Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Review of "The Other Eden"
I used to think that Ben Elton is the kind of best-selling writers that makes people laugh but not think when I read “Inconceivable”. I picked up “Dead Famous” later which was a spoof on reality TV show, “Big Brother” and I was pretty amazed that it packed in enough punches and laughter to worth a read.
As the TV and related industries as a background, Ben Elton satirizes the superstar syndrome. In Dead Famous, nothing is more ironic that reading a group of wannabes locked up in a house only to get eviction by voting each other off at the end of a week (think Survivor). The spoof becomes a criminal mystery when one of the participants is murdered in cold blood while the whole show is broadcasted on Internet. This is similar to The Other Eden (which I will talk about in greater detail). Here. Elton prophesizes a bleak future where earth is dying and movie scripts are products of advertisements.
Both stories capture earth's most influential modern invention - the television and the huge monster it has spawned. The Other Eden, is however, a darker and interesting story. Set in the future, when the communications/ TV/media industry is monopolised by a huge company selling Claustrospheres. They are biospheres that will come in handy when Earth dies. When that happens, people can inhabit in these man-made biospheres - a small world of their own and wait for years before they come out again.
I suppose it is depressing if other writers were to write about Armageddon. But Elton manages to cash in on the silliness of the situation by inventing mother earth terrorists, green activists who sabotage teh general population to make them realise that our earth is dying. More captivating is the darker and sinister underlined plot of the characters. The character's insecurities with their lives, their jobs and ideas For example, Judy, the FBI agent who is caught in between capturing the terrorists and finding out the truth behind the reason for our dying earth. Max, a superstar who has no goals in life, suddenly becomes passionate when he meets a green terrorists and starts to fight for her cause. The whole catch 22 situation of whether buying a Claustrosphere consitutes an act of treason against protecting Earth e.t.c. is also reasoned.
It would be too much to compare it to classics that has prophesized the sad future of 1984 or A Handmaid's Tale. After all, Elton's tale makes us laugh more than think. Yet, like classics mentioned, these far-fetched plots which exaggerrates, shows the stupidity and procrastination of societal preoccupation with illusions (such as buying and selling and the belief that the superstar is a more different person than any other person on the street syndrome)
I don't know what to make out of The Other Eden but I do enjoy reading it. And I would be hasty if I didn't say it made me stop and think about a while. What of Earth and this huge cosmic joke called communications/advertising...
I used to think that Ben Elton is the kind of best-selling writers that makes people laugh but not think when I read “Inconceivable”. I picked up “Dead Famous” later which was a spoof on reality TV show, “Big Brother” and I was pretty amazed that it packed in enough punches and laughter to worth a read.
As the TV and related industries as a background, Ben Elton satirizes the superstar syndrome. In Dead Famous, nothing is more ironic that reading a group of wannabes locked up in a house only to get eviction by voting each other off at the end of a week (think Survivor). The spoof becomes a criminal mystery when one of the participants is murdered in cold blood while the whole show is broadcasted on Internet. This is similar to The Other Eden (which I will talk about in greater detail). Here. Elton prophesizes a bleak future where earth is dying and movie scripts are products of advertisements.
Both stories capture earth's most influential modern invention - the television and the huge monster it has spawned. The Other Eden, is however, a darker and interesting story. Set in the future, when the communications/ TV/media industry is monopolised by a huge company selling Claustrospheres. They are biospheres that will come in handy when Earth dies. When that happens, people can inhabit in these man-made biospheres - a small world of their own and wait for years before they come out again.
I suppose it is depressing if other writers were to write about Armageddon. But Elton manages to cash in on the silliness of the situation by inventing mother earth terrorists, green activists who sabotage teh general population to make them realise that our earth is dying. More captivating is the darker and sinister underlined plot of the characters. The character's insecurities with their lives, their jobs and ideas For example, Judy, the FBI agent who is caught in between capturing the terrorists and finding out the truth behind the reason for our dying earth. Max, a superstar who has no goals in life, suddenly becomes passionate when he meets a green terrorists and starts to fight for her cause. The whole catch 22 situation of whether buying a Claustrosphere consitutes an act of treason against protecting Earth e.t.c. is also reasoned.
It would be too much to compare it to classics that has prophesized the sad future of 1984 or A Handmaid's Tale. After all, Elton's tale makes us laugh more than think. Yet, like classics mentioned, these far-fetched plots which exaggerrates, shows the stupidity and procrastination of societal preoccupation with illusions (such as buying and selling and the belief that the superstar is a more different person than any other person on the street syndrome)
I don't know what to make out of The Other Eden but I do enjoy reading it. And I would be hasty if I didn't say it made me stop and think about a while. What of Earth and this huge cosmic joke called communications/advertising...
