Boekverslag : Ira Levin - This Perfect Day
De taal ervan is Nederlands en het aantal woorden bedraagt 2310 woorden.

Bibliografie
Date of 1st publication: 1970
Number of pages: 285


Samenvatting
This perfect day is a science fiction novel about the world in the future.
In the future, there is a day in which are five main computers. They control the world, but things are not going very well. From the day that Wei had been born, there began a new year counting, the number of years after Unification. The time before the Unification is called pre-U.
One day, the five computers were got linked by a man called Li Wei with each other by one big computer, UniComp. Since then there are not any counties, and there is only one language, English.
The people living then are all part of a big family, and they are called members. With UniComp ruling, the members get treatments, a chemical injection with tranquillizers and LPK, a sort of drug which let the members not behave aggressively, but they can not enjoy thing as good as if they were untreated. The computer rules everything.
UniComp decides the work the members will go to do and were they are going to live, but the treatments let the members behave good, and nobody get rebellious. Also sex is programmed weekly from the age of fourteen.
There are scanners, and all members have a bracelet with their name on it. Every time they pass a scanner, they got to tough the scanner with their bracelet, so the Uni knows where every member is.
Unicomp also decides whether a family can have children or not. Everyone dies at the age of 62, when the members are not efficient enough any more by a poison in the monthly treatment. There are only four names for boys and four names for girls.
The names for the boy are coming from the first names of big names from the past, Jesus Christ, Bob Wood, Karl Marx and Li Wei. after the first name comes a combination of numbers and letters, and so are the different parts of the world.
The numbers after the names of three letters get higher when you get further from UniComp. For example, the city where the story begins is called EUR 55128


The story

The story has been split into four parts.

Part one, Growing up

The story begins in 141 in the city in Eur. A couple of boys are talking about incurables, people who have not been cured (not have got treatments). The incurables escaped to caves and mountains during the unification, and the boys are arguing about if there are still incurables left.
One of the boys, Li RM35M4419, who is called Chip by his grand father, Papa Jan, has got one brown eye and one green eye. Li RM35M4419 tells it at home, and his parents call their adviser Bob NE20G3018, and Li and the other boys get an extra treatment and are told that there are not any left.

A few years later, Chip goes with his family and Papa Jan to EUR 00001, where UniComp is. Papa Jan helped with building UniComp. When they are by Uni, Chip and Papa Jan were going together without the rest of the family to the real Uni. The big computer that the members usually saw was only there for show. Papa Jan knew where the real Uni was, and he took Chip with him. The got to get past scanners, but they did not touch them. They were going down, and Chip saw the real Uni a couple of kilometres down, after a long tunnel.
It was very cold, and he talked with Papa Jan. Papa Jan was old, and he got less treatment. He talked about wanting something, and he said that Chip had to get something he want.

Papa Jan was transferred to USA and chips family to AFR.

A couple of years later, when chip is fourteen, he get his weekly sex.
One night he tells his girlfriend about wanting something, and his girlfriend reports it to her adviser, and chip gets an extra treatment, and he does not any more think about it.

In 150 Papa Jan is 62 and he dies. Uni has decided that chip became a genetic taxonomist and gets on a Academy. He has a friend there, Karl. Karl is a very good drawer, and he does not wont to be a genetic taxonomist. Chip does not know if he got to report the dislike of Uni. He does not, and even helped Karl with getting equipments to draw. A few months later, there is a illness at the Mars colony, and almost all the people are dead. Only genetics can build up a new good colony, so they got of the academy earlier. Chip saw a few drawings of Karl and he noticed that the people where pre-U. Karl always drew an A under his drawings, so they were his. Chip tells it his adviser, and Karl gets treated . Later Chip feels very guilty for this.

Part two, Coming alive

Many years pass, and Chips has had a couple assignments in CHI, AFR and EUR. He is a good member. One night he finds a note which says that if wants to get alive he got to join a group. A week later he finds another note, and he goes to a meeting point. There he meets a member who called herself Snowflake. She brings him to a group of 2 men and 4 women. The two men are King, the leader, and Leopard. The four women are Snowflake, Sparrow, Hursh and Lilac.
They come together two times a week, and they smell tobacco, what does not exist any more in the new world. The group tell Chip that he can get his treatment get shorter. Chip says ok and he is making up he is over treated and overtired. His adviser gives him a shorter injection, but it was long enough to let Chip think that he was sick. He wants to tell his adviser, but he is afraid because he was feeling guilty when he had said it about Karl. He went to his adviser, but did not tell him anything, and his adviser let him get controlled in the medicentre. He gets three pills from the group to let him act as if he is heavy overtreated. In the medicentre works King, and Chip get threw the tests.
His treatment has been reduced strongly. He joins every meeting of the group.
He is smoking tobacco, which they plant and cut themselves. They got the first seeds of King. The groups has their meetings in the pre-U museum. There are books in different languages. Chip is going to translate a book in French, but he did not understand it. Leopard, who was 62 dies. A few months later Chip finds a text in english, that he also ha seen in French. Now he can translate whole books, and he finds out that members do not NEED to die at the age of 62. He also reads about islands, where the incurables went to. Chip finds out that there are still islands, but when he is trying to find them on a map he can not find them. His treatment day is coming closer, and that would mean that he could not go on with searching for at least a week. He gets his treatment day a day later,
and he find out that the islands are hidden under blue sticker on the map.
Now he knows that there was an island near the city where King had worked a while, where King got the tobacco seeds from. Chip went over to Kings house and asked him. King does not answer. When Chip goes home he finds his adviser in his room. His trick had come out, and they knew Chip was cheating them. Chip get much treatment and then when tells the names of the group. They all get their treatments, except King who had hung himself with the shower cord. After their treatment they got transferred, Chip is transferred to CHI


Part three, Getting away

In 200, there is a big party because of the 200th anniversary of Wei. Chip is now a good member, and he has not done anything wrong. During the birthday party, Chip remembers the real name of lilac, Anna SG38P2823. Chip reports it to his adviser, but he does not think it is dangerous. One day, Chip went with five ether members on a picnic. During the picnic, Chip sees a dry leaf shape on a stone, which reminds him to the tobacco cutting and planting, but because Chip has his treatments to often to really think about Lilac. Then there is an earthquake, and all the other are in Chips area are ruined. Because of this, he gets his treatment is a day later, and now he has even a dream about Lilac. Chip wants to keep his ideas and he wants to have, just for once, no treatment. At the day of his treatment Chip makes a bandage of a black patch, and then he puts it at his arm, at the spot were he gets his injection.
It worked, and Chip is feeling well again. He looks again in a pre-U museum, and he finds other maps with blue stickers on it. He finds a island, called Cuba. He wants to go there by bike and he trains every day. The day he wants to go all the 1000 kilometres he decided not to go and he returned when he was half the way, because he did not want to go without Lilac.
Chip then wants to know where Lilac is. He says to his adviser that he has seen Lilac, but that is not true. His adviser tells him that he has made a mistake, because Lilac is in AFR.
Now Chip knows were Lilac is. He tries to get in contact with her by telephone, but that can only be done in the same department. Chip wants to go to AFR, and he asked Uni if he may see his parents, who also life in AFR. After many rejections Chip may visit his parents.
Once he is in AFR he visits his parents, and he phoned Lilac, but she is as normal as every other member. When Chip goes back to Chi, where he lives, he does not take the good plane, and he takes, but he takes a coat from the plane workers, and he goes to the place were Lilac lives.
Chip has a gun from the pre-U museum, were he also had find the nearest island. It was called majorca. When Chip goes to Lilac house. Lilac does not want to go with him, but Chip makes her with his gun. They go on two stolen bikes to the nearest island. They only ride on sundays, because there are then more bikers, and less controls. In about ten weeks they are at the cost.
There they try to find traders from the island. They spend the night in a cave, waiting for traders, but there are not any. They fall asleep but when Chip wakes up they see a old boat.
They take the boat and go to de island, but they do not know where exactly the islands are. Then they got robbed by a pirate, and left over in the water. After an hour they were found by a man of the immigrant group of the island, Dover Newcome. He tells them that the Island now called Liberty.

Part four, fighting back

At Liberty, Chip and Lilac get married and get a daughter and they are earning a little money. One day Chip sees a reportage over a painter, and he sees the initials of Ashi, Karl from the genetic academy. They get in contact, and Chip is invited at a party. At that party, there is a woman, who has much money, her name is Julia. They speak about Uni, and about the plans that were made to destroy Uni. None of the men had come back. Then Chip realize that they did not know that the real Uni was under the ground. He decides to have an expedition himself to destroy Uni. He gets five men together, Dover Newcome, Jack and Ria, Buzz, and Karl. He bought with financially help of Julia gas mask against the LPK, bombs and guns. The six men get a training, and after a year they go to EUR. In EUR, they do not touch the scanners, and after a week or three they are at the mountain in EUR 0001, and they are looking for the tunnel. Ria and Jack would not take orders from Chip any more, and they go for their own. At the first bridge, they get caught, treated, and taken away. Then Chip asked Buzz to go back, and so he goes. The rest of the group goes on, and find the tunnel. They walk for hours, and then come to the real Uni. Then Dover Newcome pulls his gun and tells them they got to surrender. Dover was a spy of the family. Dover goes to a door, and let chip and Karl into Uni. There are the programmers of Uni. Inside there is Wei. He still lives, because he has the body of a sportsman. Wei says that chip will become a programmer. Chip lives for months inside Uni. One day, there comes a new expedition group. The spy of this group comes into the programmers room, and Chip helps her with the box with explosives of that group. Chip knocks her down, and takes the explosives to the frigerating room. When the refrigerators stop working, Uni will stop. Chip wonted to use the explosives, but then Wei comes in. They fight, and Chip wins, because his fighting training. Chip uses the explosives, and there is a total chaos. Chip steals a helicopter, with a man of the group that just came in, and they flew home.
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