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The Gestalt Switch
In 2023 it is seven years since the referendum and the prospect of leaving the European Union feels as far away as ever. Across the UK the ideologies of the opposing sides have hardened, with those media-labelled ‘Positives’ who voted Yes to leaving clashing with civilians dismissed as ‘Negative’ because they said No in 2016.
Now a ‘Party for Change’ has come to power, promising to deliver Brexit whatever the cost. Boosted by this supposed progress toward the restoration of sovereignty, fresh optimism pervades proud Englishmen like 68 year-old Ian Freeman. Ian is inspired to start a diary, intending to record his nation’s emancipation alongside the travails of an ailment-ridden man with a problematic family life in a typical suburban town.
But when a newly-installed populist is apparently targeted by ‘Negative terrorists’ a nationwide crackdown on pro-EU sentiment gets underway. Now Ian finds himself embroiled with state-backed ‘Local Action Groups’; undertaking the government’s dirty work for them to turn neighbour against neighbour. Meanwhile, in the far future, Ian's lost manuscript is recovered by a marginalised US academic who is not what he seems...
A speculative fiction close enough to real events to be horribly plausible, ‘The Gestalt Switch’ explores how propaganda can convince a prosperous country to embrace intolerance and mass murder.
Now a ‘Party for Change’ has come to power, promising to deliver Brexit whatever the cost. Boosted by this supposed progress toward the restoration of sovereignty, fresh optimism pervades proud Englishmen like 68 year-old Ian Freeman. Ian is inspired to start a diary, intending to record his nation’s emancipation alongside the travails of an ailment-ridden man with a problematic family life in a typical suburban town.
But when a newly-installed populist is apparently targeted by ‘Negative terrorists’ a nationwide crackdown on pro-EU sentiment gets underway. Now Ian finds himself embroiled with state-backed ‘Local Action Groups’; undertaking the government’s dirty work for them to turn neighbour against neighbour. Meanwhile, in the far future, Ian's lost manuscript is recovered by a marginalised US academic who is not what he seems...
A speculative fiction close enough to real events to be horribly plausible, ‘The Gestalt Switch’ explores how propaganda can convince a prosperous country to embrace intolerance and mass murder.
384 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 5, 2019
3 people want to read
About the author
Alan Devey
8 books3 followersThe son of a coal miner and a caterer, Alan Devey grew up working class in the divided England of the 1980s. In 2015, Alan completed a Creative Writing MA at London's Metropolitan University.
He now writes a regular blog on writing and other matters at his website and has self-published seven works of fiction. Alan is a regular presenter for the Comes With MP3s music show on Radio Woking as well as a committee member of the London Comedy Writers group.
He now writes a regular blog on writing and other matters at his website and has self-published seven works of fiction. Alan is a regular presenter for the Comes With MP3s music show on Radio Woking as well as a committee member of the London Comedy Writers group.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 27, 2019
A timely, relevant and utterly chilling novel of Brexit
Alan Devey’s latest novel ‘The Gestalt Switch’, a well-crafted epistolary take on a bleak post-Brexit near-future, couldn’t be more timely or relevant.
Through the diary entries of Ian Freeman (i.e. Freeman, Everyman, the Man on the Clapham omnibus etc.) the author successfully immerses us in the minutiae of daily life once the Brexit dust has settled, but before the excision is complete. Against a background of casual mistrust between ‘Positives’ and ‘Negatives’ and the echoing death-knells of increasingly ineffective governments, Ian diarises the strange mundanity of the politics of extremism. When the Party for Change and its charismatic frontman arrive on the scene, promising to Get Brexit Done (or something like that…), Ian unwittingly documents an escalation of extremism which rapidly changes the timbre of everyday life for all of Britain.
Devey’s latest novel is no comfortable read: Freeman is not a likeable character, primarily due to the fact that the reader is all too aware of the protagonist’s excruciating stubbornness and self-delusion. But he is relatable and troublingly realistic, and the novel’s strength comes from its ability to convince the reader that, to quote Professor Ervin Staub, “Evil that arises out of ordinary thinking and is committed by ordinary people is the norm, not the exception.” The most sinister aspect of the novel is the way in which increasingly divisive and violent behaviour (initially witnessed by Freeman on the fringes of his world before seeping to its centre) is justified, normalised and encouraged. There are obvious historical parallels to be drawn here, and this contributes to the strange unease that the reader will feel at being drawn into Freeman’s myopic worldview. Although a secondary narrator from the future occasionally interjects context, the bulk of the novel continues to mind its own business and not look beyond the next street, or occasionally the local pub; this tunnel-vision forces an insidious normality and ignorance into events and makes Devey’s dysfunctional Britain even more claustrophobic and disturbing.
Up until the inciting event which befalls the Party for Change’s leader, and the subsequent drop of the politics into the far, far right, Devey’s novel has proved remarkably prescient given that it was written well before the most recent political pantomimes. This serves only to make ‘The Gestalt Switch’ a more terrifying and compelling read: just how accurate is Devey’s literary crystal ball? This question lingers, chillingly, long after the last page has been turned. There is an inherent plausibility running through the novel which is emphasised by the banal minutiae of Ian’s everyday habits.
To paraphrase a well-known and often misattributed quote: all it takes for evil to prevail is for the Ian Freemans of this world to stay inside their own echo-chamber.
Alan Devey’s latest novel ‘The Gestalt Switch’, a well-crafted epistolary take on a bleak post-Brexit near-future, couldn’t be more timely or relevant.
Through the diary entries of Ian Freeman (i.e. Freeman, Everyman, the Man on the Clapham omnibus etc.) the author successfully immerses us in the minutiae of daily life once the Brexit dust has settled, but before the excision is complete. Against a background of casual mistrust between ‘Positives’ and ‘Negatives’ and the echoing death-knells of increasingly ineffective governments, Ian diarises the strange mundanity of the politics of extremism. When the Party for Change and its charismatic frontman arrive on the scene, promising to Get Brexit Done (or something like that…), Ian unwittingly documents an escalation of extremism which rapidly changes the timbre of everyday life for all of Britain.
Devey’s latest novel is no comfortable read: Freeman is not a likeable character, primarily due to the fact that the reader is all too aware of the protagonist’s excruciating stubbornness and self-delusion. But he is relatable and troublingly realistic, and the novel’s strength comes from its ability to convince the reader that, to quote Professor Ervin Staub, “Evil that arises out of ordinary thinking and is committed by ordinary people is the norm, not the exception.” The most sinister aspect of the novel is the way in which increasingly divisive and violent behaviour (initially witnessed by Freeman on the fringes of his world before seeping to its centre) is justified, normalised and encouraged. There are obvious historical parallels to be drawn here, and this contributes to the strange unease that the reader will feel at being drawn into Freeman’s myopic worldview. Although a secondary narrator from the future occasionally interjects context, the bulk of the novel continues to mind its own business and not look beyond the next street, or occasionally the local pub; this tunnel-vision forces an insidious normality and ignorance into events and makes Devey’s dysfunctional Britain even more claustrophobic and disturbing.
Up until the inciting event which befalls the Party for Change’s leader, and the subsequent drop of the politics into the far, far right, Devey’s novel has proved remarkably prescient given that it was written well before the most recent political pantomimes. This serves only to make ‘The Gestalt Switch’ a more terrifying and compelling read: just how accurate is Devey’s literary crystal ball? This question lingers, chillingly, long after the last page has been turned. There is an inherent plausibility running through the novel which is emphasised by the banal minutiae of Ian’s everyday habits.
To paraphrase a well-known and often misattributed quote: all it takes for evil to prevail is for the Ian Freemans of this world to stay inside their own echo-chamber.
December 2, 2019
With the elections hardly two weeks away, this book made for a timely, relevant and chilling read. What if? What if this is what the UK is in 2023?
Wittgenstein formulates the paradox of gestalt switches thus: ‘What is incomprehensible is that nothing, and yet everything has changed, after all. That is the only way to put it.’ Dystopic novels come with the warning of what might be, if the present train of events can continue. It is the author’s responsibility therefore to build in credibility along with a complete disbelief. Devey does this very effectively in meticulous detail; this is Britain as we seem to know it, weighed down by the infamous B word, seen through the eyes of Ian Freeman, 68-year-old proud Englishman. It is only a couple of pages down, that we realise all is not how we know it today, and we quickly realise we are in the head of an unreliable narrator, who is fair to say, almost a bigot. We see his condescending attitude to his wife Mary, dismissing her concern as ‘old nosiness disguised as interest’, his distaste towards the foreigners he meets, even though some are looking after him in the NHS, and most importantly his hatred of the Negs : the Negative who have voted to remain, and are increasingly the target and the radicalism sweeping the country, abetted by those in power. Thus, people vanish suddenly, houses are stained N, people are victimised for what they may or may not believe in.
With the help of nineteen detailed diary entries, we follow Ian in his various roles as proud Englishman, husband, employee, on secret assignment, and slowly we watch things explode and crumble. We watch him isolate himself completely, if we feel sorry for him when we realise he is also unwell physically it is only for an instant, since we soon realise he is not one to doubt his own belief and action. The fact that Ian Freeman is so authentic as a character is worrying –as a strong ‘Neg’ myself, I couldn’t help but wonder, with goosebumps– have I met him in a pub? Do I work with him? Is he my neighbour?
This is the true test of a dystopic novel. Can it creep into your current life and create fear, can it make you look around and question the future? The Gestalt Switch does this well – if only the people in power and all the Positives would read this book – then there could be some hope for 2023!
Wittgenstein formulates the paradox of gestalt switches thus: ‘What is incomprehensible is that nothing, and yet everything has changed, after all. That is the only way to put it.’ Dystopic novels come with the warning of what might be, if the present train of events can continue. It is the author’s responsibility therefore to build in credibility along with a complete disbelief. Devey does this very effectively in meticulous detail; this is Britain as we seem to know it, weighed down by the infamous B word, seen through the eyes of Ian Freeman, 68-year-old proud Englishman. It is only a couple of pages down, that we realise all is not how we know it today, and we quickly realise we are in the head of an unreliable narrator, who is fair to say, almost a bigot. We see his condescending attitude to his wife Mary, dismissing her concern as ‘old nosiness disguised as interest’, his distaste towards the foreigners he meets, even though some are looking after him in the NHS, and most importantly his hatred of the Negs : the Negative who have voted to remain, and are increasingly the target and the radicalism sweeping the country, abetted by those in power. Thus, people vanish suddenly, houses are stained N, people are victimised for what they may or may not believe in.
With the help of nineteen detailed diary entries, we follow Ian in his various roles as proud Englishman, husband, employee, on secret assignment, and slowly we watch things explode and crumble. We watch him isolate himself completely, if we feel sorry for him when we realise he is also unwell physically it is only for an instant, since we soon realise he is not one to doubt his own belief and action. The fact that Ian Freeman is so authentic as a character is worrying –as a strong ‘Neg’ myself, I couldn’t help but wonder, with goosebumps– have I met him in a pub? Do I work with him? Is he my neighbour?
This is the true test of a dystopic novel. Can it creep into your current life and create fear, can it make you look around and question the future? The Gestalt Switch does this well – if only the people in power and all the Positives would read this book – then there could be some hope for 2023!
January 21, 2020
As we navigate uncharted waters towards an inevitable Brexit, this feels like an important book.
The novel is set in 2023, and we still haven’t left the EU. Both governments formed by the two main ‘traditional’ parties have failed to secure the UK’s exit from the EU and so a populist Party For Change has swept to power. The country is polarised between Positives (leave voters) and Negatives (remainers). When one of the new government’s leading lights is killed in a plane crash, which the government quickly declare as murder by Negative sympathisers, the struggle between the two ideologies rapidly descends into violence.
The central character, Ian Freeman, is a Positive voter and the story is told in his first person diary entries. Half a century or so later the diary has been carefully preserved by a marginalised American academic whose own sympathetic commentary provides an insight into how the fraught situation in the UK was eventually resolved.
This is an enjoyable, thought-provoking and compelling read. Without resorting to lazy caricature, Devey manages to root out the main schools of thought behind the genesis of Brexit and warns us how its endgame could easily play out.
A thoroughly recommended, if worryingly prescient, piece of speculative fiction.
The novel is set in 2023, and we still haven’t left the EU. Both governments formed by the two main ‘traditional’ parties have failed to secure the UK’s exit from the EU and so a populist Party For Change has swept to power. The country is polarised between Positives (leave voters) and Negatives (remainers). When one of the new government’s leading lights is killed in a plane crash, which the government quickly declare as murder by Negative sympathisers, the struggle between the two ideologies rapidly descends into violence.
The central character, Ian Freeman, is a Positive voter and the story is told in his first person diary entries. Half a century or so later the diary has been carefully preserved by a marginalised American academic whose own sympathetic commentary provides an insight into how the fraught situation in the UK was eventually resolved.
This is an enjoyable, thought-provoking and compelling read. Without resorting to lazy caricature, Devey manages to root out the main schools of thought behind the genesis of Brexit and warns us how its endgame could easily play out.
A thoroughly recommended, if worryingly prescient, piece of speculative fiction.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews