Customer Reviews

The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica: A Novel

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I've been thinking about this novel lately. Something about reading plenty of William Gibson (COUNT ZERO, MONA LISA OVERDRIVE, BURNING CHROME), and thinking about outcasts of society making their way in a decaying world.

I stumbled up TBOTPROA when researching Antarctica for a stage adaptation of "Who Goes There?" This novel is a dark tale of outcasts, refugees at sea when the world has its 19th nervous breakdown. Drifting south, the narrator finds a new life amongst the ruthless new culture that springs up at the end of the world. Elements of Norse myth and modern chaos recombine under the shadow of a social apocalypse. Intimate and tragic, this is a vision of the end of world that veers off course from expectations. Though I've lost my copy, the story has stuck with me for, what, 14 years or so. That says something -- only about two dozen or so stories are locked away in my psyche. John's is one of them.

It stays in your mind, this book. The birth, life, and death of one Skallagrim Strider, a man touched by the Fates in every way, who come to accept his place in it as the world around him deteriorates. People and wolves, gunboats and war, passion and cannibalism amongst the ice floes of the South Atlantic: they are but products of Nature and Fate. In the end, there is no remorse, no true lingering hate. Everything strange and macabre is really just an ordinary aspect of existence - acceptance of dark tragedy as only the ancient Norse could accept it.

An alternate story of our world, yet a very possible reality. Change the dates forward a few more years again, and it remains a very possible future. Gritty and detailed look at Fate.

Writing from the point of view in the early 80's and fresh from the chaos of the 70's oil crisis Batchelor naturally used this experience to build his world which in SF terms would be classified as a "near future" narrative.

More accurately his book is that rare animal in the XX century a political fiction talking about the issues of freedom and personal responsibility in the face of antiutopian fictions like 1984 or The Brave New World and actual political utopian projects like the Soviet Union or Third Reich.

It is easily recognizable that Batchelor is writing from a Libertarian perspective and that would allow me to label the book as a 'Libertarian fable' however this book is much more.

Taking Sweden in the early 70's as the location of his books beginning the writer appropriates the heritage of Norse mythology and epic poems for his flawed hero and this imagery stays with the reader throughout the book in tone, names and a whole chapter that takes place during a 'berserk' war fury during which the Hero Skallagrim Strider commits many crimes.

However Batchelor posits his crimes against the political crimes of those who convicted not just the hero but millions to a fate worse than his. The metaphor of the 'road to hell is paved with good intentions' is aptly used here.

In the end the Hero is given a sort of a political redemption by becoming a "Republic of one" incarnating the libertarian ideal of personal responsibility and freedom in the wastes of Antarctic islands.

Fascinating read that will stay with you, slightly dated due to the basic premise of a breakdown in world social order by Oil crisis, racism and religious fervour. Otherwise, to the point, asking the most fundamental questions about the political animal-Man.

This book probably shouldn't be classified as science fiction despite its intimations of Future History. It might better be considered a post-modernist novel, focusing on the plight of the Refugee. The first-person protagonist, Grim Fiddle, is the spawn of American expatriates in Scandinavia, post Viet Nam-era, but Batchelor tries to make the point that the Refugee's story is pretty much the same no matter where they come from. Dispossessed from their old land, and never really accepted by their new one, they're never more than one step away from homelessness and disaster. Grim experiences plenty of both, and presumably dishes out as good as he gets, but this novel skips over the scenes of ostensibly brutal violence, instead favoring vague generalities and endless hand-wringing regret over the deeds once they are past. This may suit Batchelor's moral purpose (trying to get us to sympathize with a heartless tyrant) but it makes for a very tedious 400-page book. After endless pages of watching Grim grow up, and the almost continual foreshadowing of great things to come, the event advertised in the book's title doesn't even occur until the last few pages, and even then is utterly anticlimactic. No science, almost no action, no grand sweeping historical context even (we never get to see anything beyond Grim's personal story), no real romance (the feeble attempts at such are never satisfactorily resolved) - given this book's grandiose pretensions, this reviewer felt almost cheated, having expectantly turned all those pages for nothing.

I'd like to second an earlier reviewer about the book being stuck in his psyche- I read it about 7-8 years ago (not as long ago as him :>) and it keeps reappearing in my mind. It's well-written, although at times it can get a bit heavy-going. It's an adventure story, an introduction to Jeremy Bentham's Utilitarianism, a peek at what could happen in the future ( reminded me of Piers Anthony's Orion Rising- another fascinating read, though not as dense as TBOTPROA)and more. I picked it up in the days when I was big science fiction fan, and I'm happy to say that I mistook it for a standarrd sci-fi novel, when it's much, much more than that.

This book is prescient. Written in 1983, it manages to paint a near perfect picture of our world from the 1990s on. A world where the utter contempt - no, complete and total disregard - for the masses is raised to an institutional level. It is an indictment of globalization; the new world order; UN peace-keeping and so forth and so on.

As civilization teeters on collapse, national boundaries are closed with governments doing nothing more than annoucing "Traspassers Will Be Shot!" a group of disaffected malcontents who had lived on the fringe even in the good times undertake a voyage to escape a glorious socialism that excludes all but a select few. What begins as a voyage of salvation rapidly becomes a journey rivaling Dante's descent in to Hell. The group - idealistic anarchists who are joined by extended family members and an opportunist in the guise of "the clear thinker," sail from from Sweden west and south, eventually arriving in Antartica. The trip sees them pass through the Baltic, the English Channel and out into the Atlantic. Along the way, they are assailed by various forces and threats; all of which treat xenophobia as a normal state.

Their final destination is reached only after a brief sojourn on South Georgia Island. This halt - at what may be the last place on the planet where life is normal - ends abruptly when the rot of jealousy and corruption overtakes them. Moving on, they land in Antartica, which they find has become the dumping ground for the perceived riff-raff of the world. It is nothing less than a vast concentration camp administered by presumably earnest charities and aggressively pragmatic governments operating under the notion that liberal and progressive words can mask what is really underway. It is here that Grim Fiddle - the leader of the group - moves into the forefront of a rebellion that is more a response to certain death than political motivation.

Quarter is not asked nor given. It appears - as combatants change sides at will and massacres are the standard - that no one has any firm beliefs they are defending. Instead, it is anarchy at the literal and figurative end of the world. When Grim Fiddle tricks hundreds into staying in an ice cave rather than seeking shelter, he is - in point of fact - representing exactly what the world had done in Dafur, in Somalia, in Tibet, in Uganda, in Syria...namely nothing. Eventually, Fiddle is betrayed by those most close to him and a sham entity, The Peoples' Republic of Antartica is established. This bastard creation - birthed and led by the aforementioned clear think - a man so twisted in his view of the world that he comes across as Gollum in the body of Tom Keefer from The Caine Mutiny - provides something with which the so-called civlized world can negotiate. And so, Fiddle - now the scapegoat for all that has occurred before, during and after his participation - bears the full and sole brunt of punishment for the world's misdeed. He is imprisoned for life. But, in the end, the "perpetrator" of these heinous crimes is simply let go because the so-called civilized world, the so-called intellectuals, the so called progressive thinkers are simply too weary from their own self-absorbed indulgent beliefs in forgiveness to do anything else.

Long and sometimes slow moving, but the reader will be rewarded with a wild, exciting fantasy about a land and time that will stay in his or her mind. A very rich detail that puts you in the place of it's characters in a way few of books I read have done. Highly recommended.

This is well written, but I can not recommend it. I should say that there are many parts that have the flashes of brilliance, and other sections that remain confusing and contradictory. Perhaps some might say this is because it is all told in the first person, the ravings of a mad man. Perhaps it is that I simply don't want to read the ravings of a mad man.

The title belies the text. The People's Republic of Antarctica itself is no more than a footnote- it more is the story of the life of Grim Fiddle, taking place mostly on the Atlantic Ocean in various places. I enjoyed the descriptions of life on the waves, for I enjoy the waters of the deep. But I picked up the text hoping to hear about a Republic in Antarctica, as there is so little future history or imaginations that continent. Instead we follow Grim as he lives in Norse legend from his birth in Scandinavia as an American-Swede, down the length of the Atlantic Ocean to the Falklands and other islands of the South. Throughout there is portent of greatness about Grim, and one expects much to come out of it. One ends up with disappointment.

This tale is dark, and one keeps hoping for some Joy, some recompense, but the desire are stifled. Yes, it goes in places you would not expect, and I commend Batchelor for his work and effort in that regard, and in others. But the lines between what one expects and what one ultimately receives are not clearly drawn. It may well be the revelation of the mind of a mass-murderer- but if so, we the readers come to identify and relate to a Grim, in his first thirty years, and he suddenly becomes an evil man and destroyer of peoples. Yes, there are some glimmers of this earlier on, but there truly is no transition to this change- you are suddenly presented with the new Grim, and the only explanation is a confused interlude tale told in epic Nordic style.

But I speak too harshly of this book. For Batchelor truly opens up the mind of the man, Grim. You move with him and the events that occurred. And it is a harsh tale, but realistic, of the depths of depravity of man. There is much to be said on the question of what *will* we do with all the refugees, the huddled masses on our teeming shores, that increase year after year in this new century.

I hold this against the story: it is told as confessional, but without real remorse. Better yet, there is remorse, but not real anguish, nor the repentance that can be seen in renewed Hope. It is depression, and I declare that depression is not Reality- Hope is present, and is powerful. The author would fashion in one's mind a falsehood that rings of Truth.

If this review was at all confusing, it was told in the same style as the book.

As the novel begins, we encounter a group of bohemian ex-patriots in Stockholm. The men, draft-dodgers, speak frequently and disparagingly of Nixon. When one of them goes mad and attacks a conventional and successful acquaintance, it seems the author may be blaming the lifestyle for the act. Those who follow the rules attend banquets and galas, those who don't go to prison.

As a charming addition, the females of the protagonist's circle are mentioned not by name, but by physical trait nicknames: Sly Eyes, Lace Cuffs and the like. This seems both contrived and dehumanizing.

The tale then segues into a condemnation of Utilitarianism, a philosophy favored by liberals. Sweden dissolves into a maelstrom of ethnic cleansing, and becomes The Evangelical Republic of Sweden. What follows (war, prison break, escape, etc.) is amazingly boring; as if the author's previous occupation was writing economics texts. The characters are flat, and I simply did not care what might become of them.

Life is short. Read something else.