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A review by oleksandr
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner
2.0
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed,
But swollen with wind and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread ...
--Lycidas by John Milton
This novel was nominated for Nebula award in 1973. While many reviewers here on GR stress its forecasting power, for me it is more a backward looking book. The story is set in late 1970s or so and is more an eco-thriller than ‘pure’ SF. It is heavily based on the real world situation in the late 60s and early 70s: a fractured hippie movement with increased number of drug addicts, black militia movements started by Black Panthers and riots like “Long, hot summer of 1967”, serious deterioration of environmental situation in large urban areas (e.g. the Great Smog of 1952 in London) and publication of the Club of Rome dire warnings.
In the novel the large metropolitan areas are so dirty that no one walks the street without a mask and people don’t see the Sun for months in a row. Active usage of antibiotics created resistant microbes and almost anyone has a skin condition, which cannot be cured. At the same time millions die in the third world due to the crops failure owing to the pesticide resistant worms. Attempt to ameliorate the situation with food relief leads to the (accidental?) poisoning of people in Africa and Latin America with psychotropic drug in the food. Thousands of trainites (eco-hippies) actively protest the pollution, often by actually increasing it. Anyone, who tries to protest is under the threat of an assassination by big business and/or the state.
The novel follows a large number of diverse characters, many of whom will not survive to the end of the book. This multi-POV narrative makes it hard to get into the book, especially if you read it is short time periods. One of the main messages is that you, western civilization representative in your greed and search of quickly realized profits has shit all over the planet (so death to the rich).
The recipe for this novel: take a lot of real environmental problems and make them even worse; and many different diseases with hard to pronounce names; do not forget a bunch of STDs and make everyone scratch his/her crotch constantly due to pubic lace and other irritation; add visuals of smelly sweet puss, acid diarrhea, greasy water and wilted grass. Populate the setting with characters, neither too nice nor true evil, whose personal problems don’t allow them to see the big picture. Mix and shake them randomly. Kill a few and shake some more. Add dull-witted drug poisoned youth and bitter old men. Spruce with race and gender inequality. Add Club of Rome warnings.
This is not an easy read. It actually fails as a forecast, but that’s not a true purpose of SF, it is intended as a warning. Is it relevant today? I’d say not much, for while there are definitely huge problems that face humanity, including global warming (actually fully missed by the book), overuse of antibiotics and the like, actually we (humanity) made a great progress – just read what was the environmental situation in London or L.A. in the 60s. Now something similar in say India and China. The problem of global hunger is greatly ameliorated (but still present). Most of the top-10 richest men made their capital not in exploiting the natural resources or poor of the world…
But swollen with wind and the rank mist they draw,
Rot inwardly, and foul contagion spread ...
--Lycidas by John Milton
This novel was nominated for Nebula award in 1973. While many reviewers here on GR stress its forecasting power, for me it is more a backward looking book. The story is set in late 1970s or so and is more an eco-thriller than ‘pure’ SF. It is heavily based on the real world situation in the late 60s and early 70s: a fractured hippie movement with increased number of drug addicts, black militia movements started by Black Panthers and riots like “Long, hot summer of 1967”, serious deterioration of environmental situation in large urban areas (e.g. the Great Smog of 1952 in London) and publication of the Club of Rome dire warnings.
In the novel the large metropolitan areas are so dirty that no one walks the street without a mask and people don’t see the Sun for months in a row. Active usage of antibiotics created resistant microbes and almost anyone has a skin condition, which cannot be cured. At the same time millions die in the third world due to the crops failure owing to the pesticide resistant worms. Attempt to ameliorate the situation with food relief leads to the (accidental?) poisoning of people in Africa and Latin America with psychotropic drug in the food. Thousands of trainites (eco-hippies) actively protest the pollution, often by actually increasing it. Anyone, who tries to protest is under the threat of an assassination by big business and/or the state.
The novel follows a large number of diverse characters, many of whom will not survive to the end of the book. This multi-POV narrative makes it hard to get into the book, especially if you read it is short time periods. One of the main messages is that you, western civilization representative in your greed and search of quickly realized profits has shit all over the planet (so death to the rich).
The recipe for this novel: take a lot of real environmental problems and make them even worse; and many different diseases with hard to pronounce names; do not forget a bunch of STDs and make everyone scratch his/her crotch constantly due to pubic lace and other irritation; add visuals of smelly sweet puss, acid diarrhea, greasy water and wilted grass. Populate the setting with characters, neither too nice nor true evil, whose personal problems don’t allow them to see the big picture. Mix and shake them randomly. Kill a few and shake some more. Add dull-witted drug poisoned youth and bitter old men. Spruce with race and gender inequality. Add Club of Rome warnings.
This is not an easy read. It actually fails as a forecast, but that’s not a true purpose of SF, it is intended as a warning. Is it relevant today? I’d say not much, for while there are definitely huge problems that face humanity, including global warming (actually fully missed by the book), overuse of antibiotics and the like, actually we (humanity) made a great progress – just read what was the environmental situation in London or L.A. in the 60s. Now something similar in say India and China. The problem of global hunger is greatly ameliorated (but still present). Most of the top-10 richest men made their capital not in exploiting the natural resources or poor of the world…