Jason Rosado

I just finished reading the novel Little Brother by Cory Doctorow as assigned by Nathan Freitas, our professor for Social Activism Using Mobile Technology.

I was equal parts disturbed, terrified and enlightened by this novel. Essentially, a current day (near-futuristic) update on George Orwell’s 1984, “Little Brother” tells the story of Marcus Yallow, who like so many American citizens and Foreign Nationals in the after-math of 9/11 got swept up in the the American Government’s over-reactive responses to terrorist acts upon our soil.

The actual date/time setting of the novel is unclear, but its clearly in a not-too-distant future in San Francisco. Marcus aka W1n5t0n (“Winston”) aka M1k3y (“Mikey”) is a high school student actively engaged in role player games, DIY hacks and gaming “the system.” It’s when he gets caught in the wrong place in the wrong time after a terrorist bombing of the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the BART tunnel connecting San Francisco with Oakland, is where the drama begins.

The story highlights several hacks and concepts actually used in reality. I could see the spirit of Nathan, our professor, in the words of Doctorow. Mr. Freitas has been known to leverage technology to support progressive activism globally. In a bizarro world, perhaps some of us in our class, might end up on some awful Government “list…” (just kidding). Marcus Yallow’s story is one that all of us who even speak modestly against our some times totalitarian-feeling democracy get a little paranoid about – the worse case scenarios when civil rights, the Constitution and The Bill of Rights get thrown out the window in the pursuit of counter-terrorism and freedom.

Some of the accounts of the fictitious terrorist act in the story brought back bad personal memories of the days after 9/11 here in New York City. I certainly hope we never see those days again. The Obama Administration is only slowly peeling back the onion of the Bush Regime, and seeks to keep intact many of the infringements upon our daily privacy (NSA wire-tapping, etc).

The concept of “truth” resonates throughout the book. In a situation such as Marcus’, it is a constant struggle to defend his own view of what occurred, and to clarify what he had been doing and why, in order to not get swept up into the broadest definition of the term “terrorist.” It is also a somewhat obvious attempt to elucidate on the concept that “one’s man’s terrorist, is another man’s freedom fighter.”

“Little Brother” is a good quick read, and will keep you engaged throughout the story.