review of
Mack Reynolds's Equality: in the Year 2000
by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE - December 24-27, 2018

For the complete review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1085883-mack-reynolds-is-the-greatest

Whenever I review a Reynolds bk I compliment its erudition, its depth of reference of interest to me. This one went even beyond its predecessors.

"Almost a century ago, an obscure, unsuccessful writer named Edward Bellamy wrote a novel, Looking Backward, the success of which was as much of a surprise to him as it was to the rest of the world. Indeed, it shortly became the most influential Utopian book ever written. Sales were in the millions: it was translated into twenty languages: countless editions were issued and it has never gone out of print. It deeply influenced such men as John Dewey, William Allen White, Norman Thomas, Thorstein Veblen. Franklin D. Roosevelt reported that in his youth, it was his "Bible."" - p i

"As mentioned, Bellamy was amazed at the reception of his Utopian story. All over the country, "Bellamy Clubs" sprang up, particularly in the colleges. Thousands of letters poured in, praising, criticizing, questioning, sometimes reviling various aspects. In defense, he wrote a sequel, expanding his ideas, going into more detail. It was entitled Equality, was unsuccessful, and soon disappeared from the scene.

"The present writer finds himself in the same predicament. Letters began pouring in—not all of them flattering. In defense, I have written my own sequel, Equality: In the Year 2000." - pp i-ii

The sequel being to Reynolds's Looking Backward: From the Year 2000. I already have a copy of Bellamy's Looking Backward, but I haven't read it. Not having Equality, I found it online & plan to order it ASAP. Not having Reynolds's Looking Backward, I did the same for it. Now I have 3 more bks to read that I can add to my piles of bks-to-be-read-ASAP, of wch there are already entirely too many. Don't I have anything better to do?! Yes, I do. I'll try to squeeze those things in too.

There doesn't seem to be a biography of Mack Reynolds written. There shd be. I'll take that over the multi-volume collected letters of Virginia Wolff anyday. That statement will probably get me in trouble.

Reynolds has a whole series of bks that imagine a future (now, my past) as utopic but still populated by at least a few dissatisfied people. In this future, everyone is guaranteed a reasonably comfortable existence & few people work. Everyone speaks Interlingua, an artificial international language akin to Esperanto. Here's an excerpt from my review of Reynolds's Border, Breed Nor Birth:

""Jack looked at Homer and said, "Cu vi scias Esperanton?"

""Homer Crawford's eyebrows went up but he said, "Jes, mi parolas Esperanto tre bona, mi pensas."

""Bona," Jack said, "Tre bona."

""Jes, estas bele," his brother said." - p 108

"Ok, how many of you recogized this as Esperanto & even understood it regardless of whether you speak Esperanto or not? Now that you're raised your hands, my assistant will take your wallets. Don't dare move, or I'll shoot. YES!, Hallelujah! It's Esperanto. It's decided that Esperanto will be the official language of the revolution that our heros are catalyzing. Right on. Far out. Farm off. Right arm.

""Dave Moroka said, "Actually, I don't know anything at all about this Esperanto."

""The West Indian took him in with a dominating glance. "Take grammar and syntax, which can take up volumes in other languages. Esperanto had exactly sixteen short rules. And take vocabularies. For instance, in English we often form the feminine of a noun by adding ess—actor-actress, tiger-tigress. But not always. We don't say bull-bulless or ghost-ghostess. In Esperanto you simply add the feminine ending to any noun—there's no exception to any rule." p 111

"It's actually somewhat astonishing to me how often Reynolds has something to say that jives w/ my own knowledge &/or experience. The fact that he promotes Esperanto in this bk pleases me immensely"

- "Mack Reynolds & writing about Africa (part 2): Big Mack": https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/618795?chapter=1

& here's another relevant review excerpt re Reynolds's After Utopia:

"Cogswell must adapt & learn the international language.

"""Interlingua?" he said.

"""The international language," Betty explained. "Everybody speaks it now."

""That floored him. He said, "You mean nobody speaks English, French, Spanish?"

""She shook her head, as though sorry she had to tell him. "Only scholars of linguistics."" - p 68

"I have an ongoing interest in artificially made international languages such as Volapük & Esperanto. I've written a little in the latter although I've never learned to speak it. Given that these languages have been generally developed in an attempt to increase peaceful communication between peoples of varied nationalities, it make sense for Reynolds's future to feature a successful one.

""["]Interlingua is a scientific language based on the earlier Esperanto and is more suited for a scientific society than yours was." - p 69

""There was no such thing as having three words—lea, lee, and leigh, for example—all meaning something different, and being pronounced exactly the same. There was no such thing as having pliers, trousers, and scissors, all supposedly plural when there is no singular plier, trouser, or scissor." - p 135

"But what about PUNS? What about us homonyphonemiacs? Did we starve to derth?"

- https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1055643-reynolds

Back to Equality: in the Year 2000:

"English was a bastard language—goodness knows how anyone ever learned it, including me. Take the word can. It means a container; it can also be a verb meaning to can something in a container; it also means you can, or are able to, do something; and it also means, spelled C-a-n-n-e-s, a town in southern France. In American idiom it could mean to dismiss or fire someone, and in British idiom it meant a tankard.

""Or take this sentence; 'There are three ways of spelling to.' Now how would you go about spelling that, t-o, t-o-o, or t-w-o?"

"Julian had to laught. "I admit we had some lulus."

"Edith continued, "And take grammar and syntax. Interlingua is so ingeniously devised that in place of the usual maze of rules occupying a sizeable volume on grammar, we have only sixteen short rules, which may be written comfortably on a single sheet of notepaper."" - pp 2-3

In case that's not enuf, I recommened witnessing the ENTIRETY of my movie entitled Story of a Fructiferous Society &/or reading about it here:

Otherzine issue 17 article: http://www.othercinema.com/otherzine/archives/index.php?issueid=22&article_i...
- on my onesownthoughts YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/VSlPEsZIPPo
- on the Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/StoryOfAFructiferous

"She said, "There, next to you, is the voco-typer. I thought father explained it to you."

""Briefly. You talk into it and it types up what you say."

""There's more to it. I'm continually surprised, Jule, at your lack of knowledge of what was developing back in the 1960s and '70s, right under your nose. Most of what we have now in technological developments go back to your era" - pp 4-5

Julian is the main character who's been in suspended animation for 30 or so yrs, reawakened in an era dramatically different from his own even though the time lapsed is small. What will life be like in 2048? Technology has already 'advanced' enormously in my lifetime.. but war & hate are still constants — so the utopia predicted by Reynolds as a sort of 'inevitable' accompaniment to technological developments is as far away as ever. I don't keep up w/ the tech. That wd be more than a fulltime job & I'm not always that interested. I just sd to Siri: "Tell me what you can do." & got a list of apps that it can access. I instructed Siri to "Play music by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE". Its read-out spelled it correctly. I was then told: "Hmm, I'm having trouble playing that." I thought that was funny. It then played a piece of mine called "Moves" that's in my iTunes library. I then asked it to "Find music by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE online." to wch it replied "Searching for music by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE on the iTunes Store." Another attempt took me to the iTunes store again where "No results" were found. Will Siri, or its updated successor, be able to find anything of mine online in 2048? Or will it only 'assist' in shopping?

"["]Way back in your day, a Julius Horwitz of the New York Department of Welfare, put it bluntly. 'The aged in a big city have no economic status; they have no status in the household, they have no vocational skills to pass on to the younger generation. Their special problem is survivial in a society which finds their minds and bodies superfluous.'" - p 8

Yep. At best, they can leave an inheritance wch the medical industry has now developed an expertise in sucking away before the family can get to it. Medicine can keep an old person alive long enuf to get every possible penny. Old people are a drag. Maybe even as bad as young people. I'm glad I'm still young at 65. But will I still be this much fun when I'm 100?

Reynolds has Julian relive, thru nightmares, various violent or otherwise disturbed situations from his life. At least one of them takes place in Tangier:

"Almost universally, the men were garbed in the djellaba, handwoven of wool or camel hair. It was a useful garment, Julian knew, warm at night as a blanket, protection from the sun during the day, and it repelled rain. In fact, there was a hood that could be pulled up over the head in bad weather." - p 14

"Just as he was about to cross the street, a youngster sidled up to him. He was possibly ten years old, with a beautiful Arab face, light coffee of complexion, dazzling white teeth, and the wide, sad, dark brown eyes of a gazelle.

"Julian was initially of the belief that the child was a beggar and reached for his pocket, though ordinarily he refrained.

"However, the boy did not hold out his hand. "Fuckee, fuckee—suckee, suckee?"

"Julian was horrified. He had been accosted before by both male and female child prostitutes in Tangier, a world-renownded watering place for homosexuals who preferred youth, but never by one so young as this. A wave of renewed contempt for Moslem mores and customs swept over him. He knew, for instance, that by Moslem law a girl could be given in marriage at the age of eight. In theory her husband was not to bed her until she had menstruated—but that was only the theory." - p 18

It's worth noting, to quote my review of a biography of composer Henry Cowell, that:

""While the general age of consent is now set between 16 and 18 in all U.S. states, the age of consent has widely varied across the country in the past. In 1880, the age of consent was set at 10 or 12 in most states, with the exception of Delaware where it was 7. The ages of consent were raised across the U.S. during the late 19th century and the early 20th century. By 1920 ages of consent generally rose to 16-18 and small adjustments to these laws occurred after 1920. As of 2015 the final state to raise its age of general consent was Hawaii, which changed it from 14 to 16 in 2001.

"Age-of-consent laws were historically only applied when a female was younger than her male partner. By 2015 ages of consent were made gender-symmetric. Until the late 20th century many states had provisions requiring that the teenage girl must be of previous "chaste character" in order for the sexual conduct to be considered criminal. In 1998 Mississippi became the last state to remove this provision from its code."" (- from the Wikipedia "Age of Consent in the United States" entry)

- "Henry Cowell": https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/610289-henry-cowell?chapter=1

"Morocco is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children who are subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and forced prostitution. Children are trafficked within the country from rural areas to urban centers to work as maids or laborers, or for commercial sexual exploitation. Moroccan men, women, and children are exploited for forced labor and prostitution in European and Middle Eastern countries. Young Moroccan girls from rural areas are recruited to work as child maids in cities, but often experience non-payment of wages, threats, and physical or sexual abuse, and sometimes face restrictions on movement. These practices indicate that these girls are subjected to involuntary servitude. Moroccan boys experience forced labor as apprentices in the artisan and construction industries and in mechanic shops." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking_in_Morocco

&, yet, Tangier has been the destination of choice for such leading lights as "Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal and Joe Orton, who came here for the boys, to Errol Flynn who came for the girls" ( https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/africa/sex-and-the-city-in-search-of-forbid... ) - not to mention good ole William S. Burroughs.

Morocco was a 'French Protectorate' from 1912 until 1956. Reynolds's take on the fading out of colonialism isn't all based on political enlightenment:

"["]Nobody wants colonies any more." Roy said cynically. "They're expensive to run, and it takes more to keep people down than they're worth. The British didn't get out of India because they loved the Indians. It's more profitable to dominate a country by owning its industries, controlling its money, getting a monopoly on its trade and raw materials, than it is to own it. Even the French are finding that out.["]" - p 20

"He turned to Julian. "They also brought in some water cannons last night. So all the fun and games won't be with noise bombs."" - p 22

""They shoot water at an unbelievable pressure, stronger than any firefighting equipment ever heard of. The next day the newspaper says, 'The police turned water on the mob and dispersed it.' Sounds innocuous to the reader, but it's deadly."" - p 23

Good to know, eh?! But out of the nightmare & back to the utopia:

""That's quite an imposing name you have," he said to the newcomer.

"O'Callahan replied, "I think we've changed the method of naming since—since your time. We now follow the system the Spanish utilized. Sean, of course, is my given name. Mathieson is my father's name, and O'Callahan is my mother's. In short , descent is matrilineal, as it was through most of human history. It's based on the truism that it's a wise man who knows who his father is, but everyone knows his mother."" - p 32

Julian had been an American soldier & these future folk are so disconnected from war that they want to learn about it from him. He talks about Vietnam:

"["]You put as much lead and steel into the air as you can, hoping that Charlie will run into it. You saturate the area he is in with bullets, with mortar shells, with artillery shells, with bombs from your air cover. And then, when all is quiet and Charlie is either dead or, more likely, has largely slipped away, you go forward and get a body count."

""A body count?" Edith said. In spite of herself, her face was registering that she was upset.

"Julian looked at her. "Yes. It was a return to the barbarism of Indian warfare days. To prove how many of the enemy we had killed, we cut off their ears and took them back to base headquarters."

""Proof of the number you had destroyed, eh?" Sean asked, fascinated.

"Julian took another quick breath. "Yes. But the thing is, the Colonel, and the General above him, liked to have an impressive body count, so we customarily also cut off the ears of any women, children, or old men that had managed to get in the line of fire or bombing."

""But those were civilians," Edith said in horror.

""Right," Julian agreed, his tone sour. "But we couldn't allow that to interfere with a good body count."" - pp 37-38

Julian tries to upgrade his knowledge of technological breakthroughs that happened during his deep freeze:

"9. Widespread use of cryogenics.

"He hadn't any idea as to cryogenics and could only guess at electroluminescent lighting." - p 51

"12. Large scale desalinization through use of nuclear fusion and solar power, allowing for reforestation of such areas as the Sahara." - p 52

"with nuclear fission and solar power, it is practical to desalinate ocean water and pump it into such areas as the Sahara and the Arabian and Gobi deserts. They are rapidly being reforested." - p 86

This is a recurring theme in Reynolds novels. It's mentioned in at least one of his Africa bks. This must've been based on something that was being researched prior to the publication of this in 1977. Wha' happen? Here's something relevant from a World Nuclear Association website:

"Desalination
(Updated November 2018)
• Potable water is in short supply in many parts of the world. Lack of it is set to become a constraint on development in some areas.
• Nuclear energy is already being used for desalination, and has the potential for much greater use.
• Nuclear desalination is generally very cost-competitive with using fossil fuels. "Only nuclear reactors are capable of delivering the copious quantities of energy required for large-scale desalination projects" in the future (IAEA 2015).
• As well as desalination of brackish or sea water, treatment of urban waste water is increasingly undertaken.
It is estimated that one-fifth of the world's population does not have access to safe drinking water, and that this proportion will increase due to population growth relative to water resources. The worst-affected areas are the arid and semiarid regions of Asia and North Africa. A UNESCO report in 2002 said that the freshwater shortfall worldwide was then running at some 230 billion m3/yr and would rise to 2000 billion m3/yr by 2025. Wars over access to water, not simply energy and mineral resources, are conceivable." - http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/non-power-nuclear-applications/...

In the 1970s there was already activism against the dangers of nuclear power so Reynolds's implied endorsement of it is somewhat out-of-character. 2 yrs after this bk was published there was the accident at Three Mile Island's nuclear power plant in the beginning of April, 1979 ( https://youtu.be/WFnEj9c35fE ).

""Radioactive wastes are more carefully handled now, but there is still danger. The United States Atomic Energy Commission, the official custodian of the deadly byproducts of the nuclear age, took calculated risks which, looking backward, have horrified us. For instance, back in the early nineteen seventies more than half a million gallons of deadly radioactive liquid leaked from huge storage tanks at the AEC's Hanford facility, near Richmond, Washington." - p 90

For the complete review go here: https://www.goodreads.com/story/show/1085883-mack-reynolds-is-the-greatest ( )