At the very end, Winston himself is again in the Chestnut Tree Cafe. He has been released from the Ministry of Love. Winston is sitting in his usual corner, with a glass of gin and a chessboard. The waiter automatically refills his glass for him. Winston is thinking about the military problems in Africa, and his recent meeting with Julia, and 2+2=5. A yellow note sounds, and the telescreen starts playing "Under the spreading chestnut tree/I sold you and you sold me--". Winston's eyes fill with tears. He remembers an afternoon when he was a child, playing with his mother, but dismisses it as a false memory. The telescreen announces a great victory in Africa, and Winston is reconciled with Big Brother. "He loved Big Brother."
The novel is followed by an Appendix on Newspeak.
Back-story to the novel
The novel does not give a full history of the world up to 1984. Winston's recollections, and what he reads from Emmanuel Goldstein's book, reveal that at some point after the Second World War, the United Kingdom descended into civil war, eventually becoming part of the new world power of Oceania. At roughly the same time, the Soviet Union expanded into mainland Europe to form Eurasia; the third world power, Eastasia — an amalgamation of East Asian countries around China, Japan and Korea — emerged some time later.
There was a period of nuclear warfare during which hundreds of atomic bombs were dropped, mainly on Europe, western Russia, and North America. (The only city that is explicitly stated to have suffered a nuclear attack is Colchester.) It is not clear what came first — the civil war which ended with the Party taking over, the merging of the British Empire and the United States, or the external war in which Colchester was bombed.
During the Second World War, Orwell repeatedly expressed the idea that British democracy, as it existed before 1939 would not survive the war, the only question being whether its end would come through a Fascist coup d'état from above or by a Socialist revolution from below. (Orwell greatly supported and hoped for the latter, to the extent that he joined and loyally participated in the British Home Guard throughout the war, in the expectation that it would become the nucleus of a revolutionary militia). After the war Orwell expressed his surprise that events had proven him wrong.1
Plot summary “The Supernaturalist”
‘The Supernaturalist’ is set in a city in the near future, which is owned by a large corporation. A low-orbit satellite (50 miles above ground) controls traffic, communication and sanitation, and hence the city is named Satellite City. Cosmo Hill, an orphan living at the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys, a Dickensian environment in which the orphans are used for product testing.
Cosmo and his friend, Francis, better known as Ziplock, escape, and in doing so are severely injured in an accident involving a power generator on a rooftop. Ziplock dies immediately, but Cosmo survives, observing for the first time a cryptozoic species, which appears to drain his life-force and make him and his pain.
Cosmo is rescued by a group of street children who can see and battle these creatures (which they call parasites). After recovering from his injuries he joins the group, whose members call themselves “Supernaturalists” and is immediately confronted with the problems that the daily life of hunting supernatural creatures entails.
This group of “Supernaturalists” consists of Stefan Bashkir (a name which is also mentioned in the second Artemis Fowl), the leader whose mother was fatally injured in a car crash and was supposed to be killed by the Parasites. Then there is Ditto, a test tube boy created by a scientist who wanted him to have superpowers but the experiment went wrong resulting in him appearing six years old at the age of 28. Mona Vasquez is the only girl in the group, and fairly soon after Cosmo joins the Supernaturalists it becomes apparent that she and Cosmo like each other.
As in ‘Artemis Fowl’, there is heavy emphasis on humor, tough-guy posturing and technology. One of the main characters of The Supernaturalist is named Stefan Bashkir, used by Fowl as an alias in Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident. Also, the corporation that owns the city, Myishi (presumably linked to the scientist of the same name who sold his soul to the devil in The Wish List), mentions beating Phonetix, a company that was also mentioned in Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code. The dystopian near future is in many ways similar to Blade Runner and to a lesser extent Neuromancer, but Colfer's influences are older; rooted in Raymond Chandler and other hard-boiled writers.
The surprising ending leaves enough room for a sequel, as there seem to be even more supernatural creatures around.
Characters
The Supernaturalists
Cosmo Hill
Cosmo was sent to the Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys, after his parents abandoned him and he was found on Cosmonaut Hill. After 14 years in the orphanage, Cosmo escapes and joins the Supernaturalists and became their fourth member.
Stefan Bashkir
The 18-year-old leader of the Supernaturalists, Stefan always seems depressed and troubled because he lost his mother in a car accident and believes to be partially responsible for her death. He is the combat specialist in the team, for he once trained at the Police Academy. There, he was taught how to use weapons and learned fighting techniques. Stefan is the second member of the team.
Mona Vasquez
15-year-old Mona lost her parents in a food riot in Booshka long ago and joined a gang of street racers. She almost died in a car accident, until she was saved by the Supernaturalists. She is the third team member and the Mechanic.
Lucien "Ditto" Bonn
28-year-old Ditto was part of a genetic experiment by a scientist called Dr. Bartoli. Something went horribly wrong and each kid who took part stopped growing when they were between six and ten years old, so Ditto looks like a little boy, even though he's an adult. He has healing abilities and can communicate with supernatural creatures, which was a side effect of the experiment. Ditto is the first member of the team and the Medic. His nickname "Ditto" refers to his habit of repeating every question before answering, in order not to accidentally tell somebody of his abilities.
Locations
Clarissa Frayne Institute
The Clarissa Frayne Institute for Parentally Challenged Boys (referred to as "Clarissa Frayne") is an orphanage in which all orphans are used as guinea pigs for various untested medicals, military supplies, solvents and other materials. The wardens there are described as twisted and cruel, often mistreating the unfortunate young boys. By the end of most days, the orphans are exhausted, bleeding, and often sick. The average life expectancy of an institutionalized orphan is fifteen years. Cosmo is one of these orphans, along with Fence and his friend, Ziplock. Ziplock has trouble keeping his mouth shut; he got his nickname from "talking too much to the wrong person" and getting a ziplock from a plastic bag superglued to his mouth. He dies in the beginning of the book, after being electrocuted on a rooftop - the same accident that opened Cosmo's eyes to the supernatural spectrum.
Abracadabra Street
The Supernaturalists live in a warehouse on Abracadabra Street that Stefan Bakshir 'picked up for a song'. The streets of the city were originally named so that like-minded people could live together. This particular street was so named for the 'Vegas people' to live in e.g. magicians, artists and singers. Another example for these street names is Monet street.
Booshka
Booshka is a downtrodden, very poor area of Satellite City. The main 'pastime' of people there seems to be stealing cars, tuning them up and taking them for drag racing competitions against other gangs in the area such as the Sweethearts (Mona Vasquez's former gang), Bulldogs and many others. This so-called hobby is also called Booshka and the area is named after the amount of car thefts that happen there.
In Booshka, the Supernaturalists involuntarily take part in a car race using a high-tech car stolen from the Myishi Corporation. However, shortly after their victory, paralegals from the Myishi Corporation come to retrieve the stolen car. Half of the Supernaturalists are arrested and taken into Myishi custody after putting up an almost effective fight.2
Comparing “The Supernaturalist” to “Nineteen Eighty-Four”
In George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” undoubtedly paints the picture of a very grim, hostile, and dystopian future, although, when looking closely at the story, it is not clear who the “villain” is. At first, it appears to be Big Brother himself, although guessing from what is revealed later in the book, it is possible that Big Brother doesn’t even really exist. The Party is not actually a villain either, since it is so big and dispersed it seems to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time, a giant, intangible force impossible to fight. There aren’t any real allies to count on either because everybody except the Proles is living in constant fear of being accused of some obscure crime. This lack of a central villain creates a peculiar feeling of fear mingled with helplessness and despair. Danger of one sort or another is lurking almost everywhere, and you never know who might be a spy for the Party. The only hope for a little security lies in ignorance and following Big Brother’s commands without a second thought.
In the country of Oceania individuality is a no longer existing concept – even your thoughts aren’t private anymore – and Big Brother and the Party demand absolute loyalty, leaving no space for friends, family or loved ones, thus destroying the one thing that has brought even the greatest, most oppressive dictatorships crumbling down: compassion. The Party has done everything in its power to prevent people from acting upon this most essential of human emotions: the invention of Newspeak, the Two Minutes’ Hate, the constant observation, the never-ending war, torture and the dreaded “Room 101”. The Party is very successful at this, in the end even Winston’s mind is altered and, after betraying his one true love, Julia, he now too stops thinking and begins to “love” Big Brother.
Winston nevertheless decides to at least try to fight the Party’s oppression. This struggle, portrayed in “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, is essentially the timeless struggle of an individual against tyranny, which, in this book, is intensified by the fact that he really seems to be the only one willing to fight. Winston tries to protect his individuality and personal freedom, but eventually the Party wins, and he betrays Julia and loves Big Brother.
The storytelling in “Nineteen Eighty-Four” is focused mainly on the protagonist, Winston. The other characters that enter the story, Julia and O’Brian, for example, are never described in depth, the reader learns little or nothing at all of their past or motivations for their actions. Winston appears to be the only one left with a soul, the “Last Man in Europe”, as Orwell initially intended to call the novel.
In “The Supernaturalist”, on the other hand, most of the time the villain is clearly defined: first the blue creatures were the villain, and later, when it turned out they were not evil after all but merely a part of nature, Dr. Faustino was the villain. The blue creatures are, as it turns out later in the book, technically undefeatable but during the time the Supernaturalists thought they were evil, the creatures appeared to have weaknesses, such as “exploding” when receiving a strong electric shock (which didn’t kill them but actually helped them reproduce), and “dying” when exposed to radiation (since they consist of pure energy, they didn’t die, they were only weakened by the radioactivity). So, in contrast to the Party in “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, the blue creatures were not impossible to fight, just as Dr. Faustino who was sent to the Antarctic as a punishment for attracting too much of the public’s attention. There is never this feeling of absolute hopelessness, even in the most desperate moments.
The Supernaturalists may not fight for freedom of thought or independence, but that doesn’t mean their struggle is any less righteous than Winston’s: when fighting the blue creatures they try to save other people’s lives and avenge the death of loved ones. When fighting Dr. Faustino, the Supernaturalists want revenge for being used and lied to and, most of all, they try to survive.
The storytelling in “The Supernaturalist” is initially only focused on the protagonist, Cosmo, but as the story progresses and more character appear, their background and motivations for acting are revealed sooner or later. For instance we find out that Stefan is obsessed with killing the blue creatures because he thinks they are responsible for his mother’s death, or that Ditto, a so-called Bartoli baby and result of a geneti experiment gone awry, has supernatural powers himself, some of which are similar to those of the creatures. All in all it seems that the storytelling as well as the general mood in “The Supernaturalist” is a lot clearer than in “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Compassion and people being there for one another balance the unfairness of Satellite City, whereas in Airstrip One the cruelty of the system is only intensified by the lack of compassion.
In the world imagined by George Orwell, the government has total control over all aspects of life, and there is absolutely no personal freedom, even people’s thoughts are being monitored. The society of Oceania seems to be a nightmarish vision of how cruel and tyrannical a country under prolonged communist rule would eventually turn out. A rigid class system governs the lives of the people of Oceania: the Inner Party members, less than two percent of the entire population, live in relative luxury and security; the members of the Outer Party, who are under constant scrutiny of police and spies, and the Proles who are considered inferior to Party members and are pretty much left in peace by the Party. Poverty is epidemic among members of the Outer Party and the Proles and even though there are great technological advances, these are only used against the people, in order to control or torture them, not to make their daily life a little bit better.
There is a constant war in order to keep people afraid and an elaborate system of spies for exactly the same reason. The future of Orwell’s novel is very grim, there is almost no hope for things to change; in fact it looks as if the government has succeeded in gaining complete power.
One hope, no matter how small and fragile it is, remains: that one day the Proles, who are actually the majority, rise up and overthrow the Party, although it is mentioned in the book that a revolution started by the Proles is relatively unlikely, as they are kept more or less content by the cheap books, songs, and movies the Party offers them. So in case the Proles never rebel (or in case they do but fail) Oceania is headed towards what is probably the most terrible future imaginable; a world where people obey the Party and big Brother without thinking, where the language is altered to an extent that it contains absolutely no emotions, and where people are unwilling and unable to feel compassion for a person other than Big Brother.
As broken down and ruined as Oceania’s society may be, nature seems to have remained relatively unharmed by the various wars. Winston’s “golden country”, for instance, appears to be an environmentally intact place, untouched by pollution. There are other implications that the environment is relatively clean and unpolluted.
In Satellite City, the there is little involvement of the government in the daily lives of the citizens and its presence, especially through the police and medical services, can hardly be felt by the people of Satellite City. The police and ambulances often arrive several minutes aver their private counterparts at the scene of a crime or an accident, and don’t even dare to venture into some parts of the city (it is explained in the book that the police will not respond to a call coming from Booshka). If it weren’t for private rapid-response lawyers and paralegals, the entire city would probably descend into complete anarchy. The only politician with real influence is the mayor, although his power over the people is not as immediate and absolute as Big Brother’s; most of the time Mayor Ray Shine chooses to act in the background.
The political system of Satellite City seems to be a continuation of the neo-liberalism of today’s Great Britain to such an extent that the government and governmental organizations have almost completely lost their power and the people are now ruled by corporations such as Myishi with its satellite that controls every aspect of life in the city. As a result of this political situation, there is no social class system in Satellite City. The only people that are treated inferior are no-sponsors such as Cosmo, but not for social but for economic reasons.
Poverty is not as apparent in Satellite City as it is in Airstrip One. Some parts of the city, such as Booshka, are extremely impoverished, but even in those parts poverty is not as severe as the kind described in Orwell’s book. Most people have enough to eat and access to some medical help and it seems that most people living in Satellite City, while definitely not wealthy, are able to make a decent living.
The technological advances in “The Supernaturalist” are numerous. Probably the biggest and most important innovation of all is the Myishi satellite, which controls traffic, sanitation, housing, and much more. Most of these innovations were created for the benefit of the people of Satellite City. A negative result of all those new technologies is that the environment has been almost completely destroyed. A constant blanket of multicolored smog hovers over the city, causing various health problems and, as it turns out, the ability to see the blue creatures.
Another difference between the future as portrayed in Orwell’s book and the one in “The Supernaturalist” is the war. Satellite City is not at war with anyone because the need for war seems to have been made obsolete by big corporations like Myishi. When more power can be gained from people buying the company’s product than from scaring them with infinite war, peace is the more profitable choice and thus war, the way it Oceania wages it against Eurasia or Eastasia, is redundant in the profit-oriented society of Satellite City.
The future portrayed in “The Supernaturalist”, is considerably more optimistic and cheerful than the one depicted in “Nineteen Eighty-Four”. Satellite City is far from being a utopian society, and it undoubtedly warns the reader of how mercilessly opportunistic and profit-oriented today’s western society might turn out if we turn our backs on the flaws of the system. But there is hope for Satellite City: neither the government nor Myishi actually want to oppress anybody - since that would probably hurt Myishi’s stock - and people still help each other. There is freedom of speech and thought and a possibility for peaceful coexistence of the Myishi Corporation and the people (whereas the Party will never tolerate the independence of the people of Airstrip One, since oppression is the only way it can stay in power).
- Socio-economic background
The 1940’s, when George Orwell wrote “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, were a transitional period between the economic troubles of the thirties and the Second World War of the late forties and early fifties, and were dominated first by the arduous war against the Nazis and later by the Cold War and Communism. The future of democracy back then was uncertain and people were afraid that fascism or communism might take over the UK. There was a general atmosphere of fear throughout Europe; the fear of one’s country being overtaken by either communism or fascism.
In America, Senator McCarthy was using spies and witch-hunts to purge the country of suspected communists, and the British were worried about their independence. This sense of constant paranoia, this fear that you may be accused of any crime anytime and by anyone permeates “nineteen Eighty-Four”, as well as the lack of hope that the future might bring something good.
At the beginning of the 21st century, when “The Supernaturalist” was written, the main problems are globalization and its consequences for both the West and the developing world, the rapid advances in technology and their ethical justifications, the extreme poverty that is still epidemic in many parts of the world, global warming as a result of the greenhouse effect, the ever smaller quantities of crude oil, overpopulation in some parts of the world, while in others birth rates drop dramatically, terrorism, not just as a measure for a few ill-equipped freedom fighters to defend their right but as a new way to wage wars, and the unfair distribution of natural resources and power in the world.
Genre
The Supernaturalist: Sci-Fi/Adventure
Nineteen Eighty-Four: Dystopian, Political Novel
1 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four
2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Supernaturalist#Characters
