Quan 1

Bree Quan

Jason Bourget

ENGL-1106-10

July 28, 2016

Surveillance

In the novels Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow and The Concrete

Jungle by Charles Stross there is the existence of mass surveillance in the world. The

protagonists of the stories, Julius and Bob Howard, have different feelings towards the

surveillance. Julius is a veteran among his colleagues being around 100 years old. He was part of

the Whuffie revolution that eradicated money and death. At Disney world, Julius seems to not

give a second thought to the constant surveillance because of some of his actions along with

other events that happen in the book. On the other hand, Bob Howard is much more aware and

fearful of the surveillance because SCORPION STARE is infiltrated into the cameras and could

potentially be killed. The mass surveillance in both novels influence the characters and their

behaviour. The constant awareness of being watched by someone or something is in their

conscious and makes the characters commit unreasonably bizarre acts.

Julius was murdered by his best friend Dan, is simply brought back to life and is able to

see his death. This fiasco has turned Julius stir crazy for revenge and assumes the culprit is

another colleague, Debra. For example, when he damaged Debras work in the Hall of Presidents

I did one more pass, wrecking anything that looked like it might be a prototype for the next

generation or notes that would help them reconstruct the units Id smashed. Of course, I got

caught. (50). Julius knew that he would have been caught but committed the acts anyway. The

mix of Whuffie, immortality and surveillance has caused the world Julius lives in a bad case of

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boredom. A long time ago the ad-hocs took over Disney world and made cast members between

rides compete with one another in order to get more Whuffie. This added to the bizarre

behaviour. Extreme boredom with very low stakes, drugs are also no longer illegal. Juliuss

girlfriend, Lil, smokes crack and Julius has an unlimited amount of mood-suppressants when his

implant is not working. When Dan first contacts Julius, Lil smokes her crack while Julius talks to

Dan. Lil, Ive got to take this. Do you mind? Oh, no, not at all, she sarcased at me. She sat

up and pulled out her crack pipe and lit up. (11). The law is irrelevant in a world without money

and death which means mass surveillance controls the stakes with Whuffie. Doctorow explains it

through Julius Us oldsters who predate Whuffie know that its important; but to the kids, its the

world. (12). Just like money in our world, hitting rock bottom is a terrible experience and a

solution people contemplate is suicide or in the novel deadheading can be another choice. Dan

hits rock bottom with Whuffie and comes to Julius for help. So deadhead for a few centuries, I

said. Put the decision off. No! he shouted, startling both of us. Im done. Its over. (12).

Living in a world with someone or something consistently watching puts a lot of pressure on the

need to succeed. In order to succeed one must have a high amount of Whuffie. Dan, has a very

low amount of Whuffie, wants to end his life completely with a lethal injection. This is a serious

issue, especially in a world of immortality and goes to speak that mass surveillance causes

people to do unreasonable things.

In Charles Strosss book The Concrete Jungle the stakes with mass surveillance are much

different. Bob Howard is an employee of The Laundry and discovers SCORPION STARE has

been hacked by GAME ANDES REDSHIFT. This means that every CCTV camera has the

capability to evolve into an alien laser beam and turn you into concrete.

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How many traffic cameras overlooked the roundabout? Angleton asks almost casually.

Oh I sit down hard. Oh shit. Shit. I feel shaky, very shaky, guts doing the tango

and icy chills running down the small of my back as I realise what he's trying to

tell me without saying it out loud, on the record.

That's why I sent you, he murmurs, waving Andy out of the room on some prearranged

errand. A moment later Boris follows him. You're not supposed to get yourself

killed, Bob. It looks bad on your record.

Oh shit, I repeat, needle stuck, sample echoing, as I realise how close to dying I may

have been. And the crew of that chopper, and everyone else who's been there

since.

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Works Cited

Doctorow, Cory. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. New York: Tor, 2003. Print.

[http://craphound.com/down/download/]

Stross, Charles. The Concrete Jungle. The Atrocity Archives. 2004. New York: Ace,

2008. Ebook.

[http://www.goldengryphon.com/Stross-Concrete.html]