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The Fixed Period
Dec. 25th, 2013 04:05 pm A science fiction novel by Anthony Trollope! Who would have thought it!
Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, it tells of an island colony that gains its independence from Britain and brings about a law of enforced euthanasia at the age of sixty-eight.
It was written in 1882 and is set in 1979-1980, which makes the presentation of the society particularly interesting. I always find it entertaining to read books where the future proposed at the time of writing is actually now considerably in the past for me. And Trollope's ideas of what life will be like 100 years in the future do not disappoint.
There are one or two aspects that I find of particular interest. Trollope starts the book with an introductory chapter that tells the reader how the book will end - and makes a point of explaining that the enforced euthanasia is never actually carried out. This is presumably because he thought people might not read the book if they thought that old men and women were going to be killed by the state part way through. What Trollope does by stating this is to turn his book into an intellectual exercise, rather than a suspense tale.
He makes (what are to me) amusing predictions about changes in technology - specifically transportation and communication - but it never occurs to him that changes might take place in societal attitudes - particularly with regard to women and Africa.
The writing itself, and the characterisation, are classic Trollope - the only really odd thing about the book from that point of view being how short it is!
The ending is a little abrupt, and leaves the reader hanging somewhat, but for the most part, this is a very interesting and entertaining read - and it managed to drag me out of the fandom rabbithole, which is no mean feat!
Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish, it tells of an island colony that gains its independence from Britain and brings about a law of enforced euthanasia at the age of sixty-eight.
It was written in 1882 and is set in 1979-1980, which makes the presentation of the society particularly interesting. I always find it entertaining to read books where the future proposed at the time of writing is actually now considerably in the past for me. And Trollope's ideas of what life will be like 100 years in the future do not disappoint.
There are one or two aspects that I find of particular interest. Trollope starts the book with an introductory chapter that tells the reader how the book will end - and makes a point of explaining that the enforced euthanasia is never actually carried out. This is presumably because he thought people might not read the book if they thought that old men and women were going to be killed by the state part way through. What Trollope does by stating this is to turn his book into an intellectual exercise, rather than a suspense tale.
He makes (what are to me) amusing predictions about changes in technology - specifically transportation and communication - but it never occurs to him that changes might take place in societal attitudes - particularly with regard to women and Africa.
The writing itself, and the characterisation, are classic Trollope - the only really odd thing about the book from that point of view being how short it is!
The ending is a little abrupt, and leaves the reader hanging somewhat, but for the most part, this is a very interesting and entertaining read - and it managed to drag me out of the fandom rabbithole, which is no mean feat!
