Mania, by Lionel Shriver - Ending post


Posted On: Friday - May 3rd 2024 6:06AM MST
In Topics:   Books  Totalitarianism

(Continued from the basic book review - - book criticisms, and author criticisms.)



We gotta do this. I didn't want to give away the ending of Lionel Shriver's newest novel, Mania, but there's no way I can make my point here without doing that. The point is, well, Lionel Shriver just doesn't get it, IT being really important here.

SPOILER ************************************************ SPOILER

The last section of Mania is labeled "Alt-2027". It has 2 chapters, the first describing what's happened to American society since 4 years back, and the second was written to update the readers on the main characters, something most readers would appreciate.

This first section is in a different font to indicate that it was published differently from the book itself, both still in this alt-recent-history and alt-near-future, not reality. The first page has the chapter title "Pearson Converse, Four Years On". Underneath that:
The agent of MP's undoing opposes the very progress she enabled.
Well, yes, this is a hell of a plot twist at the end. Rather than the country having slowly slid into hardcore mental parity D.I.E., incompetence, and likely Communism, the whole deal got reversed. How this whole thing went down is not explained, but we do learn that it was Miss Pearson's epic highly Politically Incorrect anti-MP rant that had gone viral* that was instrumental in the big reversal.

"The rest is history. Not only was I lucky, we've all been lucky. The pendulum has swung back", the writer (Pearson) states. Yeah, OK, if you can believe it was that simple and peaceful, sure, but the narrator is not happy about how far that pendulum has swung. In alt-'27 not only is it OK to use IQ to evaluate people, but that it's mandated... for everything. Your IQ is on your credit card. That is mandated. The "Fitness Proviso" Act just passed mandates all registered voters and candidates for State and Federal office to have IQ's of 115 or higher.

In her regret about this distance the pendulum has swung, Miss Converse, whose opinions I'm sure are those of Lionel Shriver, sees that intelligence alone does not make for good people. Of course.

Does she not see the very basic problem with both the MP madness and then the new opposite program? The key word is "mandate". Lionel Shriver seems to thing that society must be run by government. It's just that government got all Politically Correct / Woke to the point of societal breakdown before and then got Totalitarian to the point of crushing freedom again after the switch. Government must be careful and find a middle path to run society on, she reckons. Has the author never pondered the idea that maybe people can find their own middle path with NO Government direction?

I'm sorry, but this ending has really pissed me off. Lionel Shriver doesn't get freedom. She has obviously been hanging out with Brooklynites for too long, and apparently that's unrecoverable.

Here's a further spoiler for fun: In that last section of the novel, we learn that Pearson Converse doesn't make the 115 IQ voter/candidate cut-off. I wonder if Lionel Shriver would either.

SPOILER ************************************************ SPOILER

I'm not hurting for reading material - there IS the whole internet out there. If I read any more novels from Lionel Shriver, it'd be Big Brother, as recommended by commenter 70sTarheel. However, if, as he informed us, the ending will piss me off, what then? (Not another 4-part review, please!!!)

Alright then, it's still good to have a fairly-well-known writer who speaks about against at least Kung Flu** Totalitarianism and the Wokeness. I'll conclude with what I wrote near the top of the last post. Just because someone seems to have come around and really gets "stuff" now doesn't mean he really gets everything... that I do... and, hey, maybe I could be in the wr ... Nah!


* No, you didn't forget about this from my other review posts - I didn't include that so as not to spoil the ending.

** Oh, you all may be pleased that she included the vaccines in this alt-recent-history story. I'll just say she predicted very ill effects indeed.

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Friday - May 3rd 2024 7:39PM MST
PS: Will someone please RTFB? I'm waiting for Commenter Stretch's opinion, after he finishes it.
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