All Day

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AD-029-ENF · Book · 2005 · novel

Uglies

Scott Westerfeld

The machines

City systems that handle food, transport, housing and repair, plus the surgery every citizen receives at sixteen.

What people do all day

Turn sixteen, receive the operation, move to New Pretty Town, and do nothing at all — parties, pranks, more parties — comfortably and supervised, for the rest of a long life. The surgery includes lesions that make contentment easier.

Pattern

Enforced idleness — Everything is provided, so nothing is left to do — and that turns out to be unbearable.

Note

Written for teenagers and unusually direct about the bargain: the machines handle everything, so the only remaining question is whether you mind being altered until you stop asking what else you might have done.


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