“Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom has all the landmarks of a short story: few characters, self-contained, tidy story arc, a twist ending, and the vaguest hint of a much larger canvas. It might have work wonderfully in that format, but as a novel, it comes across as a very short novel that still needs to rely heavily on filler.
The SF elements of the story have some merit, despite being greatly understated: in a future where resources are infinite, money is replaced by 'reputation economics', represented by points ("Whuffie") given and taken based on the prestige of one's actions. This is a somewhat intruiguing concept, obviously based on online reputation systems such as Slashdot's karma, and it would have made for an interesting novel if its consequences on a world population were more detailed.
Another interesting SF concept explored by Doctorow's novel is that of a society where death has been overcome. People can clone themselves and restore their memory from backup, making death an unpleasant hazard, or sometimes a downright tourist activity. The implications of this idea are intriguing, but nowhere are theyrealized here as they were in Wil McCarthy's Lost in Transmission, or Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, two incredibly superior stories. The only way to mistake this novel as groundbreaking SF, I'm afraid, is by having avoided the aforementionned novels.
What's left in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, once these concepts are established, is an uninspired story of Disney engineers fighting over the Magic Mansion ride. I understand Doctorow has a passion for the subject, and perhaps it would have made the novel better if I shared it. As it stands, I found the multiple discussions about the legacy of Disney World, and how to treat it in a land of evolving technologies, to be repetitive and trite. Doctorow seems to have a lot to say about technology and tradition, but the message is garbled by being put in the mouth of his confused narrator.
The novel, despite being so short, stumbles forward, focusing on the unsympathetic fight of the narrator against the clever and innovative business tactics of rival imagineers. The characterization is average, the narrator comes across as a fool and an ass more than once, and the pace is often slowed down by unnecessary flashbacks that sound like padding. The twist ending, and the ensuing resolution, are weak, and actually serve to discredit everything that happened before them.
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom has enjoyed great popularity, both in print and in electronic format, after Cory Doctorow released the novel under a Creative Commons license, thus causing a stir in the online world. It's a safe bet that this move has given Doctorow a lot of word-of-mouth publicity and helped boost his sales. I'll be the first to admit the subject is what has drawn me to the novel in the first place, although I paid for it because I believe in rewarding good publishing decisions by tipping the publisher. As it turns out, I'm afraid to say, the buzz surrounding the release of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom under the Creative Commons license is serving to give incredible exposure to a novel that deserves a lot less based on its content alone.
In all fairness, Cory Doctorow is a fantastic commentator on hi-tech culture, as evidenced by his posts on Boing Boing, one of my daily web destinations. I hear good things about his short stories too, but Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is a disappointing novel, even for a first one. In other words, it's an important novel, just not a good one.”
Daniel Roy wrote this review Saturday, July 26 2008.
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