By Bryan Zepp Jamieson
Electric Review
As part of their “Outspoken Authors” series, PM Press brings the first SF author to be an Internet Legend. Cory Doctorow disdains conventional publishing and goes the route of Creative Commons.
In Great Big Beautiful, he describes an immortal in a krapnatz post-apocalyptic world who is in an unappealing situation; perpetually on the cusp of puberty, with two pubic hairs to call his own, the protagonist is trapped with the mind and body of a boy who has spent decades beginning to notice girls but doesn’t know why he is noticing. In an ironic counterpoint, he has stewardship of an animatronic carousel from the 1965 New York World’s Fair and late of Epcot Center that pays endless and unchanging homage to progress.
Along with the novella, the book also has a striking essay, ”Creativity vs. Copyright” about how the Digital Management Rights Act is a threat to consumers but which has the main intent of utterly controlling the artists whose works the Act is supposed to protect. And finally, there is an interview with Terry Bisson.
Doctorow is the most important voice to emerge in this digital age, and this book shows just why he is so important.