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Here’s a Happy Thanksgiving from the New York Times: they’ve named Little Brother one of the eight “Notable Children’s Books of 2008,” calling it, “a novel that is at once an entertaining thriller, a thoughtful polemic and a practical handbook of digital-age self-defense.”
Notable Children’s Books of 2008
(Thanks, Lori!)
A reminder that tomorrow is the UK launch and signing for Little Brother at Forbidden Planet in London — 1PM! You can also pre-order signed copies through the Forbidden Planet site. Hope to see you there!
Saturday 29, November, 1:00PM – 2:00PM
Forbidden Planet London Megastore,
179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JROur Price: £6.99
Little Brother UK launch/signing at Forbidden Planet London, Nov 29
Damien G Walter’s written a smashing profile of me for The Guardian, pegged to the UK release of Little Brother (hope to see you all at the UK launch at Forbidden Planet on Saturday!).
“The job of a science fiction writer, historically, has been to understand how technology and social factors interact,” he says, “how technology is changing society. An activist’s job is to try to direct that change.”
This time his message is aimed at the teenage readers who wear the kind of skater jeans and T-shirt combination Doctorow is sporting today. “If you don’t read the Anarchist’s Cookbook when you are 16 you have no soul,” he says. “If you are still reading it when you are 36 you have no brain.” (He himself is 37, but if he’s abandoned anarchism, he’s clearly not settling into a conservative middle age.)
“My hope is that Little Brother is a verb and not a noun, that it’s a thing you do, not just a book you read,” he continues. “That’s where thinking about the future and influencing the future converge.”
Christian Wohrl undertook a German fan-translation of my novel Little Brother, working on his daily train-commute. He’s just finished the work and posted “version 1” on his site. The whole text is CC licensed, of course!
(Thanks, Christian!)
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UPDATE: Here’s the German edition in multiple formats., thanks to Rollmops!
The launch for the UK edition of my novel Little Brother has been scheduled! I’ll be signing at Forbidden Planet in London on Satuday, November 29. They’re also taking pre-orders for signed copies by mail-order — makes a dandy Christmas pressie!
Cory Doctorow – Little Brother
Saturday 29, November, 1:00PM – 2:00PM
Forbidden Planet London Megastore,
179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JROur Price: £6.99
Smári McCarthy, a high-school teacher in Iceland, has been teaching a course unit on civil liberties and technological literacy based around my novel Little Brother. He’s launched a new Google Group for the kids in his class (and other classes around the world) to continue the discussion — what an awesome idea!
At the end of the last class yesterday the idea came up to form a
mailing list for young people who’re interested in digital freedoms,
computer security and so on, and one of the students suggested that we
call the list “Watching Back”. The list is watchingback@googlegroups.com
and almost all the kids who took the course are on it.It would be great if people running similar courses could get their
students involved on the list, and that teachers and other people who
know something about the subject hang around and help guide the
discussion as mentors.There’s a lot to discuss. A running theme through the course was the
importance of the power of young people to influence the world. I read
from the Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace in the last class,
because it is somewhat prophetic of what is going on:“You are terrified of your own children, since they are natives in a
world where you will always be immigrants. Because you fear them, you
entrust your bureaucracies with the parental responsibilities you are
too cowardly to confront yourselves.”Throughout the network young people are being empowered to change the
world, they’re figuring out the beauty of the hacker culture and the
fight for freedom. In a world where big brother is watching with
increasing scrutiny it is a big relief to know that at least the
children are watching back.
