick Benson. Marcus and Benson do not get along and Marcus believes that Benson is constantly trying to get rid of him. Marcus is let go due to lack of evidence and he returns to class.

Later that day, Marcus and his best friend Darryl escape school to play a massive online role playing game that also involves real life quests. They meet up with fellow group members and game players Vanessa and Jolu. While searching for a part for the game, a series of explosions go off in the city. This sets off sirens and alarms which sends everybody running for the shelters. The group initially tries to go to the shelter but then they decide to leave. While leaving, Darryl is stabbed in the crowd. They finally escape the crowd and flag down a vehicle because Darryl needs immediate medical attention. Three men get out of the vehicle and put bags over each group members' head and then shove them into the vehicle.

Marcus and his friends arrive at an unknown location and are put into a trailer where they are separated and are amongst many other people. They find out that they're being held by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to be interrogated for suspicions of being connected to the terrorist attack. After a series of interrogations that take place over a period of six days, Marcus, Jolu, and Vanessa are finally released. Darryl's whereabouts are unknown. The DHS tells Marcus that they will be monitoring his actions and moves because he is still a suspect. Marcus is "infuriated at how his civil rights [are] ignored."

Marcus revolts by setting up technological attacks on the DHS in order "to [thwart] further efforts to restrict personal liberty. Marcus also sets up a network primarily composed of teenage members using a game console so they can communicate freely while fighting "the surveillance state." This causes a war between revolting youth and the Department of Homeland Security.

When a former prisoner who was held by the DHS tells Marcus that Darryl is still alive, Marcus tells a reporter and his family about his actions taken against the DHS. The report from the reporter is then published and the DHS takes Marcus into custody again. During a waterboarding interrogation, highway patrol troopers raid the DHS compound because of an order from the governor and arrest the DHS agents. Darryl is subsequently freed and Marcus returns to his life the way it was before the terrorist attacks.

Analysis

One of two major themes, or rather real world parallels that Doctorow spins his yarn around is the self alienated right to privacy. Prior to 9/11, any American would have fought nail to tooth for their civil liberties. But once 9/11 happened, a fear gripped the US, that of being surrounded by terrorists and religious extremists. Everyone suspected their neighbours, and reported any muslim or brown skinned person they even remotely knew as suspected terrorists. The government decided there was a need for surveillance and control over their borders. Illegal and secret wire tapping and new no fly lists based on suspicions were only the beginning of the slide in civil liberties - with Guantanamo Bay being an open secret for all to wonder about. People became okay with increasingly probing frisking at all locations, all because it would help them catch 'other' people who might be terrorists, never realising that they themselves were suspects in their government's eyes. The book focuses on the issues related to the civil liberties of a citizen, and fighting to protect them, even from their own government. The other issue as already hinted at above, is that of forgetting due process in arresting individuals and the use of torture in course of interrogation. Again the parallel here is to the post 9/11 treatment of American citizens of colour and the treatment provided in Guantanamo Bay.

The focus of the book is also on the youth - written as a young adult novel targeted at teens. There has been some concern that this book has heavy issues that might not suit a young adult audience, but the popularity of the book negates the critique. The entire book is written from a new-gen perspective - the focus is against authority figures such as teachers and government officials, and there are post millenial accronyms such as h4wt being used.

Final Thesis

The most obvious context for this book is citizen surveillance in the USA in post 9/11 era. I wish to look at the applicability on a global construct. The internet is now a global phenomenon, and the flow of information transcends national boundaries. Within a national construct right to privacy is taken to be a right one can defend or at the very least fight for, if taken away.

But on a global scale, when the person spying on you is not within the purview of your national laws, the fight as advocated by Doctorow is not that simple. And yet outfits like Anonymous and Wikileaks strive to be activists on such a global scale for right to information and privacy and the freedom of the internet. Obviously taking matters into your own hand as a 'little brother' is not simple given that you have multiple big brothers to worry about, it is often the global scale that can help within the national construct.

For example, as a hacker, Marcus could have raised issues even from outside the USA and still fought for the right of his friend, still in captivity. This would have helped him evade the jurisdiction of the NSA, even if not other sister outfits, but given a measure of safety to him. However we must also note that a physical presence, a face to activism is required for it to gain voice and traction among the masses, which can hardly be done from abroad.

Finally, Cory Doctorow tries to show the world that right to privacy is an important and unalienable right that one has to fight for, even on a global scale.