The Iron Heel

Another month, another work of classic science fiction ticked off the increasingly stable list. This time, it was Jack London's 1908 (a fact I only learned while researching this post - I guessed it had been written around 20 years later - and one that has given me a new perspective on the book) dystopian novel The Iron Heel.

London sets the book up in the form of a personal account written by an aristocratic woman, Avis, at the turn of the century who falls for an aspiring socialist politician, Ernest Everard - both romantically and for his ideas. This is framed in turn in the perspective of a 27th-century historian who has discovered the manuscript, and is interpreting it in the context of a world where humanity has finally got its collective act together and eradicated social inequality. As sci-fi goes, it's fairly soft, and for the majority it felt a lot more like a political manifesto by London and a speculative prediction of future conflicts.

The book starts slowly, as Ernest sets out his ideology in lengthy detail, always having an answer to any attempts to discredit his plans by the upper class company he finds himself a part of. There's something to be said for his idealistic vision of humanity as one, cooperating for the greater good and sharing wealth rather than a handful of monopolies hoarding it; but at the same time there's just something slightly irritating about the way London has written this character as a kind of socialist superman, immune to criticism and blessed with 20:20 vision for the future. Anyway, Avis is sold on what he says after witnessing first-hand the ways in which the capitalist system of America has failed so many of the working class, and decides to support him in his assault on the political system. When a number of Socialist Party politicians are elected to the senate but then arrested by The Man, the movement becomes a revolution as Avis and Ernest lead the increasingly aggressive charge against the government. The government fights back to protect their own interests (and money) and civil war ensues; at first largely covert, but then increasingly violent. We finally get some actual action in the last couple of chapters, a wonderfully surreal street battle in Chicago between government mercenaries, revolutionary agents and the chaotic blunt force of the rioting underclass.

All in all, I wasn't hugely impressed by this book. It's not long by any standards, but it certainly felt like it - London's writing plodding along as he pontificates through his mouthpiece of Ernest at great length. The futuristic footnotes serve more to interrupt the narrative than to complement it and the ending, while perhaps realistic, was a huge letdown. But as I said earlier, the fact that this was written so long ago does change things - with the hindsight of two world wars and a global economic collapse, it's likely London would have produced a very different book even ten years further down the line.

And it's not as if it's not relevant at all today: in fact, it feels like we're even further away from successfully breaking down the system of corporate influence and self-interest that keeps the poor poor and makes the rich increasingly richer - and that all of the problems that go along with that are far from being solved.

2.5/5

Raging against the machine, vintage style.