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Trample an Empire Down
They had a Guaranteed Annual Income and an automated world where no one had to work -- but there was nothing to do! When Morris and his friends ran out of beer, there was only one alternative: they decided to overthrow the government!
- GenresScience FictionFiction
172 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1978
About the author
Mack Reynolds
498 books43 followersDallas McCord "Mack" Reynolds was an American science fiction writer. His pen names included Clark Collins, Mark Mallory, Guy McCord, Dallas Ross and Maxine Reynolds. Many of his stories were published in "Galaxy Magazine" and "Worlds of If Magazine". He was quite popular in the 1960s, but most of his work subsequently went out of print.
He was an active supporter of the Socialist Labor Party; his father, Verne Reynolds, was twice the SLP's Presidential candidate, in 1928 and 1932. Many of MR's stories use SLP jargon such as 'Industrial Feudalism' and most deal with economic issues in some way
Many of Reynolds' stories took place in Utopian societies, and many of which fulfilled L. L. Zamenhof's dream of Esperanto used worldwide as a universal second language. His novels predicted much that has come to pass, including pocket computers and a world-wide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.
Many of his novels were written within the context of a highly mobile society in which few people maintained a fixed residence, leading to "mobile voting" laws which allowed someone living out of the equivalent of a motor home to vote when and where they chose.
He was an active supporter of the Socialist Labor Party; his father, Verne Reynolds, was twice the SLP's Presidential candidate, in 1928 and 1932. Many of MR's stories use SLP jargon such as 'Industrial Feudalism' and most deal with economic issues in some way
Many of Reynolds' stories took place in Utopian societies, and many of which fulfilled L. L. Zamenhof's dream of Esperanto used worldwide as a universal second language. His novels predicted much that has come to pass, including pocket computers and a world-wide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.
Many of his novels were written within the context of a highly mobile society in which few people maintained a fixed residence, leading to "mobile voting" laws which allowed someone living out of the equivalent of a motor home to vote when and where they chose.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 6, 2018
review of
Mack Reynolds's Trample An Empire Down
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 4-6, 2018
I was reading 4 other bks when I decided to read this. All 4 of the others were more important but I was finding myself a bit bored so I picked this as something to read that I'd enjoy more. It did the trick. It's always so tempting to only read bks like this that I can breeze thru & enjoy w/o too much mental effort. But, no, that's not the way I am, I always have to be challenging myself; mustn't let myself get stupid & complacent.
Anyway, Mack Reynolds can now officially be added to my list of favorite pulp writers. All 4 bks that I've read by him so far have had interesting political plots & it's been fun to read my way thru them to their conclusions. He doesn't have the flair for language that Philip K. Dick does but, as w/ all pulp, it's easily readable stuff where the reader (this reader at least) breezes thru the language w/o paying it much mind.
The initial premise isn't that unusual: a near-future utopia in wch everyone's taken care of & automation does most of the work but in wch there's dissatisfaction b/c people feel the need for more stimulus or challenge:
"Jack said, "This is a helluva world for an aspiring alcoholic to live in. The ultra-welfare state, People's Capitalism. Ha! Guaranteed Annual Income. Just enough not to starve on, but not enough to enjoy yourself."" - p 10
"He said definitely, "The country's gone flat. No more wars, no more depressions, and with ultramation and computerization, practically nobody works. Practically everybody's on Guaranteed Annual Income. Even the space program has gotten into a rut, with nothing exciting going on. Practically everybody just sits around taking trank or drinking beer and watching Tr-D like a bunch of idiots. The whole country's in a mental slump."
""And?" the other two said in unison.
""We need a revolution, that's what. There hasn't been a revolution in this country for well over two hundred years. The nation's ripe for it."" - pp 10-11
Once a revolution's been decided on, various programs are proposed. This bk's copyrighted 1978. I 1st encountered the notion of "preplanned obsolescence" sometime in the early 1970s. At the time, some of those of us who discussed it had the feeling that we'd outed the corporations & that the preplanned obsolescence wd have to stop since it was so obviously despicable. Alas, preplanned obsolescence is now worse than ever - largely thanks to computers. It was nice for me to read the following: ""We're going to end preplanned obsolescence.["]" (p 14) Reynolds's ongoing political critiques continue to please me:
"["]Democracy, in America, became a farce more than a century ago. Even presidents were elected because of their TV image, or some such. The candidate with the most dollars to spend for TV appearances, newspaper ads and so on, made it.["]" - p 16
Many political activists, such as myself, ridicule the US's 2 party system as ultimately just one party for the rich. As such, some of us refer to "Republocrats" & "Demicans". Reynolds's reference to such an idea might be the earliest I've read: "["]After we get going as a political party, we'll demand equal time every occasion a Democratic Republican gives a speech."" (p 19) Their new party is rife w/ good ideas: "SUBVERSIVE PARTY DEMANDS RETURN OF TEXAS TO MEXICO". (p 37) Imagine if the Bush family suddenly became Mexicans. Hhmm.. How about returning the land that the White House is on to the Native Americans? Might as well throw in the land that Rump Towers is on at the same time.
The bk also has some entertaining mistakes that the proof readers apparently overlooked. Viz: the name of a character: he's "Richard Oppenheimer" on p 46, he's "Robert Oppenheimer" on p 50 (actually the name of a fmous scientist who's referenced elsewhere), & back to "Richard Oppenheimer" on p 51. How many people notice such things? (or care?)
Reynolds has one character express something that I can relate to that I don't run across very often:
"Dominating one wall was a Monet. Morris stared. He said, "Where the hell did you get that? It's not a copy or a print."
"Her eyebrows went up. "I'm surprised that you knew. It was left to me by my grandfather."
""Why don't you sell it and live off what you get for the rest of your life?"
""Would you sell your soul?"" - p 55
Yes, there're things more important than money. Tell that to mafioso Lucky Luciano. According to Alfred W. McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (1972):
"However, in 1930-1931, only seven years after heroin was legally banned, a war erupted in the Mafia ranks. Out of the violence that left more than sixty gansters dead came a new generation of leaders with little respect for the traditional code of honor.
"The leader of the mafioso youth movement was the legendary Salvatore C. Luciana, known to the world as Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Charming and strikingly handsome, Luciano must rank as one of the most brilliant criminal executives of the modern age. For, at a series of meetings shortly following the last of the bloodbaths that completely eliminated the old guard, Luciano outlined his plans for a modern, nationwide crime cartel."
[..]
"With the end of Prohibition in sight, Luciano made the decision to take the Mafia into the lucrative prostitution and heroin rackets."
[..]
"Heroin was an attractive substitute because its relatively recent prohibition had left a large market that could be exploited and expanded easily. Although heroin addicts in no way compared with drinkers in numbers, heroin profits could be just as substantial: heroin's light weight made it less expensive to smuggle than liquor, and its relatively limited number of sources made it more easy to monopolize.
"Heroin, moreover, complemeneted Luciano's other new business venture—the organization of prostitution on an unprecedented scale. Luciano forced many small-time pimps out of business as he found that addicting his prostitiute labor force kept them quiescent, steady workers, with a habit to support and only one way to gain enough money to support it." - pp 18-19, Alfred W. McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (1972), Harper & Row
Nice guy, huh? Now according to the flap blurb of Martin A. Gosch & Richard Hammer's The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano (1975): "Luciano disdained dealing in "junk"". I suspect that McCoy's version is more reliable. ANYWAY, the point of going into this is that Reynolds also mentions Luciano:
""They're a bunch of crooks," he went on. "All politicians. Politics are so crooked that you have to be a crook to get anywhere in them. Take Tom Dewey. He made his name prosecuting the Mafia head, Lucky Luciano; got him sentenced to life, or something. And then, during the Second World War, when Dewey was governor of New York, pardoned him. Why? It was unrealistic to keep him in prison, he said. Supposedly, it came out later, the reason Luciano was pardoned was so that the Mafia in Sicily would collaborate with the United States military."" - pp 78-79
The initial 3 men of the revolutionary triumverate of the Subversive Party have been joined by a woman. Reynolds has the woman be the mouthpiece for the most extreme of the proposals:
"Karen said, "We're going to have to get the queer vote. The country's full of queers. We'd never come to power without getting their support."
""Make homosexuality legal between consenting adults, eh?" Jed said thoughtfully. "Like in England."
""Not just consenting adults and homos, all queers," Karen said. "Let them molest small children, practice sadism and masochism, expose themselves in public, the works.["]" - p 79
Karen continues to elucidate:
""Even more so with Lesbians. Who can settle for a tongue job when there are six inches of penis—and up?"
""Up what?" Morris Malone said mildly.
""I meant longer. What anybody can do with a penis more than six inches long I've never been able to figure out, but some seem to have the dream that the longer the better."" - p 80
Hhmm.. Karen's full of contentious statements. I wonder how many women I know wd agree that a penis over 6" long is unnecessary for their pleasure? Wondering about this, I did some cursory research about vaginal anatomy:
"1. How long is the vaginal canal?
Not that long. On average, the vaginal canal is three to six inches long. If you need a visual aid, that’s roughly the length of your hand. But your vaginal canal can change shape in certain situations, like during sex or childbirth.
"2. Does it get longer when you’re aroused?
When you’re having sex, your vaginal canal can get longer to accommodate penetration. Sexual arousal forces your cervix and uterus to lift up and out of the way, which causes the upper two-thirds of your vagina to lengthen.
"But if you feel a penis or sex toy hitting your cervix, that could mean your body isn’t turned on enough to allow for full penetration. Of course, that’s not the only reason — your cervix could be touched when thrusting is too deep, or if a penis or toy is larger than the average penis size. That’s about five inches when erect." - https://www.healthline.com/health/wom...
SO, guys, if you're feeling like you don't stand a chance of being sexually popular w/ a penis 3 to 6" long, THINK AGAIN! Just remember, Johnny "The Wad" Holmes cdn't even get his scrotum to reach the woman's labia. Wdn't that be a drag?
For all of you who didn't find Karen's proposal of legalizing child molestation extreme enough, what about this one?:
"["]As soon as we get in, send a firing squad to every insane asylum, hospital for incurables and old people's homes and mercifully execute them and about eighty-five percent of the guards, nurses and officials in charge."
"This time, all four of the men winced in pain." - p 81
Most of Karen's ideas don't go over too well. Nonetheless, she becomes the organizer of the women recruited into the Subversive Party. Here's her giving a speech to receptive recruits & potential recruits:
"["]Only in the last few thousand did patriarchal society take over from women who formerly dominated clan and tribe."
""Why?" somebody called out. "Why did it change?"
"Karen said, "Because of the development of the tool and also the larger domesticated animals. Women, as a rule, were not able to use the new heavy metal tools due to long months of pregnancy and then the need to take care of the new infant. Men took over agriculture and the flocks and became the providers. He who controls a person's means of subsistence controls that person.["]" - p 95
Karen cites such sources as "The Motherright, Frazer's The Golden Bough, Robert Graves' works, especially, The Greek Myths, above all, Morgan's Ancient Society." (pp 94-95) It seems obvious that Reynolds does his research. I think Reynolds had fun putting the most violent proposals as Karen's:
"Karen said, "I thought of something we might advocate. A return to gladiator shows."
""Zoraster," Jack muttered. "Why?"
""Several reasons," Karen said definitely. "For one, lots of people love violence. The more popular shows on Tri-Di are portraying violence of one sort or another; war, westerns, suspense, spy, detective."
""Sure," Morris said, "But where'd the gladiators come from. The Romans used to use slaves."
""Volunteers. No pay. Some crackpots would love to have the attention of being in the arena, being on Tri-Di, being celebritites in the sports magazines. If and when they got killed, wizard. Gets such drivel-happy types off the streets, keeps them from mugging honest citizens and such."" - p 121
Like most or all SF writers, in general, Reynolds likes to imagine the possibilities & explore them — in his case w/ a sense of humor:
"The Baron said, "It is the honor to meet the First National Organizer of the Zubverzive Party."
"Dick looked at Karen to be clued.
"She said, very earnestly, "The Baron has come from Common Europe..."
""From Chermany, actually," the Baron said. "Ven ve Neo-National Zocialists come to power we vill first disazzociate ourselves from zis Common Europe and zen,,," He combed his toothbrush mustaches with a thumbnail. "...und zen ve vill perhapz zee vat vill happen to them fellers that in the past have ztood in ze vay of the Vaterland, nicht?"" - p 135
Note that Trample An Empire Down was published in 1978. Note that the EU (European Union) was founded Novemeber 1, 1993. Reynolds predicted the EU 13 yrs ahead of time. Note that now neo-nazis are attacking the EU. Reynolds predicted that too. The Baron continues:
""Ach, ja. Ze final zolution to the Chooish problem." He shook his head sadly. "Zere der Fuehrer made a big mistake, but zen he was too lenient...lenient you zay?...Ja, lenient. He vas too chentle, too kind hearted, nicht? Next time. effrybody goes."
"They stared at him. "Everybody?" Karen blurted.
""Ja," the Baron nodded in satisfaction. "Choos, Polacks, niggers, wops, them Chinamens. Only Aryans will be left, Ja?"" - p 136
Even Karen balks at that one. Karen IS perceptive. She warns Dick, who she knows to be an undercover agent, that his boss might pull a dirty trick to destroy the Subversive Party:
"She said, "What I just mentioned isn't entirely without precedent. Did you ever read of the Haymarket Affair in Chicago back in the 19th Century? A bunch of anarchists were holding a peaceful street meeting. Hundreds of police turned up to be sure it didn't get out of hand. Somebody threw a bomb and several of the police were killed. The anarchist leaders were arrested, brought to trial and executed. Damn few honest investigators of the affair thought the anarchists guilty. Much the same happened to Tom Moony, the labor leader, also convicted of throwing a bomb at a parade. He got life in prison and wasn't pardoned for about thirty years."" - pp 155-156
Hey! I liked the politics of this bk, I like the ending. I became interested in the publisher, Leisure Books of New York City, who I've never heard of. They also published The Life of Kit Carson, The Yoke and the Star, The Return of Jack the Ripper, etc. They seemed like a marginal publisher trying to break into the pulp market.
"Leisure Books was a mass market paperback publisher specializing in horror and thrillers. They also published fantasy, science fiction, Westerns, and the Wildlife Treasury card series. Leisure Books was an imprint of Dorchester Publishing from c. 1982–2010, when it was closed down."
[..]
"As of 2000, Leisure Books was the only American publisher with a line of horror books. Leisure Books published novels and collections by a number of horror's notable authors, such as Brian Keene, Richard Laymon, Graham Masterton, Ray Garton, Stacy Dittrich, Jack Ketchum, Sarah Pinborough and Douglas Clegg."
[..]
"Harry Shorten founded Leisure Books in 1957. The company was acquired by Dorchester Publishing in 1982.
"Effective September 2010, Leisure Books, along with the remainder of Dorchester's mass market paperback lines, were canceled as print publications. Future titles were slated to be available only as e-books."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure...
Mack Reynolds's Trample An Empire Down
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - May 4-6, 2018
I was reading 4 other bks when I decided to read this. All 4 of the others were more important but I was finding myself a bit bored so I picked this as something to read that I'd enjoy more. It did the trick. It's always so tempting to only read bks like this that I can breeze thru & enjoy w/o too much mental effort. But, no, that's not the way I am, I always have to be challenging myself; mustn't let myself get stupid & complacent.
Anyway, Mack Reynolds can now officially be added to my list of favorite pulp writers. All 4 bks that I've read by him so far have had interesting political plots & it's been fun to read my way thru them to their conclusions. He doesn't have the flair for language that Philip K. Dick does but, as w/ all pulp, it's easily readable stuff where the reader (this reader at least) breezes thru the language w/o paying it much mind.
The initial premise isn't that unusual: a near-future utopia in wch everyone's taken care of & automation does most of the work but in wch there's dissatisfaction b/c people feel the need for more stimulus or challenge:
"Jack said, "This is a helluva world for an aspiring alcoholic to live in. The ultra-welfare state, People's Capitalism. Ha! Guaranteed Annual Income. Just enough not to starve on, but not enough to enjoy yourself."" - p 10
"He said definitely, "The country's gone flat. No more wars, no more depressions, and with ultramation and computerization, practically nobody works. Practically everybody's on Guaranteed Annual Income. Even the space program has gotten into a rut, with nothing exciting going on. Practically everybody just sits around taking trank or drinking beer and watching Tr-D like a bunch of idiots. The whole country's in a mental slump."
""And?" the other two said in unison.
""We need a revolution, that's what. There hasn't been a revolution in this country for well over two hundred years. The nation's ripe for it."" - pp 10-11
Once a revolution's been decided on, various programs are proposed. This bk's copyrighted 1978. I 1st encountered the notion of "preplanned obsolescence" sometime in the early 1970s. At the time, some of those of us who discussed it had the feeling that we'd outed the corporations & that the preplanned obsolescence wd have to stop since it was so obviously despicable. Alas, preplanned obsolescence is now worse than ever - largely thanks to computers. It was nice for me to read the following: ""We're going to end preplanned obsolescence.["]" (p 14) Reynolds's ongoing political critiques continue to please me:
"["]Democracy, in America, became a farce more than a century ago. Even presidents were elected because of their TV image, or some such. The candidate with the most dollars to spend for TV appearances, newspaper ads and so on, made it.["]" - p 16
Many political activists, such as myself, ridicule the US's 2 party system as ultimately just one party for the rich. As such, some of us refer to "Republocrats" & "Demicans". Reynolds's reference to such an idea might be the earliest I've read: "["]After we get going as a political party, we'll demand equal time every occasion a Democratic Republican gives a speech."" (p 19) Their new party is rife w/ good ideas: "SUBVERSIVE PARTY DEMANDS RETURN OF TEXAS TO MEXICO". (p 37) Imagine if the Bush family suddenly became Mexicans. Hhmm.. How about returning the land that the White House is on to the Native Americans? Might as well throw in the land that Rump Towers is on at the same time.
The bk also has some entertaining mistakes that the proof readers apparently overlooked. Viz: the name of a character: he's "Richard Oppenheimer" on p 46, he's "Robert Oppenheimer" on p 50 (actually the name of a fmous scientist who's referenced elsewhere), & back to "Richard Oppenheimer" on p 51. How many people notice such things? (or care?)
Reynolds has one character express something that I can relate to that I don't run across very often:
"Dominating one wall was a Monet. Morris stared. He said, "Where the hell did you get that? It's not a copy or a print."
"Her eyebrows went up. "I'm surprised that you knew. It was left to me by my grandfather."
""Why don't you sell it and live off what you get for the rest of your life?"
""Would you sell your soul?"" - p 55
Yes, there're things more important than money. Tell that to mafioso Lucky Luciano. According to Alfred W. McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (1972):
"However, in 1930-1931, only seven years after heroin was legally banned, a war erupted in the Mafia ranks. Out of the violence that left more than sixty gansters dead came a new generation of leaders with little respect for the traditional code of honor.
"The leader of the mafioso youth movement was the legendary Salvatore C. Luciana, known to the world as Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Charming and strikingly handsome, Luciano must rank as one of the most brilliant criminal executives of the modern age. For, at a series of meetings shortly following the last of the bloodbaths that completely eliminated the old guard, Luciano outlined his plans for a modern, nationwide crime cartel."
[..]
"With the end of Prohibition in sight, Luciano made the decision to take the Mafia into the lucrative prostitution and heroin rackets."
[..]
"Heroin was an attractive substitute because its relatively recent prohibition had left a large market that could be exploited and expanded easily. Although heroin addicts in no way compared with drinkers in numbers, heroin profits could be just as substantial: heroin's light weight made it less expensive to smuggle than liquor, and its relatively limited number of sources made it more easy to monopolize.
"Heroin, moreover, complemeneted Luciano's other new business venture—the organization of prostitution on an unprecedented scale. Luciano forced many small-time pimps out of business as he found that addicting his prostitiute labor force kept them quiescent, steady workers, with a habit to support and only one way to gain enough money to support it." - pp 18-19, Alfred W. McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia (1972), Harper & Row
Nice guy, huh? Now according to the flap blurb of Martin A. Gosch & Richard Hammer's The Last Testament of Lucky Luciano (1975): "Luciano disdained dealing in "junk"". I suspect that McCoy's version is more reliable. ANYWAY, the point of going into this is that Reynolds also mentions Luciano:
""They're a bunch of crooks," he went on. "All politicians. Politics are so crooked that you have to be a crook to get anywhere in them. Take Tom Dewey. He made his name prosecuting the Mafia head, Lucky Luciano; got him sentenced to life, or something. And then, during the Second World War, when Dewey was governor of New York, pardoned him. Why? It was unrealistic to keep him in prison, he said. Supposedly, it came out later, the reason Luciano was pardoned was so that the Mafia in Sicily would collaborate with the United States military."" - pp 78-79
The initial 3 men of the revolutionary triumverate of the Subversive Party have been joined by a woman. Reynolds has the woman be the mouthpiece for the most extreme of the proposals:
"Karen said, "We're going to have to get the queer vote. The country's full of queers. We'd never come to power without getting their support."
""Make homosexuality legal between consenting adults, eh?" Jed said thoughtfully. "Like in England."
""Not just consenting adults and homos, all queers," Karen said. "Let them molest small children, practice sadism and masochism, expose themselves in public, the works.["]" - p 79
Karen continues to elucidate:
""Even more so with Lesbians. Who can settle for a tongue job when there are six inches of penis—and up?"
""Up what?" Morris Malone said mildly.
""I meant longer. What anybody can do with a penis more than six inches long I've never been able to figure out, but some seem to have the dream that the longer the better."" - p 80
Hhmm.. Karen's full of contentious statements. I wonder how many women I know wd agree that a penis over 6" long is unnecessary for their pleasure? Wondering about this, I did some cursory research about vaginal anatomy:
"1. How long is the vaginal canal?
Not that long. On average, the vaginal canal is three to six inches long. If you need a visual aid, that’s roughly the length of your hand. But your vaginal canal can change shape in certain situations, like during sex or childbirth.
"2. Does it get longer when you’re aroused?
When you’re having sex, your vaginal canal can get longer to accommodate penetration. Sexual arousal forces your cervix and uterus to lift up and out of the way, which causes the upper two-thirds of your vagina to lengthen.
"But if you feel a penis or sex toy hitting your cervix, that could mean your body isn’t turned on enough to allow for full penetration. Of course, that’s not the only reason — your cervix could be touched when thrusting is too deep, or if a penis or toy is larger than the average penis size. That’s about five inches when erect." - https://www.healthline.com/health/wom...
SO, guys, if you're feeling like you don't stand a chance of being sexually popular w/ a penis 3 to 6" long, THINK AGAIN! Just remember, Johnny "The Wad" Holmes cdn't even get his scrotum to reach the woman's labia. Wdn't that be a drag?
For all of you who didn't find Karen's proposal of legalizing child molestation extreme enough, what about this one?:
"["]As soon as we get in, send a firing squad to every insane asylum, hospital for incurables and old people's homes and mercifully execute them and about eighty-five percent of the guards, nurses and officials in charge."
"This time, all four of the men winced in pain." - p 81
Most of Karen's ideas don't go over too well. Nonetheless, she becomes the organizer of the women recruited into the Subversive Party. Here's her giving a speech to receptive recruits & potential recruits:
"["]Only in the last few thousand did patriarchal society take over from women who formerly dominated clan and tribe."
""Why?" somebody called out. "Why did it change?"
"Karen said, "Because of the development of the tool and also the larger domesticated animals. Women, as a rule, were not able to use the new heavy metal tools due to long months of pregnancy and then the need to take care of the new infant. Men took over agriculture and the flocks and became the providers. He who controls a person's means of subsistence controls that person.["]" - p 95
Karen cites such sources as "The Motherright, Frazer's The Golden Bough, Robert Graves' works, especially, The Greek Myths, above all, Morgan's Ancient Society." (pp 94-95) It seems obvious that Reynolds does his research. I think Reynolds had fun putting the most violent proposals as Karen's:
"Karen said, "I thought of something we might advocate. A return to gladiator shows."
""Zoraster," Jack muttered. "Why?"
""Several reasons," Karen said definitely. "For one, lots of people love violence. The more popular shows on Tri-Di are portraying violence of one sort or another; war, westerns, suspense, spy, detective."
""Sure," Morris said, "But where'd the gladiators come from. The Romans used to use slaves."
""Volunteers. No pay. Some crackpots would love to have the attention of being in the arena, being on Tri-Di, being celebritites in the sports magazines. If and when they got killed, wizard. Gets such drivel-happy types off the streets, keeps them from mugging honest citizens and such."" - p 121
Like most or all SF writers, in general, Reynolds likes to imagine the possibilities & explore them — in his case w/ a sense of humor:
"The Baron said, "It is the honor to meet the First National Organizer of the Zubverzive Party."
"Dick looked at Karen to be clued.
"She said, very earnestly, "The Baron has come from Common Europe..."
""From Chermany, actually," the Baron said. "Ven ve Neo-National Zocialists come to power we vill first disazzociate ourselves from zis Common Europe and zen,,," He combed his toothbrush mustaches with a thumbnail. "...und zen ve vill perhapz zee vat vill happen to them fellers that in the past have ztood in ze vay of the Vaterland, nicht?"" - p 135
Note that Trample An Empire Down was published in 1978. Note that the EU (European Union) was founded Novemeber 1, 1993. Reynolds predicted the EU 13 yrs ahead of time. Note that now neo-nazis are attacking the EU. Reynolds predicted that too. The Baron continues:
""Ach, ja. Ze final zolution to the Chooish problem." He shook his head sadly. "Zere der Fuehrer made a big mistake, but zen he was too lenient...lenient you zay?...Ja, lenient. He vas too chentle, too kind hearted, nicht? Next time. effrybody goes."
"They stared at him. "Everybody?" Karen blurted.
""Ja," the Baron nodded in satisfaction. "Choos, Polacks, niggers, wops, them Chinamens. Only Aryans will be left, Ja?"" - p 136
Even Karen balks at that one. Karen IS perceptive. She warns Dick, who she knows to be an undercover agent, that his boss might pull a dirty trick to destroy the Subversive Party:
"She said, "What I just mentioned isn't entirely without precedent. Did you ever read of the Haymarket Affair in Chicago back in the 19th Century? A bunch of anarchists were holding a peaceful street meeting. Hundreds of police turned up to be sure it didn't get out of hand. Somebody threw a bomb and several of the police were killed. The anarchist leaders were arrested, brought to trial and executed. Damn few honest investigators of the affair thought the anarchists guilty. Much the same happened to Tom Moony, the labor leader, also convicted of throwing a bomb at a parade. He got life in prison and wasn't pardoned for about thirty years."" - pp 155-156
Hey! I liked the politics of this bk, I like the ending. I became interested in the publisher, Leisure Books of New York City, who I've never heard of. They also published The Life of Kit Carson, The Yoke and the Star, The Return of Jack the Ripper, etc. They seemed like a marginal publisher trying to break into the pulp market.
"Leisure Books was a mass market paperback publisher specializing in horror and thrillers. They also published fantasy, science fiction, Westerns, and the Wildlife Treasury card series. Leisure Books was an imprint of Dorchester Publishing from c. 1982–2010, when it was closed down."
[..]
"As of 2000, Leisure Books was the only American publisher with a line of horror books. Leisure Books published novels and collections by a number of horror's notable authors, such as Brian Keene, Richard Laymon, Graham Masterton, Ray Garton, Stacy Dittrich, Jack Ketchum, Sarah Pinborough and Douglas Clegg."
[..]
"Harry Shorten founded Leisure Books in 1957. The company was acquired by Dorchester Publishing in 1982.
"Effective September 2010, Leisure Books, along with the remainder of Dorchester's mass market paperback lines, were canceled as print publications. Future titles were slated to be available only as e-books."
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leisure...
November 3, 2019
0.5/5
I first discovered Mack Reynolds about six years ago while browsing the sci-fi/fantasy section at a local used bookstore. Reynolds (1917-1983) was a writer of science fiction and was most popular in the 1950s and 60s. Starting in the mid 70s his works began to decline in popularity until Reynolds fell of the map completely. This helps explain why neither I nor any of my science fiction reading comrades had heard of him until that point. After reading the back covers of a few paperbacks, it was soon apparent that Reynolds commonly wrote about alternative socioeconomic systems, futuristic utopias, and revolutions, within a traditional science fiction framework that included alien encounters, intergalactic adventures, and time travel. From the start I was intrigued as all of these themes resonate with me, my reading preferences, and my political ideology. Prior to starting Trample An Empire Down I had enjoyed each of the Mack Reynolds’ stories that I had read, but they are all a bit dated. As many science fiction authors of that era did, Reynolds wrote with a male audience in mind, and as such many of his novels contain cringe worthy comments of a sexist nature and a noticeable lack of fleshed out female characters. While I had found most of Reynolds’ works to have plots that are intriguing enough to overcome this, Trample An Empire Down falls short.
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I first discovered Mack Reynolds about six years ago while browsing the sci-fi/fantasy section at a local used bookstore. Reynolds (1917-1983) was a writer of science fiction and was most popular in the 1950s and 60s. Starting in the mid 70s his works began to decline in popularity until Reynolds fell of the map completely. This helps explain why neither I nor any of my science fiction reading comrades had heard of him until that point. After reading the back covers of a few paperbacks, it was soon apparent that Reynolds commonly wrote about alternative socioeconomic systems, futuristic utopias, and revolutions, within a traditional science fiction framework that included alien encounters, intergalactic adventures, and time travel. From the start I was intrigued as all of these themes resonate with me, my reading preferences, and my political ideology. Prior to starting Trample An Empire Down I had enjoyed each of the Mack Reynolds’ stories that I had read, but they are all a bit dated. As many science fiction authors of that era did, Reynolds wrote with a male audience in mind, and as such many of his novels contain cringe worthy comments of a sexist nature and a noticeable lack of fleshed out female characters. While I had found most of Reynolds’ works to have plots that are intriguing enough to overcome this, Trample An Empire Down falls short.
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November 7, 2018
Reynolds was one of the few leftists in a writing field consisting mostly of conservatives and Libertarians. As such, his books often took an alternative look at politics compared to many, though his writing was still male oriented, not shocking for SF writers back then.
This fun romp starts with several bored friends forming the Subversive Party as a way to raise some extra beer money. It snowballs into a national movement and by the end of the book it looks like they will completely win the elections. The author supplies entertaining political promises including; giving back Texas to Mexico, making Wyoming and Montana a giant National Park for wildlife and any native Americans wishing to follow their traditional lifestyles, high quality hooch and an end to planned obsolescence for consumer goods. Also included free is the acme of cynical political party slogans, "What's in it for me?".
With the exception of the evil J. Edgar Hoover type in charge of the IBI and a few of his henchmen, the characters are intelligent, caring people that would be fun to hang out with for the most part. A happy election read to combat the current nastiness.
This fun romp starts with several bored friends forming the Subversive Party as a way to raise some extra beer money. It snowballs into a national movement and by the end of the book it looks like they will completely win the elections. The author supplies entertaining political promises including; giving back Texas to Mexico, making Wyoming and Montana a giant National Park for wildlife and any native Americans wishing to follow their traditional lifestyles, high quality hooch and an end to planned obsolescence for consumer goods. Also included free is the acme of cynical political party slogans, "What's in it for me?".
With the exception of the evil J. Edgar Hoover type in charge of the IBI and a few of his henchmen, the characters are intelligent, caring people that would be fun to hang out with for the most part. A happy election read to combat the current nastiness.
September 2, 2016
First Mac Reynolds book I read. Never saw anything like it before or since. it was as much political science as it was science fiction, and I want to credit the book for many of the thoughts and business models I've looked at since. You have to keep an open mind, and look at what is happening today is enough to have you suspend your disbelief in this case, but it reads well, and makes you smile!
August 2, 2011
Food for thought along the lines of "what if there was a war and nobody came".
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