Alternative Worlds
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Harm
Brian W. Aldiss
Del Rey, June 2007, $21.95, 224 pp.
ISBN: 034549671X
In the not too distant future, the civil rights of a person are suspended if they are suspected of being a terrorist or have anything to do with them. Paul, a Muslim who is a second generation British citizen who has been arrested by HARM (Hostile Activities Research Ministry) and is addressed as Prisoner B. He was incarcerated for writing a book satirical in nature aand in it there was a page about the prime minister getting assassinated. He is tortured, not allowed to make a phone call, not have a lawyer, and contact with the outside world is forbidden.
To escape the pain and fear, he crosses in his mind a planet called Stygia. His hallucination is very intricately detailed; an example being that the colonists have had their DNA and brain functions insertedin life process reservoirs and they are back put together on the desert planet. His illusion is better than his present reality as he swings between both worlds between of torture. Afraid he will never leave his prison, Paul falls deeper and deeper in his mind constructed delusion.
Readers of Fahrenheit 411, 1984 and A Brave New World will find HARM just as thought provoking and emotionally disturbing because it touches a nerve that people will rather ignore at a time when rendition is okay and habeas corpus is not. Following 9/11 the west has looked at the Muslim community with disdain, fear and hostility although the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists. Brian W. Aldiss writes a stunning indictment against President Bush’s “war on terror” and the extremes to which he has taken it including abolishing some of the freedoms we have taken for granted.
Brian W. Aldiss
Del Rey, June 2007, $21.95, 224 pp.
ISBN: 034549671X
In the not too distant future, the civil rights of a person are suspended if they are suspected of being a terrorist or have anything to do with them. Paul, a Muslim who is a second generation British citizen who has been arrested by HARM (Hostile Activities Research Ministry) and is addressed as Prisoner B. He was incarcerated for writing a book satirical in nature aand in it there was a page about the prime minister getting assassinated. He is tortured, not allowed to make a phone call, not have a lawyer, and contact with the outside world is forbidden.
To escape the pain and fear, he crosses in his mind a planet called Stygia. His hallucination is very intricately detailed; an example being that the colonists have had their DNA and brain functions insertedin life process reservoirs and they are back put together on the desert planet. His illusion is better than his present reality as he swings between both worlds between of torture. Afraid he will never leave his prison, Paul falls deeper and deeper in his mind constructed delusion.
Readers of Fahrenheit 411, 1984 and A Brave New World will find HARM just as thought provoking and emotionally disturbing because it touches a nerve that people will rather ignore at a time when rendition is okay and habeas corpus is not. Following 9/11 the west has looked at the Muslim community with disdain, fear and hostility although the vast majority of Muslims are not terrorists. Brian W. Aldiss writes a stunning indictment against President Bush’s “war on terror” and the extremes to which he has taken it including abolishing some of the freedoms we have taken for granted.
