DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM

The happiest place on Earth is now even happier...kind of

By Chris Wyatt     February 04, 2003

Well-respected SF short story author, Cory Doctorow (winner of 2000 John W. Campbell award for best new writer) does an incredible job on this short novel about immortality and Disneyland. Jules, the main character in DOWN AND OUT IN THE MAGIC KINGDOM, is still a young guy (he's only about 100 years old, after all) and has already learned 10 languages, written 3 symphonies, and is working on his fourth doctorate. Jules lives in the futuristic "Bitchun Society" (Bitchin' Society?) where death has been cured, there's no money, and there's been an end to work.

Jules' life-long ambition has always been to live in Disneyland. Finally, he gets his dream and moves into the park, where he joins with the volunteer squad that maintains and improves the rides.

But he wakes up one morning realizing that he's just now recovering from his third death. He remembers now...he was murdered...in Disney's Tiki room. As part of his recovery he's been mentally uploaded with images from the Disney security cameras that recorded his death. The girl that shot him was wearing a generic plastic surgery face, which makes her impossible to identify, but Jules starts following the clues.

Eventually the investigation of his own murder leads him to a dangerous faction that has gained control in the Hall of Presidents. The group is replacing the venerable animatronic presidents with a virtual tour...which is outrageous. Soon, Jules finds himself in the middle of a war for control of the fate of the Magic Kingdom.

Doctorow, who writes in first person, has a loose, smooth literary style that sounds compellingly like the speech one would expect from the voice of someone in the society that he describes. More excitingly is the post-modern sense of sarcasm that drips from every page. All the fighting in the book, all the murder and death, is for the petty sake of a disposable consumer amusement park.

That's an analogy that bares examination.

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