"Stand On Zanzibar" (John Brunner) ramble

[derien]

I may hate this book when I'm done reading it, but just now I'm kind of loving those parts that are supposed to be excerpts from books by 'Chad C. Mulligan.' The chapter I just finished reading is from the (non existent) book "You're an Ignorant Idiot" (yeah, I do love that title) and compares the draft (because "Stand On Zanzibar" was written in 1968) to a crazy person who has to rip apart another human once a week, and the community has decided to send it not the people who are dying anyway, but the ones who are at the cusp of their greatest potential, and the generalized belief is (you may or may not think this is true) that without this sacrifice we wouldn't be here. But then Mulligan (a supremely cynical character who has not been seen, only experienced as the supposed author of all these clips of books which inspire the characters in the real book, SOZ) devolves into a rant - what does it matter if these young men sacrificed their lives to this God called War for you? Because your life basically sucks. Sure, you're here, you're "free." Whatever that means. Free to buy more shit from big corporations, imho. I didn't need John Brunner to tell me that. ;) (Mulligan is rumored to have committed suicide, a plot thread which I hope goes somewhere.)

You notice I rarely write reviews after I'm done? I think while I'm reading, but when I'm done it's over. I close the book and I'm on to something else.