ANGRY YOUNG SPACEMAN
By Jim Munroe
Why is Jim Munroe angry? According to his bio he is only 27 years old, a
former managing editor at the high-profile parody magazine Adbusters, and
already has one successful novel under his belt (Flyboy Action Figure Comes
With Gas Mask). Things would seem to be going pretty well.
And yet Jim Munroe is a rebel. He has published Angry Young Spaceman
under his own imprint, and urges others to do the same on a highly recommended
Web-page (NoMediaKings.org) that he has turned into a platform for his crusade
against media monopolies. His new novel is an extension of his political creed,
being a critique of modern globalization and materialism in the form of a
science-fiction comic romance.
The angry young hero is Sam Breen, an Earthling who goes to the liquid planet
of Octavia to teach the indigenous squid population English. Octavia is a Third
World kind of world, where the locals ape all of the latest Earth fashions right
down to the hottest new boy band (Intergalactic Cool Youth). Needless to say, it
isn't long before Sam is fulminating against this one-galaxy monoculture and
preparing to "go native" in a big way. "Earth has bullied
everyone into being like it," he complains. Teaching English is like
spreading a disease, destroying native ways of life and replacing them with
boring and meaningless alien traditions.
As an allegory of Western cultural imperialism all of this works quite well,
and the writing itself is very good. The book's real failure is its hero. Sam
Breen, the intergalactic ambassador of sensitivity, white guilt and political
correctness, was more than I could take.
What Sam is angry about is never clear. He wears an "aggrometer" on
his wrist to warn him when he is going over into the red zone of rage, but the
only time he really gets upset is when people are impolite.
Tolerance, acceptance and sensitivity are an obsession with Sam. He is, of
course, an environmentalist and radical vegetarian, and even leads a campaign
against eating the tiny shrimp-like creatures that live on Octavia.
Relationships? Tolerant of difference of course (his mother is a lesbian and his
girlfriend is one of the local squid), but also committed to building a
responsible, long-term monogamous relationship. Violence? Certainly not the real
kind. Even disciplining unruly students is a no-no ("institutionalized
violence, always directed against the powerless for 'their own good'" -
sniff!).
Why then is Sam angry? Precisely because he has nothing to be angry about.
Sam is a thirtieth-century rebel without a personally felt motive for his cause.
Coming from a privileged background (his mother is some kind of corporate planet
developer), and only associating with an elite minority while living on Octavia,
his political posturing only makes him seem like an ideologically hip prig. He's
the guy who's got it all, but doesn't want it.
It is an attitude that's hard to wear for a full-length novel. The best drama
in any fiction comes from the conflict between characters and ideas. A novel
without that conflict runs the risk of becoming sentimental or preachy, which is
exactly what happens to Angry Young Spaceman. Near the end Sam makes
one of his speeches about how bad a thing cultural hegemony is. As he concludes,
the person he is talking to (or rather, as usual, talking at) only raises his
eyebrows "in a kind of maybe you're right way." This leaves Sam
feeling unsatisfied. "I'd have preferred he argued," he decides.
So would we all.
Notes:
Review first published June 10, 2000. Munro's next novel, Everyone
In Silico, was much better.
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