Make Room! Make Room!
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| Author | Harry Harrison |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Penguin |
| Released | 1966 |
Make Room! Make Room! is a 1966 science fiction novel written by Harry Harrison, and later used as the basis for the 1973 science fiction movie Soylent Green (although the movie changed the plot and theme).
The fast paced thriller is set in a future 1999, beginning in August. Its background theme extrapolates trends in the proportion of world resources used by the USA and of population growth to depict a world where the global population is seven billion, resulting in rampant over-crowding, shortages and a crumbling infrastructure. The plot jumps from character to character, describing the lifestyles of people in various walks of life in a sweltering New York City (population around 35 million) resembling the worst slums of India.
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[edit] Plot summary
Andy, an overworked police detective, lives in half a room; on the other side of the thin partition he chats to his "room-mate" Sol, a retired ex army engineer whose adapted bicycle generator powers an old television and a fridge. After Andy queues for their water ration, he is called out and becomes involved in dealing with a riot caused by the rumor spreading that a shop has soylent (soya and lentil) steaks in stock. Billy, a desperately poor Chinese boy, grabs a box of the steaks and after eating three, sells the rest for enough D's (dollars) to buy a job as a messenger boy. His first message takes him into a semi-fortified apartment block and the home of a rich racketeer, before he returns to "Shiptown", the slum of old freighter ships that has housed his family since 1972. The racketeer's mistress Shirl, pink and beautiful in a city where most are gray and malnourished, takes a trishaw bicycle taxi to the market while her bodyguard runs alongside, then at a "meatlegger" buys a real steak for the racketeer. They return to find the racketeer murdered: the Chinese boy broke in, then lashed out when he was surprised.
The detective is called in to investigate the murder and correctly reconstructs the circumstances. He expects the case to be dropped: at seven murders a day, the over-stretched force can only follow up the most obvious cases, but the (criminal) "syndicate" think a mark left by the Chinese boy may mean the mafia are muscling in on their territory, and instruct the justice department to get the killer found. As the investigation continues Andy becomes romantically involved with the mistress, despite her being way above his class. The plot moves towards the climax of the millennium celebrations. Andy finds the Chinese boy but is then demoted as the racketeers had lost interest. He is faced by bitter personal failure as the Times Square screen announces "Census says United States had biggest year ever end of the century, 344 million citizens..."
[edit] Major themes
The novella has an underlying theme of social commentary, promoting the importance of birth control and sustainable development. Destruction of the environment has left individuals apathetic, struggling to maintain any quality of life. Almost all mechanised transport has been replaced by human power, much of the farmland has been poisoned by pollution or absorbed in a growing dust bowl and the government can barely cope with providing basic rations of food and water to a disorderly population crowded into the cities. The end of most mechanised transport is spotlighted by a number of stark and disturbing images, for example the "tugtrucks"--large bins on four old tires towed by the human muscle power of two "truckers", and "the lots", former impound lots where the destitute live in long-dead cars, and the "now silent subway stations" where still more destitutes are assigned to live by the city welfare department.
In the science fiction tradition of "what if?" a convincing alternative world is depicted, not as prediction but to convey vividly what such a future could be like from the viewpoint of the man-in-the street. The writing is unusually bleak for Harrison, departing from his usual humorous approach but keeping his distrust of authority.
[edit] Differences in the movie
The movie Soylent Green left out much of the story, and added memorable elements which are not in the novella. For instance, the racketeer's mistress becomes "furniture" (a concubine attached to a rental apartment) in the movie, and the racketeer is replaced by an executive of the dictatorial Soylent Company. The movie omits the sub-plot involving the Chinese boy and the millennial anticlimax.
Most notably, though the movie depicts overpopulation, its main conflict is a cannibalism conspiracy which does not occur at all in the novella. The "soylent steaks" mentioned in the book (made from soya and lentils) are changed in the movie into Soylent Green, which turns out to be partially made from the bodies of those who make use of government-sponsored euthanasia clinics.
As a result, the depiction of the failure to plan for the future and match population to resources — which serves as the focus of the novel — is only an exotic backdrop in the movie. This makes the movie less intellectual than the novel, but also provides it with a more active plot which better suits the medium of film. The New York Times review in 1973 described the movie as "simple, muscular melodrama" with "a rough cop chasing standard bad guys", however the outlandishness of its cannibalism plot has kept it in the public consciousness ever since its release.
[edit] External links
- Children's eLibrary: Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
- Millennial Reviews: XXXIV: Make Room! Make Room! - Harry Harrison (Spoiler Warning: gives details of the plot, criticises inaccuracy of predictions)
- NY Times movie review: Soylent Green
- Soylent Green - movie and TV reviews at VideoVista.net (commentary, images including "scoop")
- Cannibalism in Science Fiction
[edit] Reference
- Make Room! Make Room!, Harry Harrison, Penguin Books Ltd., Middlesex 1967
