Big I, Eye, Aye.

The year is 2010. The world is overpopulated. Not to the point of some human discomfort. To the point that people are living on top of each other and crisis is ever on the horizon (or beating citizens about the ears). ‘Muckers’, eugenic legislation, and intense political drama plague the world. This is what John Brunner has created in his novel Stand on Zanzibar. Readers are exposed to a roiling world of many, many people, personalities, and conflicts. Peppered with facts, random snapshots of passers by’s lives and headlines, Brunner uniquely weaves a story. These writing techniques that Brunner utilizes submerge readers in and represent the psyche of a member of Brunner’s overpopulated world.Novelists hope to affect their readers emotionally -without a character or society’s hardships or triumphs to connect to, readers would have no reason to follow the storyline. John Brunner raises the bar, and the extent to which he immerses readers in the feelings of his characters is much more than usual. The writing techniques, word choice, and structure drops readers directly into the psychological mind set of the citizen. Probably unbeknownst to the reader, they experience what a character in the world would experience. In that way, his writing technique becomes inseparable from his plot. The ability to empathize, or even simply comprehend, would not exist without his writing methods. He conveys a sense of density, information overload, and division through different writing techniques. While this represents the psyche of a citizen, it also “is a classic example of the overpopulation syndrome – poverty, influx of strangers who take a fat chunk of a small cake, lack of privacy, lack of property, et caetera.” (Brunner, 448) And as the citizens in the world are cramped for space this makes perfect sense, and makes Brunner’s way of writing inseparable from his plot.

John Brunner manipulates his readers in a visual and technical way. To begin, the chopped up method Brunner employs creates a lack of continuity. One can think of a normal novel as a straight line. One can easily walk this line and observe and comprehend whatever is occurring alongside the line. Stand on Zanzibar’s line doubles back on itself, has large gaps, and is crooked by different characters’ plot lines. When one walks this line, one must jump to and fro and it is much more difficult to observe what is unfolding alongside the line. When reading, one is forced to flip forward and back to make sense of the placement of an anecdote, or string of facts. While this makes for an interesting read, readers feels off-kilter, as if they can’t get a footing in this world of constant change. Information may be given too early or late, and there is a constant scramble to make sense. This is just one in which Brunner gives a sense of information overload. Information overload is “provision of information in excess of the cognitive and emotional ability of an individual to process that information” (

www.inspection.gc.ca/english/corpaffr/publications/riscomm/riscomm_appe.shtml). In other words, this is the overburdening of persons with an amount of information they are unequipped to compute. This can lead to stress, impaired judgement, and most important in relation to the chopped up method, confusion or frustration.The lack of context paired with seemingly random pages of facts or lyrics also further drive home the point of information overload. For example, this excerpt is found sandwiched between a meeting of the character Norman and his colleague, and Donald’s thoughts in Yatakang:

Pick up 7-beat bass below aud threshold Synch in five-beat WAH YAH WAH YAH WAH

Sitar picks up 5 7 beats ,express takeoff Octave up bass Bass up 2nd octave Bring in at 4-beat intervals tympani, Lasry-Bachet organ, pre-cut speech tape MANCH/total recall/ SHIFT/man that’s really someth/WHIP/ah whoinole cares anyway/GARKER/ garker/GARKER/garker (ad lib)

Snatch of Hallelujah chorus…(Brunner, 256)

Readers are made to process this strange string of gibberish, much as a citizen of Stand On Zanzibar’s world would be made to process all the new information coming out of Shalmanesar, or the constant spewing of new products or gadgets by companies.

Language provides a keyhole to which a reader may press his eye, and see the innermost workings. In a culture, especially teen culture, a mutation of language, slang, plays a very heavy role in everyday life. Through IM chats, conversations, television, etc., people are bombarded with bizarre words that have meaning that can only be understood by acquiring a large amount of knowledge related. It is, essentially, the secret code of a culture. If one is in with the secret code, one is in with the culture. Brunner uses this unique slang to create a special language, that always opens a window into the principles and values of the society of 2010. It also has readers feeling excluded until they are unable to clue into the meanings of the special language, which can represent the sects found in overcrowded space – small pockets of people within a large group.

Brunner developed a special set of slang-words for Stand on Zanzibar. ‘Bleeder’, ’sheeting’, ‘whatinole’, ’shiggy’, ‘codder’, ‘muckers’, and ‘prodgies’ are just a few examples of the American set of ‘code words’. Bleeder and prodgies were slang words created because of the eugenics law, or the focus on genotypes. Bleeder, a derogatory term, refers to the presence of anemia in a person’s genotype. Whether they actually display this trait or are merely carriers for it is irrelevant – they cannot have children, and are therefore inferior. Prodgies, which is used in place of ‘children’, is probably derived from prodigies. A prodigy, by text-book definition is either “something wonderful or marvelous [or] something abnormal or monstrous” (

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigy). The advancements in eugenics make the ability to program a citizen’s soon-to-be-born children with talent is close at hand. But, with the problem of overpopulation, if a family goes over the limit of two children, the extra children are seen as abnormal and monstrous. Finally, ‘mucker’ is one of the most prevalent slang terms used in the book. A ‘mucker’ is one who has run amok meaning they have snapped under the pressure of the world. The outcome of this is a person with primal ferocity without any comprehension of what they may be doing. They are effectively, a killing machine. There is such a number of these ‘muckers’ that the term came into everyday usage.A contrasting example of this slang is Beninia’s basic language. Even their core linguistics are polarized from the U.S.’s plays on language. Beninia is a small country on Earth in 2010. They are deep in poverty and not up to snuff gadgetry-wise. They are the anomaly of the Stand on Zanzibar world. Their language and slang are entirely peaceful, as is their country. Take the word ‘angry’. In America, citizens have created a word especially for an overdose of anger – ‘mucker’. In Beninia, the word angry does not have the same connotations at all.

“Facts are: [one] can say ‘annoyed’ or even ‘exasperated’, but both those words came originally from roots meaning ‘creditor’. Someone [one] get angry with owes [one] an apology in the same way [one is] owed money or a cow. [One] can say ‘crazy’ and put one of two modifiers on the front of it – either the root for ‘amusing’ or the root for ‘tears’. In the latter case, [one is] talking about someone who’s hopelessly out of his mind, sick, to be tended and cleaned up after. In the former, [one is] inviting people to laugh at someone who’s lost his temper, but will return to normal sooner or later.” (Brunner, 322)

Compare this to the term ‘mucker’, and one truly gets the sense of the desperate situation the ‘civilized’ world is in, and the division in the world.

Along with slang, Brunner has a heavy hand with abbreviation or acronyms in the novel. ‘Engrelay Satelserv’, ‘GT’ and ‘eptify’ are a few examples. ‘Engrelay Satelserv’ is the shortened form of English Relay Satellite Service, the main news source. ‘GT’ is short for General Technology, a large corporation. And ‘eptify’, or “[eptification] is derived from an acronym – EPT stands for ‘education for particular tasks’.” (Brunner, 188) The words themselves indicate the level of information citizens are bombarded with. More important though is the psychological effect of shortening so many everyday words. Abbreviation can have two effects. One, it can multiply the amount of information able to be sent in a space of time. Two, it can multiply confusion. The impact of the first is that a person must acquaint themselves with these acronyms and abbreviations and learn them, or process and translate them cold at a moment’s notice. The second consequence is that citizens are left with longstanding confusion that may build, and grow into resentment. And like plaque on the wall of an artery, accumulating resentment can lead to disastrous results.

The following quote, said by Chad Mulligan, a sociologist hailed as genius on Earth in 2010, applies to a consumerism point of view in interruption or information overload. He describes the new definition of poor by American standards as “[people] who are too far behind with time-payments on next year’s model to make the down-payment on the one for the year after” (Brunner, 220). Not only do people on Chad Mulligan’s planet need to keep up with the times, they must keep up before the times. To do this individuals must read advertisements, magazines, watch television, and watch the ‘trendy’ so they may emulate whatever it is that they ‘need’. This leads to another symptom of information overload : “[decreased] benevolence to others due to an environmental input glut” (http://www.gdrc.org/icts/i-overload/infoload.html). In John Brunner’s creation, like in many other dystopia cities, such as Orwell’s 1984 city, there is war. It may be with other countries, or it may be contained within the country itself (‘muckers’, or rebels). Those reading Stand on Zanzibar may be frustrated and get angry in the process of trying to make sense of the book.

The effects of overpopulation and its relation to Brunner’s writing techniques do not end there. To add, Stand on Zanzibar has brief intermissions from the main plot thrown in. During these intermissions, readers are introduced to a cast of random characters. They are given a glimpse into their lives which is very quick, but very informative. These ’snapshots’ of random lives gives the feeling of density to the novel, as there is no down time. In other novels, there are interludes during which the characters walk through a valley, or go through the daily motions. In Stand on Zanzibar, every thing that is mentioned has meaning, and the reader is forced to be constantly on their toes, lest they skip over some vital piece of information. For example, from page two hundred to two hundred and four, readers are given a rapid succession of stories of others killing others. During these pages, readers are also witness to a juxtaposition between the ‘truth’ of the news, and the brutality of the physically honest.

He glared at the cowering figure before him. “You’ve always wanted to be more of a daughter than a son!” he snarled. “See this razor? It’s going to give you exactly what you want! Now do you take off that dress or do I cut it off?”

The Missile and Weaponry division of General Technics offers graduates an exciting career with the continual challenge of work on the very frontiers of human achievement. (Brunner, 202)

Such a multitude of characters and their stories is much like the multitude of people’s lives without context in a cramped environment. When there are many people in a small space, little glimpses can be seen of other’s lives, but not whole stories. In the novel’s world, a person may walk by another, and listen in on a snippet of conversation. They are privy to a private moment of their life – but know nothing else. And this may happen twenty, thirty, forty times in a day – a fair barrage of personal information pouring over a person.

These writing techniques and word choices lead to a scrambled amount of data, much like what Donald Hogan would sift through prior to his espionage days, or what Shalmanesar would synthesize. The reader is left feeling overwhelmed, off-balance, and weary. This leads to the very core of a person in John Brunner’s world’s psyche. Chad Mulligan, as he has so many times before, puts it perfectly and enigmatically: “Norman, what in God’s name is it worth to be human, if [they] have to be saved from [themselves] by a machine?” (Brunner, 453) Because the amount of things- hatred, persons, information, gadgetry, and illusions is like Grandfather Lao – a volcano on the brink of eruption and consequently the destruction of human beings. One either goes the way of Donald during his Jogajong days and becomes entranced by the thought of destruction, or hopes for an outsider’s rope to fall down, to pull them from the lava.

The Convergence of the Twain, as the title implies, is about the meeting of two opposites. More specifically, it is the meeting of human vanity and supernatural humility, or the Titanic and the iceberg that brought about it’s demise. While many people see this accident as an enormous tragedy, the poet’s attitude is more cool and ambivalent. This is because both sides of the equation are represented. The poet’s use of personification, rhyme, meter, imagery and voice accomplish portraying this ambivalence. 2 devices usually work in tandem – personification and capitalization, rhyme and meter, imagery and voice. If one was without the other, the poem would fall flat, or would sway towards one side or the other.

 This poet uses personification and capitalization heavily in this poem. This brings attention to the main ideas or players in this poem, or personifies some key concepts that would otherwise be less concrete. “Pride of Life”, “The Immanent Will”, “A Shape of Ice”,  “the Spinner of Years” are all key components of the destruction of the Titanic. “Pride of Life” is the reason why the Titanic was built. Humans built this to be the pride of their life. If the first trip had been successful, the Titanic would have been a very important success in the history of ships, and human ability. The Immanent Will and Spinner of the Years represent the concept of the force behind the world spinning. This brings to light the poet’s feeling that the sinking of the ship was not the fault of humans – but due to fate. 

 Rhyme and meter in this poem also lend themselves to the meaning of ‘The Convergence of the Twain’. In this poem, every final line in each set of triplets rhymes. The poet follows this rule religiously throughout the poem. This gives the poem an almost lilting aspect. The length of the 2 first lines and the last line are also continious throughout the poem. Together the two create the rhythm of a chant, or folk poem. This could represent the rhymic turnings of the ship’s engine, time, or the ocean. Because of the nursery rhyme or folk tale feel of the poem, it lends the possibility of the supernatural to it – as folk tales or nursery rhymes usually feature talking spoons, dragons, witches, etc. Through this, the poet is relating his feeling of supernatural fate once again.

 Most important of all is the poet’s use of imagery and voice. This is when the poet’s attitude is truly conveyed. The poet uses imagery very effectively to accomplish a few things. One, it juxtaposes the ‘twain’, be it human vanity against supernatural humility, the artificial lavishness against the natural essentials, or the irreversible against the breakable. The ‘Titanic’ was called the ‘unsinkable ship’, in a moment of human vanity. In an ironic twist, nature brought down the ‘unsinkable ship’. In this way, human extravagance was grounded by the cold truth of life. And two, it gives the mood to his poem by his choice of words. For example, ‘cold currents thrid, and turn to rhythmic tidal lyres’ or ‘lie lightless, all their sparkles bleared and black and blind’. It is truly a dark, sad and unadorned place, the bottom of the sea. Also, all the sea creatures depicted in this poem are depicted as base and ignorant. For example, ‘grotesque, slimed, dumb, indifferent’ or ‘dim moon-eyed fishes near’. They are unable to understand the human extravagance that has come to rest in their habitat. When showing the differences between the fish and the ‘vaingloriousness’, one gets the sense that the poet regrets the loss of beauty, and that this resting place is not fitting. This is what balances the vanity of humans argument. Finally, an example of the distanced voice is present in stanza ten “[or] signs that they were bent/ By paths coincident/ On being anon twin halves of one August event”.

 ’The Convergence of the Twain’ utilizes some interesting poetic devices to convey a certain message about a tragic event in the world’s history. The sinking of the Titanic ‘[jarred] two hemispheres’, and the poet echoes this sentiment. But he or she also feels (ambivalently) that it was a fateful event, and vanity’s downfall. It was not a mortal’s fault, nor a coincidence. The poem says this, without saying it all, through their use of imagery and voice, rhyme and meter, and personification and capitalization.

             Poets and novelists have penned it, singer-songwriters have crooned it, and everyday persons have felt for a whisper of it. It has enraptured and confounded masses through the ages, and still to this day, when something is ‘instyle’ in the morning, and ‘out’ by night, it has it’s fans. It has built and brought down kingdoms. What is it? Love. A poem by the name of In the Metro shows one man’s -Mikhail Kvilividze – comments on the subject. He, through the poem, comments that love is a commitment that one should stick to, but that it also may be bonding, and aging.

              At the beginning of the poem, the speaker passes by a girl in the metro. For the remainder of the poem, he is pondering the emotions this passing by sparked, and the implications of them and a committed relationship, with children. Although the speaker (readers are unaware whether this speaker is Kvivilidze himself or not) realizes he is commited and decides not to trail, he is ‘lusting’ after this girl in the metro. Although he is partially attracted to her physically, noticing her shining legs, he is more attracted to the idea she embodies. She is young, and free to move. In this way, the voice is experiencing longing, or lust for what she represents because his commitment can not give him both stability and free range.

           One thing that she represents is unrestrained motion. During the poem, this girl he has crossed paths with is constantly in motion. She has “shining legs in the metro”. Shining legs (not matte or rough) conjure up the image of fluidity and aerodynamics. The locations she is depicted in also show her motion – on a metro (a high speed vehicle), on an escalator, on a river flowing towards the sea. Not only is she free, but she is also young and delicate also. In the poem, this can be exemplified by the speaker always referring to her as ‘girl’, not woman, and also his choice of imagery of a flower. A flower is soft, delicate, pretty, and light enough to float on the water. The girl on the metro is what the speaker longs to be, or possess.

           What the speaker most desperately wants to possess freedom. This is because his current relationship has him feeling bound. This is Kvilividze generalizing about love and relationships as a ‘jail cell’-like commitment. Others may feel freed by love returned, but instead he feels tied down to what being a family entails. Kvilividze is commenting in a pessimistic (although possibly very honest) tone that love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Because love takes long hours, and well, it’s work. It is not all passion and romantics – that dies out. And what is left, the poet says, is a ball and chain.

              This point of view is exemplified by  his choice of words. The speaker is ‘crucified to family duties’. Crucifiction is either being killed by having one’s hands and feet nailed to a wooden cross, to be tormented or persecuted, or to be subdued. Therefore, if the speaker is feeling crucified, he feels as if he is either being cruelly toyed with or pushed down. He is bound (quite literally). Furthermore, in contrast to the girl’s mobility, he is always immobile. For example, he ’stood, transfixed, on the platform’. This could mean the platform of the metro, in a literal sense. Alternatively, it could at the dock as the girl floats away. The speaker feels stuck.

         Also, a key piece of imagery is the ending line: “with a shopping bag dangling from my hand…”. This gives a lot of insight into the speaker’s emotions. The shopping bag could represent a dangling shackle, or something else that weighs him to earth. He is weighed down by his commitment to his family. To add, he is not firmly gripping the handle of the shopping bag – it’s merely dangling. This may be another comment on love as a commitment and burden, and also the ease of letting it go. Even he, who it seems has a strong stance on commitment, is just barely hanging on to his commitment.

          ‘In the Metro’ represents a distinct and cynical point of view on love. Mikhail Kvilividze speaks through the poem to say that love is a restraining commitment that is difficult to hold on to, and that forces others to long for what is lost. Even those faithful ones, such as the one in this poem (who is sad when the girl is gone, but is naive enough to not comprehend why), feel the pull of the youthful and free sometimes. And, for Kvilividze, the conundrum is cracked.