Self-imposed subordination? Titanium Noir, by Nick Harkaway

 Do you think that you observe some sort of ruling class?  How did it arise?  Did some external and all-powerful thing called a "system" come into being, self-formed, creating rulers and a subordinate class?  Or, if I may take an interpretation that is almost certainly not that of the author, but perhaps one that would be offered by some of the philosophers I reference more frequently, and indeed, are vaguely appropriate given the Greco-Roman references of the novel itself, consider.  What do you seek?  What do you desire?  If you seek that which is outside your control, you make yourself a slave to whomever does control the thing you seek, and you create that order.  Let us take an interpretation of Nick Harkaway's Titanium Noir which I am reasonably certain he did not intend.

At some future (?) point in time, someone invents a drug called Titanium 7.  If you take it, you will be rejuvenated, have your life dramatically extended to functional immortality, and also, grow.  You will grow taller, usually denser, more muscular, and hence come to evoke some image of a "titan."  After one dose, you may only look like the tallest, most ripped NBA player ever.  More doses, and you get larger, and more doses may be necessary to combat some very slow aging effects or other medical issues, but the founder of the company which owns the formula has taken four doses.  He probably cannot take a fifth, and he is unassailably gigantic.  That's Stefan Tonfamecasca.

Do you want that size, strength, immortality, and the money that comes with a position in his company, which controls the formula?  It costs a lot, obviously.  You see how this works.  Buy your way in, if you are absurdly rich, and you have a new ruling class because we are talking about ungodly amounts of money, combined with virtual immortality.

See?  Ungodly?  The titans preceded the Olympians.  Actually, Harkaway did less with that than I had expected, and I was a tad disappointed in the misuse of mythology, but whatever.  The plot is simple and as the title indicates, very noir.  An oddball titan gets killed, and a outside contractor for the cops comes in to investigate, because any time there is a crime involving a titan, he cleans up the mess.  A lot of it is predictable as Harkaway doles out the information, and it turns out that the titan, Roddy, was quite old, and since amnesia comes with the treatment, even he did not really know the deal.  Before he got dosed, he was an abusive husband, and his wife was a scientist who worked for Stefan.  They fought, she fought back, they nearly killed each other, Stefan saved her and married her, and saved Roddy because he was useful.  The woman, of course, is someone you know, and there are no surprises.  The investigator, Cal, has a thing with Stefan's daughter, who was just dosed, so you know that by the end of the book, he'll get his own shot, the end.

There are not a lot of surprises, and Harkaway tries to win on noir charm.  There is some fun to be had, but not a lot of insight.  I'm going somewhere else.

In the novel, Tonfamecasca is not just rich, but basically the center of the world, not precisely because he is physically large and imposing, but because everyone in the world wants to become a titan.  Take a shot, become big and strong and if not technically immortal, have your life extended.  Of course, you are then truly under Stefan's very large and imposing thumb, forced to do as he tells you rather than ignored entirely, but is that what you want?  If so, your desire is what empowers him.  You give him wealth and control, through that desire.

Memento mori.  You will die.  Even the titans will die.  The original titans lost to Zeus and the Olympians.  Stefan may be a stand-in for Cronus, but while Zeus could trick Cronus into the worst indigestion ever and then toss him into Tartarus, even Stefan will die.  Even with that fourth dose, he'll die.  A fifth dose, for example, would kill him, previous attempts were nearly successful, and you know, eventually Earth goes bye-bye.  Memento mori.

How long do you have?  Titans have longer.  Most likely.  What would you give for that?  Many have written about how we undervalue the time that we have, while overvaluing meaningless things, but then what would you give up for some extra time?  How much extra time?  How much extra time do the titans get?  Is it good time?

They are wealthy, but are they free?  They are under Stefan's thumb, while everyone else is free to be truly ignored by not-Cronus.  Who is freer?  Maurice, a titan in disfavor, who makes an attempt on Cal, our cliche main character?  Or any number of regular people, whom Stefan cannot bother to notice?  Sure, Maurice has some physical gifts and wealth, but in his attempts to manage everything and make a play for Stefan's ex-wife, things do not turn out well for him.

Life down amongst the mortals?  You make your own of it.

Put it this way.  If someone offers you the shot, for free, do you take it?  Probably.  You live longer and healthier.  Add the amnesia, and maybe you reconsider, but if you can walk off into the sunset and ignore Stefan, sure.

How much money would you pay?  If it's just money?

How much of your life would you devote to the quest for the money to get that shot?

That is why Stefan runs the world.  Enough people scrape and scrabble for x number of extra years, all lived under Stefan's thumb, with the illusion of freedom, and empty wealth.  They'll all die anyway, as will he.  But in that time, those beggars and slaves to their own empty dreams live such as life is with things rather than will, in constant fear that Cronus-Stefan will take it away, turn his gaze on them, step on them, crush them, crushed anyway by their constant fear that they will lose what was never in their own power because they begged for it from Stefan Tonfamecasca.

Is he a villain?  The murderer, such as she is, is Roddy's ex.  Stefan found her, saved her, married her, treated her alright, and then they parted amicably.  In some ways, the corpse at the start was the villain, even if the T7 amnesia took away his memories of his crimes, and perhaps even the persona that did it.  Stefan?  To him, everyone is just a bug whom he can barely see, who will die anyway in the blink of an eye.  If he laughs, the sound waves might kill you.

He is apart, and powerful because he has what too many will sacrifice anything to get, and then to keep.  And that willingness is his power.  Stefan's power among the bugs is the fact that every bug wants to be a titan.  Any of those bugs could go through life happier ignored as bugs because Stefan Tonfamecasca just couldn't be bothered with a goddamned bug.

Every ruler, even the most ruthless dictator is there by the will, sufferance, compromise, or cowardice of those who keep him there.  What is imposed?

You are offered a deal.  The deal comes with terms.

Rahsaan Roland Kirk, "Volunteered Slavery," performed live.