''Meccania: The Super-State'' is a

dystopian novel Utopian and dystopian fiction are genres of speculative fiction that explore social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality intended to appeal to ...

by Owen Gregory, first published in 1918. Most of the book describes the fictional country of "Meccania," a nation in Central Europe with obvious resemblances to Germany:

Alberto Manguel Alberto Manguel (born March 13, 1948, in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine-Canadian anthologist, translator, essayist, novelist, editor, and a former Director of the National Library of Argentina. He is the author of numerous non-fiction books such ...

and Gianni Guadalupi, ''

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places ''The Dictionary of Imaginary Places'' (1980, 1987, 1999) is a book written by Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi. It takes the form of a catalogue of fantasy lands, islands, cities, and other locations from world literature—"a Baedecker ...

'', expanded edition, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1987; pp. 233-7. Meccania is surrounded by "Francaria" (France), "Luniland" (Britain),"Lugrabia" (Austria) and Idiotica (Russia). Meccania is a place where dissenters are sent to mental hospitals and concentration camps. The state maintains a

eugenic Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

breeding program, and commands its common citizens when to have children. All letters are censored, and all telephone conversations are monitored. All citizens wear the uniforms of their occupational classes. Among the very complex regulations of the Super-State are those regarding control of worker fatigue: if a given worker's calculated fatigue level is below average, he must work more hours until he is as tired as his compatriots. The novel's frame story is set in the future (from the novel's perspective) year 1970. A young Chinese traveler named Ming Yuen-hwuy enters Meccania for a five-month stay. Ming's diary and notes describe his dreary and dehumanizing sojourn in a country where the militaristic government dominates social life. Meccania, a place of "perpetual propaganda...," presents the visitor with "an odd mixture of arrogance, xenophobia, over-punctiliousness, over-organization, chauvinism, and rigidity...."

Everett F. Bleiler Everett Franklin Bleiler (April 30, 1920 – June 13, 2010) was an American editor, bibliographer, and scholar of science fiction, detective fiction, and fantasy literature. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he co-edited the first "year's best" ...

with Richard Bleiler, ''Science-Fiction: The Early Years'', Kent, OH, Kent State University Press, 1990; p. 301. Ming is constantly observed by official guides. Ming provokes his state minders when he tries to find a newspaper; he gets into more trouble when the personal record he is required to keep does not match the records of his guides with perfect exactness. Ming also learns the history of Meccania — how "Bludiron" (

Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

) organized the nation to resist the socialism of "Spotts" (a pun on the surname of

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

References

External links

Free eBook of Meccania: The Super-State
fro
manybooks.net
1918 British novels Dystopian novels 1918 speculative fiction novels Methuen Publishing books {{1910s-specf-novel-stub