Little Brother is 1984 updated to take into account September 11th, the Internet, and the Department of Homeland Security. I won't be the first person to compare Little Brother to George Orwell (Doctorow himself does it, alluding to it in the story by giving his protagonist the handle w1n5t0n and through the title of the book itself), but it's a very apt comparison. Mistrust of the status quo and to take the future into their own hands.I read this book in a single night, which is a pretty good testament to how much I enjoyed it. Represents a call to action to the world's teenagers to adopt a healthy Lays bare the ridiculousness of sacrificing liberty for 'freedom,' and Little Brother is this generation's 1984-it I was then, and this book will speak to many of them. But not every teenager-thankfully-is as dense as Said, 'I like it, but I don't believe it.' My eyes weren't open enough Prescient commentary on the way the world already is. Knowing who I was then, I would have read it the way I read 1984Īs a teen-as a cautionary allegory about taking the wrong path, not a Not sure I could have handled-or appreciated-this book when I was a Semester-long-heck, a year-long-course with Fahreinheit 451, 1984, Brave New World, Brazil, V for Vendetta, and Feed, and if I were still teaching teenagers I would chuck my entire curriculum next year and do it. Why every kid should read this book right now. But it is also, ofĬourse, all those things I feared it would be. Smart-oh gods is it smart-and it's entertaining. Secure in my own home, thank you very much.Īnyway.

I was pretty content to sit by my cozy fire and feel calm, safe, and

Me want to get up off my lazy butt and do something about the world, and Make me angry, it was going to make me scared, and it was going to make Anderson's Feed and realizing I am thatĬonsumer, that unthinking harbinger of doom.

I avoided it because I knew it was going to be painful. Despite my ever-growing dedication to Boing Boing, the blog he co-founded and contributes to. Was ecstatic and bought it as soon as it came out-but then I sat on Story collections, and those I haven't read I own and have in my I've read just about all of his adult science fiction novels and short Their city have willingly resigned their personal liberties in return They emerge abused and blinking into the sunlight a week later, theyįind themselves in a not-so-brave new world, one where the people of When a 9/11-scale terrorist attack hits their city, and they areĭetained by the Department of Homeland Security for interrogation. Kids playing hooky from school are in the right place at the wrong time I was reluctant to read Cory Doctorow's Little Brother.

Little brother by cory doctorow