no_relation
Male 32 from USA
Posts and Reviews:
I had the same line of thinking, but from Friday's installment: "I could tell from his tone that he wasn't too happy about my snapping at him, but I was too wrapped up to consider an apology, despite what must be happening to my Whuffie as Dan did his slow burn." So either blogging is so ubiquitous as to become instinctive if not completely subconscious (which is possible, when everyone is online in their head all the time) or the Whuffie is a master control system for the Bitchun Society that monitors everyone's mood and opinion of everyone else. Which means that Jules' hive-mind argument to Dan is moot, because it's already happening.
I noted that too, Sarolite, and it confused me. Disney's entertained the world since the 1920s, Disneyland opened in 1955...so I'm not sure anymore.
And it surprises me that Doctorow would do the author-as-protagonist, I'm sure he's familiar with the wish-fulfillment aspect of the Mary Sue, and would seek to avoid it. But hey, if it worked for Kinky Friedman...
Ah-HA: "they'd spent a week tearing down a show that had run for more than a century," talking about the Hall of Presidents, which, according to Wikipedia, started up in 1971. So that puts us at the turn of the 21st century into the 22nd. (Much farther, and it should have been "150 years." Or "a century and a half.") Which means that Doctorow is envisioning Free Energy as being right around the corner, or already happened. Also, our protagonist was probably born right around the same time as the author, which makes one wonder how much of himself he's putting into this story.
Is anyone else getting hints of Huxley's Brave New World with the free (as in, consequence-free) drugs? The nihilistic utopia thing?
Ah, yeah, you're right, there are details that I missed. A hundred years after "Free Energy"...I'm guessing at least 150 years, then. I wouldn't say *several* hundred years, though, people are still mostly recognizable as such, even if they're eternally young and stimulated.
Having been a bOING bOING reader for years now, I've heard a lot (and I mean A LOT, Cory's a great self-promoter, and I mean that in the best possible way) about this book and Little Brother (his most recent). I've been hesitant to pick them up, mostly because I don't take as much time as I should to read (dodging slings and arrows). This is perfect, though; I can read a bit at a time from the office and still look like I'm working.
I'd say, 75 to 100 years in the future. Possibly as little as 25, though, considering the exponential acceleration of technology. I have no evidence to support this, just an educated wild-ass guess.
