Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Simon & Schuster Ltd (1993), Hardcover
Description
Small, well appointed future. Semi detached. If the end of the world is nigh, then surely it’s only sensible to make alternative arrangements. Certainly the Earth has its good points, but what most people need is something smaller and more manageable. Of course there are those who say that’s planetary treason, but who cares what the weirdos and terrorists think? Not Nathan. All he cares is that his movie gets made and that’s there’s somebody left to see it. In marketing terms the end of the world will be very big. Anyone trying to save it should remember that.
User reviews
LibraryThing member BenDV
Though I'm not sure whether to support the accusation that Ben Elton is a sell-out, I am damn sure that the man is capable of writing an enjoyable satire. I was introduced to his novels a couple of years ago with Blind Faith, a great book, and this one was recommended to me by someone I went to
This Other Eden is one of Elton's early environmental novels. Sometime in the mid-21st century, the Earth is on the verge of being unable to support life any longer. Humans have polluted it, and continue to pollute it, to the point that just about everyone now accepts that the planet is going to die at some point. Many people feel guilty about this, but Plastic Tolstoy has the answer; he has developed and marketed the Claustrosphere, a self-sustaining dome in which people can lock themselves when the 'Rat Run' as it is known in the novel, i.e. the death of the planet, occurs. Then when, or if, the Earth becomes inhabitable again, people will exit their Claustrosphere. These have made people accept the end of the world, despite the efforts of Natura and Mother Earth, an environmentalist political party and eco-terrorist group respectively, to convince people that this is morally abhorrent. The novel follows investigations by an FBI agent, a Mother Earth activist and a movie star into various mysteries surrounding Plastic Tolstoy and his media and business empire, and the aforementioned environmentalist groups led by the charismatic Jurgen Thor. The satire mostly focuses on human attitudes toward the environment, particularly those of the middle classes, the economic system- particularly the idea of economic growth-, the advertising industry, and Hollywood.
You could certainly never accuse Ben Elton's satire of being subtle. The man clearly doesn't understand this concept. Elton (mostly) doesn't allow his satire to unfold slowly with plot and various revelations; frequently he just stops the novel for pages at a time in order to rant about various things he hates. Some may find this preachy; I find these sections to be brilliant. It certainly helps that I already agree with Elton on all the things he talks about, but the way Elton writes about these things is just brilliant. Succinct, aggressive and hilarious. The most thought-provoking part of the novel is undoubtedly the brilliant concept of the Claustrosphere. Elton explores the ethical and psychological issues around this technology brilliantly.
The story itself takes much longer to become really absorbing. It was only about halfway through the novel that I started to really care about the characters or what was happening to them. But once this occurred, Elton got into top gear and didn't let up for the rest of the novel. Whilst the first half was just okay, the second half was excellent stuff, and the ending was wonderful.
Elton's moral is ultimately the same as what it is in Blind Faith; the human race has the ability to be both brilliant and terrible. At the moment it is being controlled by its lesser nature, and perhaps the only way it will change is by experiencing the consequences of its worst actions. This leads to an ending that is both somewhat tragic and hopeful, and overall very effective.
I recommend ignoring what most people say about Ben Elton and judging This Other Eden on its own merits, because it really is a great read.
Show More
school with. This was just as good, if not better. This Other Eden is one of Elton's early environmental novels. Sometime in the mid-21st century, the Earth is on the verge of being unable to support life any longer. Humans have polluted it, and continue to pollute it, to the point that just about everyone now accepts that the planet is going to die at some point. Many people feel guilty about this, but Plastic Tolstoy has the answer; he has developed and marketed the Claustrosphere, a self-sustaining dome in which people can lock themselves when the 'Rat Run' as it is known in the novel, i.e. the death of the planet, occurs. Then when, or if, the Earth becomes inhabitable again, people will exit their Claustrosphere. These have made people accept the end of the world, despite the efforts of Natura and Mother Earth, an environmentalist political party and eco-terrorist group respectively, to convince people that this is morally abhorrent. The novel follows investigations by an FBI agent, a Mother Earth activist and a movie star into various mysteries surrounding Plastic Tolstoy and his media and business empire, and the aforementioned environmentalist groups led by the charismatic Jurgen Thor. The satire mostly focuses on human attitudes toward the environment, particularly those of the middle classes, the economic system- particularly the idea of economic growth-, the advertising industry, and Hollywood.
You could certainly never accuse Ben Elton's satire of being subtle. The man clearly doesn't understand this concept. Elton (mostly) doesn't allow his satire to unfold slowly with plot and various revelations; frequently he just stops the novel for pages at a time in order to rant about various things he hates. Some may find this preachy; I find these sections to be brilliant. It certainly helps that I already agree with Elton on all the things he talks about, but the way Elton writes about these things is just brilliant. Succinct, aggressive and hilarious. The most thought-provoking part of the novel is undoubtedly the brilliant concept of the Claustrosphere. Elton explores the ethical and psychological issues around this technology brilliantly.
The story itself takes much longer to become really absorbing. It was only about halfway through the novel that I started to really care about the characters or what was happening to them. But once this occurred, Elton got into top gear and didn't let up for the rest of the novel. Whilst the first half was just okay, the second half was excellent stuff, and the ending was wonderful.
Elton's moral is ultimately the same as what it is in Blind Faith; the human race has the ability to be both brilliant and terrible. At the moment it is being controlled by its lesser nature, and perhaps the only way it will change is by experiencing the consequences of its worst actions. This leads to an ending that is both somewhat tragic and hopeful, and overall very effective.
I recommend ignoring what most people say about Ben Elton and judging This Other Eden on its own merits, because it really is a great read.
Show Less
LibraryThing member MariaSavva
This Other Eden is a very funny book. It takes things to the extreme about what could happen if rich businessmen wanted to make money out of the end of the world. Based some years in the future, Ben Elton creates the scene of a world in environmental chaos, where the human race has destroyed the
We meet many hilarious characters along the way, including: Max, a famous Hollywood actor who doesn’t even recognise his own wife because she has had so much plastic surgery; Nathan, a struggling writer who is depressed because he is still in love with his wife who has left him, and mentions her whenever he has an opportunity; Rosalie, an unlikely Mother Earth terrorist; Jurgen Thor, the most famous environmental campaigner, who has a dark secret; and Judy Schwartz, an FBI agent who is a man with a woman’s name.
A great book with well-developed characters and an interesting story line that makes you think, and laugh, at the same time.
Show More
earth, and the end is nigh. Plastic Tolstoy, a rich businessman has the answer: buy a Claustrophere. A dome-shaped, self-contained new home, which can provide air and water, and recycle human waste, and where you can grow your own food; and which even has a day and night-cycle. The advertising campaigns begin, and people are urged to buy these safe-houses, which could be used when the end finally comes. Everyone who is anyone, owns a Claustrophere. It is big business, but a business that had its ups and downs and needs continued advertising to stay afloat. Mother Earth, a terrorist group, and Natura, an environmental campaign group, are against Claustropheres, claiming that by buying these domes people have given up on trying to save the environment, and are just accepting that there is nothing that can be done to stop the rot. Plastic Tolstoy has a plan to ensure the success of his product... an evil planWe meet many hilarious characters along the way, including: Max, a famous Hollywood actor who doesn’t even recognise his own wife because she has had so much plastic surgery; Nathan, a struggling writer who is depressed because he is still in love with his wife who has left him, and mentions her whenever he has an opportunity; Rosalie, an unlikely Mother Earth terrorist; Jurgen Thor, the most famous environmental campaigner, who has a dark secret; and Judy Schwartz, an FBI agent who is a man with a woman’s name.
A great book with well-developed characters and an interesting story line that makes you think, and laugh, at the same time.
Show Less
LibraryThing member PilgrimJess
What would happen if a rich media mogul and business man decided to try and market the end of the world? Well this is Ben Elton's take on it.
The book opens with a supertanker running aground spilling its contents on the sea and coastline killing everything in its path but it soon becomes clear that
The book is full of great characters, a media mogul called Plastic, a wannabe English scriptwriter called Nathan who is trying to make it big in Hollywood but is always depressed about the loss of his wife to another man continually reminding himself of the fact, an FBI agent called Judy who happens to be a male, Max Maximus a Hollywood A-lister who as well as being very vain and is pretty stupid failing to even recognise his own wife because she has had so much cosmetic surgery, and an unlikely environmental terrorist called Rosalie. It is when Max falls in love with Rosalie that things really begin to happen and spiral out of control.
This is not the first of Elton's books that I have read but definately my favourite. His writing style is easy to pick but hard to put down and had me in tears of laughter on more than one occasion. This is one of the funniest books that I have read for a good while
The book opens with a supertanker running aground spilling its contents on the sea and coastline killing everything in its path but it soon becomes clear that
Show More
this is no accident or a simple environmental tale. Elton, in his own inimitable style, is having a pop at mass marketing and the popular media. There are inflatable boobs, spray on condoms, free liposuction for anybody who eats 20 doughnuts and of course Claustrospheres, self contained survival domes where families can safely live when the end of the world comes. There is big business,ineffectual Politicians and Green groups, nothing and nobody is spared. Hitler has even been cloned and brought back to life so he can stand trial for crimes against humanity, he gets community service. In many ways it is anti-US but then Britain and the EU also come out of it pretty poorly as well.The book is full of great characters, a media mogul called Plastic, a wannabe English scriptwriter called Nathan who is trying to make it big in Hollywood but is always depressed about the loss of his wife to another man continually reminding himself of the fact, an FBI agent called Judy who happens to be a male, Max Maximus a Hollywood A-lister who as well as being very vain and is pretty stupid failing to even recognise his own wife because she has had so much cosmetic surgery, and an unlikely environmental terrorist called Rosalie. It is when Max falls in love with Rosalie that things really begin to happen and spiral out of control.
This is not the first of Elton's books that I have read but definately my favourite. His writing style is easy to pick but hard to put down and had me in tears of laughter on more than one occasion. This is one of the funniest books that I have read for a good while
Show Less
LibraryThing member ladysunshine
bens usual deep dark funny but oh so true style
LibraryThing member reeread
Ben Elton cleverly extrapolates current trends into future scenarios and weaves a story of "what might be" in his usual humorous satirical fashion.
Pollution has become so bad that quality of life is dependent on living in artificial atmospheres. "Claustropheres" have been developed and marketed in
Pollution has become so bad that quality of life is dependent on living in artificial atmospheres. "Claustropheres" have been developed and marketed in
Show More
anticipation of Earth being unable to sustain life because it is so degraded. It is argued that these bolt holes are encouraging people to care less about the environment rather than tackle the problems. Show Less
LibraryThing member jayne_charles
This was the book that really got me thinking seriously about green issues. The chapter with the false alarm where one of the characters faces multiple years alone in a geodesic dome is a proper chilller! Oh, and it's funny too. I finished it on a train commuting home one night, and there were a
Show More
few stops to go so I turned right back to page one, and ended up reading it all through again. Show Less
LibraryThing member Balthazar-Lawson
This was barely Ok, maybe it only deserved 1 star.
It seems that Ben Elton combined his stand up comic scripts into one script and thought they would make a good story. But then you needed a bit of narrative to join it all together. Take the comic ideas to the extreme and you have this book.
It just
It seems that Ben Elton combined his stand up comic scripts into one script and thought they would make a good story. But then you needed a bit of narrative to join it all together. Take the comic ideas to the extreme and you have this book.
It just
Show More
seemed to get side tracked and at times was a just a series of dissertation about different subjects half way through a story. It was distracting and annoying and made the reading more of a task than a pleasure. Show Less
LibraryThing member MiaCulpa
Ben Elton writes some of the funniest material around (including "Blackadder", which is the funniest material ever) so I approached "This Other Eden" eagerly. It's a funny book in some places, although somewhat uneven in other places.
While the plot is about the sword of Damocles of environmental
While the plot is about the sword of Damocles of environmental
Show More
catastrophes, the most interesting part of the book is its characters, including a particularly vain famous actor, some environmentalists, some environmental terrorists (with some "Ooo Matron!" behavior between the actor and one of the ecoterrorists), and an FBI agent. The best Ben Elton book so far, although to be honest, that's not a big statement. Show Less
LibraryThing member LibraryCin
It is sometime in the future and the world is in bad shape with regard to the environment. Plastic Tolstoy is all about marketing. He has created and sells the Claustrosphere. Only the rich can afford them, but that’s where people (those who could afford them) intend to go once the air is no
There’s a lot more going on than what I’ve described and there are a lot of characters. The book is meant to be humourous, but mostly I found it odd. There were some funny parts. I did like how it ended. But, Ben Elton has better books.
Show More
longer breathable and water is no longer drinkable. Well, that’s already happening, but the effects are being staved off as much as possible. There is still an environmental movement, though, that believes that the Earth can be repaired.There’s a lot more going on than what I’ve described and there are a lot of characters. The book is meant to be humourous, but mostly I found it odd. There were some funny parts. I did like how it ended. But, Ben Elton has better books.
Show Less
Language
Original publication date
1993
Physical description
474 p.; 6.9 inches
ISBN
0671851802 / 9780671851804