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The World Inside
Earth 2381: The hordes of humanity have withdrawn into isolated 1000-story Urbmons, comfortably controlled multicity-buildings which perpetuate an open culture of free sex and unrestricted population growth. Nearly all of Earth's 75 billion live in the hundreds of monolithic structures scattered across the globe, with the exception of the small agricultural communes that supply the Urbmons with food. When a restless Urbmon computer engineer begins to think unblessworthy thoughts of making a trip outside, he risks being labeled a flippo, for whom there is only one punishment.
260 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1971
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3864 people want to read
About the author
Robert Silverberg
2,204 books1,576 followersThere are many authors in the database with this name.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
Robert Silverberg is a highly celebrated American science fiction author and editor known for his prolific output and literary range. Over a career spanning decades, he has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards and was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2004. Inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame in 1999, Silverberg is recognized for both his immense productivity and his contributions to the genre's evolution.
Born in Brooklyn, he began writing in his teens and won his first Hugo Award in 1956 as the best new writer. Throughout the 1950s, he produced vast amounts of fiction, often under pseudonyms, and was known for writing up to a million words a year. When the market declined, he diversified into other genres, including historical nonfiction and erotica.
Silverberg’s return to science fiction in the 1960s marked a shift toward deeper psychological and literary themes, contributing significantly to the New Wave movement. Acclaimed works from this period include Downward to the Earth, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. In the 1980s, he launched the Majipoor series with Lord Valentine’s Castle, creating one of the most imaginative planetary settings in science fiction.
Though he announced his retirement from writing in the mid-1970s, Silverberg returned with renewed vigor and continued to publish acclaimed fiction into the 1990s. He received further recognition with the Nebula-winning Sailing to Byzantium and the Hugo-winning Gilgamesh in the Outback.
Silverberg has also played a significant role as an editor and anthologist, shaping science fiction literature through both his own work and his influence on others. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, author Karen Haber.
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February 17, 2017
Robert A. Heinlein demonstrated (time and again) that you can be a dirty old man and still get by, but when you get weird, you’re just creepy and the creep factor negatively effects your writing.
In 1966 someone should have said to him, “Bob, you’re sexually free and you’re all about the ladies being wild and free too, got it, but you wrote some great fiction back in the day before the thick shag rugs and the hot tub parties … so take it easy on the porn, huh? And for God’s sake DO NOT order another round of oysters, I mean what the hell??”
So we come to Robert Silverberg’s 1971 The World Inside.
I’ve read a lot of Silverberg and he is a very sexually oriented writer, and this is the most sexually explicit of his novels I have read thus far (read in July 2015 – have not yet gotten to Up the Line, but “I heard things”). Silverberg was writing in the sixties and it was, no doubt, very liberating to be able to describe – sex. We all do it; it’s a big fun part of life, and so why not in science fiction? Indeed, why not?
Until it gets in the way of, and deteriorates from, an otherwise really cool book. For me it was just too much, over the top, in your face page after page pornography. And I certainly do not want to come across as a prude – something that has NEVER before come up, I don’t think – but he could have taken a different tack, left some film on the editor’s floor to avoid the X rating and still had a damn fine novel that was not taken over by the Ron Jeremyesque saxophone solos.
There was a scene, late in the story, where the sexual freedoms of one culture were shown in stark contrast to the mores of another culture and perhaps, PERHAPS, Silverberg was demonstrating by hyperbole how far different sexual customs can come to be.
Anyway – what was it about? Over population, yet with a twist. Here, Silverberg, shrugging off the Malthusian template upon which most such dystopian-too-many-people stories go, shows us a future where the Earth has over 75 BILLION people, and doing just hunky dorey thank you very much. How? you ask? Well, they all live in huge sky scraping buildings, with over 800,000 people in each. And … and … it is against the norm to want to control births!! Yep, too many folks? Hell! we’ll just build another building, move all the overflow over there.
All the bumping and grinding comes in from the custom that, to cut down on sexually repressed aggressive behavior, it is a SIN, to turn anyone down. Going “night walking” is acceptable, NAY, encouraged. So you’re a little tired of your partner and the six kids? Go down a couple floors and walk in on (no locks on doors) Mr. an Mrs. Jones, introduce yourself, and let’s party! With Mrs. or Mr. or both, or whatever. The residents say “God Bless” and you always want to be “blessworthy” (making me think of Elaine’s “sponge worthy” analysis from Seinfeld).
Over population books always makes me think of John Brunner’s excellent Stand on Zanzibar. Like Brunner’s novel, some residents go crazy and can no longer stand living in such cramped quarters. Brunner’s malcontents were called Muckers, as having “run amok” whereas those of World Inside are called flippos, as flipping out and needing to get some fresh air. This also made me think of Brian Aldiss’ 1958 novel Non-Stop because it describes a closed environment and how the residents of this way of life react and evolve. I think also that Aldous Huxley's brilliant Brave New World must have been an inspiration.
It was nominated for the Hugo in 1972, was a very good book, most definitely for Silverberg fans, and for erotica fans too. God bless!
In 1966 someone should have said to him, “Bob, you’re sexually free and you’re all about the ladies being wild and free too, got it, but you wrote some great fiction back in the day before the thick shag rugs and the hot tub parties … so take it easy on the porn, huh? And for God’s sake DO NOT order another round of oysters, I mean what the hell??”
So we come to Robert Silverberg’s 1971 The World Inside.
I’ve read a lot of Silverberg and he is a very sexually oriented writer, and this is the most sexually explicit of his novels I have read thus far (read in July 2015 – have not yet gotten to Up the Line, but “I heard things”). Silverberg was writing in the sixties and it was, no doubt, very liberating to be able to describe – sex. We all do it; it’s a big fun part of life, and so why not in science fiction? Indeed, why not?
Until it gets in the way of, and deteriorates from, an otherwise really cool book. For me it was just too much, over the top, in your face page after page pornography. And I certainly do not want to come across as a prude – something that has NEVER before come up, I don’t think – but he could have taken a different tack, left some film on the editor’s floor to avoid the X rating and still had a damn fine novel that was not taken over by the Ron Jeremyesque saxophone solos.
There was a scene, late in the story, where the sexual freedoms of one culture were shown in stark contrast to the mores of another culture and perhaps, PERHAPS, Silverberg was demonstrating by hyperbole how far different sexual customs can come to be.
Anyway – what was it about? Over population, yet with a twist. Here, Silverberg, shrugging off the Malthusian template upon which most such dystopian-too-many-people stories go, shows us a future where the Earth has over 75 BILLION people, and doing just hunky dorey thank you very much. How? you ask? Well, they all live in huge sky scraping buildings, with over 800,000 people in each. And … and … it is against the norm to want to control births!! Yep, too many folks? Hell! we’ll just build another building, move all the overflow over there.
All the bumping and grinding comes in from the custom that, to cut down on sexually repressed aggressive behavior, it is a SIN, to turn anyone down. Going “night walking” is acceptable, NAY, encouraged. So you’re a little tired of your partner and the six kids? Go down a couple floors and walk in on (no locks on doors) Mr. an Mrs. Jones, introduce yourself, and let’s party! With Mrs. or Mr. or both, or whatever. The residents say “God Bless” and you always want to be “blessworthy” (making me think of Elaine’s “sponge worthy” analysis from Seinfeld).
Over population books always makes me think of John Brunner’s excellent Stand on Zanzibar. Like Brunner’s novel, some residents go crazy and can no longer stand living in such cramped quarters. Brunner’s malcontents were called Muckers, as having “run amok” whereas those of World Inside are called flippos, as flipping out and needing to get some fresh air. This also made me think of Brian Aldiss’ 1958 novel Non-Stop because it describes a closed environment and how the residents of this way of life react and evolve. I think also that Aldous Huxley's brilliant Brave New World must have been an inspiration.
It was nominated for the Hugo in 1972, was a very good book, most definitely for Silverberg fans, and for erotica fans too. God bless!
January 15, 2016
imagine a future world with many towering worlds within it! Urbmon 116 is one such world within a world; it thrusts from the earth with its 800 floors, engorged with over 800,000 residents. Urbmon 116 has everything a person could desire besides privacy. its residents never leave this world inside!
imagine a utopian future! a world that is orderly but not truly conformist. communal and neighborly and all about sharing and learning and responsibility and definitely not about being a maladjusted malcontent because then down the reclamation chute you will go. it's a utopian world of total openness! who needs privacy? nudity is no big thing. and why get hung up on sex; everyone does it starting from a fairly early age and it's happening everywhere - both for recreation and procreation - and all the time, in the one-room family homes and in the teenage couples' dorms and during social gatherings; in fact it's illegal to refuse your body to someone who wants it. no more sexual hang-ups! copulate all you want and have as many kids as possible, it is all a part of God's plan! God wants you to fuck!
imagine a book written by a somewhat chauvinistic male author! sorry to go there because I love this author and I hate sounding like a broken record by even bringing up his sexism. I give him points for including female perspectives within the many voices - and they are rendered just as expertly as the male voices - but per usual, the women in this novel have very little agency and are not a part of leadership. and this inequity is just never addressed. plus the whole sexual culture within The World Inside seems very much based on standard straight male fantasy templates. ah well.
imagine a reader who felt all of those things in the above paragraph and still loved this novel! that reader is me! Silverberg is a compelling author and he turns this story into a haunting masterpiece. his prose is smart and elegant and memorable. his descriptions of the busy, mechanized tower world put you right there in the middle of this buzzing hive; the same goes for the pastoral outside world, full of eerie ambiguity and unknowable traditions. he's even-handed in his detailing of tower culture: the rural culture outside these towers is shown to be just as problematic and both cultures do have some positive values. this felt less like a portrait of a dystopia and rather more like a novel about a utopia that may be perfect for certain sorts of people. imagine that!
imagine a wide range of voices, telling you all about their lives in Urbmon 116, their dreams and goals and challenges and all the little things that define them and all the big things that they can only barely grasp! The World Inside is a medley of such voices. there is no single protagonist - although there is a central character criss-crossing throughout the stories - and POV characters reappear as supporting characters elsewhere. each of these characters are rendered beautifully. they are complex, sympathetic, and all too fallible.
imagine a 14-year old boy named Siegmond Kluver! he's rapidly rising up the corporate ladder, full of ideas and ambitions, the go-to guy for all the corporate honchos, the most popular boy in the building, and he's quite the expert cocksman as well - with a distinct preference for the older ladies. we watch him over the course of a year as he bounces around and jumps into various beds and climbs that ladder; we watch him as he begins to question himself and his world. we watch him as he has a mid-life crisis at the tender age of 15! what's a boy to do when he's succeeded at everything, when he's reached the pinnacle - the very top floor? there's only one direction left to go!
imagine a utopian future! a world that is orderly but not truly conformist. communal and neighborly and all about sharing and learning and responsibility and definitely not about being a maladjusted malcontent because then down the reclamation chute you will go. it's a utopian world of total openness! who needs privacy? nudity is no big thing. and why get hung up on sex; everyone does it starting from a fairly early age and it's happening everywhere - both for recreation and procreation - and all the time, in the one-room family homes and in the teenage couples' dorms and during social gatherings; in fact it's illegal to refuse your body to someone who wants it. no more sexual hang-ups! copulate all you want and have as many kids as possible, it is all a part of God's plan! God wants you to fuck!
imagine a book written by a somewhat chauvinistic male author! sorry to go there because I love this author and I hate sounding like a broken record by even bringing up his sexism. I give him points for including female perspectives within the many voices - and they are rendered just as expertly as the male voices - but per usual, the women in this novel have very little agency and are not a part of leadership. and this inequity is just never addressed. plus the whole sexual culture within The World Inside seems very much based on standard straight male fantasy templates. ah well.
imagine a reader who felt all of those things in the above paragraph and still loved this novel! that reader is me! Silverberg is a compelling author and he turns this story into a haunting masterpiece. his prose is smart and elegant and memorable. his descriptions of the busy, mechanized tower world put you right there in the middle of this buzzing hive; the same goes for the pastoral outside world, full of eerie ambiguity and unknowable traditions. he's even-handed in his detailing of tower culture: the rural culture outside these towers is shown to be just as problematic and both cultures do have some positive values. this felt less like a portrait of a dystopia and rather more like a novel about a utopia that may be perfect for certain sorts of people. imagine that!
imagine a wide range of voices, telling you all about their lives in Urbmon 116, their dreams and goals and challenges and all the little things that define them and all the big things that they can only barely grasp! The World Inside is a medley of such voices. there is no single protagonist - although there is a central character criss-crossing throughout the stories - and POV characters reappear as supporting characters elsewhere. each of these characters are rendered beautifully. they are complex, sympathetic, and all too fallible.
imagine a 14-year old boy named Siegmond Kluver! he's rapidly rising up the corporate ladder, full of ideas and ambitions, the go-to guy for all the corporate honchos, the most popular boy in the building, and he's quite the expert cocksman as well - with a distinct preference for the older ladies. we watch him over the course of a year as he bounces around and jumps into various beds and climbs that ladder; we watch him as he begins to question himself and his world. we watch him as he has a mid-life crisis at the tender age of 15! what's a boy to do when he's succeeded at everything, when he's reached the pinnacle - the very top floor? there's only one direction left to go!
February 10, 2017
This is a somewhat fascinating, excellently written porn set in an extremely overpopulated, but relatively comfortable utopian paradise with buildings a thousand stories high.
Odd? Nah, it's the second Hugo nom of Silverberg in '72, being one prolific and focused writer, with too many ideas to cram into any single book, instead just exploring a few here and a few there, but doing it so excellently that the rest of the New Wave crowd just stares and stares at the grotesque sexual display.
Society has gotten very permissive now that all the problems of scarcity whether in food or space or power has been solved. And why not? Genetically, culturally, and, apparently, realistically, no one has an issue with staying inside these damn huge apartment complexes. :) J. G. Ballard has a great number of short stories that explore this whole idea, too, but we're not talking about him. We're talking about Silverberg, who takes it all the way down the sexual rabbithole.
Oh my, that sounds weird, doesn't it? No no rabbits were harmed in the writing of this book.
But where's the conflict, you ask? Oh, it's all in the 20th century deviancy, of course. Jealousy, desire to set foot outside, and the meeting of the throwback farmers that actually provide for all these permissive non-proletariats. :) What could go wrong? Oh, don't worry, no spoilers!
But like most of Silverberg's works, he's talking about us. Often harshly.
At least he always makes sure that the story is solid and interesting, too! :)
Odd? Nah, it's the second Hugo nom of Silverberg in '72, being one prolific and focused writer, with too many ideas to cram into any single book, instead just exploring a few here and a few there, but doing it so excellently that the rest of the New Wave crowd just stares and stares at the grotesque sexual display.
Society has gotten very permissive now that all the problems of scarcity whether in food or space or power has been solved. And why not? Genetically, culturally, and, apparently, realistically, no one has an issue with staying inside these damn huge apartment complexes. :) J. G. Ballard has a great number of short stories that explore this whole idea, too, but we're not talking about him. We're talking about Silverberg, who takes it all the way down the sexual rabbithole.
Oh my, that sounds weird, doesn't it? No no rabbits were harmed in the writing of this book.
But where's the conflict, you ask? Oh, it's all in the 20th century deviancy, of course. Jealousy, desire to set foot outside, and the meeting of the throwback farmers that actually provide for all these permissive non-proletariats. :) What could go wrong? Oh, don't worry, no spoilers!
But like most of Silverberg's works, he's talking about us. Often harshly.
At least he always makes sure that the story is solid and interesting, too! :)
March 7, 2021
The year is 2381, Earth’s population has grown to 75 billion people and they've adapted to this situation by housing people in massive skyscrapers called 'urban monads' each a thousand stories high, containing close
to a million residents per building.
Their religion is basically "be fruitful and multiply."
At night the men go 'nightwalking' and select any woman to have sex with, non-monogamy is encouraged and contraception is considered a sin.
Anyone causing trouble or disobeying the rules faces the punishment of "going down the chute"
It was an interesting read, good but not great - so I've given it a moderate rating.
Still, definitely recommended - especially for the dystopian fan!
3.5 ☆
to a million residents per building.
Their religion is basically "be fruitful and multiply."
At night the men go 'nightwalking' and select any woman to have sex with, non-monogamy is encouraged and contraception is considered a sin.
Anyone causing trouble or disobeying the rules faces the punishment of "going down the chute"
It was an interesting read, good but not great - so I've given it a moderate rating.
Still, definitely recommended - especially for the dystopian fan!
3.5 ☆
November 8, 2015
If you don’t mind I will start by repeating the same intro I wrote for Silverberg’s The Book of Skulls. I just think it’s worth repeating and the chances of you having already read said review is reasonably small ;)
Robert Silverberg is possibly the most underrated science fiction writer of all time, considering that he has been writing sf since the 50s, won numerous Hugo, Nebula, and other major sf awards, and is a “Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master”. In spite of all this he never seems to be "in vogue" these days, most of today’s younger generation of sf readers have never read anything by him. I believe this is indicative of how criminally underrated he is, and the ongoing decline of civilization as we know it.
Having said that The World Inside is not his best book, and probably not a good place to start for first-time readers. The dominance of the sexual themes and the blunt references to private parts and intercourse are likely to offend and alienate many readers. It is still pretty great though.
“A hellish place in which people live hideously cramped and brutal lives, in which every civilized philosophy is turned on its head, in which uncontrolled breeding is nightmarishly encouraged to serve some incredible concept of a deity eternally demanding more worshipers, in which dissent is ruthlessly stifled and dissenters are peremptorily destroyed.”
That quote is a good description of an “urbmon” (short for urban monad), a three-kilometer-high apartment building with a thousand floors and more than 800,000 occupants. In the year 2381, global population has reached 75 billion people, but Earth has solved the overpopulation problem by expanding the population vertically instead of horizontally. Most people live in these urbmons in very cramped conditions, and they have also developed some very strange customs and sexual mores. All apartment doors are unlocked, by statute, and the men can wander into any apartment and sleep with any woman they want, privacy is not valued. All the women are married. Couples sleep on “sleep platforms” and husbands allow men to sleep with their wives and they can either make room on the sleeping platform or go wandering to other apartments to do the same; all for the sake of continuing the population expansion as rapidly as possible:
“There’s a cultural imperative telling us to breed and breed and, breed. That’s natural, after the agonies of the pre-urbmon days, when everybody went around wondering where we were going to put all the people.”
Malcontents are called “flippos”, people who commit “non-social acts”, perhaps violent ones, generally caused by accumulated frustrations and humiliation. Flippos are punished by being thrown down a chute, and their bodies turn into energy to power the building. Outside of the urbmons there are also “horizontal” societies, made up of farmers who live in communes. Their population is strictly controlled, and they also have some strange traditions of their own.
The problem with summarizing this book is that the description tends to make the book seem like some kind of sick sexual fantasy. The World Inside is not in the least pornographic or titillating. There are many mentions of people “topping”* and numerous matter-of-fact descriptions of private parts. The word is mentioned several times (if you are of a nervous disposition don’t look behind the spoiler tag!). The World Inside is about a dystopian society that thinks it is a utopia. The happy residents of the urbmons living stacked like bees in a beehive don’t know any other way of life. In this sense, the complacent populace seems like the one depicted in Brave New World with an element of The Handmaid’s Tale. It is also mentioned that the human race may have been psychologically modified in some ways to be able to live happily like this. The fact that there is no crime or starvation in this society is another indication.
The World Inside is very much a new wave science fiction book, the sort of thing you find in Harlan Ellison’s legendary/infamous Dangerous Visions anthology. Silverberg is very versatile and has written many types of sci-fi (and other genres). It is a weird social satire and thought experiment. It is very interesting throughout and is never dull, but it is also a difficult book to love, there are multiple protagonists and they are not developed enough to root for. The main attraction is the world building, to read about the amazing things that go on in this crazy society.
If you have never read Silverberg before I recommend Dying Inside, Nightwings, or Lord Valentine's Castle, which I find to be more palatable, not to mention excellent. However, if you are in the market for a dystopian book about a vertical society with weird sexual mores I don’t think there is any alternative to this book.
_______________________________
* Having it off!
Weird quotes:
‘You press this button for the privacy shield. We excrete in this. Urine here, feces there. Everything is reprocessed, you understand. We’re a thrifty folk in the urbmons.’
‘We’re a post-privacy culture, naturally.
addendum
My good friend (and amazing book reviewer) Stuart rightly points out that The World Inside sounds sexist. I don't think Silverberg's intent here is to be sexist because the system he depicts here does not work and is doomed to fail, the end even hints at "the beginning of the end". However, I do think Silverberg should have cut down on the sexual mores and place more emphasis on the other implications of the vertical society.
(copied from my reply to Stuart's observation!)
Robert Silverberg is possibly the most underrated science fiction writer of all time, considering that he has been writing sf since the 50s, won numerous Hugo, Nebula, and other major sf awards, and is a “Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Grand Master”. In spite of all this he never seems to be "in vogue" these days, most of today’s younger generation of sf readers have never read anything by him. I believe this is indicative of how criminally underrated he is, and the ongoing decline of civilization as we know it.
Having said that The World Inside is not his best book, and probably not a good place to start for first-time readers. The dominance of the sexual themes and the blunt references to private parts and intercourse are likely to offend and alienate many readers. It is still pretty great though.
“A hellish place in which people live hideously cramped and brutal lives, in which every civilized philosophy is turned on its head, in which uncontrolled breeding is nightmarishly encouraged to serve some incredible concept of a deity eternally demanding more worshipers, in which dissent is ruthlessly stifled and dissenters are peremptorily destroyed.”
That quote is a good description of an “urbmon” (short for urban monad), a three-kilometer-high apartment building with a thousand floors and more than 800,000 occupants. In the year 2381, global population has reached 75 billion people, but Earth has solved the overpopulation problem by expanding the population vertically instead of horizontally. Most people live in these urbmons in very cramped conditions, and they have also developed some very strange customs and sexual mores. All apartment doors are unlocked, by statute, and the men can wander into any apartment and sleep with any woman they want, privacy is not valued. All the women are married. Couples sleep on “sleep platforms” and husbands allow men to sleep with their wives and they can either make room on the sleeping platform or go wandering to other apartments to do the same; all for the sake of continuing the population expansion as rapidly as possible:
“There’s a cultural imperative telling us to breed and breed and, breed. That’s natural, after the agonies of the pre-urbmon days, when everybody went around wondering where we were going to put all the people.”
Malcontents are called “flippos”, people who commit “non-social acts”, perhaps violent ones, generally caused by accumulated frustrations and humiliation. Flippos are punished by being thrown down a chute, and their bodies turn into energy to power the building. Outside of the urbmons there are also “horizontal” societies, made up of farmers who live in communes. Their population is strictly controlled, and they also have some strange traditions of their own.
The problem with summarizing this book is that the description tends to make the book seem like some kind of sick sexual fantasy. The World Inside is not in the least pornographic or titillating. There are many mentions of people “topping”* and numerous matter-of-fact descriptions of private parts. The word is mentioned several times (if you are of a nervous disposition don’t look behind the spoiler tag!). The World Inside is about a dystopian society that thinks it is a utopia. The happy residents of the urbmons living stacked like bees in a beehive don’t know any other way of life. In this sense, the complacent populace seems like the one depicted in Brave New World with an element of The Handmaid’s Tale. It is also mentioned that the human race may have been psychologically modified in some ways to be able to live happily like this. The fact that there is no crime or starvation in this society is another indication.
The World Inside is very much a new wave science fiction book, the sort of thing you find in Harlan Ellison’s legendary/infamous Dangerous Visions anthology. Silverberg is very versatile and has written many types of sci-fi (and other genres). It is a weird social satire and thought experiment. It is very interesting throughout and is never dull, but it is also a difficult book to love, there are multiple protagonists and they are not developed enough to root for. The main attraction is the world building, to read about the amazing things that go on in this crazy society.
If you have never read Silverberg before I recommend Dying Inside, Nightwings, or Lord Valentine's Castle, which I find to be more palatable, not to mention excellent. However, if you are in the market for a dystopian book about a vertical society with weird sexual mores I don’t think there is any alternative to this book.
_______________________________
* Having it off!
Weird quotes:
‘You press this button for the privacy shield. We excrete in this. Urine here, feces there. Everything is reprocessed, you understand. We’re a thrifty folk in the urbmons.’
‘We’re a post-privacy culture, naturally.
addendum
My good friend (and amazing book reviewer) Stuart rightly points out that The World Inside sounds sexist. I don't think Silverberg's intent here is to be sexist because the system he depicts here does not work and is doomed to fail, the end even hints at "the beginning of the end". However, I do think Silverberg should have cut down on the sexual mores and place more emphasis on the other implications of the vertical society.
(copied from my reply to Stuart's observation!)
May 3, 2016
The world is a glorious place! Humanity has survived the population booms of the 20th and 21st centuries and come out the other side with a brilliant, well-ordered system of self-contained, fully sustainable communities. Food, energy, and space used at the highest efficiency! Minimal damage to the environment! All materials coming from local sources! It’s like a Sustainability Activist’s dream. The only downside, of course, is that people now live in these massive concrete apartment buildings that run about three kilometres high. So, yes, social norms regarding human interaction at close quarters had to be rejiggered a bit, but still - humanity has solved the sustainability problem, and the planet Earth could now happily support upwards of a 100 billion souls.
How has social intercourse been altered? Well, the basic assumption is that privacy and ownership cause jealousy and envy, and since those feelings naturally lead to conflict, and conflict in such proximity to so many other people must be eliminated, the powers that be have bred and socialized the notions of privacy and ownership right out of the species. Jealousy is extinct. Possessiveness is extinct. This sounds, admittedly, like a wonderful accomplishment. Who likes to feel jealous? Not I. And now no one does. Everyone feels fine. And what, then, pray, is the consequence to such clever and far-thinking social and genetic engineering?
Why, sharing! Sharing of everything! Nothing belongs to you! Not even your own wife! Not even your own body! SHARESIES! They’ve taken the lessons of Sesame Street and brought them to fruition in every fiber of their lives. Sharing of wives! Sharing of husbands! Sharing of bodies! And to refuse a sexual offer, any sexual offer? Offensive. Unnecessary. Unacceptable. Not in the mood? Don’t like the guy? Grow up. It's for humanity. Spread your legs.
This is the premise of one of the more imaginative and shocking dystopias I have read. Unlike in Brave New World or 1984, we do not feel the constant presence of some higher authority enforcing compliance. Sure, every once in a while some flippo gets thrown down the chute, but the vast majority of the 800, 000 people stuffed like sardines into this concrete monstrosity seem perfectly content to go about their empty, aimless, beehive lives day after day, night after night, without causing the least bit of conflict with anyone. The men way up on the top floor run the show in some abstract and indefinable way, and everyone else just accepts that they live in the best civilization mankind has ever whipped up. Besides, there is no time to worry. If you ever had a free minute to think, say, alone in your room in the evening after your husband has left, some strange man would just barge into your bedroom and mount you, no questions asked. And you couldn’t say no. That would be rude. No, no time to think. No time to worry. Just be happy.
Not everyone is happy, though. And, after the first chapter, the majority of the book follows the stories of the few genuine human beings left, those few who are dissatisfied with the life bequeathed to them. We follow an artist who craves to bring sensory stimulation to the dull-brained masses. We follow a historian who studies the obsolete ways of ancient Earth. Women have, by far, the greatest cause for complaint. Women have strictly proscribed lives in this society. There are some cockamamie excuses given about God loving life and the ecstasy of fertility and all that, but it really comes down to what it always does - men controlling women’s bodies. They are not to be leaders, we must assume, since all the leaders are men. They must lie back and spread their legs whenever any man desires it. They must keep getting pregnant. They must continue to bear children only they will be responsible for raising. The father need do nothing. He can merely stick the baby into a “slot” and then go find a woman and stick his cock into another “slot." Women's bodies, slots in the wall, it's all the same, really. There are descriptions of sex in here so explicit, and so relentless and objectifying, that the women essentially become indistinguishable from the rest of the machinery that keeps the building running.
So, Aurea, for example, is unhappy. She faces the prospect of being thrown out of her native building because she cannot bear children, one of the few purposes society has assigned to her. At night, she has horrible nightmares. I am sure she isn’t the only one. She dreams of flying through the sky, vulnerable and naked, before being “impaled” and “penetrated” by the spiky needle-sharp tips of the buildings. She wakes up sweating, terrified, the memory of those phallic summits still floating through her mind, and her husband drowsily and nonchalantly rolls over and penetrates her in turn. Poor Aurea. Penetrated in her dreams and penetrated when she wakes, there is no escape for her from the dreary and repetitive male invasions of her body. Eventually, some men drag her off for “moral engineering,” and when she returns a week later, she has been fixed. She is grinning dumbly at the prospect of serving her society and serving the men by happily opening her thighs and breeding babies.
Rarely have I read a science fiction novel so infused with anxieties concerning the male urge to rape. Make no mistake - this is a book about rape, legislated rape, permitted rape, the entire social structure of the human race reformed and ossified into permanence to justify exposing the female populace to a nightly flow of constant and unremitting rape.
The tricky thing, though, about this novel is that it doesn’t FEEL that way. It’s quite light. It’s often laugh-out-loud funny. Silverberg always writes from the point of view of that chapter’s main character, so the the disgust he feels about the society he invented must be found between the lines. Even those uncomfortable with this way of life have assimilated all the mantras and sales pitches. They all still believe they live at the highest peak of human achievement. If unhappy, they blame themselves. So, much of the novel feels like a vacation brochure designed for tourists to this future world. But the reader knows better. As the novel wears on, what began as funny begins to grate, and what was once titillating is revealed, in the naked light, to be nothing short of horrifying. There is a scene near the end of the novel, on the top floor, in the home of one of the administrators, that is so uncanny, so awful, it’s like an orgy in Dante’s hell, and it is genuinely shocking.
Don’t be fooled by Silverberg’s ironic and often comical tone. His intent here is serious. Parts of this novel are beautiful, parts are very funny, parts contain yearning, parts contain sadness. The last chapter is a masterful study in loneliness and existential anguish, and we realize that this culture, ultimately, has not made the men any happier than the women. Everyone has been hollowed out. Silverberg's dystopia is founded on a deep, perceptive, and, frankly, courageous view of human nature, and if you realize that none of this is meant to be admired, you will discover one of the scarier and sadder visions of the future to come from American sf of the 1970’s, and one of the better novels written by the stunning and prolific Robert Silverberg. Highly recommended.
How has social intercourse been altered? Well, the basic assumption is that privacy and ownership cause jealousy and envy, and since those feelings naturally lead to conflict, and conflict in such proximity to so many other people must be eliminated, the powers that be have bred and socialized the notions of privacy and ownership right out of the species. Jealousy is extinct. Possessiveness is extinct. This sounds, admittedly, like a wonderful accomplishment. Who likes to feel jealous? Not I. And now no one does. Everyone feels fine. And what, then, pray, is the consequence to such clever and far-thinking social and genetic engineering?
Why, sharing! Sharing of everything! Nothing belongs to you! Not even your own wife! Not even your own body! SHARESIES! They’ve taken the lessons of Sesame Street and brought them to fruition in every fiber of their lives. Sharing of wives! Sharing of husbands! Sharing of bodies! And to refuse a sexual offer, any sexual offer? Offensive. Unnecessary. Unacceptable. Not in the mood? Don’t like the guy? Grow up. It's for humanity. Spread your legs.
This is the premise of one of the more imaginative and shocking dystopias I have read. Unlike in Brave New World or 1984, we do not feel the constant presence of some higher authority enforcing compliance. Sure, every once in a while some flippo gets thrown down the chute, but the vast majority of the 800, 000 people stuffed like sardines into this concrete monstrosity seem perfectly content to go about their empty, aimless, beehive lives day after day, night after night, without causing the least bit of conflict with anyone. The men way up on the top floor run the show in some abstract and indefinable way, and everyone else just accepts that they live in the best civilization mankind has ever whipped up. Besides, there is no time to worry. If you ever had a free minute to think, say, alone in your room in the evening after your husband has left, some strange man would just barge into your bedroom and mount you, no questions asked. And you couldn’t say no. That would be rude. No, no time to think. No time to worry. Just be happy.
Not everyone is happy, though. And, after the first chapter, the majority of the book follows the stories of the few genuine human beings left, those few who are dissatisfied with the life bequeathed to them. We follow an artist who craves to bring sensory stimulation to the dull-brained masses. We follow a historian who studies the obsolete ways of ancient Earth. Women have, by far, the greatest cause for complaint. Women have strictly proscribed lives in this society. There are some cockamamie excuses given about God loving life and the ecstasy of fertility and all that, but it really comes down to what it always does - men controlling women’s bodies. They are not to be leaders, we must assume, since all the leaders are men. They must lie back and spread their legs whenever any man desires it. They must keep getting pregnant. They must continue to bear children only they will be responsible for raising. The father need do nothing. He can merely stick the baby into a “slot” and then go find a woman and stick his cock into another “slot." Women's bodies, slots in the wall, it's all the same, really. There are descriptions of sex in here so explicit, and so relentless and objectifying, that the women essentially become indistinguishable from the rest of the machinery that keeps the building running.
So, Aurea, for example, is unhappy. She faces the prospect of being thrown out of her native building because she cannot bear children, one of the few purposes society has assigned to her. At night, she has horrible nightmares. I am sure she isn’t the only one. She dreams of flying through the sky, vulnerable and naked, before being “impaled” and “penetrated” by the spiky needle-sharp tips of the buildings. She wakes up sweating, terrified, the memory of those phallic summits still floating through her mind, and her husband drowsily and nonchalantly rolls over and penetrates her in turn. Poor Aurea. Penetrated in her dreams and penetrated when she wakes, there is no escape for her from the dreary and repetitive male invasions of her body. Eventually, some men drag her off for “moral engineering,” and when she returns a week later, she has been fixed. She is grinning dumbly at the prospect of serving her society and serving the men by happily opening her thighs and breeding babies.
Rarely have I read a science fiction novel so infused with anxieties concerning the male urge to rape. Make no mistake - this is a book about rape, legislated rape, permitted rape, the entire social structure of the human race reformed and ossified into permanence to justify exposing the female populace to a nightly flow of constant and unremitting rape.
The tricky thing, though, about this novel is that it doesn’t FEEL that way. It’s quite light. It’s often laugh-out-loud funny. Silverberg always writes from the point of view of that chapter’s main character, so the the disgust he feels about the society he invented must be found between the lines. Even those uncomfortable with this way of life have assimilated all the mantras and sales pitches. They all still believe they live at the highest peak of human achievement. If unhappy, they blame themselves. So, much of the novel feels like a vacation brochure designed for tourists to this future world. But the reader knows better. As the novel wears on, what began as funny begins to grate, and what was once titillating is revealed, in the naked light, to be nothing short of horrifying. There is a scene near the end of the novel, on the top floor, in the home of one of the administrators, that is so uncanny, so awful, it’s like an orgy in Dante’s hell, and it is genuinely shocking.
Don’t be fooled by Silverberg’s ironic and often comical tone. His intent here is serious. Parts of this novel are beautiful, parts are very funny, parts contain yearning, parts contain sadness. The last chapter is a masterful study in loneliness and existential anguish, and we realize that this culture, ultimately, has not made the men any happier than the women. Everyone has been hollowed out. Silverberg's dystopia is founded on a deep, perceptive, and, frankly, courageous view of human nature, and if you realize that none of this is meant to be admired, you will discover one of the scarier and sadder visions of the future to come from American sf of the 1970’s, and one of the better novels written by the stunning and prolific Robert Silverberg. Highly recommended.
December 5, 2019
Une série de nouvelles plus ou moins courtes qui pose des questions sur l'urbanisme vertical, une des réponses possibles à la surpopulation. Découvert à l'occasion des Utopiales 2013.
La Maison Radieuse de Rezé - Le Corbusier, 1952
Affiche des Utopiales 2013, festival de science-fiction nantais
Matching Soundtrack :
Moon in June - Soft Machine
La Maison Radieuse de Rezé - Le Corbusier, 1952
Affiche des Utopiales 2013, festival de science-fiction nantais
Matching Soundtrack :
Moon in June - Soft Machine
May 15, 2012
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.
In the year 2381, the Earth contains 75 billion people. Despite the dire warnings of 20th century prophets, humans have not exhausted the Earth’s resources. There is plenty of food for everyone, but because 90% of the land must be covered in farms, most of the people live in Urban Monads — 1,000-story skyscrapers housing 800,000 people each. Citizens aren’t allowed out of their building, and many aspects of society are rigidly monitored. Everyone is married at age 12 and each couple is encouraged to have as many children as they can because fertility and children are blessings from god.
In such a close community, it’s dangerous for people to be protective of private property or possessive of their mate, so sharing is actively encouraged. Thus, everyone has sexual access to everyone else and men are expected to go “night walking” to find other partners while their wives stay home and make themselves accessible to any man who opens their door. There is no war, crime, privacy, jealousy, or sexual restrictions, and the citizens of the Urban Monads are happy. The few who express dissatisfaction are sent to “Moral Engineers” for reprogramming, or may be thrown “down the chute” where their bodies make fuel for the building.
The World Inside (1971) is the story of several people who become dissatisfied with their lives in Urban Monad 116. It’s a thoughtful look at what life on Earth might be like if our population ever reaches the level where we need to grow vertically instead of horizontally. I was fascinated by Silverberg’s Urban Monads where everything that’s necessary for life is in one building, and where blocks of floors represent different classes and cultures.
But what I liked best about The World Inside was the idea that, because dissidents are sent down the chute, possessiveness, rebellion, jealousy, and other forms of social strife have been selectively bred out of the human population. Perhaps it would be possible for future humans to be happy in an Urban Monad, but 21st century readers will be horrified by Silverberg’s setting. Being satisfied with that kind of life would require some major evolutionary changes in our genome and, by introducing us to the citizens of Urban Monad 116, Silverberg suggests that along with those nasty traits we might like to get rid of, go many beautiful human traits such as wanderlust, curiosity about the world and, perhaps, a hope for something better around the next bend.
Robert Silverberg’s major focus on free love and his inclusion of hallucinogenic drug trips, psychedelic music, and orgies isn’t surprising (I’ve seen all this before in his stories), but they do serve to remind you that you’re reading a story that was published more than 40 years ago. The excuse for the drugs, music, and orgies, I suppose, is that they induce a hive-mind mentality in the building, but they really seem like a self-indulgent way to induce sexual titillation. I didn’t find it at all titillating, though, especially since it was so vulgarly done (e.g., women are referred to as “slots” and the act is constantly called “topping”). And then there’s the incest, which I’ve also seen before in Silverberg stories. Ick.
But my main problem with The World Inside is that it doesn’t make sense. If this is a free love society, why does everyone have to be married? And why encourage childbearing at all? To me, this bizarre societal goal seemed like a jab at religious people who are against birth control. Silverberg has his characters constantly saying “god bless, god bless, god bless!” and other religious-sounding speech. And if they’re so disgusted by “primeval 20th century attitudes,” why are women still expected to be home preparing dinner, taking care of the kids, and nagging their husbands to be ambitious so the family can move up the social ladder? Why do men get to go night walking wherever they like while women have to stay home and be “topped” by whoever shows up at their door?
And why can’t the Monad citizens go out of the buildings? Their food, families, friends, jobs, and all social support systems are inside the buildings. There’s nothing to keep them outside, so why can’t they go out and get some fresh air? And what if there was fire, or poisonous gas, or some other emergency? They don’t even practice evacuation procedures. I was expecting some big creepy revelation about why people where encouraged to have babies and why they were kept from knowing what was outside, but this never came. I can’t help but think that Robert Silverberg just wanted to write a story about overpopulation, free love, and selective breeding, so he stuck them all together in the same book.
In the end, the plot didn’t hold together, but I still enjoyed the setting and many of the ideas in The World Inside, so I didn’t feel like it was a waste of my time. The World Inside was nominated for, but didn’t win, the Hugo Award in 1972. I listened to Audible Frontier’s version which is almost eight hours long and is read by Paul Boehmer, who did a great job with the narration. If you’re going to read The World Inside, I recommend the audiobook.
In the year 2381, the Earth contains 75 billion people. Despite the dire warnings of 20th century prophets, humans have not exhausted the Earth’s resources. There is plenty of food for everyone, but because 90% of the land must be covered in farms, most of the people live in Urban Monads — 1,000-story skyscrapers housing 800,000 people each. Citizens aren’t allowed out of their building, and many aspects of society are rigidly monitored. Everyone is married at age 12 and each couple is encouraged to have as many children as they can because fertility and children are blessings from god.
In such a close community, it’s dangerous for people to be protective of private property or possessive of their mate, so sharing is actively encouraged. Thus, everyone has sexual access to everyone else and men are expected to go “night walking” to find other partners while their wives stay home and make themselves accessible to any man who opens their door. There is no war, crime, privacy, jealousy, or sexual restrictions, and the citizens of the Urban Monads are happy. The few who express dissatisfaction are sent to “Moral Engineers” for reprogramming, or may be thrown “down the chute” where their bodies make fuel for the building.
The World Inside (1971) is the story of several people who become dissatisfied with their lives in Urban Monad 116. It’s a thoughtful look at what life on Earth might be like if our population ever reaches the level where we need to grow vertically instead of horizontally. I was fascinated by Silverberg’s Urban Monads where everything that’s necessary for life is in one building, and where blocks of floors represent different classes and cultures.
But what I liked best about The World Inside was the idea that, because dissidents are sent down the chute, possessiveness, rebellion, jealousy, and other forms of social strife have been selectively bred out of the human population. Perhaps it would be possible for future humans to be happy in an Urban Monad, but 21st century readers will be horrified by Silverberg’s setting. Being satisfied with that kind of life would require some major evolutionary changes in our genome and, by introducing us to the citizens of Urban Monad 116, Silverberg suggests that along with those nasty traits we might like to get rid of, go many beautiful human traits such as wanderlust, curiosity about the world and, perhaps, a hope for something better around the next bend.
Robert Silverberg’s major focus on free love and his inclusion of hallucinogenic drug trips, psychedelic music, and orgies isn’t surprising (I’ve seen all this before in his stories), but they do serve to remind you that you’re reading a story that was published more than 40 years ago. The excuse for the drugs, music, and orgies, I suppose, is that they induce a hive-mind mentality in the building, but they really seem like a self-indulgent way to induce sexual titillation. I didn’t find it at all titillating, though, especially since it was so vulgarly done (e.g., women are referred to as “slots” and the act is constantly called “topping”). And then there’s the incest, which I’ve also seen before in Silverberg stories. Ick.
But my main problem with The World Inside is that it doesn’t make sense. If this is a free love society, why does everyone have to be married? And why encourage childbearing at all? To me, this bizarre societal goal seemed like a jab at religious people who are against birth control. Silverberg has his characters constantly saying “god bless, god bless, god bless!” and other religious-sounding speech. And if they’re so disgusted by “primeval 20th century attitudes,” why are women still expected to be home preparing dinner, taking care of the kids, and nagging their husbands to be ambitious so the family can move up the social ladder? Why do men get to go night walking wherever they like while women have to stay home and be “topped” by whoever shows up at their door?
And why can’t the Monad citizens go out of the buildings? Their food, families, friends, jobs, and all social support systems are inside the buildings. There’s nothing to keep them outside, so why can’t they go out and get some fresh air? And what if there was fire, or poisonous gas, or some other emergency? They don’t even practice evacuation procedures. I was expecting some big creepy revelation about why people where encouraged to have babies and why they were kept from knowing what was outside, but this never came. I can’t help but think that Robert Silverberg just wanted to write a story about overpopulation, free love, and selective breeding, so he stuck them all together in the same book.
In the end, the plot didn’t hold together, but I still enjoyed the setting and many of the ideas in The World Inside, so I didn’t feel like it was a waste of my time. The World Inside was nominated for, but didn’t win, the Hugo Award in 1972. I listened to Audible Frontier’s version which is almost eight hours long and is read by Paul Boehmer, who did a great job with the narration. If you’re going to read The World Inside, I recommend the audiobook.
May 31, 2025
The World Inside is a fix-up novel comprised of six linked stories: a novella, two short stories, and three novelettes. Two of the short stories were first printed in original anthologies in 1970 (Cheetham's Science Against Man and Harrison's first volume of Nova), and the rest from 1970 and '71 issues of Galaxy magazine when Ejler Jakobsson was the editor. It's a novel about overpopulation set in a megaplex arcology (Urban Monad 116) in 2381. The world population is 75 billion, because of the religious directive to be fruitful and multiply, and the belief that contraception is a sin. The character's stories overlap interestingly and it's a good cautionary tale about religion and politics, but Silverberg indulges in some graphically described sexual activity to illustrate where all of that overpopulation came from. The ages of some of the characters are disquietingly low, as one occasionally finds in latter day Heinlein, so be cautioned. The World Inside was nominated for a Hugo Award for best novel of the year, but Silverberg declined, perhaps so he wouldn't be competing against himself, since his A Time of Changes also made the ballot. (It was a banner year for sf novels. The other nominees were Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven, McCaffrey's Dragonquest, Zelazny's Jack of Shadows (which would have been my pick), and the winner was Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go.) The really phenomenal thing about Silverberg and the novels that year, though, is that he had four of the top ten novels that year in the Locus poll. The World Inside was sixth, A Time of Changes was third, Son of Man was ninth, and The Second Trip ended up in tenth place. Not only was he wildly prolific in those days, but his work was also appreciated as being of the highest quality at the time. Final note: my Signet first mass-market paperback has a wonderful Dean Ellis cover.
January 29, 2010
4.5 to 5.0 stars. A very well written, incredibly original story that delivers a powerful message regarding what it means to be an individual and a human being. One of Silverberg's best. Highly recommended!!
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
October 13, 2023
I kept picturing this as a 70s movie with the production design of Logan’s run, filmed in the lobby of a modern office building or college campus with a synthesizer soundtrack.
This is one of those social sci-fi stories from the 70’s where we’re presented with a post population crisis, post privacy society. What’s unique about this one is that there’s no collapse of society, they build vertically and just let the population rise. It rises to over 75 billion, all living in 3 kilometre high mega buildings with 800,000 people each. These buildings are a closed society, nobody comes in nobody goes out. And in true Silverberg fashion everyone is required to have sex with only minimal right of refusal. This sounds like the perfect male wish fulfilment but it applies to men too, if another guy wants it, your holiest of holies is on the table too.
The story reminds me a bit of snowpiercer, where the top floors are reserved for the aristocratic ruling class on to the simple workers at the bottom and everyone in between.
The story plays out as a series of vignettes about loosely connected people and their lives in the strange society.
This was a good book, I always enjoy Silverberg’s writing and even though I’m aware of his penchant for including lots of sex and I’m sure he made some choices to be deliberately shocking, there were some YIKES moments in this. Specifically the age that young people become sexually active and are expected to start having kids themselves. I suppose the practice was normal a few hundred years ago in reality but being a dad myself it’s a tough pill to swallow.
Silverberg is deservingly a science fiction grand master but it doesn’t seem that he’s remembered as well as his peers, I was totally unaware of him until a few years ago and I’m a lifelong sci-fi reader. Maybe all the sex and darker themes in his work makes him less accessible to a wider audience.
This is one of those social sci-fi stories from the 70’s where we’re presented with a post population crisis, post privacy society. What’s unique about this one is that there’s no collapse of society, they build vertically and just let the population rise. It rises to over 75 billion, all living in 3 kilometre high mega buildings with 800,000 people each. These buildings are a closed society, nobody comes in nobody goes out. And in true Silverberg fashion everyone is required to have sex with only minimal right of refusal. This sounds like the perfect male wish fulfilment but it applies to men too, if another guy wants it, your holiest of holies is on the table too.
The story reminds me a bit of snowpiercer, where the top floors are reserved for the aristocratic ruling class on to the simple workers at the bottom and everyone in between.
The story plays out as a series of vignettes about loosely connected people and their lives in the strange society.
This was a good book, I always enjoy Silverberg’s writing and even though I’m aware of his penchant for including lots of sex and I’m sure he made some choices to be deliberately shocking, there were some YIKES moments in this. Specifically the age that young people become sexually active and are expected to start having kids themselves. I suppose the practice was normal a few hundred years ago in reality but being a dad myself it’s a tough pill to swallow.
Silverberg is deservingly a science fiction grand master but it doesn’t seem that he’s remembered as well as his peers, I was totally unaware of him until a few years ago and I’m a lifelong sci-fi reader. Maybe all the sex and darker themes in his work makes him less accessible to a wider audience.
August 17, 2011
The SciFi I've been reading from about '67 to almost '79 is so distinctly different from anything written in the last fifteen-plus years, and so similar in style & tone to other books from the same period... There is a certain blandness to the modern books, and a monotonous repetition the older ones are prone to, though I think I like the ideas of the older ones, like this one, somewhat better.
One thing I noticed/appreciated while reading this (and other dystopias from the period) is that what makes it Dystopic isn't that the society has some dark secret / some secret underbelly / whatever - it's all out in the open; the literal stratification of the classes, the immediate death sentence for anyone who acts out or thinks differently, the brainwashing for those who aren't thinking too differently, everyone is well aware of it. Too many modern dystopias rely too heavily, I think, on the fear of dark secrets, though I suppose authors are writing to the fears of the day... Recycling easy dystopian societies by wrapping them in a web of secrets that gets the modern reader's hackles up. In The World Inside, one of the less-than-perfectly-happy characters is driven to his breakdown when he finally realizes the society's leaders aren't secretly leading different lives than the rest, and aren't selfish, power-hungry dictators, but are just the everyday citizens they appear/claim to be. Awesome.
One thing I noticed/appreciated while reading this (and other dystopias from the period) is that what makes it Dystopic isn't that the society has some dark secret / some secret underbelly / whatever - it's all out in the open; the literal stratification of the classes, the immediate death sentence for anyone who acts out or thinks differently, the brainwashing for those who aren't thinking too differently, everyone is well aware of it. Too many modern dystopias rely too heavily, I think, on the fear of dark secrets, though I suppose authors are writing to the fears of the day... Recycling easy dystopian societies by wrapping them in a web of secrets that gets the modern reader's hackles up. In The World Inside, one of the less-than-perfectly-happy characters is driven to his breakdown when he finally realizes the society's leaders aren't secretly leading different lives than the rest, and aren't selfish, power-hungry dictators, but are just the everyday citizens they appear/claim to be. Awesome.
August 1, 2025
En el año 2381, la humanidad ha alcanzado una población de 75 mil millones, alojada en colosales estructuras conocidas como Mónadas Urbanas, torres autosuficientes de tres kilómetros de altura que albergan comunidades enteras. "El mundo interior" se centra en la Mónada Urbana 116, parte de la constelación Chipitts, donde 885.000 personas viven en un entorno planificado para maximizar la felicidad y la estabilidad. En esta sociedad utópica, las inhibiciones, traumas y frustraciones han sido erradicadas, y la procreación es un mandato divino, con familias numerosas consideradas un ideal. La privacidad es un concepto obsoleto, reemplazado por una libertad sexual absoluta, donde las "rondas nocturnas" permiten el intercambio de parejas dentro de los límites de cada "ciudad" de la mónada, y cualquier deseo razonable debe ser satisfecho para evitar tensiones sociales.
La novela sigue a varios personajes que encarnan las tensiones y contradicciones de este mundo aparentemente perfecto. Charles Mattern, un sociocomputador de la planta 799, guía al visitante venusiano Nicanor Gortman a través de la mónada, revelando su orgullo por el sistema, pero también su incomodidad ante pequeños incidentes de disidencia. Siegmund Kluver, un joven y ambicioso teórico de la administración urbana, lucha con una creciente alienación, sintiéndose desconectado de la rígida estructura social que inicialmente admiraba. Aurea y Memnon Holston, una pareja joven sin hijos, temen ser enviados a una nueva mónada debido a su infertilidad, lo que pone en riesgo su posición en la comunidad. A través de sus perspectivas, Silverberg explora un mundo donde la armonía se mantiene a un costo elevado: los disidentes, etiquetados como neuros, son eliminados en las tolvas, y cualquier desviación de la norma es corregida mediante ajustes psicológicos o exilio a las comunas agrícolas.
Cuando Siegmund, abrumado por su crisis existencial, busca respuestas en la religión, la terapia y las interacciones humanas, su desintegración personal refleja las fisuras de la mónada. "El mundo interior" es una meditación sobre el precio de la utopía, la libertad individual y los límites de la adaptación humana en un entorno hipercontrolado.
Robert Silverberg, uno de los pilares de la ciencia ficción del siglo XX, entrega en "El mundo interior" (1971) una de sus obras más incisivas y perturbadoras, una distopía que disecciona la noción de utopía con una precisión quirúrgica y un tono deliberadamente ambiguo. Publicada en el apogeo de su periodo más introspectivo, tras obras como "Muero por dentro" y "Alas nocturnas", esta novela refleja la madurez de un autor que, lejos de conformarse con los tropos convencionales del género, utiliza la ciencia ficción como un vehículo para explorar cuestiones filosóficas y sociológicas de calado universal. En este caso, Silverberg aborda la superpoblación, la conformidad social y la represión psicológica, temas que resuenan con las inquietudes de los años setenta, pero que conservan una vigencia inquietante en nuestro presente.
La premisa de "El mundo interior" es, en apariencia, un ejercicio clásico de extrapolación futurista: en un mundo saturado por 75 mil millones de habitantes, la humanidad se ha recluido en torres verticales autosuficientes, las Mónadas Urbanas, diseñadas para optimizar recursos y garantizar la estabilidad social. Sin embargo, lo que distingue a esta novela de otras distopías contemporáneas, como "Un mundo feliz" de Aldous Huxley o "1984" de George Orwell, es su enfoque en la aparente felicidad de sus habitantes. En la Mónada Urbana 116, no hay opresión visible, ni un Gran Hermano tiránico; en su lugar, encontramos un sistema que promueve la satisfacción inmediata de deseos, la procreación desenfrenada y una religiosidad centrada en la fertilidad, todo ello bajo el lema recurrente de "¡Dios bendiga!". Esta fachada de bienestar, sin embargo, oculta una maquinaria social que elimina cualquier disidencia con una eficiencia aterradora, ya sea mediante la ejecución sumaria en las tolvas o la reeducación psicológica.
Silverberg estructura la novela como un mosaico de perspectivas, alternando entre personajes como Charles Mattern, Siegmund Kluver y Áurea Holston, cuyas historias convergen para revelar las tensiones internas de la mónada. Mattern, un sociocomputador respetado, encarna el orgullo del sistema, pero su incomodidad ante incidentes como el ataque de un neuro sugiere una represión inconsciente de sus dudas. Siegmund, en cambio, es el arquetipo del joven prometedor cuya ambición choca con una alienación existencial, un eco de los protagonistas torturados de otras obras de Silverberg. Aurea, por su parte, representa la ansiedad de quienes no encajan en el ideal reproductivo, subrayando la crueldad de un sistema que valora a las personas por su utilidad demográfica.
El estilo de Silverberg es sobrio pero evocador, con una prosa que captura la claustrofobia de la mónada sin recurrir a descripciones excesivas. La repetición del mantra "¡Dios bendiga!" se convierte en un leitmotiv que, lejos de ser reconfortante, adquiere un tono irónico y opresivo, recordándonos la fragilidad de la armonía impuesta. La novela también destaca por su exploración de la sexualidad como herramienta de control social. Las rondas nocturnas, en las que los hombres (y, en menor medida, las mujeres) visitan libremente a sus vecinos para satisfacer deseos sexuales, son presentadas como una liberación de las inhibiciones, pero en realidad refuerzan la homogeneidad y la vigilancia mutua. Este aspecto, que algunos críticos han interpretado como una sátira de la revolución sexual de los sesenta, añade una capa de complejidad a la crítica de Silverberg sobre las utopías que sacrifican la intimidad por la cohesión.
No obstante, "El mundo interior" no está exenta de defectos. Algunos personajes secundarios, como Principessa o Mamelon, carecen de la profundidad necesaria para complementar las trayectorias de los protagonistas, sirviendo más como arquetipos que como individuos plenamente realizados. Además, la novela puede resultar excesivamente didáctica en ciertos pasajes, particularmente en las conversaciones entre Mattern y Gortman, que a veces parecen diseñadas para exponer el funcionamiento de la mónada en detrimento del ritmo narrativo. Sin embargo, estos reparos son menores frente a la ambición temática y la intensidad emocional de la obra.
En el contexto de la ciencia ficción de los setenta, "El mundo interior" se alinea con la Nueva Ola, un movimiento que priorizaba la experimentación estilística y los temas psicológicos sobre las aventuras espaciales tradicionales. Comparada con obras como "Dune" de Frank Herbert o "Forastero en tierra extraña" de Robert A. Heinlein, la novela de Silverberg es más introspectiva y menos épica, pero no menos impactante. Su influencia puede rastrearse en distopías posteriores que exploran la superpoblación y el control social, como "Silo" de Hugh Howey o la película "La fuga de Logan" (1976), aunque ninguna alcanza la sutileza con la que Silverberg equilibra la crítica social con la empatía por sus personajes.
En última instancia, "El mundo interior" es una obra que desafía al lector a cuestionar los fundamentos de la felicidad y la libertad. Al retratar una sociedad que ha resuelto los problemas materiales de la humanidad solo para reemplazarlos por nuevas formas de alienación, Silverberg nos recuerda que la utopía es, en el mejor de los casos, una ilusión frágil, y en el peor, una trampa. Como tal, esta novela permanece como un testimonio de su genialidad como cronista de las contradicciones humanas, un texto que, más de medio siglo después de su publicación, sigue interpelándonos con su visión a la vez profética y profundamente humana.
Una distopía imprescindible para los amantes de la ciencia ficción literaria, que combina una crítica social afilada con una exploración conmovedora de la psique humana.
La novela sigue a varios personajes que encarnan las tensiones y contradicciones de este mundo aparentemente perfecto. Charles Mattern, un sociocomputador de la planta 799, guía al visitante venusiano Nicanor Gortman a través de la mónada, revelando su orgullo por el sistema, pero también su incomodidad ante pequeños incidentes de disidencia. Siegmund Kluver, un joven y ambicioso teórico de la administración urbana, lucha con una creciente alienación, sintiéndose desconectado de la rígida estructura social que inicialmente admiraba. Aurea y Memnon Holston, una pareja joven sin hijos, temen ser enviados a una nueva mónada debido a su infertilidad, lo que pone en riesgo su posición en la comunidad. A través de sus perspectivas, Silverberg explora un mundo donde la armonía se mantiene a un costo elevado: los disidentes, etiquetados como neuros, son eliminados en las tolvas, y cualquier desviación de la norma es corregida mediante ajustes psicológicos o exilio a las comunas agrícolas.
Cuando Siegmund, abrumado por su crisis existencial, busca respuestas en la religión, la terapia y las interacciones humanas, su desintegración personal refleja las fisuras de la mónada. "El mundo interior" es una meditación sobre el precio de la utopía, la libertad individual y los límites de la adaptación humana en un entorno hipercontrolado.
Robert Silverberg, uno de los pilares de la ciencia ficción del siglo XX, entrega en "El mundo interior" (1971) una de sus obras más incisivas y perturbadoras, una distopía que disecciona la noción de utopía con una precisión quirúrgica y un tono deliberadamente ambiguo. Publicada en el apogeo de su periodo más introspectivo, tras obras como "Muero por dentro" y "Alas nocturnas", esta novela refleja la madurez de un autor que, lejos de conformarse con los tropos convencionales del género, utiliza la ciencia ficción como un vehículo para explorar cuestiones filosóficas y sociológicas de calado universal. En este caso, Silverberg aborda la superpoblación, la conformidad social y la represión psicológica, temas que resuenan con las inquietudes de los años setenta, pero que conservan una vigencia inquietante en nuestro presente.
La premisa de "El mundo interior" es, en apariencia, un ejercicio clásico de extrapolación futurista: en un mundo saturado por 75 mil millones de habitantes, la humanidad se ha recluido en torres verticales autosuficientes, las Mónadas Urbanas, diseñadas para optimizar recursos y garantizar la estabilidad social. Sin embargo, lo que distingue a esta novela de otras distopías contemporáneas, como "Un mundo feliz" de Aldous Huxley o "1984" de George Orwell, es su enfoque en la aparente felicidad de sus habitantes. En la Mónada Urbana 116, no hay opresión visible, ni un Gran Hermano tiránico; en su lugar, encontramos un sistema que promueve la satisfacción inmediata de deseos, la procreación desenfrenada y una religiosidad centrada en la fertilidad, todo ello bajo el lema recurrente de "¡Dios bendiga!". Esta fachada de bienestar, sin embargo, oculta una maquinaria social que elimina cualquier disidencia con una eficiencia aterradora, ya sea mediante la ejecución sumaria en las tolvas o la reeducación psicológica.
Silverberg estructura la novela como un mosaico de perspectivas, alternando entre personajes como Charles Mattern, Siegmund Kluver y Áurea Holston, cuyas historias convergen para revelar las tensiones internas de la mónada. Mattern, un sociocomputador respetado, encarna el orgullo del sistema, pero su incomodidad ante incidentes como el ataque de un neuro sugiere una represión inconsciente de sus dudas. Siegmund, en cambio, es el arquetipo del joven prometedor cuya ambición choca con una alienación existencial, un eco de los protagonistas torturados de otras obras de Silverberg. Aurea, por su parte, representa la ansiedad de quienes no encajan en el ideal reproductivo, subrayando la crueldad de un sistema que valora a las personas por su utilidad demográfica.
El estilo de Silverberg es sobrio pero evocador, con una prosa que captura la claustrofobia de la mónada sin recurrir a descripciones excesivas. La repetición del mantra "¡Dios bendiga!" se convierte en un leitmotiv que, lejos de ser reconfortante, adquiere un tono irónico y opresivo, recordándonos la fragilidad de la armonía impuesta. La novela también destaca por su exploración de la sexualidad como herramienta de control social. Las rondas nocturnas, en las que los hombres (y, en menor medida, las mujeres) visitan libremente a sus vecinos para satisfacer deseos sexuales, son presentadas como una liberación de las inhibiciones, pero en realidad refuerzan la homogeneidad y la vigilancia mutua. Este aspecto, que algunos críticos han interpretado como una sátira de la revolución sexual de los sesenta, añade una capa de complejidad a la crítica de Silverberg sobre las utopías que sacrifican la intimidad por la cohesión.
No obstante, "El mundo interior" no está exenta de defectos. Algunos personajes secundarios, como Principessa o Mamelon, carecen de la profundidad necesaria para complementar las trayectorias de los protagonistas, sirviendo más como arquetipos que como individuos plenamente realizados. Además, la novela puede resultar excesivamente didáctica en ciertos pasajes, particularmente en las conversaciones entre Mattern y Gortman, que a veces parecen diseñadas para exponer el funcionamiento de la mónada en detrimento del ritmo narrativo. Sin embargo, estos reparos son menores frente a la ambición temática y la intensidad emocional de la obra.
En el contexto de la ciencia ficción de los setenta, "El mundo interior" se alinea con la Nueva Ola, un movimiento que priorizaba la experimentación estilística y los temas psicológicos sobre las aventuras espaciales tradicionales. Comparada con obras como "Dune" de Frank Herbert o "Forastero en tierra extraña" de Robert A. Heinlein, la novela de Silverberg es más introspectiva y menos épica, pero no menos impactante. Su influencia puede rastrearse en distopías posteriores que exploran la superpoblación y el control social, como "Silo" de Hugh Howey o la película "La fuga de Logan" (1976), aunque ninguna alcanza la sutileza con la que Silverberg equilibra la crítica social con la empatía por sus personajes.
En última instancia, "El mundo interior" es una obra que desafía al lector a cuestionar los fundamentos de la felicidad y la libertad. Al retratar una sociedad que ha resuelto los problemas materiales de la humanidad solo para reemplazarlos por nuevas formas de alienación, Silverberg nos recuerda que la utopía es, en el mejor de los casos, una ilusión frágil, y en el peor, una trampa. Como tal, esta novela permanece como un testimonio de su genialidad como cronista de las contradicciones humanas, un texto que, más de medio siglo después de su publicación, sigue interpelándonos con su visión a la vez profética y profundamente humana.
Una distopía imprescindible para los amantes de la ciencia ficción literaria, que combina una crítica social afilada con una exploración conmovedora de la psique humana.
September 17, 2018
Utopia is quite a rare genre, and it is no wonder - after all, if it is a utopia, there's no coflict, there are no tragedies, no difficulties, nothing that would drive the plot and make this kind of book both worth your time and gripping. "The World Inside" at the first glance seems just like that - a simple utopia, full of sex, period.
My personal experience with utopias is quite different, though. After spending some time reading those books that are supposed to be utopias and thinking a bit about the world where the plot is spinning, and that world's order in general, most of those books start seeming more and more dystopian.
This book is unique, though, because it is both the perfect utopia and perfect dystopia at the same time. It is about a society that is full of free love, no frustration, no need for personal belongings, and at the same time it's a society that is open to human sacrifices and zero tolerance to a different thought. And the worst and most horrible thing about Urbmong society is that it is an unbreakable system which prevails not because there's some kind of a cruel dictator, an all-powerful ruling class or simply a lack of recourses, but because of an absolute intolerance and absolute beliefs. It makes every single person both a manipulated sheep AND a manipulator at the same time. And I can't possibly imagine how to break that kind of system, when in order to do so, you have to destroy everything, from machinery to every person.
The other thing I was very surprised if not horrified about was that almost every review I have read before reading this book suggested something about too much sex, porn, at times even suggesting that this whole book is nothing but a porn set, accusing Silverberg that he wrote so much sex just because it was a middle of sexual revolution, etc etc.
I can't understand, how people can be so wrong. Either they are very conservative, or they missed the point of the book altogether. Sex in this book is ALWAYS just a background. I remind you - it's a society that's dealing with overpopulation issues and they are confined in a very, very limited space. So jealousy, monogamy, sexual frustration would be very disruptive, even destructive factor for this society, and sex serves only as a way to vent all negative emotions. Yes, there ar quite a lot of sex in this book. And NO, it has nothing to do with porn or being lewd. It is very simple, really. You just have to look beyond it and see the true meaning - sex is just a tool, not the objective, aim or purpose. After all, there's a lot of sex in ASOIAF, but no one accuse Martin of being and old pervert. There's a lot of sex in Altered Carbon, but Morgan's book isn't called "a porn set", too. So, badmouthing Silverberg or his book seems reeeeeaaaaaly excessive to me. (Plus, all that sex is so vanilla that it even woudn't make a virgin blush).
By the way, speaking of Altered Carbon. There was a very impressive scene in that book, when lead character is having sex with a genetically enhanced woman, and they are using a drug which enhances emphatic feeling, thus allowing them to feel not only their own feelings, but those of their partner, too. At the moment I thought that it's quite a cool and quite a fresh idea, and guess what? Yes. Silverberg also has that kind of drug here in this book. 40 years before Morgan wrote his "Altered Carebon". Sooo... yeah, seems I have to be weary about "fresh" ideas, especially in sci-fi.
It is a really good book, and I'm pleasantly surprised by it. It has a few shortcomings - way too much emphasis on world building instead of plot or character evolution, at times it is a bit superficial, a few logical loopholes, like almost no people over ~35 years old in otherwise perfect conditions, both in terms of habitat and medicine - and that's why I can't say that it is a 5-star material, but still it is a really solid 4 stars from me. Maybe even 4 and a quarter.
Two final points:
first, don't overlook a great sci-fi purely because it seems obscene. It's not. But it is provocative, even by current standarts - in a good way. It makes you think, makes you consider the true purpose of sexual stigmas and prejudices, at least in a bit old-fashioned way.
Second, this review is my hand-down number one in number of words "sex" and "porn" used. Yay for an achievement! :)
My personal experience with utopias is quite different, though. After spending some time reading those books that are supposed to be utopias and thinking a bit about the world where the plot is spinning, and that world's order in general, most of those books start seeming more and more dystopian.
This book is unique, though, because it is both the perfect utopia and perfect dystopia at the same time. It is about a society that is full of free love, no frustration, no need for personal belongings, and at the same time it's a society that is open to human sacrifices and zero tolerance to a different thought. And the worst and most horrible thing about Urbmong society is that it is an unbreakable system which prevails not because there's some kind of a cruel dictator, an all-powerful ruling class or simply a lack of recourses, but because of an absolute intolerance and absolute beliefs. It makes every single person both a manipulated sheep AND a manipulator at the same time. And I can't possibly imagine how to break that kind of system, when in order to do so, you have to destroy everything, from machinery to every person.
The other thing I was very surprised if not horrified about was that almost every review I have read before reading this book suggested something about too much sex, porn, at times even suggesting that this whole book is nothing but a porn set, accusing Silverberg that he wrote so much sex just because it was a middle of sexual revolution, etc etc.
I can't understand, how people can be so wrong. Either they are very conservative, or they missed the point of the book altogether. Sex in this book is ALWAYS just a background. I remind you - it's a society that's dealing with overpopulation issues and they are confined in a very, very limited space. So jealousy, monogamy, sexual frustration would be very disruptive, even destructive factor for this society, and sex serves only as a way to vent all negative emotions. Yes, there ar quite a lot of sex in this book. And NO, it has nothing to do with porn or being lewd. It is very simple, really. You just have to look beyond it and see the true meaning - sex is just a tool, not the objective, aim or purpose. After all, there's a lot of sex in ASOIAF, but no one accuse Martin of being and old pervert. There's a lot of sex in Altered Carbon, but Morgan's book isn't called "a porn set", too. So, badmouthing Silverberg or his book seems reeeeeaaaaaly excessive to me. (Plus, all that sex is so vanilla that it even woudn't make a virgin blush).
By the way, speaking of Altered Carbon. There was a very impressive scene in that book, when lead character is having sex with a genetically enhanced woman, and they are using a drug which enhances emphatic feeling, thus allowing them to feel not only their own feelings, but those of their partner, too. At the moment I thought that it's quite a cool and quite a fresh idea, and guess what? Yes. Silverberg also has that kind of drug here in this book. 40 years before Morgan wrote his "Altered Carebon". Sooo... yeah, seems I have to be weary about "fresh" ideas, especially in sci-fi.
It is a really good book, and I'm pleasantly surprised by it. It has a few shortcomings - way too much emphasis on world building instead of plot or character evolution, at times it is a bit superficial, a few logical loopholes, like almost no people over ~35 years old in otherwise perfect conditions, both in terms of habitat and medicine - and that's why I can't say that it is a 5-star material, but still it is a really solid 4 stars from me. Maybe even 4 and a quarter.
Two final points:
first, don't overlook a great sci-fi purely because it seems obscene. It's not. But it is provocative, even by current standarts - in a good way. It makes you think, makes you consider the true purpose of sexual stigmas and prejudices, at least in a bit old-fashioned way.
Second, this review is my hand-down number one in number of words "sex" and "porn" used. Yay for an achievement! :)
March 17, 2024
Right off, I am not a total prude. I least I don't think so. But this...
I don't normally read, what I believe they once called back in the seventies to be“Blue Books”. I know Robert Silverberg primarily as a scifi writer yet I also know very well that that genre is not exclusive of his oeuvre – I read his, sort of, autobiography / coffee table book “Other Spaces, Other Times: A Life Spent in the Future ”. Other than scifi, Silverberg has written several well acclaimed non-fiction books, mostly histories of ancient civilizations and that he also wrote, and wrote plenty of, though always under a nom-de-plume, erotic pulp paperbacks. Not that there is anything wrong with that, a writer of his skill could probably come up with that stuff in his sleep I suppose, and probably he could churn out first drafts of the stuff in a sitting or two. All perfectly fine. I'm not judging; a writer has got to make a living, and where there are readers... But those novels are not what I choose to read from Silverberg. I like his science fiction stories and this one, “The World Inside” is actually a really great one. I got that the practice of “night walking” was an essential element of the culture he had established in these mega-tenements of this future Earth, where procreation is the ultimate goal and having as much sex with whoever one chooses is mandatory. Naturally, for the large majority, it is the teenage men who do the “walking”, while the young women (just girls really, as young as twelve I think) wait in their “sleep platforms” to be constantly interrupted night after night by those just doing their sacred duty (to be raped) 'God Bless...' Yes, to the current age reader, this is a very, actually ultimate, misogynistic book.
I know, I know this novel was published in 1971, and those were different times. Not times that I can recall, mind you, I was only a child having just discovered Sesame Street during this time.
Still, nonetheless, there is a great scifi story in there and I liked it. I. especially liked it when the protagonist left the building to explore the outside world.
I don't normally read, what I believe they once called back in the seventies to be“Blue Books”. I know Robert Silverberg primarily as a scifi writer yet I also know very well that that genre is not exclusive of his oeuvre – I read his, sort of, autobiography / coffee table book “Other Spaces, Other Times: A Life Spent in the Future ”. Other than scifi, Silverberg has written several well acclaimed non-fiction books, mostly histories of ancient civilizations and that he also wrote, and wrote plenty of, though always under a nom-de-plume, erotic pulp paperbacks. Not that there is anything wrong with that, a writer of his skill could probably come up with that stuff in his sleep I suppose, and probably he could churn out first drafts of the stuff in a sitting or two. All perfectly fine. I'm not judging; a writer has got to make a living, and where there are readers... But those novels are not what I choose to read from Silverberg. I like his science fiction stories and this one, “The World Inside” is actually a really great one. I got that the practice of “night walking” was an essential element of the culture he had established in these mega-tenements of this future Earth, where procreation is the ultimate goal and having as much sex with whoever one chooses is mandatory. Naturally, for the large majority, it is the teenage men who do the “walking”, while the young women (just girls really, as young as twelve I think) wait in their “sleep platforms” to be constantly interrupted night after night by those just doing their sacred duty (to be raped) 'God Bless...' Yes, to the current age reader, this is a very, actually ultimate, misogynistic book.
I know, I know this novel was published in 1971, and those were different times. Not times that I can recall, mind you, I was only a child having just discovered Sesame Street during this time.
Still, nonetheless, there is a great scifi story in there and I liked it. I. especially liked it when the protagonist left the building to explore the outside world.
September 22, 2014
-Estilos e intencionalidades de otros tiempos.-
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. En el año 2381, la población terrestre supera los 70.000.000 de personas y se acerca rápidamente a los 100.000.000 individuos y la gran mayoría de ellos (pero no todos) viven y residen en enormes edificios con un millar de plantas, conocidos como monurbs. La Monada Urbana 116 y sus casi 900.000 residentes son una muestra de cómo son las cosas ahora en una sociedad que ha debido adaptarse a nuevas formas de organización y convivencia.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
Género. Ciencia-Ficción.
Lo que nos cuenta. En el año 2381, la población terrestre supera los 70.000.000 de personas y se acerca rápidamente a los 100.000.000 individuos y la gran mayoría de ellos (pero no todos) viven y residen en enormes edificios con un millar de plantas, conocidos como monurbs. La Monada Urbana 116 y sus casi 900.000 residentes son una muestra de cómo son las cosas ahora en una sociedad que ha debido adaptarse a nuevas formas de organización y convivencia.
¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
March 13, 2013
In Robert Silverberg's 1970 novel "Tower of Glass," obsessed business magnate Simeon Krug builds a 1,500-meter-high structure to enable him to communicate with the stars, and since 1,500 meters is roughly equal to 4,500 feet, or more than three Empire State Buildings, the reader is suitably impressed. But the following year, in his novel "The World Inside," Silverberg wrote of a group of buildings that make Krug's structure look like a pip-squeak. This was just one of four major sci-fi novels released by Silverberg in 1971, the others being "The Second Trip," "Son of Man" and "A Time of Changes." "The World Inside" AND "A Time of Changes" were nominated for the Hugo award in 1972, ultimately "losing" to Larry Niven's "Ringworld." ("A Time of Changes" DID go on to win a Nebula award.) This was Silverberg's 45th sci-fi novel since his first, "Revolt on Alpha C," in 1954; his 21st since his more mature and literate "second career" began in 1967.
In the book, which takes place in the year 2381, Earth's population has reached the staggering figure of 75 billion! The bulk of mankind resides in three-kilometer-high (3,000 meters is almost 9,000 feet...twice the height of Krug's tower!), 1,000-story buildings called "urbmons" (short for "urban monads"), each urbmon being but a single unit in a "constellation" of 50 or so, and each containing around 800,000+ people! Urbmon residents spend their entire lives inside their building and never leave it (hence the book's title), their food needs being taken care of by the farming communes nearby. "The World Inside" introduces us to several dozen residents of Urbmon 116 in the Chipitts constellation, which the reader quickly deduces lies in the 400-mile stretch between CHIcago and PITTSburgh. We meet a "sociocomputator" in Chapter 1 who introduces a visitor from Venus--as well as the reader--to the wonders of the urbmon (this first chapter was initially a short story entitled "A Happy Day in 2381"); a young couple that worries about being evicted from 116 and placed into the brand-new Urbmon 158, due to their bad luck of being childless; a young musician from the city of San Francisco (Urbmon 116 is divided into 25 "cities" of 40 floors each); a historian who is obsessed with looking at tapes of the way those savages lived during the 20th century; a young go-getter who will seemingly, someday, attain to the uppermost city of Louisville, home of the urbmon's administrators; and a computer maintenance man who, in perhaps the novel's most exciting segment, goes "flippo," escapes from the building, and explores the outside world....
Although many of Silverberg's works after 1967 featured a hearty leavening of sex, "The World Inside" is absolutely replete with sexual situations, and for good reason. One of the hallmarks of urbmon society happens to be "nightwalking," during which any male can open the door of any apartment and engage in coitus with any adult occupant, no questions asked, be it male or female; even incest is okeydokey in this society...anything to reduce societal friction! So while this is a novel of social, extrapolative science fiction, "The World Inside" also turns out to be a bit of a sexual fantasy, as well. I mean, imagine having sex with anyone you desired! (It seems that the book's title just might have another, more lascivious meaning!) This unlimited sexual access almost makes urbmon life seem like a very desirable thing. And Silverberg, in some typically uberintelligent passages, has his characters discuss the pros and cons of 24th century existence, and the arguments for the vertical, indoor lifestyle almost start to make sense. But ultimately, after no less than three major characters go flippo (one is brainwashed back to "normalcy," one is put to death, another commits suicide), in addition to several others, the reader is left with little doubt on which side the author stands. Though some of the novel's characters defend the urbmon lifestyle, the reader knows better. The book, then, is ultimately a very sad one, almost hauntingly so, and its opening and closing sentences regarding another "happy day" become tinged with bitter irony. We come to care for all the major characters in this book, and Silverberg really allows us inside their heads. How wonderful it is when their paths cross in the humongous building during the course of the novel, a novel that, despite its comparative brevity, succeeds in making many significant points. Reveling in his new freedoms as a writer, Silverberg also rails against both the sexual puritanism of the 20th century and its silly ban on certain words in literature; our historian acquaintance in the novel cannot even believe such taboos ever existed! And neither, it seems, can Silverberg (a writer who penned his own fair share of sex novels in the early to mid-'60s)!
The bottom line, then, is that "The World Inside" is still another superb piece of work from this sci-fi great. It is supremely well written, involving, unputdownable, with a remarkable amount of detail and invention on every page (just get a load of that 24th century concert given by our musician friend's "cosmos group"!). Silverberg's book here is nearly perfect, aside from a very occasional gaffe (such as when he tells us that when our young go-getter was with Louisville's upper echelon, he was "a cherub among the archangels"; since cherubim are much higher in the celestial hierarchy than archangels, shouldn't that be the other way around?). And if I may cough up one more quibble, it would be the dearth of any older characters in this novel; just about everyone we encounter seems to be under 25, and it might have been interesting to see how 24th century urbmon life affects the more senior folk. Still, this remains another stunning accomplishment in Silverberg's 1967-'76 streak. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to open the door of the hot blonde's apartment on the third floor of my building, slide into her bed, and see if she'll have sex with me. What could possibly go wrong?
In the book, which takes place in the year 2381, Earth's population has reached the staggering figure of 75 billion! The bulk of mankind resides in three-kilometer-high (3,000 meters is almost 9,000 feet...twice the height of Krug's tower!), 1,000-story buildings called "urbmons" (short for "urban monads"), each urbmon being but a single unit in a "constellation" of 50 or so, and each containing around 800,000+ people! Urbmon residents spend their entire lives inside their building and never leave it (hence the book's title), their food needs being taken care of by the farming communes nearby. "The World Inside" introduces us to several dozen residents of Urbmon 116 in the Chipitts constellation, which the reader quickly deduces lies in the 400-mile stretch between CHIcago and PITTSburgh. We meet a "sociocomputator" in Chapter 1 who introduces a visitor from Venus--as well as the reader--to the wonders of the urbmon (this first chapter was initially a short story entitled "A Happy Day in 2381"); a young couple that worries about being evicted from 116 and placed into the brand-new Urbmon 158, due to their bad luck of being childless; a young musician from the city of San Francisco (Urbmon 116 is divided into 25 "cities" of 40 floors each); a historian who is obsessed with looking at tapes of the way those savages lived during the 20th century; a young go-getter who will seemingly, someday, attain to the uppermost city of Louisville, home of the urbmon's administrators; and a computer maintenance man who, in perhaps the novel's most exciting segment, goes "flippo," escapes from the building, and explores the outside world....
Although many of Silverberg's works after 1967 featured a hearty leavening of sex, "The World Inside" is absolutely replete with sexual situations, and for good reason. One of the hallmarks of urbmon society happens to be "nightwalking," during which any male can open the door of any apartment and engage in coitus with any adult occupant, no questions asked, be it male or female; even incest is okeydokey in this society...anything to reduce societal friction! So while this is a novel of social, extrapolative science fiction, "The World Inside" also turns out to be a bit of a sexual fantasy, as well. I mean, imagine having sex with anyone you desired! (It seems that the book's title just might have another, more lascivious meaning!) This unlimited sexual access almost makes urbmon life seem like a very desirable thing. And Silverberg, in some typically uberintelligent passages, has his characters discuss the pros and cons of 24th century existence, and the arguments for the vertical, indoor lifestyle almost start to make sense. But ultimately, after no less than three major characters go flippo (one is brainwashed back to "normalcy," one is put to death, another commits suicide), in addition to several others, the reader is left with little doubt on which side the author stands. Though some of the novel's characters defend the urbmon lifestyle, the reader knows better. The book, then, is ultimately a very sad one, almost hauntingly so, and its opening and closing sentences regarding another "happy day" become tinged with bitter irony. We come to care for all the major characters in this book, and Silverberg really allows us inside their heads. How wonderful it is when their paths cross in the humongous building during the course of the novel, a novel that, despite its comparative brevity, succeeds in making many significant points. Reveling in his new freedoms as a writer, Silverberg also rails against both the sexual puritanism of the 20th century and its silly ban on certain words in literature; our historian acquaintance in the novel cannot even believe such taboos ever existed! And neither, it seems, can Silverberg (a writer who penned his own fair share of sex novels in the early to mid-'60s)!
The bottom line, then, is that "The World Inside" is still another superb piece of work from this sci-fi great. It is supremely well written, involving, unputdownable, with a remarkable amount of detail and invention on every page (just get a load of that 24th century concert given by our musician friend's "cosmos group"!). Silverberg's book here is nearly perfect, aside from a very occasional gaffe (such as when he tells us that when our young go-getter was with Louisville's upper echelon, he was "a cherub among the archangels"; since cherubim are much higher in the celestial hierarchy than archangels, shouldn't that be the other way around?). And if I may cough up one more quibble, it would be the dearth of any older characters in this novel; just about everyone we encounter seems to be under 25, and it might have been interesting to see how 24th century urbmon life affects the more senior folk. Still, this remains another stunning accomplishment in Silverberg's 1967-'76 streak. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to open the door of the hot blonde's apartment on the third floor of my building, slide into her bed, and see if she'll have sex with me. What could possibly go wrong?
October 2, 2013
An interesting vision of the future 300 years from now, set in a world somewhat like last year's film DREDD, except here the enormous apartment buildings are models of self-sustainable efficiency, not slums that are riddled with drugs and gangs. Even the way justice is meted out is quite similar to that film, actually.
Although THE WORLD INSIDE story didn't have much in the way of tension or narrative arc, it was a very enjoyable travelogue into a somewhat possible future. The story dipped in and out of the lives of various people, and deftly showed the linkages between the lives of the characters. All in all an enjoyable read, I skimmed through the parts that didn't interest me, dug in when it struck my fancy, and the ending was appropriate and satisfying. Recommended for fans of speculative fiction.
Although THE WORLD INSIDE story didn't have much in the way of tension or narrative arc, it was a very enjoyable travelogue into a somewhat possible future. The story dipped in and out of the lives of various people, and deftly showed the linkages between the lives of the characters. All in all an enjoyable read, I skimmed through the parts that didn't interest me, dug in when it struck my fancy, and the ending was appropriate and satisfying. Recommended for fans of speculative fiction.
April 2, 2016
This really is a gem. Perfection. Though I've had a lot of difficulty finding sci-fi that has been 'sponge-worthy' (Seinfeld), Silverberg has hit the mark -- depth, wonderfully written, character-driven, philosophical, pacing...
January 23, 2025
Un libro ABSOLUTAMENTE INCREÍBLE, ciencia ficción en su máxima esplendor, una verdadera GOZADA: inteligente, creativo, imaginativo, interesante, poético, me lo de-vo-ré y casi lloro cuando se me acabó. Bueno, en realidad sí lloré un poquito, jejeje, pero también por el final. Los últimos capítulos no sólo me tocaron sin que me manosearon el corazón.
Escrito en los años '70, que para mí es de las mejores décadas del género, porque se van con todo a un mundo que tecnológicamente apenas comenzaba a escribirse, aquí también anticipan algunas cosas que después pasan en la vida real, como cómo la población se desequilibra cuando las personas pueden elegir el sexo de sus hijos (recordar China), y a la vez deja interrogantes interesantes sobre si nosotros también llegaremos al punto donde se dejarán sin automatizar labores que sí pueden automatizarse para que la gente siga encontrando sentido en su vida :o y es que los libros de ciencia ficción siempre son un tanto filosóficos.
Lo único que no me gustó es lo asquerosamente machista que es y luego lo de los incestos HUÁCALA. Por eso, lo habría bajado a 4,5.
Pero fue tanto lo que en su totalidad me gustó que no puedo darle menos de 5 :)
Escrito en los años '70, que para mí es de las mejores décadas del género, porque se van con todo a un mundo que tecnológicamente apenas comenzaba a escribirse, aquí también anticipan algunas cosas que después pasan en la vida real, como cómo la población se desequilibra cuando las personas pueden elegir el sexo de sus hijos (recordar China), y a la vez deja interrogantes interesantes sobre si nosotros también llegaremos al punto donde se dejarán sin automatizar labores que sí pueden automatizarse para que la gente siga encontrando sentido en su vida :o y es que los libros de ciencia ficción siempre son un tanto filosóficos.
Lo único que no me gustó es lo asquerosamente machista que es y luego lo de los incestos HUÁCALA. Por eso, lo habría bajado a 4,5.
Pero fue tanto lo que en su totalidad me gustó que no puedo darle menos de 5 :)
September 26, 2018
In this vision of the future Silverberg takes us to year 2381, the overpopulation of earth has been solved by creating Urban Monads, buildings three kilometers high in which populations of about 880,000 thousand people live completely regulated lives without ever going outside. The buildings recycle everything and the people are conditioned from birth to expect and adapt to living closely with other people - lots of other people.
It is a fascinating view of how society could evolve to cope with overpopulation, written in the 1960's - 1970's when sci-fi was very much about exploring social trends into the future. We see the Monad through the eyes of different inhabitants, first the exceptionally well adjusted, model citizen, the creative musician, then the ones that question their world or slowly fall apart unable to cope with their world.
This method of dealing with overpopulation and environmental degradation is a brutal and startling one. It embraces the concept of multiplying the human race, justifies this with a loosely religious framework and then consumes the rest of the world entirely in pursuit of human population growth without check.
This book is one I first read as a teenager and I was awed by it, I then forgot the title and for years I have wanted to re-read it, it is so good to finally do so. On the whole the story stands the test of time and the writing is just as good as it ever way, Silverberg's exploration of humanity is as insightful as ever, though much as I felt last time about the ending..... well, no spoilers. Would love to discuss the ending with someone else who has read it though.
The following may be spoilers for the social exploration of the book, though not of the actual story:
In a few ways however, this story has dated considerably because it is a story from the 60's - 70's, when the sexual revolution was first underway and it explores the sexuality of the future as well as other aspects of population destiny. As it is Sci-Fi, it takes a radical approach to where sexuality might go.
The 60's and 70's were about exploring permissiveness, non-monogamous relationships, emancipation of women from being the 'possession' of their husbands and open sexuality. However despite this exploration, their era was still essentially conservative, largely male dominated, very misogynistic and thank goodness we have advanced since then.
Now, in my opinion, those two aspects of the era in which this book was written (sexual exploration and old fashioned conservatism) combine to make some attitudes in this book difficult for a modern person. We hear that no person in the Urban Monad can deny themselves to anyone who wants them, but in essence, what we observe is that the women are unable to deny themselves to anyone who wants them. An example being the way in which the practice of 'nightwalking' is conducted. This was probably written in the spirit of sexual liberation, but to a modern day person it comes across very differently; the woman stays home and 'receives' any man that comes to her, while the man can go and choose whoever he likes. Also, women are definitely not equal citizens in this society in so very many ways.
So, in addition to being a very enjoyable sci-fi story, an overdue blast from the past and a fascinating read in its own right, this book can be seen as an excellent example of how far as a society we have come in terms of equality since the (relatively recent) era in which this novel was written.
It is a fascinating view of how society could evolve to cope with overpopulation, written in the 1960's - 1970's when sci-fi was very much about exploring social trends into the future. We see the Monad through the eyes of different inhabitants, first the exceptionally well adjusted, model citizen, the creative musician, then the ones that question their world or slowly fall apart unable to cope with their world.
This method of dealing with overpopulation and environmental degradation is a brutal and startling one. It embraces the concept of multiplying the human race, justifies this with a loosely religious framework and then consumes the rest of the world entirely in pursuit of human population growth without check.
This book is one I first read as a teenager and I was awed by it, I then forgot the title and for years I have wanted to re-read it, it is so good to finally do so. On the whole the story stands the test of time and the writing is just as good as it ever way, Silverberg's exploration of humanity is as insightful as ever, though much as I felt last time about the ending..... well, no spoilers. Would love to discuss the ending with someone else who has read it though.
The following may be spoilers for the social exploration of the book, though not of the actual story:
In a few ways however, this story has dated considerably because it is a story from the 60's - 70's, when the sexual revolution was first underway and it explores the sexuality of the future as well as other aspects of population destiny. As it is Sci-Fi, it takes a radical approach to where sexuality might go.
The 60's and 70's were about exploring permissiveness, non-monogamous relationships, emancipation of women from being the 'possession' of their husbands and open sexuality. However despite this exploration, their era was still essentially conservative, largely male dominated, very misogynistic and thank goodness we have advanced since then.
Now, in my opinion, those two aspects of the era in which this book was written (sexual exploration and old fashioned conservatism) combine to make some attitudes in this book difficult for a modern person. We hear that no person in the Urban Monad can deny themselves to anyone who wants them, but in essence, what we observe is that the women are unable to deny themselves to anyone who wants them. An example being the way in which the practice of 'nightwalking' is conducted. This was probably written in the spirit of sexual liberation, but to a modern day person it comes across very differently; the woman stays home and 'receives' any man that comes to her, while the man can go and choose whoever he likes. Also, women are definitely not equal citizens in this society in so very many ways.
So, in addition to being a very enjoyable sci-fi story, an overdue blast from the past and a fascinating read in its own right, this book can be seen as an excellent example of how far as a society we have come in terms of equality since the (relatively recent) era in which this novel was written.
October 12, 2014
The concept of The World Inside is a compelling and portentous omen of overpopulation and globalization, one that seems incredibly prescient and continually applicable. Silverberg does a great job of describing the complexities of a society that lives within a single tower, and the tensions that extend to the individual in such a situation. He crafts a diverse world of politicians, scholars, engineers, and wives, and grapples with the new terrors and delights that evolve alongside societal change. This world is written well, seeming wholly appropriate and perhaps even enviable in the midst of our myriad crises, and there is no blatant suspense or scheming that so often weighs down dystopian novels with a bassline of something obviously malfeasant. That is, there is no dark heart of the urbmon, no foreshadowing of terrible secrets, no horrible premonitions, something perfected in novels like 1984 or Brave New World that is bungled continuously. Instead, the dread is unknown, it is a nostalgia that permeates the book, akin to our conservative longings for the jazz age, for the wide open country, anglophilia, etc, but abstracted and stretched out into an unknowable languor. For they do not know what it is they have lost.
Hence my fascination for the book, in its initial few chapters, and hence my disappointment when the book turned out the way it did. I don't think that the vignette style Silverberg used is inherently wrong or inappropriate, it's just that the ties between people and stories seem wispy, the continuity nonexistent, the flow of the book as a whole stuttered and slurred.
Secondly, the erotic fantasies of the book seem more like a ploy for grasping attention than any coherent progression of human sexuality in a post-geographic world. It is eroticism for the reader, not for its own sake. He focuses almost exclusively on the male perspective of the 'nightwalking' phenomenom, where men roam the halls and have sex with someone else's wife to reduce stress. It is forbidden to reject a man's advances, and all the women in the book are presented as lusty wenches, ready to fuck at the first glance. Silverberg relishes in the adolescent fantasy rather than the terror it invokes, and this I think is the book's principal failure, that despite his ability to shift perspective and view, he can only do so within a patriarchal and fetishizing framework where the wonderous universe he has created becomes a semen-filled sandbox for his wet dreams.
Hence my fascination for the book, in its initial few chapters, and hence my disappointment when the book turned out the way it did. I don't think that the vignette style Silverberg used is inherently wrong or inappropriate, it's just that the ties between people and stories seem wispy, the continuity nonexistent, the flow of the book as a whole stuttered and slurred.
Secondly, the erotic fantasies of the book seem more like a ploy for grasping attention than any coherent progression of human sexuality in a post-geographic world. It is eroticism for the reader, not for its own sake. He focuses almost exclusively on the male perspective of the 'nightwalking' phenomenom, where men roam the halls and have sex with someone else's wife to reduce stress. It is forbidden to reject a man's advances, and all the women in the book are presented as lusty wenches, ready to fuck at the first glance. Silverberg relishes in the adolescent fantasy rather than the terror it invokes, and this I think is the book's principal failure, that despite his ability to shift perspective and view, he can only do so within a patriarchal and fetishizing framework where the wonderous universe he has created becomes a semen-filled sandbox for his wet dreams.
February 13, 2022
This was very original, and surprising. At moments weird and shocking but that's good sci-fi.
I read it in one sitting because I could not put it down.
If you liked Brave New World, give this a try.
I read it in one sitting because I could not put it down.
If you liked Brave New World, give this a try.
May 9, 2016
Silverberg posits a future world where people live in enormously tall buildings so that the rest of the planet can be used to grow food. People with the least important jobs live in communities on the lowest floors while the leaders live at the top. Procreation is the most important priority, and people go nightwalking (where they are welcome to bed whom they want although it is expected that you stay local.) Flippos are the ones who freak, and are thinned from society. We meet a few characters living on the edge. Concept better than execution.
December 29, 2011
R Silverberg's "THE WORLD INSIDE" is
about the giant apartment communistic/yet caste ridden
complex (the floors are divided up according to job
'importance). Reading this I thought this is the straight bullet shot to the future. Population goes flippo so the powers that
be make a huge ass 1000 floor apt. complex where
everyone is supposed to just keep on poppin' pills and
out-slotting babies while holding down comfy jobs. Sex is free
with anyone, the apts. are always unlocked for the
'nightwalking' sexplorer. The jargon in this book is really
infectuous and carries the story for a quick read. A
rambunctious psychedelic "Brave New World" in that it holds up
if you turn the structure upside down and kick it,
nothing shakes free. A solid read with believable culture of the weird. The monuments of the world are
ground up after being well documented for home viewing
so no one needs to go outside. If you flip out you
get shoved into the chute/furnace. All the characters
have some kind of beef with the system of the apts,
and one guy in particular goes AWOL checking out the
communes on the outside who have gone back to a
ritualistic primitive harvest society. There's a rock star
guy who plays 3D planet vibrations for the grubbo
blue collars, a horny 14 year old who is trying to
impress everyone, sleeping with anything he can, helping
to advance his ladder climbing in the bureaucracy of
the apts. I can't say enough stuff about this book,
it's a real treat to discover something like this, I
could see why Silverberg gave up SF in the 70's when
stuff like this gets pushed under the rug, never heard
of this gold inspired spire before.
Originally posted on Brutalsfx group.
about the giant apartment communistic/yet caste ridden
complex (the floors are divided up according to job
'importance). Reading this I thought this is the straight bullet shot to the future. Population goes flippo so the powers that
be make a huge ass 1000 floor apt. complex where
everyone is supposed to just keep on poppin' pills and
out-slotting babies while holding down comfy jobs. Sex is free
with anyone, the apts. are always unlocked for the
'nightwalking' sexplorer. The jargon in this book is really
infectuous and carries the story for a quick read. A
rambunctious psychedelic "Brave New World" in that it holds up
if you turn the structure upside down and kick it,
nothing shakes free. A solid read with believable culture of the weird. The monuments of the world are
ground up after being well documented for home viewing
so no one needs to go outside. If you flip out you
get shoved into the chute/furnace. All the characters
have some kind of beef with the system of the apts,
and one guy in particular goes AWOL checking out the
communes on the outside who have gone back to a
ritualistic primitive harvest society. There's a rock star
guy who plays 3D planet vibrations for the grubbo
blue collars, a horny 14 year old who is trying to
impress everyone, sleeping with anything he can, helping
to advance his ladder climbing in the bureaucracy of
the apts. I can't say enough stuff about this book,
it's a real treat to discover something like this, I
could see why Silverberg gave up SF in the 70's when
stuff like this gets pushed under the rug, never heard
of this gold inspired spire before.
Originally posted on Brutalsfx group.
February 17, 2011
Here's something you don't see much of any more - Social Science Fiction. The World Inside is a product of the era that also gave us Logan's Run and THX-1138, and is something of the same ilk. Several centuries into the future, the human race has moved into giant monolithic city-buildings called "urbmons" that each house almost a million people. Society has made some rather extreme adaptations to living in such close confinement: every freedom is supressed except for one - sex - and on sex, the only restriction is that no one is allowed to say "no."
Silverberg posits an interesting situation and commits to it, exploring as many consequences of his idea as he can come up with. The book is structured into seven chapters that act as inter-connecting short stories, each focusing on a different inhabitant of Urbmon 116. It lacks a traditional plot structure, but Silverberg is going for the "literary" here, and it mostly works. The World Inside is a book that keeps you thinking.
As intriguing a vision of the future it presents, The World Inside is very much a product of its time. Published in 1971, it straddles the psychedelic '60s and the swinging '70s in a lot of its attitudes. So far as I can tell, there are no non-Euro-American characters, and while there's an awful lot of sex, women are relegated to a passive, domestic role with essentially no power. Whether those were deliberate choices by the author or just a 1960's blind spot, it's hard to say.
Silverberg posits an interesting situation and commits to it, exploring as many consequences of his idea as he can come up with. The book is structured into seven chapters that act as inter-connecting short stories, each focusing on a different inhabitant of Urbmon 116. It lacks a traditional plot structure, but Silverberg is going for the "literary" here, and it mostly works. The World Inside is a book that keeps you thinking.
As intriguing a vision of the future it presents, The World Inside is very much a product of its time. Published in 1971, it straddles the psychedelic '60s and the swinging '70s in a lot of its attitudes. So far as I can tell, there are no non-Euro-American characters, and while there's an awful lot of sex, women are relegated to a passive, domestic role with essentially no power. Whether those were deliberate choices by the author or just a 1960's blind spot, it's hard to say.
September 29, 2017
Robert Silverberg does enjoy his sexual fantasies. I've only read a few of his books and this is something that's becoming quite obvious. And that's ok. Makes for fun reading, I say.
Having said that, I can't imagine one woman buying into this one.
A society where men (and women, too) are free to demand sex from anyone they choose, married or not, of age or not, and not only is this acceptable, but to deny anyone their pleasure is deemed to be treasonish and it's down the chute to combustion with you.
The women in this novel don't seem to have much issue with this, wecoming middle of the night visitors with open legs and instantly horny. OK, fine.
Despite that, this is a pretty good story (or, rather, what was originally a few short stories expanded into a novel). It's a good study on a society based on these gigantic towers, and then some. Really, a neat take on population explosion, which was certainly a buzzword when this was written.
I do have a gripe that may make me seem small town, or small country.
Silverberg had named floors and districts after original Earth cities. There are names coming from the US, Europe, Asia, heck even Iceland.
NOT ONE CANADIAN CITY???? Really?
Bah!
3 stars for an OK read.
Having said that, I can't imagine one woman buying into this one.
A society where men (and women, too) are free to demand sex from anyone they choose, married or not, of age or not, and not only is this acceptable, but to deny anyone their pleasure is deemed to be treasonish and it's down the chute to combustion with you.
The women in this novel don't seem to have much issue with this, wecoming middle of the night visitors with open legs and instantly horny. OK, fine.
Despite that, this is a pretty good story (or, rather, what was originally a few short stories expanded into a novel). It's a good study on a society based on these gigantic towers, and then some. Really, a neat take on population explosion, which was certainly a buzzword when this was written.
I do have a gripe that may make me seem small town, or small country.
Silverberg had named floors and districts after original Earth cities. There are names coming from the US, Europe, Asia, heck even Iceland.
NOT ONE CANADIAN CITY???? Really?
Bah!
3 stars for an OK read.
July 25, 2020
Ουτοπικό ή δυστοπικό; Εφιαλτική πρόβλεψη για ένα ζοφερό μέλλον ή το όραμα μιας αρμονικής κοινωνίας; Γραμμένο πριν 50 χρόνια, σε μια εποχή όπου η σεξουαλική απελευθέρωση κυριαρχούσε, η ψυχεδελική μουσική και τα παραισθησιογόνα ήταν κοινός τόπος, ο Σιλβερμπεργκ φτιάχνει ένα αφήγημα που προβληματίζει βαθιά. Η κάθετη επέκταση, η παλιά πρόταση των πολεοδόμων έχει υλοποιηθεί και το πρόβλημα του υπερπληθυσμού φαίνεται ότι έχει λυθεί.
Από τις θρυλικές εκδόσεις Παραπέντε, στη σειρά In Orbit, στις προσφορές της Πολιτείας με 2 ευρώ! Πού είναι το κοινό της ΕΦ;;;;;
Από τις θρυλικές εκδόσεις Παραπέντε, στη σειρά In Orbit, στις προσφορές της Πολιτείας με 2 ευρώ! Πού είναι το κοινό της ΕΦ;;;;;
August 10, 2025
El libro es un fix-up elaborado a partir relatos publicados en distintas revistas de ciencia ficción. Aunque los relatos son autoconclusivos, los personajes de los mismos son recurrentes, de forma que el protagonista de uno es un personaje secundario en otros, de forma que sus historias se entretejen un una obra coral.
A finales del s. XXIV la mayoría de la humanidad vive en colosales arcologías de mil plantas y tres kilómetros de altura que albergan más de ochocientas mil personas cada una. A su alrededor se extienden inconmensurables extensiones de tierra agrícola en la que cultivar las ingentes cantidades de comida que consumen sus habitantes. Agrupadas en "constelaciones" a lo largo de todo el mundo, estos edificios suman una población mundial de más de setenta y cinco mil millones de personas…
… y subiendo, pues no existe ninguna limitación a la natalidad; más bien al contrario: la sociedad de las arcologías está dirigida por unos principios religiosos que incentivan la procreacion. Con el fin de reducir los roces y la frustración y evitar los impulsos agresivos, la libertad sexual es absoluta y, de hecho, el sexo es uno de los aspectos más importantes de la sociedad, con frecuentes intercambios y rondas nocturnas sin ningún tipo de limitación.
Aunque debió ser un libro transgresor en 1971, con gran profusión de escenas de sexo explícito, se trata de una obra de su tiempo que no ha envejecido bien.
[+] Reseña completa en Alt+64 wiki: https://alt64.org/wiki/index.php?titl...
A finales del s. XXIV la mayoría de la humanidad vive en colosales arcologías de mil plantas y tres kilómetros de altura que albergan más de ochocientas mil personas cada una. A su alrededor se extienden inconmensurables extensiones de tierra agrícola en la que cultivar las ingentes cantidades de comida que consumen sus habitantes. Agrupadas en "constelaciones" a lo largo de todo el mundo, estos edificios suman una población mundial de más de setenta y cinco mil millones de personas…
… y subiendo, pues no existe ninguna limitación a la natalidad; más bien al contrario: la sociedad de las arcologías está dirigida por unos principios religiosos que incentivan la procreacion. Con el fin de reducir los roces y la frustración y evitar los impulsos agresivos, la libertad sexual es absoluta y, de hecho, el sexo es uno de los aspectos más importantes de la sociedad, con frecuentes intercambios y rondas nocturnas sin ningún tipo de limitación.
Aunque debió ser un libro transgresor en 1971, con gran profusión de escenas de sexo explícito, se trata de una obra de su tiempo que no ha envejecido bien.
[+] Reseña completa en Alt+64 wiki: https://alt64.org/wiki/index.php?titl...
April 14, 2015
Oh I bet this one has been a firecracker at many a book club meeting.The World Inside began life as a short story (chapter one) in 1970. But it proved to be such a fertile idea that a year later five more stories were added to expand and more fully explore the world inside Urban Monad 116. Each story is from the point of view of a different character though they all interlink with each other to give a wider view of life in Silverberg's vertical monoliths; a narrative microcosm I suppose. The Urbmons are huge sky-scraping towers housing over 800,000 people. Society is rigorously regulated and procreation is celebrated and venerated. People are controlled by limitless sex, fear of being fed down the garbage chute, sex, religion, indoctrination, drugs and sex. Over population is another issue that has been visited often by Science Fiction writers; Harry Harrison's "Make Room! Make Room!" (the basis for the movie "Soylent Green") springs readily to mind as does tv episodes like Star Trek's "Mark of Gideon". Silverberg chooses to delve deep into the psychological effects of living with high population density and the social mores and laws; the inside of people's heads being another "World inside". Although it's not always an easy or pleasant reading experience there is much here to think about. Most of the main characters highlight the flaws and cracks of the society by getting as close to their psychological make up as it is possible to get. Though in terms of insight into the state of humanity with its propensity with enslaving itself with desire and triviality, comparisons to Orwell's 1984 or especially with Huxley's Brave New World is apposite and probably where the concept of "slavery of absolute freedom" comes from. Comparisons with today's society with its Twitter, unlimited porn, on demand tv....etc are frighteningly easy. The range of ideas is pretty rich. I was particularly fascinated by how comparative ethics was taken to extremes of separation via first a human visitor from Venus and later a 24th century historian examining the 20th century through its films and literature. And here I sit passing judgement on literature from a previous century that speculates on a century yet to come.
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