Schism: A bold vision combining Fiction, Art and Music

 Academics and critics love to talk about novels in epoch-defining terms. “So-and-so destroyed the traditional novel”; This writer “breathes new life into an old form”; or, that “genius reinvented the novel.”

It’s all hogwash, of course. The great 18^th century novelists set the theme and subsequent writers have been riffing on it ever since. Scott uses the versatility of digital print production to cast certain words and phrases in different typefaces and colours as well as to include photographs and digital artworks, not common today, but often a feature of early novels.

At first glance, Kerry Scott’s Schism appears to be yet another variation on 1984 and Brave New World – and it does draw on those dystopias – but it’s more than that, and more disturbing for it.

As with traditional dystopias, there is a dominant way of thought and a sophisticated way of developing and enforcing it. Humanity has been selected and categorized with “disposables” bred for service and target practice. It’s a technocratic universe based on a doctrine of “The Human Operating System” which perceives mankind as a semi-robotic system of programmable thoughts and reactions.

There are, of course, cracks in this world and those set on expanding the fissures come to believe in “The Spirit Gene” which sees humans much more in the way we do – or, at least, used to.

This is deftly handled by focusing on a small number of characters who are closely related to the founders of these ideas, and whose struggle to assert what we could consider “humanity” forms the book’s basic plot. Yet, this is no mere tale of dichotomies but a multi-layered work embracing moral and political allegory. Over all looms the question, “How can we avoid this?”.

This is not a quick or easy read. It is a novel that requires patience and thought, but it rewards that investment of time and effort. I would urge readers not to gloss over the quotations and passages at the opening of each chapter, as they are carefully chosen and deserve reflection in their own right. The 8.5 x 11-inch format makes for long lines that are not suited to bedtime reading; this should be read when wide awake.

The writing flows well with a rich vocabulary, but beware of the challenging and subtle ideas being conveyed in its straightforward prose. Like the world of Schism itself, Scott’s style is deceptive.

A prolific composer and artist, Scott has conceived each of volume as part of an ambitious work comprising not only three novels (“The Story”) but also volumes of “The Art” and “The Music” that will become a single unified work.

Schism presents the first part of the novel. Subsequent volumes have a tough act to follow.