Neil Fein's Blog

Down and Out in the Magic Kindgom
by Cory Doctorow

I recently read and enjoyed A Place So Foreign and Eight More, Mr. Doctorow's recent collection of stories. Down and Out in the Magic Kindgom continues in a similar stylistic vein,

Julius is a sometimes musician, a jaded, immortal member of the Bitchin' Society. He drifts through life worrying absentmindedly about his Whuffie, a form of electronic currency that means it actually does matter what the Jones think of you. But mostly he's self-centered, in a brooding sort of way. Working on the Haunted Mansion in Disneyworld, his life all is power meetings with hypertext annotations. But it all takes on new meaning when he and his girlfriend work on a restoration of the Haunted Mansion in Disneyworld, now a communally-run enterprise. Suddenly he has a Project, and has a passionate reason for living and working. For in a world where doctors cure the common cold by stuffing your memories in a freshly-minted body, where nobody needs to work unless they want to, finding a purpose becomes everything.

Down and Out is a small book; I read it in an afternoon. Despite the way-cool technologies Doctorow sprinkles throughout the story like the last of the rocksalt on a frozen sidewalk, the technology never detracts from the well-written characters. Seen-it-all, done-it-all Dan, a missionary of the Bitchin' way of life, is one of my favorites in the book.

There are explorations into the uses of creative thought; there are characters who make mistakes (and learn from them -- sometimes); with personality restoration rampant, there's a pretty predictable murder mystery. None of this dominates the book. Down and Out in the Magic Kindgom is about Julius coming of age far too late in life. An excellent first novel, which I highly recommend.