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The Things that Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away
Novelette. A monk belonging to a sysadmin order tracks "An Anomaly" in the real world.
http://www.tor.com/stories/2008/08/we...
http://www.tor.com/stories/2008/08/we...
35 pages, ebook
First published August 6, 2008
3 people are currently reading
202 people want to read
About the author
Cory Doctorow
257 books5,994 followersCory Doctorow is a science fiction author, activist, journalist and blogger — the co-editor of Boing Boing and the author of the YA graphic novel In Real Life, the nonfiction business book Information Doesn’t Want To Be Free, and young adult novels like Homeland, Pirate Cinema, and
Little Brother
and novels for adults like
Rapture Of The Nerds
and Makers. He is a Fellow for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and co-founded the UK Open Rights Group. Born in Toronto, Canada, he now lives in Los Angeles.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
December 16, 2022
As a short novella, I really wanted it to be a full-length novel, or even a series. It has the right feel to it.
As it is on its own, it's a pretty decent autism(ish) MC in a totally big-brother world who acts as an unconventional PI who is able to hunt down needle-like anomalies in a mountain of rubbish who GOES OUTSIDE TO TRACK SHIT DOWN. :)
I think it's pretty charming in a way. It also requires a certain specific mindset to enjoy it. I did, of course, and think it would have been great in long-form. It's a mystery that reminds me a lot of Lisbeth Salander. :)
As it is on its own, it's a pretty decent autism(ish) MC in a totally big-brother world who acts as an unconventional PI who is able to hunt down needle-like anomalies in a mountain of rubbish who GOES OUTSIDE TO TRACK SHIT DOWN. :)
I think it's pretty charming in a way. It also requires a certain specific mindset to enjoy it. I did, of course, and think it would have been great in long-form. It's a mystery that reminds me a lot of Lisbeth Salander. :)
December 5, 2020
I really enjoyed this! It's definitely the longest thing I have read on Tor.com but it would make a great novel.
The beginning was a little hard to follow but then the narrative starts to flow better once there is some dialogue to break it apart. I really identified with the MC, Lawrence - a socially awkward agoraphobe who feels like an outsider unless there is some kind of structure to adhere to.
Too bad this idea will never be revisited any time soon!
The beginning was a little hard to follow but then the narrative starts to flow better once there is some dialogue to break it apart. I really identified with the MC, Lawrence - a socially awkward agoraphobe who feels like an outsider unless there is some kind of structure to adhere to.
Too bad this idea will never be revisited any time soon!
Read
December 14, 2019This story has really stuck with me, first from listening to Cory read instalments on his podcast, to my own reading of it later on, which really cemented those visuals into longterm memory. It’s up there with classics like Harrison Bergeron, or The Marching Morons as tales that seem eerily prescient, even if the specific details don’t age that well. The underlying nature of how cultures maintain their stability and power structures is one that each of us spends a lifetime figuring out, and seeing this learning happening in a different, subtly more advanced culture at time of writing is certainly an eye-opener to people who look to what’s coming. It’s certainly a story for the times. And well worth the few hours it will take you to read it.
January 16, 2017
Este vorba despre o nuvela de pe site-ul celor de la Tor, scrisa de nimeni altul decat controversatul Cory Doctorow, militant infocat pentru “abolirea” legilor de copyright , considerand el, ca se va asigura, astfel, atat de necesara, libera circulatie a informatiei digitale.
Ca sa-i amintesc cateva din realizarile de pina acum: in 2000 a castigat premiul “John W. Campbell Award” pentru cel mai bun Debut, Premiul Locus pentru “Cea mai buna nuvela de debut” si anume, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” in 2003, si premiul “Sunburst” pentru “Cea mai buna carte sci-fi canadiana”, cu ” A Place So Foreign and Eight More” in 2004.(se pare ca azi ne tot lovim de canadieni
Ca sa-i amintesc cateva din realizarile de pina acum: in 2000 a castigat premiul “John W. Campbell Award” pentru cel mai bun Debut, Premiul Locus pentru “Cea mai buna nuvela de debut” si anume, “Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom” in 2003, si premiul “Sunburst” pentru “Cea mai buna carte sci-fi canadiana”, cu ” A Place So Foreign and Eight More” in 2004.(se pare ca azi ne tot lovim de canadieni
April 4, 2019
Another nice short story by Cory Doctorow. Based on the near future, the not-so-good use of the technology makes nowadays privacy and security issues go really bad.
I love the way the author takes the reader into the plot, as if she already knew everything about that universe: no need to give any explanation about the way things are, so the reader feels weirdly at home.
On the other hand, the story left on me a feeling of incompleteness or maybe I just didn't understand the end...
Recommendable.
I love the way the author takes the reader into the plot, as if she already knew everything about that universe: no need to give any explanation about the way things are, so the reader feels weirdly at home.
On the other hand, the story left on me a feeling of incompleteness or maybe I just didn't understand the end...
Recommendable.
July 2, 2018
This story is about a monk, who works for The Order of Relfective Analytics, who leaves his community to track down another monk who disappeared. In this particular society the authoritarian government surveillance is all-encompassing. Everyone is already and suspect and is necessarily guilty. The storytelling was quite good but I found the characters rather bland.
September 21, 2017
This is the book that really got me started on Monk Punk many years ago, so it was fun to go back and reread it quickly today. It's a great & quick 25 page novella with monks, a shady subplot, notions of consent, and biofeedback. What's not to like?
June 23, 2022
Not as good as I remember. Doctorow's cast doesn't have much variety. Good enough on the compelling story side of things.
July 23, 2024
In anthology: Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories by editor John Joseph Adams, published in 2012. This anthology is highly recommended.
August 17, 2024
I had to read the story for an English class called dystopia but I thoroughly enjoyed it
September 6, 2013
The story opens with an 3-line epigraph quoting the story's quirky namesake, a song called "The Future Soon" by Jonathan Coulton (of Portal and Code Monkeys fame), so I loved that.
"Things that...Get Engineered Away" follows the story of Lawerence Lester (or Lester Lawerence, alliteration plays tricks on the mind), a thirty-seven year old "monk" who work for "The Order of Relfective Analytics. After sixteen years Lester is forced to leave the Order's compound and venture out into the surrounding city (New York) to investigate an "Anomaly", suspicious irregularities in the Order's incoming/outgoing data that are indicative of illicit behavior. If Lester can find and resolve this Anomaly, he will be promoted through the Order's ranks, something that he desperately wants.
The presence of "The Order" in this story reminds me a lot of the premise of Neal Stephenson's Anathem, as it's about a cloistered monastic order of number-crunchers and coders nestled within the bureaucracy of a totalitarian police state ominously known only as "The Securitat". There's a point later on in the story that felt reminiscent of the Justice League Unlimited story "Task Force X". A really engrossing piece of sci-fi detective fiction, I was hooked on reading it from the first paragraph,
"Lawrence’s cubicle was just the right place to chew on a thorny logfile problem: decorated with the votive fetishes of his monastic order, a thousand calming, clarifying mandalas and saints devoted to helping him think clearly."
I can't wait to read more from Cory Doctorow. This story was definitely a good first impression!
"Things that...Get Engineered Away" follows the story of Lawerence Lester (or Lester Lawerence, alliteration plays tricks on the mind), a thirty-seven year old "monk" who work for "The Order of Relfective Analytics. After sixteen years Lester is forced to leave the Order's compound and venture out into the surrounding city (New York) to investigate an "Anomaly", suspicious irregularities in the Order's incoming/outgoing data that are indicative of illicit behavior. If Lester can find and resolve this Anomaly, he will be promoted through the Order's ranks, something that he desperately wants.
The presence of "The Order" in this story reminds me a lot of the premise of Neal Stephenson's Anathem, as it's about a cloistered monastic order of number-crunchers and coders nestled within the bureaucracy of a totalitarian police state ominously known only as "The Securitat". There's a point later on in the story that felt reminiscent of the Justice League Unlimited story "Task Force X". A really engrossing piece of sci-fi detective fiction, I was hooked on reading it from the first paragraph,
"Lawrence’s cubicle was just the right place to chew on a thorny logfile problem: decorated with the votive fetishes of his monastic order, a thousand calming, clarifying mandalas and saints devoted to helping him think clearly."
I can't wait to read more from Cory Doctorow. This story was definitely a good first impression!
March 15, 2025
Excellent story. This should really be made into a film.
Think: equal parts Brazil, 1984, Anathem and 9/11 The Road To Tyranny
Probably wouldn't make as much sense to someone who hasn't worked a lot with logfiles / IT.
And very...relevant to read this week.
It's been awhile, but I seemed to catch a whiff of the cult of information going on here.
Think: equal parts Brazil, 1984, Anathem and 9/11 The Road To Tyranny
Probably wouldn't make as much sense to someone who hasn't worked a lot with logfiles / IT.
And very...relevant to read this week.
It's been awhile, but I seemed to catch a whiff of the cult of information going on here.
August 17, 2017
This book predicts an authoritarian future government for the United States (I think the last science fiction book that didn't predict an authoritarian future government for the United States was "Ecotopia" in 1975.)
Into this mess walks a cyber-monk from Staten Island. He, like many of his order, has turned his back on the world, and dedicated himself to a monastic, quantified life, devoted to data processing. An anomaly in a single account sends him back into Manhattan, where he's clearly not used to life as it is now...
Into this mess walks a cyber-monk from Staten Island. He, like many of his order, has turned his back on the world, and dedicated himself to a monastic, quantified life, devoted to data processing. An anomaly in a single account sends him back into Manhattan, where he's clearly not used to life as it is now...
August 8, 2015
Near-future scifi about a plausible surveillance state in New York City and a monk from data analysis order who stumbles into the middle of a conspiracy. It's uncomfortably plausible.
The Order itself and the main character I quite liked. The setting is creative and believable. The plot has some rough bits, including a fairly major plot hole that I'm kind of surprised that an editor didn't catch. Still, it's definitely worth a read and the somewhat ambiguous ending is fun.
The Order itself and the main character I quite liked. The setting is creative and believable. The plot has some rough bits, including a fairly major plot hole that I'm kind of surprised that an editor didn't catch. Still, it's definitely worth a read and the somewhat ambiguous ending is fun.
April 4, 2018
This just wasn't my style. I finished it because 35 pages isn't a lot, but the start bored me and then when the plot finally started to pick up the resolution came and I didn't like that - bummer. Overall pretty standard Big Brother is watching dystopian near future vibes going on.
June 22, 2012
Enjoyable short story.
August 29, 2012
Doctorow likes to get tied up in details, which sometimes distracts from his stories.
June 2, 2020
Thoughtful story about a world of constant surveillance and analysis
February 11, 2013
Cool variation on the citizen-runs-afowl-of-Big-Brother tale. Doctorow is really good.
November 8, 2017
A short-story that reminds me of 1984 - but somehow in the future. One of those books that I'm gonna have to think about for a bit to decide how I feel. An easy read with a few bumps in the the flow that had me going back and re-reading parts to make sure I was understanding things. Doctorow's books have all been interesting, at least, and this one is no different.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews