re:mote voices: literature

Title: Disco 2000
Editor: Sarah Champion
Publisher: Sceptre

This is the second in a series of anthologies - the first, "Disco Biscuits", was about club/drug culture, which I was not especially interested in. This volume, however, has a common theme of the millennium - each story dealing with different reactions, situations and, in some, a different calendar. While I find myself amused by the millennial tensions of the world and their reflection in fiction, the anthology has the added attraction of stories by Neal Stephenson, Martin Millar and Grant Morrison. In addition we have stories by Pat Cadigan and Paul Di Filippo, both of whom were featured in the highly influential "Mirrorshades: A Cyberpunk Anthology". The anthology features eighteen stories and a poem - all of which are enjoyable.

Particular stories which stand out are those by Pat Cadigan, Nicholas Blincoe, Grant Morrison, Charlie Hall, Steve Aylett, Bill Drummond, Tania Glyde, and Steve Beard. Cadigan's story "Witnessing The Millennium" is the first story in the collection, and it deals with the power of the media. People are disappearing - why? Is it a conspiracy? Or perhaps a publicity stunt for Microsoft ? Or maybe it's the media? A story about this world and what can happen when the media becomes the focus of our existence. When everything is witnessed by the camera how can you not be paranoid?

This is followed by the excellent "An English Astronaut" by Nicholas Blincoe - set in Israel with a background of cultural clashes. Western ravers pouring into places of Christian significance while the Jews and Palestinians form uneasy alliances to defend the places with equal importance to their religions, religions which do not agree with the western calendar. Through this we have the movements of individuals and their own warped interpretations of the millennium. In particular we follow a British man as he carries his vintage record player, an Elizabethan Astronaut, in search for the place to transcend into space, into heaven, in accordance with his studies of numerology. The punch line of this story is smart, and gives the story title its double meaning.

The third story is by Grant Morrison, particularly known for his work in comics - Animal Man, Invisibles, and the especially warped Batman story "Arkham Asylum". My impression of Morrison's work has always been that he is extremely cynical and it tends to show in his work. While sometimes it is too much and may bury redeeming qualities this piece balances well; which isn't to say that cynicism is a bad quality, just a hard one to balance. Similar to Cadigan's, story this one deals with the media - here in the form of advertising and the extreme it may progress to just to get attention. Biting and clever, the story is summed up by the following quote:

"You're all being duped by the capitalist media machine!...avidly consuming the latest meaningless fictions while your own devalued existences are condensed into minute long 'Video Nation' clips on BBC2!"

- shouted from a balcony by a gun wielding executive. Other nice touches include the dwarf "exactly like the one in 'Don't Look Now'" , the random channel surfing function on the TV and the negative sound technology which changes what is said into what you expect to hear.

With Charlie Hall's "Millennium Loop", you'll have seen the type of story before - very Twilight Zone or Future Shock (Strip in cult comic 2000AD). But what makes it interesting is not necessarily the looping time and inevitability of it all - rather it's the contemporary detail; the lifestyle of the nomadic DJ and their desire to retire with a final millennial rave. But even that is too simple a description of a story where all the millennial tensions of your life time are coming to a fretful peak. Philosophical, brooding inevitability - like a "dark spider".

In Steve Aylett's "Gigantic" we have a physicist who makes a startling discovery as to what the future holds. Of course, he is met with derision as he tries to warn the world, and treated like a freak, as summed by the following quote:

"The commentators deemed radical were those going only so far as to question what was being celebrated"

This is a story of all mankind's hurts and denial - all are atrocities to be revisited with the stroke of the millennium, as this tale would have it.

Bill Drummond, most widely known as member of the KLF, gives us a hypothetical excerpt from his diary. In particular the plans of K2 Plant Hire (the KLF's current incarnation) for the new millennium. This ranges from cattle mutilation to plans for Stonehenge. It is as bizarre as one would expect - but it is real, touching and intelligent with it. Dealing with the pressure to succeed, or at least to maintain your status, this is telling and witty. And for those who watch for those things - this story contains the first reference to the number 23, with another four being made through the course of the collection - can you spot them all?

"Pavlov Bitch And Yoga Cow Reach 2000" - an anarchic, erotic, drug frenzy - this story is so fucked up! A work of genius ? A disturbed one perhaps - but then, what better way to be? Tania Glyde provides us with a Britain where all meat has finally been banned for its detrimental effects. Her characters are two crazies on search for beef for an incarcerated friend. Other nice touches are the omnipresence of the web and the inevitable http://www.millennium.riots.co.uk. This piece challenges the accepted narrative style.

It appears that "Retoxicity" is an extract from Steve Beard's forthcoming novel "Digital Leatherette". Set on the 5th of November 2012, significant to the Mayan calendar, we have a chaotic tech story. Ranging from wicker man to digital avatars, this is a piece with rich textural substance. The underlying end result of the story is actually quite similar to Blincoe's "English Astronaut", with both concerned with the transcendence to another level. However the differences are in the means and the purpose. This is an intense piece in a style that I enjoy a lot. Reading this, I feel compelled to seek out the finished novel.

Other stories readers may be looking out for are ones by Neal Stephenson, Poppy Z Brite, Martin Millar, Douglas Copeland and Robert Anton Wilson. Stephenson's "Crunch" is unexpected and disappointing, especially at a mere 7 pages, and deals with a man eating cereal before leaving for an event. Brite's story is a laid back tale of drugs and sex, with undertones of Burroughs and the Millennium Bug, while Millar's story is true to form with "Radiant Flower Of The Divine Heavens", power struggles at the Millennium Bondage Ball; amusing as always. Copeland's story makes us think about the twentieth century and its chemical legacy - where pills solve all problems, but cancer and infertility remain the ultimate threats. For the invisible hand and illuminati fans we have Wilson delivering a strange story of reality, control, and perception; "Dali's Clocks" is an amusing story featuring lines like:

"If you've ever had a seeming-virus that did no real damage but kept coming up at odd moments to incite you to send lasagna to the starving aliens in Area 51 you might - just might - have intersected one of Simon's 'pataphysical invasions of ordinary mindspace."

RVWR: PTR
July 1998