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Dangerous book will rev up your cynicism
Book Review
By Derryll White
Bacigalupi, Paolo (2015). The Doubt Factory.
RULES TO LIVE BY – First Rule: You’re always watched.
Second Rule: See rule one.
This novel has ‘newness’ and ‘different’ written into it from the very beginning. Creative graffiti, an awareness of Banksy artwork, a designed ‘happening’ as good as any art show opening – it leaves the reader wondering where the story is going and how it is going to trump itself.
Simon Banks is a very high-powered Public Relations man, a ‘fixer’ for a large number of high profile political and corporate clients. Bacigalupi is careful to build a strong character in Banks, a focused worker but also a caring family man. Banks’ daughter, Alix, is also an achiever, responsible but strong-willed, a teenager who loves and is sensitive to her family. The tension in the novel builds as a well-organized, street-smart, ragtag group of hackers, graffiti artists and disenfranchised young creative souls take on Banks and all the power and money he can control.
In the big industrial heartland they call Simon Banks’ company – Banks Strategy Partners – by another name, ‘The Doubt Factory.’ You will have to read the novel to find out why.
At some point I started thinking of the story of Erin Brokovich and the powerful presentation Julia Roberts gave of the work required to take on expert corporate liars. It is frightening to realize that for the most part we live a life of laziness, not really asking who controls the message, who organizes the fights against the complete labeling of products. This is a dangerous book. However cynical you think you are, you aren’t cynical enough.
This is also a story of the willful promise teenagers embody. Alix, in the end, goes against those she loves in order to act for the greater good as she sees it. Bacigalupi may be writing for the Young Adult market here, but if that is the case then he gave me, an older reader, a lot of hope for the future.
So, if you are interested in how science and public information are twisted and corrupted so that corporations can make huge profits, then read this novel; I am very glad I did.
****
Excerpts from the novel:
IMAGE CONTROL –Dad had a scoring system that went from Teflon (trouble would slide right off) to Self-Immolation (lighting yourself on fire for the entertainment of the public). Sometimes he also awarded Just-Add-Gasoline points for those who were really determined to double down on their own stupid.
THE WORLD – “We’re a radicalized culture, these days. It really doesn’t matter whether it’s the right or the left, you’re going to end up with someone who’s sure that you’re doing the worst thing in the world. A talk radio host or some blogger decides they hate something that someone you work with does, and that’s it. They whip up the witch hunts, mob logic.”
BELIEF – “‘Believing’ is for Santa Claus, right? It’s for Tooth Fairies. It’s for your boyfriend when he says he’s never met anyone like you and wants to feel you up. That’s believing. It’s for little kids. Belief. You believe in God?” he asked sharply.
– Derryll White once wrote books but now chooses to read and write about them. When not reading he writes history for the web at www.basininstitute.org.
