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Mind Your Meter!: Book one of the Self-Promoted Gods
Mind Your Meter is a dystopian comedy about humanity's attempts to engineer happiness. Daphne Wainwright lives in a future where everyone on the planet has a meter embedded in their wrist that tells them exactly how happy they are at any given moment on a scale from 0 to 1000. When a meter falls below 700, an investigation is opened, and it is the job of the Department of Social and Individual Contentment (DOSAIC) to figure out why the person is unhappy and ensure their contentment.
Daphne is one of the best investigators at DOSAIC. She's never failed a case--except her own. Her own meter is chronically sub-par, and she's never been able to understand why. The punitive pleasure cruises her boss mandates for her have no effect. She's dissatisfied despite the nightly injections of neurotransmitters, opioids, and hormones--called the nightly social facilitations--that have been specifically engineered to improve her meter. Most of all she hates the sandbox, the silica matrix filled box that she reluctantly collapses into each night to ascend to the Heights, where she lives out whatever fantasy she imagines and desires.
To understand why she is unhappy, Daphne will have to uncover the lost history of the planet and begin to re-learn what it means to be human.
Daphne is one of the best investigators at DOSAIC. She's never failed a case--except her own. Her own meter is chronically sub-par, and she's never been able to understand why. The punitive pleasure cruises her boss mandates for her have no effect. She's dissatisfied despite the nightly injections of neurotransmitters, opioids, and hormones--called the nightly social facilitations--that have been specifically engineered to improve her meter. Most of all she hates the sandbox, the silica matrix filled box that she reluctantly collapses into each night to ascend to the Heights, where she lives out whatever fantasy she imagines and desires.
To understand why she is unhappy, Daphne will have to uncover the lost history of the planet and begin to re-learn what it means to be human.
306 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 15, 2016
6 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Hughes
51 books32 followersAndrew Hughes is the author of SWEETHEARTS OF THE GREAT MIGRATION (BookThug, 2008), RURAL RADIO (w/ Whit Griffin, Scantily Clad, 2009.) His work has appeared in Octopus, Cannibal, Spell, Can We Have Our Ball Back, Forklift, Ohio, among others. A new chapbook is forthcoming from BookThug. He is the editor of TIGHT. His work with the composer Florian Maier made its Tanglewood Music Center debut in the summer of 2002. Since then their collaborations have appeared at numerous music festivals throughout Europe.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 9, 2017
In a dystopian future, a woman fights to escape a life of enforced happiness.
It’s the far future. Humanity has retreated to densely populated underground cities where resources are scarce. In the interest of maximising happiness, everyone has a meter to track exactly how happy they are. If it dips too low, the authorities intervene. That’s Daphne’s job: investigating unhappy people and fixing them, whether with a dose of drugs or an enforced holiday in virtual reality.
Virtual reality is the final solution to keeping the growing population happy. The plan is for everyone to retreat from real life to a simulation offering everything they could want. But Daphne isn’t happy with a life of escapism and will do anything to escape it.
This is highly original and well-written science fiction, packed with ideas and satire. With great characters and an engaging plot, it’s a really enjoyable and thought-provoking read. My only complaint is this is a “Part 1” – the end leaves many questions unanswered – but there’s enough meat to make it well worth reading as is.
Expect sexual references.
It’s the far future. Humanity has retreated to densely populated underground cities where resources are scarce. In the interest of maximising happiness, everyone has a meter to track exactly how happy they are. If it dips too low, the authorities intervene. That’s Daphne’s job: investigating unhappy people and fixing them, whether with a dose of drugs or an enforced holiday in virtual reality.
Virtual reality is the final solution to keeping the growing population happy. The plan is for everyone to retreat from real life to a simulation offering everything they could want. But Daphne isn’t happy with a life of escapism and will do anything to escape it.
This is highly original and well-written science fiction, packed with ideas and satire. With great characters and an engaging plot, it’s a really enjoyable and thought-provoking read. My only complaint is this is a “Part 1” – the end leaves many questions unanswered – but there’s enough meat to make it well worth reading as is.
Expect sexual references.
May 21, 2023
Fascinating concept. I had trouble putting it down.
February 1, 2017
The author succeeds in creating a new archetype - The Autopilot – and in bouncing it through and off absurd heights of self-actualization. The degree to which the reader identifies with their own physical form will determine whether the book's humor shows its face, or if there is instead a cathartic rejection of a cultural foreign body.
Smart, unfuckingbelievably relevant, sexy and – if we are being honest – embarrassing. This book unveils the facepalming evolution of our horny stupidity.
Smart, unfuckingbelievably relevant, sexy and – if we are being honest – embarrassing. This book unveils the facepalming evolution of our horny stupidity.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews