The novel “Century of the Manikin” by E.C. Tubb was published for the first time in 1972.
Human aggressiveness has been eliminated thanks to the long work of P.A.E.C. (Propaganda and Emotional Control), the organization that constantly acts on the population to keep it peaceful. Various tools are exploited, from drugs to forms of manipulation of public opinion.
Peace has existed for many years, a situation that in theory is utopian that, however, hides problems that transformed society into a dystopia. Mannequins used as a relief for residual aggression are not enough to curb obsessions and clandestine solutions are spreading.
E.C. Tubb was a very prolific writer, to the point that he wrote over 140 novels of various genres also using various pseudonyms. His fame is mainly linked to some space opera series, but during his long career he also wrote stories with contents that go far beyond adventure and “Century of the Manikin” is one of the main examples.
British and born in 1919, E.C. Tubb grew up in a society that still remembered the conception they had of sex in the Victorian age. In “Century of the Manikin”, the author imagines a society in which there’s a similar conception of aggression, but how can they achieve it? The solution exploits all modern means, both psychological and pharmacological, which means a mental control obtained through various types of manipulation together with the use of specific drugs. However, just like sex in the Victorian age, aggression in the future society described in the novel is also far from gone, just being expressed in a more hidden way.
The use of drugs to control the population was already a classic of dystopia when E.C. Tubb wrote “Century of the Manikin”, but he added other elements that make his novel perhaps even more important today. Manipulations of the population through propaganda are unfortunately not only literature, but part of history and news. The growth of mass media made the problem increasingly serious due to the penetration of what we now call fake news and the speed they’re shared.
The result is told in part with dramatic tones but there’s also a satirical element. The aggression still existing in the population is let out by some people in clandestine parties where the participants indulge in violent acts. The behavior of the manikin observed by the head of P.A.E.C. Joseph P. Lincoln represents in his opinion the perfect image of humanity. The elements of drama and satire are merged even if the length limited to the point that today would be classified as a novella leads to a limited development of all the ideas connected to them and the characters.
The author also adds a link to the past in a subplot about Naomi Constance Fisher, a woman suffering from an incurable disease who underwent cryogenesis for that reason. The willingness to awaken her by a relative of hers leads to unexpected consequences.
Despite the limited length, in “Century of the Manikin” E.C. Tubb shows a lot of imagination in describing that future dystopia with its morbid obsession with violence. Overall, the result is sometimes chaotic because the author included many ideas that would need more room to be developed well in a balanced way. In my opinion, it’s still a novel that is worth reading for the food for thought it offers on certain themes that are always important, and some of them are even more so today.
