The scanners

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Die Scanner is a dystopian novel for young people by Martin Schäuble . It was published in 2013 under the pseudonym Robert M. Sonntag in the series The books with the blue ribbon at S. Fischer Verlag (Fischer KJB). In 2019 the book Die Gescanned was published (also by S. Fischer).

action

Rob and his friend Jojo work as book agents for Scan AG, i. That is, they look for people who read books and scan them to provide people with the “all-encompassing” knowledge. In a metro ladder they meet a mysterious man whose name is Arne, and since Arne is reading a book, Rob and Jojo try to buy it from him with a lot of money. Arne gives it to them on condition that they read it. He leaves Rob a message inviting him to meet. A short time later, Rob learns that Arne is a wanted terrorist who is offered a reward of 500,000. He decides to go to the meeting with the intention of getting the 500,000 for his capture.

At the meeting it turns out that Arne is the head of the secret organization "Book Guild", which has set itself the task of preserving and protecting the last books. Since Rob's old favorite professor is also at the book guild and he is curious, he doesn't want to reveal her at first. On the way to a work meeting in the metro guide, the power goes out and he gets into conversation with a woman named Fanni and falls in love with her. Allegedly, so it is said in the media, the power outage is an attack by the book guild. When Rob wakes up in the toilet after a party, he overhears a conversation between Nomos, his boss, and a stranger about something that is supposed to happen at 12 noon the next day. After receiving a letter in which Fanni writes that she is also a member of the book guild, Rob meets Arne a second time. At this meeting he learns that the book guild is not guilty of the attack. In the secret library, Arne Rob shows three books: Fahrenheit 451 , Brave New World and 1984 , telling Rob that these books had already prophesied what would happen to the world when the books were destroyed and a few media companies took control over which people would take over. When Rob tells him about the conversation with the stranger and Nomos, Arne asks him to come to him at 12 o'clock. Rob's friend and colleague Jojo has since become very suspicious of Rob and is surprised that Rob has still not reported Arne. However, he does not have enough time to concentrate on it because he is very busy with his virtual girlfriend Melli. When he is leaked a video showing her with someone else, he overdoses the drug Nador and dies. At Jojo's "funeral", however, Rob learns that he and Jojo are also wanted as terrorists. The probability that Jojo actually committed suicide is getting smaller and smaller. Rob decides to go back to Arne.

With the help of a priestess, he can escape from the police called SAIV (sabotage defense and information defense). When Rob arrives at the book guild's hiding place, a member of the book guild puts him on a horse and sends him to Camp Hope 48. From there he goes on in a small boat. He falls asleep from exhaustion. The boat takes him to a cave where the book guild is hiding. When he wakes up again, Arne explains to him that books that have been destroyed for a long time are being reproduced here and tells him to write down his experiences at Scan AG. Rob is the main character and author of the book at the same time.

Terms

  • Ultranetz: Ultranetz is the internet of the future and has the information sovereignty in the novel. In addition, Ultranetz is the manufacturer of the Mobril.
  • Mobril: The Mobril are interactive glasses with a touchpad on the side. It can project images and videos and make calls. Mobril is connected to the ultra-network and its wearer is monitored with it.
  • Scan-AG: Scan-AG is a subsidiary of Ultranetz, whose employees are responsible for scanning all print media. The Scan-AG uses book agents for this purpose.
  • Book agents: Book agents are employees of Scan-AG who look everywhere for print media that they buy from the readers and then scan. If the readers do not want to sell their books or other print media to the book agents, they are convinced by clever strategies or - if they refuse persistently - Nomos, the head of the Scan-AG, and then persecuted.
  • Book Guild: The Book Guild is an underground organization that has set itself the task of protecting the books and overthrowing the Ultranetz company. It consists of authors, librarians, book agents, and publishing representatives. It is directed by Arne Bergmann, who manages the last existing library. The headquarters of the book guild is in the sewers outside the city, where old printing presses are used to distribute books.
  • Metro glider: The metro glider is a kind of high-tech maglev train that travels very quickly through all zones and stops at many stops.
  • Nador: Nador is a drug that comes in all forms and is initially intended for old people. According to advertising, it should make you full and happy. An overdose can be fatal. That is why it is also forbidden for anyone who does not live in a retirement home. There is a black market in Zone C where Jojo also bought the nador that supposedly killed him.
  • A-Zone: People who can afford luxury live in the A-Zone. Everything is in order in this zone. The main headquarters of Ultranetz is also located here.
  • B-Zone: The B-Zone is where people live who have enough money not to slip into the C-Zone, but who don't have enough money to be able to live in the A-Zone. It houses the middle class of the population.
  • C-Zone: The C-Zone is referred to by outsiders as the “chaos zone” because the government does not care about keeping order here. So all crime gathers in this zone. There are mainly old people's homes in this area, where the old people are “looked after” by giving them nador. In addition, everyone who doesn't have a job or not enough money for an apartment in the A or B zone lives here. At the edge of the zone there is a kind of tent city in which people who have not been able to integrate into society or have not been integrated live, the Camp Hope 48.
  • Camp Hope 48: Camp Hope 48 is an area in the C-Zone where very poor people live in broken tents and ragged clothes. A taxi driver also calls this area D-Zone, an allusion to the deterioration in the ratio of the zone distribution.

people

  • Rob: Robert Sonntag, called Rob, works with his best friend Jojo as a book agent at Scan-AG. He is 25 years old, is bald and has lasered eyebrows. Rob lives in the A zone. At the end of the book, however, he joins the book guild and writes the book on their behalf. He changes his mind because he is convinced that Ultranetz killed his friend and they will kill him too, and because books are gradually becoming more and more important to him.
  • Jojo: Jojo is 25 years old and is bald. Like his best friend Rob, he works for "Scan AG". Jojo is very familiar with technology and is therefore also self-employed. He is addicted to the widely used drug Nador. Since he thinks through a misunderstanding that his girlfriend Melli is cheating on him, he allegedly kills himself with an overdose. However, it is likely that Ultranetz mistook him for a Book Guild terrorist and killed him.
  • Arne Bergmann: Arne Bergmann is a former librarian and the head of the book guild. He has long, gray hair. It appears at the beginning of the book in a metro ladder and draws Rob and Jojo's attention to himself. Then he lures Rob into a hiding place of the book guild with a secret message. He confides his secret from the book guild to Rob and at the end of the book helps him escape the police and write his own book.
  • Nomos: Nomos, Jojo and Rob's employer, always wears a gray suit, including a blue shirt and a red tie, plus black leather gloves, which emphasizes his seriousness and his high position at Ultranetz. He achieves this position through his ambition, determination and good self-organization. Through his position at Ultranetz, he learns of a project that Ultraetz would secure power in the state, but he doesn't want to participate in this criminal enterprise and has to pay for it with his life.
  • Fanni: Fanni and Rob meet for the first time in a metro ladder in the event of a power failure in the A zone. She's hired by the book guild to spy on Rob, but falls in love with him. Fanni is 26 years old, the mother of a two-year-old son, and does care work in Zone C. She is friendly, but still persistent and skeptical. When Rob lets her in on his plan to betray Arne because of the high ransom and suggests that she involve her in it, she leaves him.

covers

The book is based on three famous utopian novels: Fahrenheit 451 , Brave New World, and 1984 . These books show several parallels to the scanners. In Fahrenheit 451 is the protagonist Guy Montag, in the scanner Robert M. Sunday. Firefighters search apartments there for books and then burn them, while the book agents buy books, scan them and only then destroy them. There is a common drug in Brave New World that makes people "happy" and apathetic, similar to Nador in The Scanners . In both books there is a resistance movement against an authoritarian system of rule. There are also zone areas in both books. In 1984 there is also intensive monitoring using electronic devices compared to Die Scanner .

reception

  • " With" Die Scanner "Robert M. Sonntag has succeeded in creating a clever and captivating youth novel that convinces with exciting ideas. "(Book encounters June 9, 2013)
  • “ A gripping future thriller that captivates with its many clever ideas. Highly recommended as a visionary! "(Ravensburg Newsletter May 2013)
  • " In" Die Scanner "the author addresses a topic that couldn't be more topical " (Ruben Domke, Bücherkinder, May 2013)

Awards

  • Martin Schäuble received the “Prize of the Business Club in the Literaturhaus Stuttgart” in 2013 for Die Scanner .
  • In April 2013 the novel was included in the Deutschlandfunk best list “The best 7 books for young readers”.

expenditure

Secondary literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sonja Stöhr: Ultranetz, Mobril and Denker. March 25, 2019, accessed May 9, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Explanations of terms that are typical for the society of the novel can be found in the section Terms .
  3. ^ Prize of the business club literaturhaus-stuttgart.de. Retrieved June 24, 2014.
  4. ↑ The best 7 books for young readers. The Deutschlandfunk best list in April deutschlandfunk.de. Retrieved June 24, 2014.