Roger Waters wrote in the classic Pink Floyd song, Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2, the now famous lyrics:
We don’t need no education.
We do not need no thought control.
Isamu Fukui apparently agrees with these sentiments in his latest novel Origins of Truancy, a book that fuels rebellion in the education system, frees minds, and ensures that students are not just another brick in the wall. Or at least he thinks he’s a rebel. But like most teen rebellions, it’s a bit lame. More poses than substance. A new version of Rebel Without a Cause with the Muppets in the lead roles.
Still, the book is guaranteed to appeal to its target audience, disinterested, rebellious teens. And the gifted students who want to be rebellious and disinterested teenagers. Some children don’t want to go to school, some even hate school, seeing it as some kind of exquisite torture devised by adults to punish them. (So close to the truth). Going to school can seem like a waste of time and inefficient. Good for the social event, but not much else. An authoritarian system run by power-hungry fools, focused more on statistics than students. And these impressions are correct. The education system is broken, at worst it needs a complete overhaul. It should be closely monitored and not followed blindly. Because when schools fail to educate, they have failed in their primary responsibility. And many schools fail to educate. The real question is who deserves the blame for this problem.
Twin brothers Zen and Umasi have grown up privileged. Silver spoons and Nintendo Wiis galore. Adopted by the town’s mayor – a sort of neo-fascist educator – when they were six months old, Zen and Umasi have conflicting views on the school. Umasi values education and gets good grades. Zen, incredibly smart but bored, despises the time he spends at school and acts out. Soon the brothers discover the truth about the city’s educational system. A truth that shatters their world, causing them both to run away from home.
For Zen, the injustices within the City’s educational system are horrific. Evil indeed. An evil that must be violently overthrown. Malcolm X style. And he strives for it, assembling an army of Truants to fight the city’s law enforcement. Although Umasi harbors many of the same attitudes as his brother, violence is not his answer. It’s not just any kind of answer. So he confronts his brother. Against his twin. Vowing to stop Zen before it’s too late.
Truancy Origins is a book that tries to be many things. There are the exciting action-oriented scenarios in which the two brothers fight each other, often depicted in highly visual cinematic detail. These fights are well done and engaging, and Fukui shows real flair in writing them. The fighting itself resembles science-fu, the bastard child of science fiction and kung fu popularized by The Matrix.
And then there is the other part of the book that strives to be a social commentary on education. Fukui really misses an opportunity to say anything substantive right now. And the book suffers from this. His exploration of the ills of the educational system is superficial. He identifies the problems, but isn’t as convincing with the answers, often substituting fortune cookie mysticism for true wisdom. He thinks of Caine in Kung Fu. Consideration must be given to the author’s young age, Fukui’s eighteen years, and the intended young adult audience. Even writing about social issues, Fukui is expected to have a certain depth and quality to his arguments, a maturity of thought. This is lacking, which is disappointing as there is the opportunity for a tremendous social statement. Fukui just misses him.
Zen and Umasi are great characters, each possessing a real charisma. However, Umasi’s character arc throughout the novel is less believable. His transformation from book nerd to super badass seems forced. Most of the supporting characters are plot devices, their presence in the narrative only furthering other aspects of the story. The novel’s main antagonist, Rothenberg, is one-dimensional to the point of caricature, motivated solely by his extreme hatred of children. He is extremely evil and displays absolutely no redeeming qualities. No gray area, nothing of interest.
Dialogue is occasionally awkward and forced. I couldn’t imagine teenagers talking like that. Unless they watched a lot of BBC. It was too appropriate, less like spoken words and more like written conversations. Like reading Middlemarch. But with kung fu.
Last word:
As a high-octane multi-scripted kung-fu, sci-fi, action show, Truancy Origins works. Really good. Only when the novel veers into the realm of social activism does it suffer, struggling to say something both substantive and relevant. Still, Truancy Origins should resonate with its young adult audience, with its sarcastic and rebellious attitude towards authority and education. As the literary fulfillment of the wish of the rebels who want to be. A middle finger to the man. Graffiti on the wall.
