Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

by Cory Doctorow

book data

1,112 ratings, 3.59 average rating, 171 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		15%
4		39%
3		33%
2		9%
1		1%

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published

December 5th 2003 by Tor Books

binding

Paperback, 208 pages

url

http://craphound.com/down/download.php

literary awards

2004 Locus Awards Winner (First Novel)

isbn

076530953X (isbn13: 9780765309532)

description

Acclaimed by science fiction writers like Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker, and by eminent futurists and digital visionaries like Howard Rheingold, Mitc...more

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08/07/08

Brad rated it:

bookshelves: canadian-lit, sci-fi

One of the many complaints I hear about Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is that it is "shallow." Readers see a shallowness in character, a shallowness in the work they choose, a shallowness in story depth, and a shallowness in the story's morality.

I don't see it myself.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom may seem shallow, but there is a great deal of depth to be found if one approaches the book with a willingness to overcome the prejudices and ...more One of the many complaints I hear about Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is that it is "shallow." Readers see a shallowness in character, a shallowness in the work they choose, a shallowness in story depth, and a shallowness in the story's morality.

I don't see it myself.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom may seem shallow, but there is a great deal of depth to be found if one approaches the book with a willingness to overcome the prejudices and perspectives of our current culture, to project oneself into the mindset and morality of the future world Doctorow has created.

I won't go into the story itself with any detail, as I don't want to spoil anything, but Doctorow's finest achievement in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom is the way he explores the question of morality. In a world where death and disease are over, where scarcity is barely remembered, it becomes clear that morality, even our morality today, is formed and shaped by mortality -- or the lack thereof.

The only real immorality in Down and Out seems to be the destruction of another's work. Only the tangible creations of an individual or a team ("ad-hoc") have value. Adultery, theft, destruction and even murder have no real negative value. They may reduce a person's prestige ("Whuffie") for a short time, but it is not difficult for the "victim" of any of these crimes to remain close friends or become close friends with his or her "victimizers" once he or she is "rebooted."

What this suggests for ourselves is fascinating: that morality itself is based on our mortality. The shortness of our lives, the moment of death that we all face, is the ultimate arbiter of what is right and wrong. I am sure some would say, "So what? That doesn't change anything. Wrong is wrong. Bad is bad. Evil is evil." Perhaps. But perhaps not, and what makes Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom a victory for me is that it makes me wonder about the perhaps not.

Anything that makes us consider our morality rather than just blindly accepting what has been passed down to us is a good thing, as far as I am concerned.

And so that leaves me with one nagging question: how can a book that expects us to make considerations about mortality and morality really be considered shallow? Very simply, it can't be.(less)

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08/15/07

Brooke rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, science-fiction

Read in August, 2008

Cory Doctorow's novella spins a tale set in the "Bitchun society" - a time in the future where death has been cured and money has been replaced by a system of respect/popularity points that's immediately accessible since everyone somehow has the internet in their heads now.

The "Magic Kingdom" referenced in the title is THE Magic Kingdom - the story takes place in Disney World, which has taken on an elevated importance in a world where people no longer have jobs or...more

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08/03/08

John added it

Read in August, 2008

In Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, times sure seem to have changed from today. Something called "Free Energy" has basically eliminated scarcity, while the ability to make computer backups of the self and download them into cloned bodies has eliminated death (and, for that matter, revolutionized medicine, since all defects can be fixed by downloading to a new body). Without scarcity, both work and money have become more or less obsolete, and been replaced by Whuffie, ...more In Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, times sure seem to have changed from today. Something called "Free Energy" has basically eliminated scarcity, while the ability to make computer backups of the self and download them into cloned bodies has eliminated death (and, for that matter, revolutionized medicine, since all defects can be fixed by downloading to a new body). Without scarcity, both work and money have become more or less obsolete, and been replaced by Whuffie, which measures how much respect other people have for you, whether from the everyday acts of kindness or jerkishness or from whatever kind of fame and celebrity one can chase down, and this Whuffie is used to determine access to the few luxuries that are still scarce (a table at the best restaurants or the best housing). And people are plugged into the internet 24/7--not in a virtual reality way, but more like today's internet shot into our brains at the speed of thought. People do... pretty much whatever they want.

For Julius, who's over 100 and in his third body, this finally means living and working at Disney World. The real dramas are played out in a magical land of unreality, where different groups compete to make their area of the park the best. It's a petty world, in many ways, which presumably is part of the point; nonetheless, on display are timeless emotions and struggles.

The writing remains nicely understated, hinting and implying as much as it tells, which I think works to the author's advantage, bringing the reader into a more active engagement. Doctorow strikes a balance between revealing this world of the future, exploring the characters and their relationships, and spinning a good tale. Despite the obvious differences between our world and the novel's, there exist equally-obvious parallels that offer food for thought.

I enjoyed the book thoroughly, and it was a quick read. As a bonus, Doctorow made this novel available as a free E-book, which can be downloaded free here. I found it to be worth the price and then some.(less)

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01/30/09

Ariel rated it:

Read in January, 2009

A posthuman novel set at Disney World? Wow, this book was written for me! It's been about a century or so since a cure for death and the end of scarcity, and backups of people are downloaded into clones if they die. The narrator Julius works at Walt Disney World as part of an ad-hoc committee that controls Liberty Square. The Disney cast actually makes their own management decisions! Woohoo, no hierarchy in the Disney workplace. Maybe that only excites me because I used to work there and f...more

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10/09/07

Jason Pettus rated it:

Read in October, 2007

(The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Okay, so it's finally time; time for me to finally make my way through the complete works of cutting-edge science-fiction author Cory Doctorow. After all, he's one of the four editors of my favorite website of all time, the profoundly unique pop-culture journal Boing Boing; and Doctorow's also a big champion of the exact political issues CCLaP cares about as well, includi...more (The much longer full review can be found at the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com].)

Okay, so it's finally time; time for me to finally make my way through the complete works of cutting-edge science-fiction author Cory Doctorow. After all, he's one of the four editors of my favorite website of all time, the profoundly unique pop-culture journal Boing Boing; and Doctorow's also a big champion of the exact political issues CCLaP cares about as well, including copyright reform, the elimination of so-called "Digital Rights Management" (or DRM) malware, the importance of do-it-yourself artists and the like. And besides, Doctorow also puts his money where his mouth is; that he's arguably* the most famous artist yet to offer digital versions of his projects for free download, meaning that a person can technically read his entire body of work without spending a dime, if one wants. All of these things mean that I should've become a completist of Doctorow a long time ago, and am in fact a little ashamed that I'm not; then add the fact that this thirtysomething's ouevre is not yet that large to begin with (only three novels, two story collections, and one book of essays), and I now really have no excuse.

I've decided, then, to tackle Doctorow's work in the order it was written; and that brings us at first to his explosive debut novel, 2003's "gonzo sci-fi" tale Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, which has been heralded by not only critics but also peers and fans since almost the first day of its release. And indeed, now that I've read it myself, I understand why; because it turns out that Doctorow is not just a great cultural essayist, not only a dedicated technology activist, but in fact a legitimate creative genius as well, able to craft a story out of the dense tendrils of theoretical science and economics that nonetheless has a huge humanistic heart at the core of it, not to mention a pretty large amount of sincerely laugh-out-loud humor too. To start with, for example, the novel is set in a far-future society where scarcity is no longer a survival issue; where a form of free energy has been discovered and is now in use, where replicator-type machines can now create food and clothing from scratch, where even death has been eliminated through the dual perfection of both cloning and the digitization of consciousness. (So in other words, in the world of Down and Out, people can have their entire brain and all its memories "backed up" regularly to a computer system, which is then "uploaded" into a new body whenever the old one dies.)

Among many other profound changes to society, this has led to...(less)

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12/12/07

Geoff Carter rated it:

Read in December, 2007

Messy, unfocused. Characters are poorly-formed and unlikeable. Doctorow starts out with several intriguing conceits -- eternal life though computer-style backups and clones, the evolution of themed environments, hard currency replaced by popular esteem -- but he can't decide which one he finds most intriguing, and he even loses those prime notions a few times through needless tangents.

Doctorow obviously loves the cyberpunk novels of Neal Stephenson (which are themselves a tangle of i...more

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11/27/07

Simon rated it:

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: Bookclubs; Utopians/Dystopians; Anyone who actually believes the Singularity is Near....

Here we are, living and dying (again) in Orange County, FLA.

Thought provoking cocktail party fodder. I disliked Doctorow’s mitten-fisted writing, banal hippie-dippy characters (Beatles references included); however, the points I found interesting don’t concern the people as much as the technology.

Don't bother to savor the words. Read it quickly for the premise, then debate the promise of "TomorrowLand."

Essentially a problematic book that I dislik...more

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06/02/08

tadpole rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, misc--cyberpunk

Read in January, 2008

I'm torn when it comes to Cory Doctorow. In one sense, I am totally into the fact that the guy is obviously a student of 80's cyberpunk and computer technology in general. However, when I read this book, something didn't seem right about the whole thing. The best analogy I can come up with is working hard all day and thinking about eating steak for dinner, but then coming home to find out that you're getting a McDonald's cheeseburger. The technology and the ideas are there, but the story did not...more

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05/25/08

Sandi rated it:

bookshelves: 2008, sci-fi

Read in July, 2008

recommended to Sandi by: SciFi and Fantasy Book Club August Theme Book

As a native Southern Californian who has been to Disneyland a minimum of once per year since before birth, how could I pass up a book that combines science fiction with Disney?

I was really torn between giving this three stars or four. It scores high for creativity. It's got a very tight plot and some interesting ideas. It takes place at Disney World's Magic Kingdom. I've been there once, but it's so much like Disneyland that all the ride references made sense even if the geogra...more

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03/15/08

Talia rated it:

Read in March, 2008

What I enjoyed about this book was the fascinating picture of the future. Apparently in the future, there has been a cure for death, and people can be altered to look any age. Their brains are also like computers, where memory needs to be backed up in case of death so the body can be regenerated. Also, brain/computers are interlinked on a type of network, so someone can mentally “call” someone else’s brain to talk. I really liked reading about the setting of the story, but sadly, the story...more

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09/21/07

Ben rated it:

In a lot of science fiction, plot and characters are merely vehicles for the author's vision of his world. Philip K. Dick is not remembered for his creation of Bob Arctor, for instance, but for his postulation of a existence where identity is as fluid and changeable as the clothes you wear.

Cory Doctorow's world in the Magic Kingdom made a lasting impression on me, though i remember his characters less than his world. This is not to say that plot or characters are weak in any way, bu...more In a lot of science fiction, plot and characters are merely vehicles for the author's vision of his world. Philip K. Dick is not remembered for his creation of Bob Arctor, for instance, but for his postulation of a existence where identity is as fluid and changeable as the clothes you wear.

Cory Doctorow's world in the Magic Kingdom made a lasting impression on me, though i remember his characters less than his world. This is not to say that plot or characters are weak in any way, but that the world that they inhabit is as bizarre and psychedelic as any I've come across.

Doctorow is well-known as a blogger, one of the founders of boingboing.net, a popular site that evolved from a print publication of the zine era. It makes sense that he would postulate a future where the internet has expanded beyond the boundaries of cyberspace into reality. In "Kingdom," everyone is telepathically hardwired to the network, with all that that entails. Money is obsolete, having been sublimated into "whuffie," or communal respect. Whuffie is referenceable on-line, instantaneously to anyone everywhere, and seems roughly equivalent to the current notion of page-hits. If you lead a respectable life, you live richly and doors open everywhere for you. The opposite holds true also, of course...

Another advantage of an always-on network is the ability to "back yourself up." Everyone is on auto-save, their thoughts and memories regularly encoded to remote servers. One's genetic code is also stored online, so in the event of say, a boating accident, one can be cloned and replaced, inserted into a copy their own body, set to any age they choose, creepily enough. 1 up.

The story is set in Disney World, now a hallowed temple to entertainment, which is so necessary for these now-immortal, atheistic humans. Working there entails an apparently religious devotion to the duty of making the place as diverting as possible, with fierce competition between the teams maintaining each ride. The rides themselves are still the classics: Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Hall of Presidents...
There is a murder at Disney World, which kicks the story into gear, allowing Doctorow to explore the possibilites of this world, which is just topsy-turvy enough to seem uncomfortably like ours. Good, weird stuff.(less)

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12/03/07

Justin rated it:

In the future, when we have cured damn near every disease and licked practically every problem society has thrown our way, the only battles worth fighting are fought over our culture: do we preserve it, reminding future generation that some things are worth holding on to, or do we plow ahead, looking only to the future? Those are some of the questions this book asks, when a handful of groups fight a cold war against each other over the future of Disneyland.

The book is also damn funn...more

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03/29/07

aaron rated it:

(review of isbn 0765304368)

Another gimmick that is fun for a chapter. The central theme that it is a society which pays you with digital social rating you can spend rather then money is unique, but it is this very concept that create the most blatant holes in the story. What makes it so special is what somewhat destroys the story simultaneously.

One thing going for it is that is visual treat. If you’re a fan of Disneyland or other theme parks, I think you will appreciate the comedy and behind the scenes an...more

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12/30/07

Tyler rated it:

Read in December, 2007

A fun, short read with some wacky ideas that tie together some sci-fi/cyberpunk elements with the "magic" of Disney World. The author does a nice job of meshing together these ideas with his storyline and characters, giving way to a nice, fast pace in reading.
Unfortunately, the cool "whizzbang" technology that he dishes out runs a little dry and unfinished after 1/4 of the book. It's mostly due to the author trying cram in so many other themes as well (immortality, liv...more

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03/31/09

Adrienne rated it:

bookshelves: book-count-08, science-fiction

Read in November, 2008

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow is set in Walt Disney World and in the future. In this future, technology has advanced dramatically. People have computers and phones in their heads, and can access all kinds of information with a thought. No one dies anymore; much like today’s computer hard drives, a person’s conciousness is backed up, ready to be downloaded into a clone whenever needed. People can go into suspended animation (”deadheading”) and sleep for years, then be...more

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06/22/09

Kerry rated it:

(review of isbn 0765304368)

bookshelves: fromthelibrary, scifi

Read in June, 2009

recommends it for: fans of sci fi

I didn't dislike this book, per se. I liked the conceit, and I'd be interested in reading more stories that take place within this version of the future. But I didn't find the plot (or the characters, for that matter) to be particularly engaging.

I mean, here is the notion raised by the book: "In the future, if everything is easy and we all live forever, doesn't that take some of the fun out of it?" Really? That's all you got for me, Doctorow? That's some kindergarten ...more

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04/19/09

Thomas rated it:

Read in April, 2009

It's crazy how this book predated facebook and twitter. Very prescient how everyones social worth is dependent on "whuffie" (or online ticks of approval from people you interact with). This novel focuses on a microcosm of this post-human future after death is cured and somehow sustainability is found, and of course the best place to focus on "whuffie" and society is a theme park, the theme park: Disney World. A war over ride preservation and ride improvements is about to ...more

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02/02/09

Michael rated it:

I enjoyed reading D&OITMK, however it was not as 'hard' as I generally like my sci-fi. It was interesting to see the changes to society that the end of scarcity economics and personal death may bring, but I never got a good feel for how we had transcended scarcity. I would have been satisfied if there had even been some token throwaway line like 'ever since we harnessed magnetic monopoles back in 2015, everyone had all the energy they could use'. Alas, there was no such explanation.

...more

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05/28/09

Lisa rated it:

bookshelves: cyberpunk

Read in May, 2009

I've made the argument so many times that when it comes to art, content is more important than form. This is especially true for the Photoshop generation, where virtual aesthetic perfection is accessible at the click of a mouse. However, this book shows that content can't always be king - even strong ideas need an attractive presentation. And that is where this book fails.

I read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom online, which definitely contributed to my impression that this was mo...more

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07/30/07

Wealhtheow rated it:

bookshelves: sci-fi

Read in February, 2007

I've mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, I love some of the ideas, most obviously "Whuffie," the quantified amount of respect everyone uses as a sort of currency. It reads like good, old fashioned sf, but I don't much *like* old sf. The main problem was that I just plain disliked all of the main characters.

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quotes from this book

"It's good versus evil, Dan. You don't want to be a post-person. You want to stay human. The rides are human. We each mediate them through our own experience. We're physically inside of them, and they talk to us through our senses. What Debra's people are building--it's hive-mind [stuff:]. Directly implanting thoughts! Jesus! It's not an experience, it's brainwashing!" More quotes...