Bug Jack Barron
Encyclopedia
Bug Jack Barron is a 1969 science fiction
novel written by Norman Spinrad
, and was nominated for the 1970 Hugo
awards.
The book was serialised in the British New Wave science fiction magazine New Worlds
during Michael Moorcock
's editorship. Its explicit language and cynical attitude toward politicians, as well as the fact that the magazine was partially funded by the British Arts Council
, angered British Members of Parliament. Jennie Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge, then head of the Arts Council, successfully defended the book. Later, it was banned by W. H. Smith, a major British chain of bookstores. Feminist typesetters at New Worlds rejected the story as sexist.
The future world portrayed in this book is chaotic and self regulating, and Spinrad shows a future where greater freedom allows interaction via electronic democracy to bring about good results.
Jack Barron is appalled to hear this and makes several live calls using his studio Vidphone to hear all sides of Mr. Johnson's claim. He first calls Benedict Howards, but soon finds out that he is unavailable, and must speak with John Yarborough, Public Relations Director for the Foundation. Barron quickly dismisses Yarborough's counter claims, and moves on to the Governor of Mississippi, Lukas Greene. The Governor feels the Foundation is not only racist, but destined to abuse rights of one kind or another if they succeed in getting their Freezer Utility Bill through Congress. Should the bill pass, the Foundation would gain monopoly status. To stop this injustice, Greene supports a Public Freezer system, open to all Americans.
Hoping not to anger the FCC (influenced by Benedict Howards and his supporters in Congress), Barron calls Senator Theodore Hennering, a supporter of Benedict Howards and his Freezer Utility bill. However, even though Barron gives the Senator ample chance to defend the Foundation and the Utility bill, the Senator appears nervous and does a very poor job convincing Barron and his audience that the Foundation is not a racist organization.
The following day, Howards visits Jack in his office. They exchange casual threats to destroy each other, after which Howards requests Jack's support for his Freezer Utility bill in congress. Jack is insulted by this and refuses, but Howards continues by offering Jack a free Freezer Contract and immortal life. Though tempted, Jack refuses the bribe. Howards gives Jack more time to think about it, and leaves Jack to consider the offer.
Howards later meets with his head of Personnel Research to find information on Jack Barron that can be exploited. From that meeting, Howards deduces that Jack and Sara (his ex-wife) are still in love. He decides to exploit that relation to his benefit. Sara is then called to Howards’ office, where he offers her a free Freezer contract, if she can get Jack to agree to the bribe. Sara is appalled by this. As part of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), she despises Benedict Howards, but suddenly considers that it might work in her favor. Her plan is to tell Jack that Howards coerced her into service. That fact would infuriate Jack enough to destroy Howards, and allow them to rekindle their relation. Back together, Sara dreams about being frozen together with Jack for eternity.
Upon waking up the next morning, Jack Barron receives a call from the Governor of California, Gregory Morris. To Jack's utter surprise, Morris suggests that Jack consider running as the next President of the United States. By having Jack as a candidate, Morris hopes to unify the SJC and the Republican party on a single political platform. He feels this is the only way to win against the Democratic party, even though he personally finds Jack and the SJC repulsive. Jack turns down the offer, in a derogatory manner. Even though Jack and Morris trade insults, Morris tells Jack to consider the offer.
After the call, Jack immediately contacts his friend Lukas, and blips to him a recording of his conversation with Morris. To Jack’s horror, Lukas actually likes the idea because he too sees the goal envisioned by Morris, and thinks Jack will be more than just a figurehead President.
Jack then gets a call from Sara. She begs him to forgive her. He is shocked to hear this at first, but soon agrees to come over, leaving his current girlfriend (who had been with him all night) in tears. Once he arrives at Sara’s apartment in the East Village, the two argue about why they broke up. But they soon make up, and Sara throws herself at Jack. Together again, they return to his penthouse apartment, where Jack hopes to impress her. To some degree, Sara is an idealist (still like the girl she was in college) and is not impressed with the wealth that Jack has amassed as a celebrity. However, her plan to be reunited for eternity with Jack makes her tolerate the situation. They make love a second time.
During his next show, Jack brings on Ms. Dolores Pulaski, a woman distraught because her father is dying of terminal cancer. She begs Jack to get her father into a Freezer so he can one day be cured and live forever. Jack immediately calls Benedict Howards, who ends up appearing insensitive on TV. During the commercial break, Howards is furious but concedes to Jack’s previous demands, as long as Jack allows him to save face. They agree to discuss things later in private.
The next day, Howards visits Jacks office and demands Jack support the Utility Freezer Bill in exchange for a Freezer contract. But Jack doesn’t trust Howards, and gets him to admit that his foundation has discovered an immortality treatment. Howards then agrees to give the same treatment to Jack and Sara, but Jack thinks Howards is still hiding something. He asks to know more about the treatment, but Howards refuses. In the end, Jack won’t sign, so Howards gives Jack 24 hours to think things over.
While Jack is on his way home, Sara receives a call from Howards. He reminds her that she must convince Jack to sign. This angers Sara, and makes her feel guilty about keeping secrets. When Jack returns home, she admits about being coerced, but asks to be forgiven. With a mutual confession of love, Jack and Sara commit to ruining Howards.
The next day, Howards visits Jack again with new contracts for both Jack and Sara to sign. The new contracts don’t only guarantee being frozen, but also allow the beneficiary to receive a treatment for immortality. Howards gloats to himself about finally trapping Jack and Sara. However, Jack cannot see any downside and agrees with Sara to sign. Howards then desperately attempts to get Jack and Sara to receive their treatment immediately, but Jack puts it off and offers instead a cooling off period. Sara though, cannot understand why they should wait.
Early morning the next day, Jack receives a call from Madge Hennering, the wife of the late congressman who supported Howards. Very distraught, she tells Jack that her late husband had a big fight with Howards, just prior to his death. She is convinced her husband found out something horrible about the Foundation, and was killed by Howards to stop him from whistle blowing. She begs Jack to help, but he simply scoffs off the whole thing.
On the next broadcast of “Bug Jack Barron” a man named Henry George Franklin calls in and complains that he sold his young daughter to some wealthy men for $500,000. Even though the men promised to provide his daughter with a better life, Henry claims he was duped, and wants Jack to help him get his daughter back. Jack finds Mr. Franklin’s plea contemptible, and quickly cuts him off. Jack felt the show wasn’t very good, but changes his mind after a call soon arrives from Howards. Howards is furious that Franklin was on the show, and threatens Jack to stop threatening him, and follow orders. Jack doesn’t understand why Henry George Franklin threatens Howards, but Jack get’s angered and tells Howards to back off.
Intrigued by Howards reaction, Jack flys down to Evers Mississippi in search of Franklin. Jack was hoping to go alone and keep a low profile, but his plans are ruined by Lukas Greene, who stages a political rally at the airport as a prelude to Jack’s presidential run. Jack is upset but leaves the airport with Lukas by limo, where Jack accuses Greene of selling out. Greene doesn’t listen, and reminds Jack that he is a good man, and can help the country by running for President.
Unwilling to meet Franklin at the Governor’s mansion, Jack goes to see Franklin in a restaurant located in a low income neighborhood. Franklin is happy to see Jack, but Jack finds Franklin just as contemptible in person. Still, there is a mystery about the whole incident, and Barron agrees to help somehow. They start by walking to Governor’s mansion when a sniper kills Franklin. Jack survives after a near miss, and is saved by the local police. Jack tells the police he doesn’t know who tried to kill him, but quickly deduces that Benedict Howards must have been behind the shooting. With that assumption, Jack realizes that the Foundation must also be responsible for buying Franklin’s daughter. Jack later confirms his suspicion by using computer records to search for other children who have gone missing.
Upon his return home, Jack shares all his suspicions with Sara. They both assume Howards is responsible for the deaths of Hennering and Franklin. In addition, Jack believes the Foundation is buying young black children for some reason. To get to the bottom of the mystery, Jack unveils a plan. He and Sara will receive their immortality treatment, and make Howards think he really has them trapped. Then when Howards admits to all his crimes, Jack will use a miniphone to record the confession. Sara agrees, and is impressed by Jack risk-taking attitude. The two celebrate by having oral sex.
In 1992, The New York Times
noted that in Jack Barron, "Norman Spinrad created the talk-show host as powerful public-opinion maker."
gave the novel a mixed review, describing it as "a good book, and excellent idea and fair piece of writing." Budrys faulted the central science-fictional device as "absolute nonsense," saying that Spinrad "did not care enough about credibility to even be graceful," and noted that "Spinrad often uses representations of things, rather than the things themselves, and this doesn't always work. Still, he concluded, BJB "is a flawed but acceptable telling of a magnificent story, a representation of nobility, one might say, with a Mickey Mouse ending. Joanna Russ
, however, found BJB to be "a bad book [where] the author is not in control of his material, but is in the process of being smothered by it. She faulted Spinrad's writing style ("Everybody talks like everybody else"), his plotting ("a novel of political intrigue ought to have an intelligible intrigue in it"), and characterization (the main antagonist is "only a villain-shaped hole crammed with super-high-gear prose"), concluding that BJB was a "romantic, half-innocent, youthfully bouncy, exasperatingly schlocky and ultimately silly book."
, Allan Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac
.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel written by Norman Spinrad
Norman Spinrad
Norman Richard Spinrad is an American science fiction author.Born in New York City, Spinrad is a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science. In 1957 he entered City College of New York and graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Science degree as a pre-law major. In 1966 he moved to San Francisco,...
, and was nominated for the 1970 Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
awards.
The book was serialised in the British New Wave science fiction magazine New Worlds
New Worlds (magazine)
New Worlds was a British science fiction magazine which was first published professionally in 1946. For 25 years it was widely considered the leading science fiction magazine in Britain, publishing 201 issues up to 1971...
during Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
's editorship. Its explicit language and cynical attitude toward politicians, as well as the fact that the magazine was partially funded by the British Arts Council
Arts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
, angered British Members of Parliament. Jennie Lee, Baroness Lee of Asheridge, then head of the Arts Council, successfully defended the book. Later, it was banned by W. H. Smith, a major British chain of bookstores. Feminist typesetters at New Worlds rejected the story as sexist.
Plot introduction
The story takes place in the not too distant future where an exploitative talk-show host Jack Barron gradually uncovers a conspiracy concerning an immortality treatment and the methods used in that treatment.The future world portrayed in this book is chaotic and self regulating, and Spinrad shows a future where greater freedom allows interaction via electronic democracy to bring about good results.
Plot summary
The Bug Jack Barron show begins Wednesday evening with a call from Rufus W. Johnson, who claims that the Foundation for Human Immortality refused to accept his assets as payment for a Freezer contract. Rufus accuses the Foundation of being a racist organization, unwilling to offer Freezer contracts to an African-Americans even if they have the $50,000 required payment.Jack Barron is appalled to hear this and makes several live calls using his studio Vidphone to hear all sides of Mr. Johnson's claim. He first calls Benedict Howards, but soon finds out that he is unavailable, and must speak with John Yarborough, Public Relations Director for the Foundation. Barron quickly dismisses Yarborough's counter claims, and moves on to the Governor of Mississippi, Lukas Greene. The Governor feels the Foundation is not only racist, but destined to abuse rights of one kind or another if they succeed in getting their Freezer Utility Bill through Congress. Should the bill pass, the Foundation would gain monopoly status. To stop this injustice, Greene supports a Public Freezer system, open to all Americans.
Hoping not to anger the FCC (influenced by Benedict Howards and his supporters in Congress), Barron calls Senator Theodore Hennering, a supporter of Benedict Howards and his Freezer Utility bill. However, even though Barron gives the Senator ample chance to defend the Foundation and the Utility bill, the Senator appears nervous and does a very poor job convincing Barron and his audience that the Foundation is not a racist organization.
The following day, Howards visits Jack in his office. They exchange casual threats to destroy each other, after which Howards requests Jack's support for his Freezer Utility bill in congress. Jack is insulted by this and refuses, but Howards continues by offering Jack a free Freezer Contract and immortal life. Though tempted, Jack refuses the bribe. Howards gives Jack more time to think about it, and leaves Jack to consider the offer.
Howards later meets with his head of Personnel Research to find information on Jack Barron that can be exploited. From that meeting, Howards deduces that Jack and Sara (his ex-wife) are still in love. He decides to exploit that relation to his benefit. Sara is then called to Howards’ office, where he offers her a free Freezer contract, if she can get Jack to agree to the bribe. Sara is appalled by this. As part of the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), she despises Benedict Howards, but suddenly considers that it might work in her favor. Her plan is to tell Jack that Howards coerced her into service. That fact would infuriate Jack enough to destroy Howards, and allow them to rekindle their relation. Back together, Sara dreams about being frozen together with Jack for eternity.
Upon waking up the next morning, Jack Barron receives a call from the Governor of California, Gregory Morris. To Jack's utter surprise, Morris suggests that Jack consider running as the next President of the United States. By having Jack as a candidate, Morris hopes to unify the SJC and the Republican party on a single political platform. He feels this is the only way to win against the Democratic party, even though he personally finds Jack and the SJC repulsive. Jack turns down the offer, in a derogatory manner. Even though Jack and Morris trade insults, Morris tells Jack to consider the offer.
After the call, Jack immediately contacts his friend Lukas, and blips to him a recording of his conversation with Morris. To Jack’s horror, Lukas actually likes the idea because he too sees the goal envisioned by Morris, and thinks Jack will be more than just a figurehead President.
Jack then gets a call from Sara. She begs him to forgive her. He is shocked to hear this at first, but soon agrees to come over, leaving his current girlfriend (who had been with him all night) in tears. Once he arrives at Sara’s apartment in the East Village, the two argue about why they broke up. But they soon make up, and Sara throws herself at Jack. Together again, they return to his penthouse apartment, where Jack hopes to impress her. To some degree, Sara is an idealist (still like the girl she was in college) and is not impressed with the wealth that Jack has amassed as a celebrity. However, her plan to be reunited for eternity with Jack makes her tolerate the situation. They make love a second time.
During his next show, Jack brings on Ms. Dolores Pulaski, a woman distraught because her father is dying of terminal cancer. She begs Jack to get her father into a Freezer so he can one day be cured and live forever. Jack immediately calls Benedict Howards, who ends up appearing insensitive on TV. During the commercial break, Howards is furious but concedes to Jack’s previous demands, as long as Jack allows him to save face. They agree to discuss things later in private.
The next day, Howards visits Jacks office and demands Jack support the Utility Freezer Bill in exchange for a Freezer contract. But Jack doesn’t trust Howards, and gets him to admit that his foundation has discovered an immortality treatment. Howards then agrees to give the same treatment to Jack and Sara, but Jack thinks Howards is still hiding something. He asks to know more about the treatment, but Howards refuses. In the end, Jack won’t sign, so Howards gives Jack 24 hours to think things over.
While Jack is on his way home, Sara receives a call from Howards. He reminds her that she must convince Jack to sign. This angers Sara, and makes her feel guilty about keeping secrets. When Jack returns home, she admits about being coerced, but asks to be forgiven. With a mutual confession of love, Jack and Sara commit to ruining Howards.
The next day, Howards visits Jack again with new contracts for both Jack and Sara to sign. The new contracts don’t only guarantee being frozen, but also allow the beneficiary to receive a treatment for immortality. Howards gloats to himself about finally trapping Jack and Sara. However, Jack cannot see any downside and agrees with Sara to sign. Howards then desperately attempts to get Jack and Sara to receive their treatment immediately, but Jack puts it off and offers instead a cooling off period. Sara though, cannot understand why they should wait.
Early morning the next day, Jack receives a call from Madge Hennering, the wife of the late congressman who supported Howards. Very distraught, she tells Jack that her late husband had a big fight with Howards, just prior to his death. She is convinced her husband found out something horrible about the Foundation, and was killed by Howards to stop him from whistle blowing. She begs Jack to help, but he simply scoffs off the whole thing.
On the next broadcast of “Bug Jack Barron” a man named Henry George Franklin calls in and complains that he sold his young daughter to some wealthy men for $500,000. Even though the men promised to provide his daughter with a better life, Henry claims he was duped, and wants Jack to help him get his daughter back. Jack finds Mr. Franklin’s plea contemptible, and quickly cuts him off. Jack felt the show wasn’t very good, but changes his mind after a call soon arrives from Howards. Howards is furious that Franklin was on the show, and threatens Jack to stop threatening him, and follow orders. Jack doesn’t understand why Henry George Franklin threatens Howards, but Jack get’s angered and tells Howards to back off.
Intrigued by Howards reaction, Jack flys down to Evers Mississippi in search of Franklin. Jack was hoping to go alone and keep a low profile, but his plans are ruined by Lukas Greene, who stages a political rally at the airport as a prelude to Jack’s presidential run. Jack is upset but leaves the airport with Lukas by limo, where Jack accuses Greene of selling out. Greene doesn’t listen, and reminds Jack that he is a good man, and can help the country by running for President.
Unwilling to meet Franklin at the Governor’s mansion, Jack goes to see Franklin in a restaurant located in a low income neighborhood. Franklin is happy to see Jack, but Jack finds Franklin just as contemptible in person. Still, there is a mystery about the whole incident, and Barron agrees to help somehow. They start by walking to Governor’s mansion when a sniper kills Franklin. Jack survives after a near miss, and is saved by the local police. Jack tells the police he doesn’t know who tried to kill him, but quickly deduces that Benedict Howards must have been behind the shooting. With that assumption, Jack realizes that the Foundation must also be responsible for buying Franklin’s daughter. Jack later confirms his suspicion by using computer records to search for other children who have gone missing.
Upon his return home, Jack shares all his suspicions with Sara. They both assume Howards is responsible for the deaths of Hennering and Franklin. In addition, Jack believes the Foundation is buying young black children for some reason. To get to the bottom of the mystery, Jack unveils a plan. He and Sara will receive their immortality treatment, and make Howards think he really has them trapped. Then when Howards admits to all his crimes, Jack will use a miniphone to record the confession. Sara agrees, and is impressed by Jack risk-taking attitude. The two celebrate by having oral sex.
Characters
- Jack Barron - Protagonist and host of the talk show named Bug Jack Barron. Prior to this, he was politically active in the Social Justice Coalition.
- Benedict Howards - Antagonist of the book. He is the President and Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Human Immortality, a private corporation that owns a monopoly on all cryogenic freezing in the United States.
- Lukas Greene - An old political friend of Jack and the Social Justice Governor of Mississippi. He is against the Foundation for Human Immortality because it promotes racial discrimination.
- Sara Westerfeld - Barron's ex-wife. They met at Berkeley, and were politically active in the SJC before getting married. Sara divorced Jack two years after he became a TV star.
Concepts
- Vidphone - A video telephone. Allows callers to both speak and see each other on a small screen. The Jack Barron Show makes heavy use of this to get various speakers to face each other and debate.
- Blip - High speed data transfer of a vidphone recording. Done by speeding up synchronized tape reels, on both the sender and receiver ends of a call.
- Acapulco Golds - Legal form of marijuana commercially sold in the United States.
- Freezer Complex - A building or location run by the Foundation for Human Immortality. Customers have their body stored using cryonicsCryonicsCryonics is the low-temperature preservation of humans and animals who can no longer be sustained by contemporary medicine, with the hope that healing and resuscitation may be possible in the future. Cryopreservation of people or large animals is not reversible with current technology...
, hoping to be restored to life when medical technology is sufficiently advanced. - Social Justice Coalition - A political party founded by Jack Barron, and stands on a platform of civil rights. It is largely supported by African-Americans, and is strong in the southern states. It becomes the target of manipulation by the Republican party which is trying to regain power via a coalition with the SJC.
- Miniphone - A small mobile phone that communicates via a network of local radio relays and communication satellites.
In 1992, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
noted that in Jack Barron, "Norman Spinrad created the talk-show host as powerful public-opinion maker."
Reception
Algis BudrysAlgis Budrys
Algis Budrys was a Lithuanian-American science fiction author, editor, and critic. He was also known under the pen names "Frank Mason", "Alger Rome", "John A. Sentry", "William Scarff", and "Paul Janvier."-Biography:...
gave the novel a mixed review, describing it as "a good book, and excellent idea and fair piece of writing." Budrys faulted the central science-fictional device as "absolute nonsense," saying that Spinrad "did not care enough about credibility to even be graceful," and noted that "Spinrad often uses representations of things, rather than the things themselves, and this doesn't always work. Still, he concluded, BJB "is a flawed but acceptable telling of a magnificent story, a representation of nobility, one might say, with a Mickey Mouse ending. Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ
Joanna Russ was an American writer, academic and feminist. She is the author of a number of works of science fiction, fantasy and feminist literary criticism such as How to Suppress Women's Writing, as well as a contemporary novel, On Strike Against God, and one children's book, Kittatinny...
, however, found BJB to be "a bad book [where] the author is not in control of his material, but is in the process of being smothered by it. She faulted Spinrad's writing style ("Everybody talks like everybody else"), his plotting ("a novel of political intrigue ought to have an intelligible intrigue in it"), and characterization (the main antagonist is "only a villain-shaped hole crammed with super-high-gear prose"), concluding that BJB was a "romantic, half-innocent, youthfully bouncy, exasperatingly schlocky and ultimately silly book."
Literary style
A striking feature of the novel is its lyrical style and unique use of cut-up phrases. In this regard, Spinrad himself has talked about the influence of Beat writers William S. BurroughsWilliam S. Burroughs
William Seward Burroughs II was an American novelist, poet, essayist and spoken word performer. A primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author, he is considered to be "one of the most politically trenchant, culturally influential, and innovative artists of the 20th...
, Allan Ginsberg, and Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
.
See also
- Sex and sexuality in speculative fiction
- Political ideas in science fictionPolitical ideas in science fictionThe exploration of politics in science fiction is arguably older than the identification of the genre. One of the earliest works of modern science fiction, H. G...
External links
- Norman Spinrad's official website
- Norman Spinrad's blog
- 1999 Locus Magazine interview
- SFF Beats at SFF Net
- Official ebook edition including video commercial for Acapulco Golds