Consider the following two questions that have been part of every empire's growth as villages moved from farms to city-states to countries and dynasties:How does a society control its population and why?
Who are the rebels and how do they fight the "machine"?
The Traveler (Fourth Realm Trilogy, Book 1) is a 2005 novel by John Twelve Hawks, which impressed critics and became an international bestseller, in part due to the reclusive behavior of its author. The Dark River, book two of The Fourth Realm Trilogy, was published in July 2007. The final part in the trilogy, The Golden City, was released September 8, 2009.
Visit John Twelve Hawks Page: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/johntwelvehawks/
Evergreen Foundation: http://www.randomhouse.com/features/traveler/
Summary from his site:
Powerful, mainstream fiction built on a foundation of cutting-edge technology laced with fantasy and the chilling specter of an all-too-possible social and political reality. The time is roughly the present, and the U.S. is part of the Vast Machine, a society overseen by the Tabula, a secret organization bent on establishing a perfectly controlled populace. Allied against the Tabula are the Travelers and their sword-carrying protectors, the Harlequins. The Travelers, now almost extinct, can project their spirit into other worlds where they receive wisdom to bring back to earth—wisdom that threatens the Tabula's power. Maya, a reluctant Harlequin, finds herself compelled to protect two naïve Travelers, Michael and Gabriel Corrigan. Michael dabbles in shady real estate deals, while Gabriel prefers to live "off the Grid," eschewing any documentation—credit cards, bank accounts—that the Vast Machine could use to track him. Because the Tabula has engineered a way to use the Travelers for its own purposes, Maya must not only keep the brothers alive, but out of the hands of these evil puppet-masters. She succeeds, but she also fails, and therein lies the tale. By the end of this exciting volume, the first in a trilogy, the stage is set for a world-rending clash between good and evil.
Maya is determined to help him defend the last two Travelers alive. However, Shepherd, the last American Harlequin, has become a member of the Brethren. Working for the other side now, he tries to kill Maya. With the help of a young woman named Vikki (entire name: Victory from Sin) she is lucky to get away. Vikki is a member of the I. T. Jones Church, a church of followers of the Traveler Isaac T. Jones, who was killed by the Brethren in 1889 with Lion of the temple (known as Zachary Goldman) a harlequin. Together they are able to find an ally, Hollis, a Capoeira trainer from Los Angeles and a former member of the Isaac T. Jones Community. The three of them are able to find the last living Travelers, Michael and Gabriel Corrigan. Before they are able to give them protection, Michael is captured by the Brethren. Instead of killing him immediately they try to convince him to help them. The Brethren recently started a new Program. They were in contact with a technologically advanced civilization dwelling in another realm. Aiming to travel through the realities, they need the help of a guide, someone who is able to travel without technology - like a Traveler.
Interview with John Twelve Hawks
By Rob Bedford (2005-12-04)
http://www.sffworld.com/mul/146p0.html
It is safer to live off the grid, unconnected to the vast technology, because unseen people are watching our every move, employing technology we have barely imagined. Worse, they are controlling our every move. Those we think are running the country, rather the world, are mere beards for the true puppet masters. This is the world John Twelve Hawks has envisioned in his debut novel, The Traveler. Like the best science fiction, the story begs the reader to question the reality in which we live.
CHARACTERS (information in paragraphs from Wikipedia, our comments in bullets)
Travelers – Corrigan brothers
The Travelers are individuals with a special gift, often but not always inherited, which allows them to detach from their bodies and journey through elemental barriers (water, fire etc) to other realms. They do this by detaching their “light” (internal energy seemingly analogous to the soul but found by the Tabula to be empirically measurable) from their body. Travelers’ experiences and gifts (they can view the world around them with greater speed and clarity than normal people) can lend them great charisma, wisdom and vision. Many Travelers become religious prophets, or opponents of the Tabula, and the random element they add to societies makes them enemies of the Tabula who have hunted them almost to extinction. The idea that all people possess the "light" within and can travel through other states of consciousness or "realms" is also a basic tenet of Gnosticism.
- “You don’t believe in anything.” (Traveler) “I believe in seeing clearly.” (Harlequin)
- “I will decide what gives meaning to my life.” (Thomas Walks the Ground)
Harlequins
People who are assigned to protect travelers. They are trained from childhood in sword fighting, etc. The position is inherited. Harlequins defend people who make spiritual journeys. “Dammed by the flesh, saved by the blood.”
- A descendent of groups like the Knights Templar.
- “Harlequins and their Travelers are not friends, just soldiers in the same army.”
- “Travelers are like epileptics with temporal lobe seizures.”
- “Harlequins don’t need to wield a sword or master Marshall Arts, but they do need to overcome their fear.”
- “Giving into anger influences your decisions.”
- “Love is just another means of manipulation.”
- Like Ender in Ender’s Game, Maya was raised to be a harlequin with no other options. This was her duty and there were no other choices.
- Was Sheppard a traitor? A sell-out?
- There are “good guys” and “bad guys” in all levels of society and government.
- There is a network, like Harriet Tubman’s underground railroad, to help you get a new identity and travel across state lines.
- In many religious and cultural belief systems, such as in Native American culture, protecting your healers and spiritual leaders is part of the belief structure. Look at the Vatican guard!
Path Finders
The Pathfinders are individuals capable of teaching potential Travelers how to break the light free from their body. Pathfinders can be priests and holy men, agnostics or atheists – different Pathfinders will use different teaching methods and have different beliefs, but all can help Travelers to utilize their gifts. Pathfinders are also hunted by the Tabula.
- Pathfinders are like gurus, priests, and shamans.
- They often live “off the grid” or in a special, protected area of society.
- “True freedom is tolerant, it gives people the right to live and think in new ways.”
Citizens
Average folks who are part of “the vast machine.”
- The hungry ghost symbolizes the hunger citizens have for material things that don’t really make them happy.
- “Acquiring things cannot soothe spiritual hunger.”
- The hungry ghost comes from Tibetan Buddhism, where not having possessions is a spiritual path.
- People allow their privacy to be invaded and lost.
- Encouraging a desire for useless objects is a way to control.
- Creating fear and panic is a way to control. For example, during the H1N1 scare, many people scrambled to get the vaccine. What if this virus were created by the government and then the vaccine was released with an identity chip or tracking device inside? Or a poison? Everyone would be afraid of H1N1, so would get the vaccine, not knowing it had even greater risks!
- We wondered if the author really thought citizens were so materialistic and simple, even stupid OR was he trying to point out how we don’t even know we are being controlled? Some of us thought that it didn’t matter, we are smart and making certain choices knowing that the benefit outweighs the other issues (like lack of privacy). For example, when we buy products on the web or with a store card, we get a discount, but then our information is sold to someone and adds pop up in our emails or on our Facebook pages related to the products we have bought!
Tabula
This Virtual Panopticon is made possible through the use of surveillance cameras, centralized databases, RFID-like tags for each citizen, and assorted spy gear (heat sensors, infrared cameras, X-rays, etc...). The Tabula are a relatively small group, operate largely in secret, but they have great power across the planet, in part by manipulating politicians and other powerful individuals/organization, and in part because of their great wealth and advanced technology, which is in some cases far beyond the technology available to other groups and even governments. The author has written a post-script at the end of the book in which he talks about his reasons for writing the novel and discusses, among other things, the development in western countries regarding surveillance (such as CCTV), data-mining, RFID and GPS, the Information Awareness Office, etc. He claims that all of the technology referred to in the book is either already being used or in the advanced stage of development.
- Monitored and controlled
- Distracted and aroused
- Brethren are from London, Moscow, Tokyo, Dubai.
- We discussed how language is tracked on phones and in emails (Patriot Act looks for traitors and terrorists), so people learn and use “soft language” to discuss topics.
- If you are a “person of interest” (either extreme: trouble-maker or scientific researcher), then governments may use all those systems to monitor and control you.
The Panopticon
A type of prison building designed by English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy Bentham in 1785. The concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners without the incarcerated being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the "sentiment of an invisible omniscience." Bentham himself described the Panopticon as "a new mode of obtaining power of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example."
- Government uses fear to control citizens (“terrorist attacks”).
- Privacy is lost (Facebook, identity theft, store cards).
- If you believe you are being monitored then you act like it even when you are not. Less people are needed to monitor and control you, since you act like more people are watching than really are.
- Social control doesn’t work if you can go outside the system – that’s why Travelers are a perceived threat (they can leave their bodies).
- All ideas that challenge the ruling structure are criticized and put down.
- A society is healthy and productive when it’s under control.
- Truth is determined by whoever is in power.
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EXISTING “ADVANCED” TECHNOLOGY
Biometric data
Skimmer (scanner)
Full body X-rays (at the airport)
FAMOUS PEOPLE MENTIONED
Newton
Joan of Arc
St Francis of Assisiz
BACKGROUNDS/ETHNICITIES MENTIONED - It was easy to feel connected to this book because there were so many cultures and ethnicities. We couldn’t remember a book where so many places and people were acknowledge as part of the storyline – not just because someone has the means to travel. We asked ourselves whether or not the book was racist. This question led to an interesting discussion about research on how people are better able to differentiate individuals among their own racial group and we shared our personal stories. When most people in your group have brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair, for example, you have to differentiate based on nose/lip shape, cheek flatness/highness, and/or hair texture. Among white racial groups, hair and skin color are a significant marker.
El Salvador
Iran
Bengali
Serbian
African American
Samoan
Latino
German
Britain
Roma
Japan
Senegalese
French
Latvian
Mexico
Central American
Religions: Sikh, Buddhist, Sufi, Jewish, Christian
The Boston Museum of Science is running a great exhibit on race that goes into the history of using race to subjugate, the impact of race on medical treatment, stereotypes based on race, that race is socially constructed, and that race is, at best, based on ancestry/place/region not biology/genes. Race: Are We So Different? Museum of Science Exhibit http://www.understandingrace.org/home.html
