Market Forces

[andrewducker]

Halfway through Richard Morgan's "Market Forces", and so far it's impressively repellent.  I keep having to put it down for a few seconds in-between chapters, to give myself some breathing room from its unimitgated nastiness.  Not nasty in the sense of American Psycho (although it's raison d'etre crosses over with that book a certain amount), but in the world that it's set in, and the brutal callousness of pretty much every character we're introduced to.  He's clearly making points about everything from Thatcherism/Reagonomics to Neo-liberalism/globalisation and it's obvious which side he's lying on. 

And if I'd come for a likeable character I'd be woefully disappointed, because there's only been one so far, and he's into that likeable (or, indeed, in it very much).  The only thing that stops the protagonist from being as unlikeable as the rest of the scum he's surrounded by is that he feels bad about the things he does (but can't see a way out).

I can see exactly where the book's going, as well.  Long downhill slide in the second act (which I'm in at the moment), a moment of recognition near the end and then a slight redemption.  I can't see there being major redemption because I don't think Morgan believes in it.

My main problem with this kind of book is that I _know_ that large chunks of the world are fucked up, that people do terrible things because of deprivation, greed, fear and ignorance, and that given half a chance authoritarians will repress the hell out of anyone they can.  What I want is solutions - even suggestions for them - rather than to be told how terrible it is.  I felt much the same way reading what I got through of No Logo.  The Corporation managed to mix together both problems and solutions, but that seems unusual in a book.

Anyway - I wouldn't say I was precisely enjoying it so far, but it's good enough to keep me going until the end.  At this point it's pulled me down, I might as well hang around for a glimmer of light at the end.

Comments

[octopoid-horror.livejournal.com]

When people are told how terrible things are and given a solution, they mostly nod in their middle class way and go "I'm glad that's fixable". Then nothing happens.

Perhaps if they aren't offered a solution, they'll do something.