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primeidealThe thing about satires is: they should be funny. And while a near-future dystopia that extrapolates from current issues with the use and misuse of technology doesn't necessarily have to fall into the "satire" genre, I'm more likely to be engaged with it if it does.
Right from the beginning, "Qualityland" benefits by interspersing "in-universe" documentation such as advertisements and news stories with the narration. Even when they don't advance the plot, this method of worldbuilding augments the dry humor on display. This is from the introduction (a little reminiscent of "Jennifer Government" by Max Barry):
The opening third or so is filled with these sorts of digressions. The main character is Peter Jobless, who owns a scrap-metal press for disposing of obsolete robots (although that doesn't necessarily mean he uses it). In the social credit system in use thanks to the monopolistic tech companies, Peter's prospects are mostly "useless," which thwarts him in his love life as well as business endeavors. Meanwhile, the politicians are attempting to nominate an android for president. Like Asimov's Stephen Byerley, the android is the most thoughtful and progressive candidate you could ask for, he wants to help humans get ahead by providing both a universal basic income and finding ways to give their lives meaning in the absence of the producer/consumer dichotomy. Of course, such progressiveness is far too nice for the politicians and advisors, who keep trying to make him be a little more normal.
Eventually, Peter finds himself in possession of an object that the algorithms suggested for him, but he decides he doesn't want. This launches him down a path of "this system is actually bad, how do we bring it down and create something better." Which makes it sound like the plot is picking up. Unfortunately, I actually felt like it dragged more; the characters start having more and more explicit references to modern-day SF, or unintended consequences of economic development, so it felt more like "look, let me show you my learnings" than the zany humor that I'd enjoyed in the beginning.
This book was translated from German by Jamie Lee Searle; the original came out in 2017. So, obviously, a lot of the issues that people worry about in the US (hyper-personalized electoral ads! fake news! no one actually reads the terms and conditions because you have to accept to get any use out of the product!) overlap. However, I appreciate the opportunity to read books from different places and times, not because they're necessarily edifying, but precisely because they aren't from inside the bubble of contemporary USian hot takes. There's also a wild scene with a fake-Nazi theater usher android (!) where I'm not sure if I had the intended reaction--I suspect Kling might have been making a serious point about "those who can't remember the past are doomed to repeat it," history is important, yada yada, but I found it more to be a fun if darkly humorous point about just how weird this world is.
As might be fitting for a book involving androids, there are a lot of powers of two references. Like, a lot. I, of course, am a great fan of powers of two, I put 256 in my usernames, yada yada. I would dare not say there is such a thing as too many powers of two. But, after a while, it does start to feel like "okay, we get this joke," and perhaps someone less enamored of powers of two might get tired of the conceit. (On the other hand, someone less enamored of powers of two might be less likely to notice the significance of 8,192.)
Like The Resisters, it takes "in order to keep the economy in balance some people have to consume and some have to produce, that's just the way it is" up to new heights, and like Minna Sundberg's "Lovely People," it extrapolates the peril of a quantifiable social credit system into a Western society. And while the humor may wobble, it's still present start to finish!
Bingo: probably using it for "No Ifs, Ands, or Buts." Is also a standalone.
Right from the beginning, "Qualityland" benefits by interspersing "in-universe" documentation such as advertisements and news stories with the narration. Even when they don't advance the plot, this method of worldbuilding augments the dry humor on display. This is from the introduction (a little reminiscent of "Jennifer Government" by Max Barry):
Even QualityLand's inhabitants were renamed. They couldn't just be ordinary people, after all; they had to be QualityPeople. Their surnames in particular sounded very medieval and didn't fit with the new progress-oriented country identity. A land of Millers, Smiths, and Taylors isn't exactly a high-tech investor's wet dream. And so the advertising agency decided that, from that moment on, every boy would be given his father's occupation as a surname and every girl the occupation of her mother. The deciding factor would be the job held at the time of conception.
We wish you an unforgettable stay in the land of Sabrina Mechatronics-Engineer and Jason Cleaner, the most popular middle-class rap duo of the decade. The land of Scarlett Prisoner and her twin brother Robert Warden, the undefeated BattleBot jockeys of the century. The land of Claudia Superstar, the Sexiest Woman of All Time. The land of Henryk Engineer, the richest person in the world.
Scarlett and Robert never come up again, but the double-take "yikes" that line causes is, for me, a lot more effective than just sanctimoniously talking to the reader would be.We wish you an unforgettable stay in the land of Sabrina Mechatronics-Engineer and Jason Cleaner, the most popular middle-class rap duo of the decade. The land of Scarlett Prisoner and her twin brother Robert Warden, the undefeated BattleBot jockeys of the century. The land of Claudia Superstar, the Sexiest Woman of All Time. The land of Henryk Engineer, the richest person in the world.
The opening third or so is filled with these sorts of digressions. The main character is Peter Jobless, who owns a scrap-metal press for disposing of obsolete robots (although that doesn't necessarily mean he uses it). In the social credit system in use thanks to the monopolistic tech companies, Peter's prospects are mostly "useless," which thwarts him in his love life as well as business endeavors. Meanwhile, the politicians are attempting to nominate an android for president. Like Asimov's Stephen Byerley, the android is the most thoughtful and progressive candidate you could ask for, he wants to help humans get ahead by providing both a universal basic income and finding ways to give their lives meaning in the absence of the producer/consumer dichotomy. Of course, such progressiveness is far too nice for the politicians and advisors, who keep trying to make him be a little more normal.
Eventually, Peter finds himself in possession of an object that the algorithms suggested for him, but he decides he doesn't want. This launches him down a path of "this system is actually bad, how do we bring it down and create something better." Which makes it sound like the plot is picking up. Unfortunately, I actually felt like it dragged more; the characters start having more and more explicit references to modern-day SF, or unintended consequences of economic development, so it felt more like "look, let me show you my learnings" than the zany humor that I'd enjoyed in the beginning.
This book was translated from German by Jamie Lee Searle; the original came out in 2017. So, obviously, a lot of the issues that people worry about in the US (hyper-personalized electoral ads! fake news! no one actually reads the terms and conditions because you have to accept to get any use out of the product!) overlap. However, I appreciate the opportunity to read books from different places and times, not because they're necessarily edifying, but precisely because they aren't from inside the bubble of contemporary USian hot takes. There's also a wild scene with a fake-Nazi theater usher android (!) where I'm not sure if I had the intended reaction--I suspect Kling might have been making a serious point about "those who can't remember the past are doomed to repeat it," history is important, yada yada, but I found it more to be a fun if darkly humorous point about just how weird this world is.
As might be fitting for a book involving androids, there are a lot of powers of two references. Like, a lot. I, of course, am a great fan of powers of two, I put 256 in my usernames, yada yada. I would dare not say there is such a thing as too many powers of two. But, after a while, it does start to feel like "okay, we get this joke," and perhaps someone less enamored of powers of two might get tired of the conceit. (On the other hand, someone less enamored of powers of two might be less likely to notice the significance of 8,192.)
Like The Resisters, it takes "in order to keep the economy in balance some people have to consume and some have to produce, that's just the way it is" up to new heights, and like Minna Sundberg's "Lovely People," it extrapolates the peril of a quantifiable social credit system into a Western society. And while the humor may wobble, it's still present start to finish!
Bingo: probably using it for "No Ifs, Ands, or Buts." Is also a standalone.
