The Sheep Look Up

I've been reading John Brunner's The Sheep Look Up. I can summarize the book by stating that if we continue to create filth, we're going to have to wallow in it...and it's going to suck. Diarrhea. Pestilence. Mutation.

It's impressive it was written in 1972, because it sounds so current - it's as if Brunner expected the world to fall apart in about '82, and we've just been holding on because technology is keeping us afloat. His president, Prexy, even spews GWB aphorisms every few chapters, particularly concerning American incursions into various smaller states.

How resonating is it? Brunner has some parts detailing munitions dumping by the U.S. government off the coasts. Well, that was covered today...

“The Army now admits that it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea, along with 400,000 chemical-filled bombs, land mines and rockets and more than 500 tons of radioactive waste - either tossed overboard or packed into the holds of scuttled vessels.” (via Crooks and Liars).

Wait...looks like munitions in the oceans was covered twice today. Because there are so many of them, they're actually swimming around in 115 year old whales...twice! Poor thing lived for 115 year with an explosive harpoon lodged in it, only to be taken out by another one. I think this goes against everything I ever learned from crappy Star Trek movies based on the original series. I'm pretty sure plugging centenarians with pointy explosives would seriously upset the miles-long whale cylinder.

And Brunner spends a lot of time talking about problems with the Med and Baltic. He talks about how they've become stagnant cesspools. That was in a story I was reading today as well (New Scientist).

Don't worry. It's fiction. It's fiction. Nothing to see. Just keep littering.