Moxyland Is A Good Book

Or why you should read Moxyland
by Lauren Beukes

Moxyland is a novel set in a dystopian, near future Cape Town, South Africa. The novel follows four young adults as they try and navigate a landscape dictated by corporations, militarized police, connectivity, pervasive advertisement, surveillance and runaway technology. Kendra is a young photographer interested in using analog film in a digital era who offers herself up as an experimental test subject in return for lucrative corporate sponsorship. Lerato is a ruthless corporate ladder climber and computer programmer who is willing to do anything to get promoted and maintain her cushy corporate lifestyle. Tendeka is an activist who sees the social injustice around him and wants to help, but he needs money for his projects and has a problem with his temper. Toby, the trust-fund baby of wealthy parents, spends his time having fun and broadcasting "The Diary of Cunt", his lifeblog, in hopes of fame, fortune, and better drugs. Moxyland examines how these characters live in a world shaped by some of our most alarming social trends and whether they can survive when a cyberterrorist mastermind sets their sights on Cape Town.

Moxyland is maybe the novel that best captures the economic realities of being a Millenial. Reading this book as a late 20-something trying to suss out the career path that will take turn my passions into a financially viable reality, I am struck by just how much I see that struggle reflected in the pages of the novel. It already seems that some toxic mix of technology, income inequality, corporate personhood, runaway capitalism, and democratic failure is already restricting the economic opportunities of my contemporaries. I already know Kendras who have had to abandon artistic pursuits or sold out their creativity to corporations or sponsorships just to keep making. I know Leratos who have leveraged their education and skills for corporate gigs that pay well but ultimately absorb their lives and make them part of the system. I know Tendekas who are appalled at social injustice and who have fucked off the grid to become professional protestors and activists. I know Tobys who have decided the whole fucking thing is a scam and decided to live life for the fun of it any way they can. And now I'm left here after reading Moxyland trying to figure out which one of the characters I want to be or already am, and if I am ultimately just as fucked as they all are. 

I would recommend Moxyland to just about everyone. It is a really well written and darkly fascinating book with memorable characters in an interesting setting; it's great from a pure reading experience and I had trouble putting it down. If you are like me, a young adult ruminating on career prospects and the worrying trends of our governments, Moxyland is the dystopian mirror world of our reality. It's everything that makes me wonder how the fuck I'll ever raise kids in this world turned just the tiniest bit up. It's kind of an important read. If you are an older person, maybe in marketing, trying to figure out why Millenials aren't buying cars or whatever, Moxyland is a pretty good peek into our economic nihilism. Basically, I think Moxyland really captures everything horrible about today and posits a plausible tomorrow, and if you are at all interested in being ready for it, I'd read this book.

Previously:
Zoo City

Zoo City Is A Good Book

Or why you should read Zoo City
by Lauren Beukes

Zoo City is a supernatural noir novel set in Johannesburg. In the world of Zoo City people culpable of something terrible are cursed with an animal as a physical embodiment of their guilt. These animals are spiritually tethered to the guilty person who cannot stand being away from them. Worse if the guilt-animals die, their humans are killed by a mysterious black force called the Undertow. The combination of beastly guilt stigmata and looming hellish demise leads to the "Animalled" or "Zoos" to be largely ostracized by their society. However, the guilt-animals do come with a gift, granting their owners supernatural talents which can sometimes make the Animalled valuable. Zinzi December is a recovering drug addict and ex-convict who has been animalled to a sloth. The sloth gives Zinzi the ability to find lost things, which allows her make a modest living hunting for lost trinkets and keys, but absolutely not, under no circumstances, missing people. However, when a tween pop sensation goes missing, Zinzi is offered enough to escape her drug debt to find her. But when you go looking for something missing in Johannesberg sometimes all you find is trouble.

Zoo City is a great book. It has all of the atmosphere and pomp of the best pulp detective stories, but with the added spice of the complicated cultural milieu of urban South Africa. It's a novel that definitely presents a great, gritty mystery and a great urban fantasy premise, but which is ultimately more interesting for how it explores these premises in the unfamiliar and interesting world of Johannesburg. Zoo City is also significant for the way it explores social exclusion. The way animalled people, with their guilt talismans, are exiled form society is a brilliant metaphor for how criminals, the poor, drug addicts, sex workers, and the misunderstood are ignored and rejected by population for their perceived misbehaviour. Which is a universal human problem worth thinking more about. I mean, Zoo City is definitely an exciting and stylish noir story, but it's also got a substantial and socially conscious core. It's, well, a great book.

I would recommend Zoo City to just about anyone. Some grown up stuff happens, so I might limit the rec' to mature readers, but if you are a grownup person this is a book you ought to check out. It is accessible, entertaining, and tense while still dealing with big important themes. I had trouble putting down both as a story and as a smart exploration of themes. Zoo City is also just very different from any other book I've read: it has a perspective quite different than what you usually encounter in English genre fiction. I think you'll really enjoy it.