Get ready for Armageddon.... (This Other Eden - Ben Elton)

Name: gillyman

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Product:	This Other Eden - Ben Elton
Date:	25/11/03 (211 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Biting satire, amusing

Disadvantages: more complex than usual

My earliest exposure to Ben Elton came in the days when he was writing scripts for Blackadder. I subsequently caught his earlier stuff when The Young Ones was repeated (a more common occurrence than you might think), then followed him through his stand up days as The Man from Auntie.

In addition to his TV appearances, Ben has written plays, musicals and novels. Michael Parkinson described him as "a bit of a clever clogs" and he certainly has a point! Multi talented and seemingly highly successful in pretty much everything he turns his hand to.

Elton's writing tends to resemble an extended version of his stand up routines; he takes an issue, generally something which interests society as a whole and lampoons it, creating a story full of satire and concepts stretched to as great a degree as possible. Those of his novels that I have read have a good laugh at the expense of; Big Brother (Dead Famous); movie violence and its effect on society (Popcorn); and Drugs (High Society). In each case, Elton takes common arguments that he considers spurious and shows just how ridiculous they are. His use of the English language is superb and his observations are so sharp that they should have some sort of warning or protective device - satire of the highest quality.

Despite, or perhaps because I have read a few of Elton's books I was unprepared for what awaited me in This Other Eden, one of his earlier novels which I recently picked up on one of my regular forays into second-hand-book-land.

The theme of the book is the pending doom towards which our planet seems to be hurtling if the marketing prose is to be believed. Set somewhere not too far off in the future, Elton introduces us to a polluted world in which it is not safe to wander around without some sort of protection from the environment. A show down between the environmentalists who are somehow always on hand whenever an environmental disaster takes place, and those wh

o would most profit from the world going down the tubes; the inventors and marketers of the Claustrosphere, a sealed dome in which people can survive the holocaust is imminent.

The Claustrosphere, modern versions of which have their own rain cycle, mountain ranges and tennis courts, has been marketed so cleverly that now anyone who is anyone has access to either a private or municipal version. The environmentalists, led by Jurgen Thor, see this as giving up on the planet and getting ready for the "rat race" - the day when everyone will have to head down into their private shelters. Instead, they argue, people should be doing much more to save the planet.

Plastic Tolstoy, the man behind the Claustrosphere seems determined to convince people that the world is coming to a speedy end by any means necessary to insure increased sales of his product. Environmental disasters seem to be helping his cause and something smells a little fishy to say the very least.

Of all of his novels that I have read this is the one where the satire is most biting and the characters the most ridiculous at justifying their actions. At certain points I felt that he was paying a tribute to Catch 22 by stretching the bounds of credibility to the furthest possible degree. As a result I found it a little difficult to keep track of the characters, the logic that drove them and the subsequent twists in the tale.

Although not as laughing-out-loud funny as his other books, here too, Elton takes a subject which is central to society, sets up the arguments that are used by the large industrial concerns and lets rip with a good volley from his pen. Both sides of the argument come under fire, particularly as he suggests that each side serves the interest of their other in advancing their message.

This is not Elton's most enjoyable, nor his most accessible novel. He is certainly worth reading however and as a wordsmith and satirist there are v
ery fe
w authors who can touch him. Get your hands on Dead Famous first but make a note that this is worth a look too.

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