It is a strange world - one after the flood. Many foolishly thought the flood was the result of global warming, but those at the Temple knew differently. It was divine retribution for those who doubted Him and tried to use science to thwart His wishes. It was retribution for those who believed in the the monkey theory about how we came into existence. Now, those people had been destroyed and the Temple and His people ruled.
In this world there is no real knowledge and no real privacy. Video screens loop everywhere. The most intimate happenings are recorded on webcams and available to the world. And you must participate or be deemed one of the unfaithful. You have to blog and upload and record and broadcast. Your online activity is monitored.
Imagine a world where everyone knows everything about everybody. Where what a person ‘feels’ and ‘truly believes’ is protected under the law, while what is rational, even provable is condemned as heresy. A world where to question ignorance and intolerance is to commit a Crime against Faith. Nakedness is modesty, ignorance is wisdom, and privacy is a dangerous perversion.
It is a topsy-turvey world of public sexuality where women routinely have breast implants. Those who don’t are regarded with suspicion and sometimes forced to have ‘honour implants’ by their family members. It is a world where everything is sweet - even the peppermints are covered in chocolate and falafel is covered with syrup.
I was totally surprised by Ben Elton’s new novel Blind Faith. I had approached the book with little expectation - some light reading that would entertain. I have vague memories of him as a stand-up comedian and felt that the book might amuse. I had, of course, forgotten that for years he was one of the writers who crafted (amongst other things) the brilliant, satirical Black Adder series on TV.
The book that I started to read with little expectation not only had me laughing out loud, but it dazzled me with its inventiveness, had me making notes about philosophical points in the reason-religion debate, and at times left me wincing as the humour cut. Those of you who can remember your feelings about the end of the last episode of Black Adder will catch a glimpse of the surprise, wit, and pathos that this book contains. It is a darkly savage, satirical novel. People of faith will need plasters or an anaesthetic, but they should read it. Hopefully laughing at themselves may bring a little light.
The plot centres on one man, Trafford, and his quest for enlightenment - an enlightenment that is prohibited by the Temple and punished by the new Inquisition. At a time when most children died of disease, and vaccination has been prohibited as a scientific perversion, the birth of his own child poses difficult dilemmas for him. His desire to protect his own child leads him to discover an underground group of humanists who have found ways of guarding privacy and indulging in heretical activities.
When Trafford meets the Vaccinator for the first time, we catch a glimpse of his difficulties:
‘You want to inoculate my baby?’
‘It is my duty. I am sworn to save children. That is the solemn pledge of every Vaccinator.’
‘I should report you to the police,’ Trafford said.
Everybody knew that vaccination was nothing less than an attempt by man to deny God his prerogative over fate. Treating illness with medicine was acceptable to the Temple in that it was merely a reaction to God’s work, but the theory behind vaccination was that it was possible to anticipate God’s plan and change it. To prevent something ever happening. That was black magic pure and simple ….
This is a subversive book. It describes the subversion of human beings struggling against a mindless totalitarian world view, and in order to identify with the heroes, Elton makes us see and feel the absurdity of the totalitarian world view that he has created. The wincing comes when we find ourselves laughing at things which may seem very familiar today - all Elton has done is exaggerate them and placed that exaggeration safely (for us) in the future.
Despite the, at times, savagery (both satirical and literal), the book is optimistic.
For no society based on nothing more than constructive fear and brutish ignorance could survive for ever. No people who raised up the least inventive, the least challenging, the least interesting of their number while crushing individual curiosity and endeavour could prosper for long. Trafford knew that natural selection would save the world, as it had done before when other tyrants had tried to crush the human spirit, and that one day the Confessors of the Temple would be extinct.
I’m not an expert in the genre of comic fiction, but my limited reading to date would lead me to tentatively state that the plots of Christopher Brookmyre’s books are more complex and teasing than this one. However, Elton’s satire is richer and more deeply funny. This is the first Ben Elton novel I have read and I will certainly be reading more.
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Update: 03/02/08. Having just published this review I started to read Counterknowledge by Damian Thompson. In it he writes:
In northern Nigeria, Islamic leaders have issued a fatwa declaring the polio vaccine to be an American conspiracy to sterilize Muslims. Polio has returned to the area, and pilgrims have carried it to Mecca and Yemen. In January 2007, the parents of 24,000 children in Pakistan refused to allow health workers to vaccinate their children because radical mullahs had told them the same idiotic story.
This looks like a fascinating read. Thanks for the tip. A trip to the bookstore may soon be in order.
What a bizzare and weird book. I had to read this blog twice to try to grasp its content.
Some of it sounds clever. Some of it sounds rubbish.
I quote back:
“Everybody knew that vaccination was nothing less than an attempt by man to deny God his prerogative over fate. Treating illness with medicine was acceptable to the Temple in that it was merely a reaction to God’s work, but the theory behing vaccination was that it was possible to anticipate God’s plan and change it. To prevent something ever happening. That was black magic pure and simple.”
What on earth is this?
What a contradiction in turn. God surley gave us the power of using our brains for both medicine and vaccinations. Treating illness with medicine can change the fate of disease as can vaccination. We can change the path of potential disease and death in more than one way. This statement does not work for me if he is trying to mock God.
Please don’t think that I am criticising your words, you have interpreted this well enough, even if the story does make this blog “rock” all over the place in places.
I think I will stick to Black Adder, or perhaps I should read it just to see if anything remotely sensible could come from it.
onethoughtfulwoman: You and I know that the logic I quoted against vaccination is wrong. The writer is being satirical. Ben Elton is just creating the ficitonal world that Trafford lives in. It is dangerous for him to have his child vaccinated when the officers of the Temple would see him as a heretic if he got it done and was caught, and he would face the tortures of the officers of the Inquisition.
[...] See also: Blind Faith [...]