Down and out in the Magic Kingdom

I’d not been impressed with the little snippets of this book that author Cory Doctorow had posted to BoingBong at various times, but Doyce swore that it was a truly keen read, especially for someone with an appreciation for Disney theme parks, so I gave it a whirl (read: he pressed his copy of the book into my hands and insisted I read it. Since I’ve done the same to him innumerable times, it seemed only fair …)

As it turns out, the reality is somewhere in-between the fascination that Doyce had and the general blah impression I’d had. There are some really keen bits in here, some gut-wrenching ones as well, but the framework as a whole is far less successful than the parts and concepts that went into it.

Book rankings in each section from 1 (bleah!) to 3 (yeah!).

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow

• Summary: [2] In a future where human conscience can be backed up and restored, and money has given way to computer-linked reputation indices, a fan/worker/ad-hoc owner of the last unaltered portion of Disney World’s Magic Kingdom fights both his own fears and those who would update a timeless classic.
• Entertainment: [2] Lots of fascinating explorations of the ubiquitously connected world, extrapolations of what would happen if you could backup and restore the human mind, and exploration of what it would mean if “wealth” was the accurately recorded regard with which others hold you. The text is light and entertaining, the pace is quick, and the concepts fly hot and heavy, especially at the beginning.

  That said, the plot is more than a bit sketchy, and everything seems to wrap up at the end with some bits that come out of the blue. Doctorow either isn’t sure how to wrap things up at the end, or he’s too busy with the setting and emotions to come up with convincing plot to conclude the affair.

• Profundity: [2] Another theme in the book seems to be how easily someone who has it all can self-destruct, over and over. The book becomes positively painful at times. Indeed, the old saw about how success doesn’t bring happiness seems to be true even when there isn’t money involved.

• Re-readability: [2] I may not be reading this one again any time soon, but I can see picking it up again sometime in the future. There are a lot of fun concepts here, all the moreso for (as Doyce noted) someone who loves the Disney parks, and even if the framework for those ideas is sometimes thin, I’ll want to revisit it sometime.