Somebody Told Me...

Somebody Told Me... by Danny Wallace (2024 Ebury Press/Penguin eBook 342p)

 

Its not often these days that I read a 300+ page book in just one or two sessions. Yet I managed to finish this one over just two evenings, it would have been one but pesky things like sleep and work got in the way again. Somebody Told Me.. was compelling, enjoyable and very very readable.

I knew little about the author, Danny Wallace before I became interested in this book. Turns out he’s yet another of the polymath entertainer types that the UK seems to have been producing by the truckload over the last few decades. Not only has he written about a dozen other books, he’s a well-loved comedian, radio host and television presenter in his home nation. An interview about this book was where I first heard of it so his self-propelled PR machine certainly worked on me.

One minor caveat about this book before I go on – it is VERY of its time, this time, our current time or at least how things stood when it underwent its last copy edit before publication. I can imagine it dating badly with all the anxieties and looming threats seeming oh so quaint to a reader five or ten years down the track. Having said that it will still be well worth a read for a while to come.

Wallace begins his narrative by launching from two pivotal events, one personal and one most of us can relate to. The death of his father (an expert in Cold War East Germany) triggers questions and speculations that seem to go to the extreme. The other event he has us consider is the Covid-19 pandemic’s early days in 2020 and how that seemed to flip the mental switch in so many people and cause them to dive head first into so many so-called rabbit holes.

From there he examines the individual and very personal cases of those who have taken extreme and bizarre beliefs. The failed media stars who succumbed to online conspiracy theories and found whole new careers repeating them, the cynical others who found doing the same was a business opportunity where the seemingly infinite funds of true believers can be fleeced at will. Seemingly ordinary men and women who think they’ve found the simple answers to complex issues and will defend their new thinking to their dying days.

So far this probably sounds like nothing new but I think the key to the success of this book is how Wallace expertly brings together the thoughts and experiences of experts and laymen alike and distils it into something clear and to the point like few before have done. He connects the dots that I’ve only seen hinted at before – why are we facing a tsunami of such extreme beliefs? The lack of power people feel in their own lives today seems to be common factor. He highlights the growing problem of loneliness in our society – the fact that many men of a certain age lack any close friends at all and really need someone to tell them when they’re going astray. Social media of course is covered as both and enabler and source of many ills but the problems obviously lie deeper in our culture. He turns the spotlight then on those who seek to exploit our current malaise, the fascists and autocrats who can hardly believe their good luck and will try to grow our divisions for their own purposes.

A frightening glimpse of our AI-riddled future is provided if we don’t act soon. There are those who strive to oppose all of this and Wallace discusses their plans and thoughts too.

I think I almost wore out the Kindle app’s highlighting function by trying to highlight all the many quotable quotes in this book. Maybe its all just telling me what I already believe and wish to read and somebody of a different political bent might indeed find it abhorrent and insulting. We’ll just have to see how history plays out.

Oh, I forgot, its often very funny too, sometimes a little too much perhaps. The comedian side of Wallace can’t resist a good gag.

As you probably can tell I enjoyed this book immensely. A good exploration of the current zeitgeist that many of us feel but can’t quite put a finger on in our day to day lives.

The Private Eye (volumes 1 & 2)

The Private Eye (Volumes 1 & 2) by Brian K. Vaughan & Marcos Martin (2013/2015 Image Comics eBook 300p)

 

Being a fan of the Cyberpunk science fiction sub-genre, I once bookmarked a particular website’s list of the supposed best Cyberpunk books. Like most of such lists you find online it had some familiar titles mixed in with other obscure works that make you scratch your head somewhat. One of the entries was a graphic novel The Private Eye from a decade ago. I have vague memories of it receiving some hype at the time but I didn’t really pay attention to the title until recently. I checked how to get hold of a copy and found there’s only an expensive ‘deluxe’ version if you wish for a physical book. However further investigation led me to another website where The Private Eye had originally been serialised – you can still purchase it in that form or choose to buy two volumes that collect the whole run. What’s even better is you can choose your price and select what digital format you wish to download it in. So, once I’d completed that process, I had a couple of landscape format pdf files on my iPad and off I went.

Set in the 2070s, the story turns out to be relatively simple – a PI takes a case and soon finds himself immersed into crime and conspiracy that threatens himself and those he holds dear.

 It’s the background and world that Vaughan and Martin have created that makes this something special. Sometime in our near future ‘The Burst’ occurs and everybody on earth’s private details and personal information becomes available to everybody else. In reaction the internet is outlawed and in the following decades society is restructured to become privacy obsessed. At a certain age all individuals gain the right to obscure their identities and live a life of secrecy. On the streets people wear everything from simple masks to elaborate costumes incorporating holograms and other advanced technologies. State-sanctioned journalists enforce the laws and everything is just a little bit weirder than in our times. Most of this background is delivered organically as the story proceeds rather than in the form of info dumps and its very skillfully done.

The main character known simply as PI is a young man with a rough past and something of a grudge against society. Through flash-backs we learn how he gathered a small group of friends and associates that help him bend and dodge the laws of his world to help others. He lives with his grandfather who is a remnant of our time and reminisces about the glory of the once connected online world. A mysterious woman approaches PI with a case and is soon found murdered herself, PI then teams up with her very capable but still grieving sister and their adventures begin.

Although talky in parts the story is accelerated by frequent action sequences which show off Marcos Martin’s exquisite artwork. There’s a lot of detail and in-jokes in the art, some of which take a couple of reads to appreciate.

The main weakness in the story (to me at least) was the main villain’s cunning plan - (SPOILERS!) to revive the internet by somehow linking the world’s TV-like appliances via a single satellite he plans to launch into orbit. It seemed very half-baked and low-stakes stuff to me. Every time the rocket involved was shown It bugged me further – the artist clearly based it on the Soviet era Proton booster without any explanation how such a machine could end up in 2070s California. Oh well maybe that’s just the space buff in me.

Each of the digital volumes is rounded out by examples of original concept art and pitch documents etc and are well worth the price you can name yourself.

I enjoyed my immersion into the future world of The Private Eye, the story may not always hold up but it’s a colourful and thought-provoking experience.