Quotes from book
Stand on Zanzibar

Stand on Zanzibar

Stand on Zanzibar is a dystopian New Wave science fiction novel written by John Brunner and first published in 1968. The book won a Hugo Award for Best Novel at the 27th World Science Fiction Convention in 1969, as well as the 1969 BSFA Award and the 1973 Prix Tour-Apollo Award.


“Governments don’t change things,” she said. “Only time does that.”

continuity (24) “This Scene Not Shifted”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

“UNFAIR Term applied to advantages enjoyed by other people which we tried to cheat them out of and didn’t manage.”

the happening world (12) “The General Feeling”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

“COINCIDENCE You weren’t paying attention to the other half of what was going on.”

context (3) “You Have to Push Him Over”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

““Ah, go to hell!”
“That’s a remarkably Christian attitude, Donald. Both meaningless and barbaric.””

the happening world (3) “Domestica”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

“If the evidence says you’re wrong, you don’t have the right theory. You change the theory, not the evidence.”

continuity (38) “Not For Sale But Can Be Had On Application”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

“If you want to know what's shortly due for the guillotine look for the most obvious of all symptoms: extremism.”

context (12) "The Sociological Counterpart of Cheyne-Stokes Respiration" <!-- [Italics in source] -->
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: If you want to know what's shortly due for the guillotine look for the most obvious of all symptoms: extremism. It is an almost infallible sign — a kind of death-rattle — when a human institution is forced by its members into stressing those and only those factors which are identificatory, at the expense of others which it necessarily shares with competing institutions because human beings belong to all of them.

“When the Everywhere couple crack a joke
It's laughed at by all right-thinking folk.
When the Everywhere couple adopt a pose
It's the with-it view as everyone knows.”

context (16) "Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere: Calypso (stanzas 2, 5, and 7) <!-- [Italics in source] -->
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: Watching their sets in a kind of trance
were people in Mexico, people in France.
They don't chase Jones but the dreams are the same —
Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere, that's the right name!
Herr und Frau Uberall or les Partout,
A gadget on the set makes them look like you. When the Everywhere couple crack a joke
It's laughed at by all right-thinking folk.
When the Everywhere couple adopt a pose
It's the with-it view as everyone knows.
It may be a rumor or it may be true
But a gadget on the set has it said by you! "What do you think about Yatakang?"
"I think the same as the Everywhere gang."
"What do you think of Beninia then?"
"The Everywheres will tell me but I don't know when."
Whatever my country and whatever my name
A gadget on the set makes me think the same.

“Whatever my country and whatever my name
A gadget on the set makes me think the same.”

context (16) "Mr. & Mrs. Everywhere: Calypso (stanzas 2, 5, and 7) <!-- [Italics in source] -->
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)
Context: Watching their sets in a kind of trance
were people in Mexico, people in France.
They don't chase Jones but the dreams are the same —
Mr. and Mrs. Everywhere, that's the right name!
Herr und Frau Uberall or les Partout,
A gadget on the set makes them look like you. When the Everywhere couple crack a joke
It's laughed at by all right-thinking folk.
When the Everywhere couple adopt a pose
It's the with-it view as everyone knows.
It may be a rumor or it may be true
But a gadget on the set has it said by you! "What do you think about Yatakang?"
"I think the same as the Everywhere gang."
"What do you think of Beninia then?"
"The Everywheres will tell me but I don't know when."
Whatever my country and whatever my name
A gadget on the set makes me think the same.

“First you use machines, then you wear machines, and then …? Then you serve machines.”

continuity (14) "The Right Man For The Job"
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

“It would have been a longer and slower job, I’m sure, and probably there would have been a high price to pay. But what is the price of freedom?”

“What’s the price of life?” Donald countered bitterly.
continuity (37) “Storage”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

“The whole of modern so-called civilised existence is an attempt to deny reality insofar as it exists. When did Don last look at the stars, when did Norman last get soaked in a rainstorm? The stars as far as these people are concerned are the Manhattan-pattern!”

He jerked his thumb at a window beyond which the city’s treasure-house of coloured light glimmered gaudily.
continuity (13) “Multiply by a Million”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

“Rather painfully, we managed to digest Darwinian evolution so far as physical attributes were concerned within half a century of the initial controversy.”

I say “we,” but if you’re a Bible-thumping fundamentalist I expect you at this point to take the book by one corner at arm’s length and ceremonially consign it to the place where you put most sensible ideas, along with everything else you decline to acknowledge the existence of, such as mainly shit.
context (5) “The Grand Manor”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

“What are you going to do for a career?”

Diverted from his orbit, Donald binked. “Well, something which uses up a minimum of my time, I imagine. So I can use the rest to mortar up the gaps in my education.”
continuity (3) “After One Decade”
Stand on Zanzibar (1968)