CANR
WORK TITLE: THE GOMORRAH GAMBIT
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://tomchatfield.net/
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NATIONALITY: British
LAST VOLUME: CA 324
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1980; married; children: two.
EDUCATION:St. John’s College, Oxford, Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, creative consultant, and video game writer. Oxford University, St. John’s College, Oxford, England, instructor; London’s School of Life, London, England, faculty member; Saiid Business School, Oxford, England, faculty member. Also served as an associate editor at Prospect magazine. Designer, writer, or creative consultant for games and media companies, including Google, Grex, Intervoc, Mind Candy, Red Glasses, Six to Start, and VCCP; BBC columnist; public speaker and broadcaster.
AVOCATIONS:Pianist.
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, including Observer, Independent, Sunday Times, Wired, New Statesman, Evening Standard, Times Literary Supplement, and Boing Boing.
SIDELIGHTS
For Tom Chatfield, video games are much more than playthings. Chatfield both writes games and comments on the intersection of technology and culture in media outlets such as the Observer, Independent, Sunday Times, Wired, New Statesman, Evening Standard, Times Literary Supplement, and Boing Boing. Chatfield has also worked on transmedia projects such as the smartphone app Wanderlust, the alternate reality game Perplex City, and the educational game The End. Additionally, Chatfield has designed, written, or acted as a creative consultant for games and media companies such as Google, Grex, Intervoc, Mind Candy, Red Glasses, Six to Start, and VCCP. In 2010, Chatfield was a TEDGlobal conference speaker, presenting on “Seven Ways Games Reward the Brain.” Chatfield has written a number of nonfiction books: Fun Inc.: Why Games Are the Twenty-First Century’s Most Serious Business; Fifty Digital Ideas You Really Need to Know; the e-book Summer of Unrest: Activism or Slacktivism?; The Future of Digital Politics; Netymology: from Apps to Zombies: a Linguistic Celebration of the Digital World; Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis & Independent Study; and Think Critically. With his 2019 publication, The Gomorrah Gambit, Chatfield ventured into fiction with a techno-thriller.
Much of Chatfield’s beliefs about video gaming are synthesized in Fun Inc. The book takes a grand overview of the history of video games, the cultural debates around them, and their future potential. According to Chatfield, video games reveal much about humanity, how we solve problems, what rewards engage us most, how we create alliances and rivalries, and how we learn. The video game industry, which has already overtaken the music and movie industry as the most profitable form of entertainment, may soon appear in most facets of daily life, and they may be harnessed for ever more profits by corporations. Chatfield describes his predictions for the future of gaming, complete with mind-controlled interfaces and location-based games, and tackles the current arguments against games, that they could provoke violence or addiction. He also points to several innovative and compassionate uses of video games.
Fun Inc. received much coverage by the media and fairly positive reviews. In a review for the Wall Street Journal, Robert Ferrigno challenged Chatfield’s dismissal of violent games like Grand Theft Auto in favor of more positive games. Ferrigno wrote: “Mr. Chatfield’s attempts to separate the uplifting from the degrading, though understandable, sets up a false dichotomy.” However, Guardian contributor Naomi Alderman described the book as “a compelling defence of the much maligned but fantastically successful computer game.” In a review for the Independent, Pat Kane wrote: “Tom Chatfield’s Fun Inc. is the most elegant and comprehensive defence of the status of computer games in our culture I have read, as well as a helpful compendium of research.”
In his 2016 work, Netymology, Chatfield gathers a hundred essays looking at the origins of internet-related words. Among the words and symbols the author examines are the command key hashtag, @, wikis, emoticons, Bluetooth, HTML, Trojan horses, and scores of others. Each of the 400-600-word entries serves as a sideways history of the internet, with histories of slang, memes, and gaming terms. Writing in Library Journal, Paul A. D’Alessandro commented: “Recommended for all verbivores, those generally curious about words and their origins, and those interested in the history of technology.”
In Critical Thinking, Chatfield serves up a tool kit for critical thinking techniques that will enable readers to think and write more critically in an age that is filled with all sorts and sources of information. Among these tools is how to spot an argument and why reasoning is so important; to be able to evaluate evidence and discover errors; be aware of bias; how to use technology wisely; and how to develop clear and coherent critical writing. An online Schoolsweek reviewer felt that this book “contains sensible, grounded examples, illustrations and help on all of these topics. It serves as a useful primer to the subject and could even serve as a class textbook. … The design of the book is both its most striking and useful component.”
In an interview on the Sage Publishing website, Chatfield commented on the importance of critical thinking in today’s world: “If you look at being a student today, you are confronted with almost infinite information on screen. You are bombarded with feeds, fake news, opportunities; how do you engage with this? For me, critical thinking is one of the key skills for coping with an information age, and also for what makes people skilled, unique and valuable in an era of disruption, automation and tidal waves of possibilities sweeping away much that used to be certain.”
In 2019, Chatfield published his first work of fiction, The Gomorrah Gambit, (published in England as This Is Gomorrah), intended also to be the first in a series of technothrillers. In a Civilian Reader website interview, Chatfield summarized his novel in five words: ” Jason Bourne meets Edward Snowden.” At the heart of the story is the hacker Azi Bello, who operates out of a backyard shed and tries to disrupt terrorist networks. An investigation of a neo-Nazi movement leads him to investigate the darknet marketplace called Gomorrah, where he is trading files with a source. Suddenly, however, things become all too real as Azi is pulled physically into a world of extremism, terror, and technological manipulation in a race to stop the bad guys, from the neo-Nazis to Islamic terrorists and a secretive Silicon Valley think tank.
A Kirkus Reviews critic called The Gomorrah Gambit a “thoughtful but fast-paced techno-thriller that takes many of SF’s most frightening ideas and extrapolates them into our evolving reality.” Booklist contributor Michele Leber was also impressed with this thriller, noting that “Chatfield paints a picture of the deadly scenario that skilled hackers seeking world domination are capable of creating.” Leber added: “A nonstop thriller that will be a particular treat for high-end techies.” Similarly, a Publishers Weekly reviewer observed: “Chatfield writes with real skill, intelligence, and, despite the grim story, humor. Readers will look forward to his next foray into fiction.”
In an online Medium interview, Chatfield commented on the differences for him in writing nonfiction and fiction: “On balance — and bear in mind that I’m new to this game — I love this. No matter how nuanced the nonfiction I’ve tried to write, it has been an exploration in search of a conclusion. Nonfiction defends or asserts a world-view of some kind; a verdict about the way things are. It selects facts and arranges them in sequence. It says: here are some salient truths. Fiction is agnostic. You aren’t critiquing or endorsing a thesis. You’re setting rival world-views in motion, then watching what happens when they collide.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, June 1, 2019, Michele Leber, review of The Gomorrah Gambit, p. 41.
Guardian, March 13, 2010, Steven Poole, review of Fun Inc.: Why Games Are the Twenty-First Century’s Most Serious Business.
Hindu, June 12, 2010, D. Murali, “Growth Potential of Video Games.”
Independent, January 15, 2010, Pat Kane, review of Fun Inc.
Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2010, review of Fun Inc; July 1, 2019, review of The Gomorrah Gambit.
Library Journal, August 1, 2016, Paul A. D’Alessandro, review of Netymology; From Apps to Zombies–A Linguistic Celebration of the Digital World, p. 92.
Observer, January 17, 2010, Naomi Alderman, review of Fun Inc.
Publishers Weekly, May 13, 2019, review of The Gomorrah Gambit, p. 26.
Wall Street Journal, October 25, 2010, Robert Ferrigno, “The New Hollywood.”
ONLINE
Authors Place, http://authorsplace.co.uk/ (October 5, 2011), author profile.
Civilian Reader, https://civilianreader.com/ (July 11, 2019), author interview
Dark Matter Zine, https://www.darkmatterzine.com/ (July 30, 2019), Nalini Haynes, review of This is Gomorrah.
Fantastic Fiction, https://www.fantasticfiction.com/ (August 17, 2019), “Tom Chatfield.”
Game Based Learning, http://www.gamebasedlearning2010.com/ (October 5, 2011), author profile.
Kate Vane, https://katevane.com/ (July 8, 2019), Kate Vane, review of This Is Gomorrah.
Medium, https://medium.com/ (July 23, 2019), Tom Chatfield, “A Book with Shiny Writing on the Cover.”
Oxford Internet Institute, https://www.oii.ox.ac.uk/ (August 17, 2019), “Tom Chatfield.”
Sage Publishing, https://uk.sagepub.com/ (August 17, 2019), “Tom Chatfield.”
SAGE Students’ Blog, http://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/ (February 27, 2018), Aly Davie, review of Critical Thinking.
School of Life, http://www.theschooloflife.com/ (October 5, 2011), author profile.
Schoolsweek, https://schoolsweek.co.uk/ (December 10, 2017), review of Critical Thinking.
Social Science Space, https://www.socialsciencespace.com/ (October 2, 2017), “Tom Chatfield on Critical Thinking and Bias.”
TED, http://www.ted.com/ (October 5, 2011), author profile.
Tom Chatfield, http://tomchatfield.net (August 17, 2019), author profile.
Dr Tom Chatfield (@TomChatfield) is a British writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. He’s interested in improving our experiences and understanding of digital technology.
Tom’s books exploring digital culture—most recently Critical Thinking (SAGE Publishing) and Live This Book! (Penguin)—have appeared in over thirty countries and languages.
His debut novel, This is Gomorrah (Hodder), was published worldwide in July 2019.
Dr Tom Chatfield (@TomChatfield) is a British writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. His seven books exploring contemporary culture—most recently Live This Book! (Penguin) and Critical Thinking (SAGE Publishing), researched as a Visiting Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute—are published in over two dozen languages. His debut novel, This is Gomorrah (Hodder), the first in a series set in the world of the dark net, was published worldwide in July 2019 and was a Sunday Times thriller of the month.
Tom is interested in improving our understanding of digital technology, and its uses in policy, education and engagement. He is currently technology and media advisor at Agathos LLP; a Non Executive Director at the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and at the Copyright Licensing Agency; a faculty member at London’s School of Life; a Master’s Committee member at the Economics Research Council; guest faculty member at the Said Business School, Oxford; and a senior expert at the Global Governance Institute.
Past collaborators include Google, the BBC, Channel 4 Education, Mind Candy, Shift, Flamingo London, Six to Start, Preloaded, Firefish, Future Lab, Sense Worldwide, SAGE Publications, Sugru and Allianz. Tom took his doctorate and taught at St John’s College, Oxford, and continues to guest lecture at universities across the world.
As a speaker and broadcaster, Tom’s appearances include TED Global and the Cannes Lions Festival; authors@Google; the World Congress on Information Technology; Science Foo Camp; Intelligence Squared; the Houses of Parliament; Aspen Seminars for Leaders; the RSA, Royal Society and Royal Institution; and venues ranging from the Sydney Opera House to the Googleplex.
A launch columnist for the BBC’s worldwide technology site, BBC Future, Tom writes and commentate widely in the international media, as well as guest lecturing at universities in the UK and Europe. He is a regular on BBC radio and television, and broadcasts around the world.
He is represented for writing and broadcasting by Jim Gill at United Agents, and for speaking and appearances by Chartwell and VBQ Speakers.
When not working, he plays jazz piano and drinks too much coffee.
Tom Chatfield
Dr Tom Chatfield is a British writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. His books exploring digital culture are published in over two dozen languages.
A columnist for the BBC, international commentator and TED Global speaker, he has worked as a writer and consultant with some of the world's leading technology firms. Most recently, he researched his new book Critical Thinking as Visiting Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Genres: Thriller
New Books
July 2019
(hardback)
The Gomorrah Gambit
Novels
The Gomorrah Gambit (2019)
aka This is Gomorrah
Dr Tom Chatfield is a British writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. His books exploring digital culture are published in over two dozen languages.
A columnist for the BBC, international commentator and TED Global speaker, he has worked as a writer and consultant with some of the world's leading technology firms. Most recently, he researched his new book Critical Thinking as Visiting Associate at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Tom Chatfield
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Chatfield in 2015
Tom Chatfield (born 1980) is a British author, broadcaster and tech philosopher.
Contents
1
Biography
2
Books
2.1
This Is Gomorrah
2.2
Critical Thinking
2.3
Live This Book!
2.4
Netymology
2.5
How to Thrive in the Digital Age
2.6
50 Digital Ideas You Really Need to Know
2.7
Activism or Slacktivism?
2.8
Fun Inc
3
References
4
External links
Biography[edit]
Chatfield took his BA, MPhil and doctorate degrees and taught at St John's College, Oxford, before beginning work as a writer and editor.
His first book, on the culture of video games, Fun Inc, was published worldwide in 2010, followed by further books exploring digital culture. He is an associate editor at Prospect magazine,[1] Fellow at The School of Life[2] and past guest faculty member at the Said Business School, Oxford,[3] as well as a columnist for the BBC.[4]
A frequent speaker and consultant on technology and new media, he spoke at TED Global 2010 on "7 ways games reward the brain",[5] was lead content designer and writer on Preloaded's game The End,[6] and appears regularly in the British and international media as a commentator. His work is published in over two dozen languages.
Italian think tank LSDP named him among its 100 top global thinkers for his work.[7]
Books[edit]
This Is Gomorrah[edit]
Chatfield's debut novel This Is Gomorrah (The Gomorrah Gambit in the US) was published worldwide by Hodder [8] in July 2019, and is the first of a series of techno-thrillers set in the world of the dark net.
Critical Thinking[edit]
Critical Thinking was published in November 2017 as a lead global title by SAGE Publishing, and offers a comprehensive, accessible guide to critical thinking skills for the 21st century.
Live This Book![edit]
Live This Book was published in August 2015 by Penguin, and is a print-only journal offering 100 exercises aimed at self-exploration, creativity, and critical thinking about what matters most.
Netymology[edit]
Netymology was published in March 2013 by Quercus, and tells the stories behind 100 of the digital age's most terms and ideas: from the @ and Apple symbols, to grokking, Trojans and zombies.
How to Thrive in the Digital Age[edit]
How to Thrive in the Digital Age was published in May 2012 by Pan Macmillan in association with The School of Life, as part of a six-book series of guides to modern living edited by Alain de Botton. Chatfield's book examines the implications of wired life for contemporary lives, society and culture - and offers practical advice on what it means to prosper in a digital century.
50 Digital Ideas You Really Need to Know[edit]
50 Digital Ideas You Really Need to Know was published in September 2011 by Quercus, and introduces 50 key ideas for understanding the digital age, ranging from the basics of email and markup languages to location-based services, virtual goods and the semantic web.
Activism or Slacktivism?[edit]
Activism or Slacktivism? was published in July 2011 as a short eBook by Vintage Digital, and examines the impact of new media on politics and political activism.
Fun Inc[edit]
Fun Inc was published in 2010 by Virgin Books in the UK and by Pegasus Books in the US. An investigation of the business, cultural significance and larger lessons to be learned from the video games industry, it addresses popular concerns such as the debate over violence in games, as well as the questions of games as art, as a fundamental human activity, and as an index of ongoing transformations in the social sciences, economics and 21st century life.
Tom Chatfield
Tom Chatfield is an author, tech philosopher and broadcaster
Dr. Tom Chatfield is an author, tech philosopher and broadcaster. His books exploring the skills required to thrive in a digital age, including ‘Critical Thinking’ (SAGE) and ‘Live This Book!’ (Penguin), are published in over thirty territories and languages. His debut novel, the thriller ‘This Is Gomorrah’ (Hodder), was published worldwide in July 2019.
Tom is interested in improving our understanding of digital technology and its uses in policy, education, and engagement. He is currently technology and media advisor at Agathos LLP; non-executive director at the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society; a faculty member at London’s School of Life; a Master’s committee member at the Economics Research Council; a past guest faculty member at the Said Business School, Oxford; and a senior expert at the Global Governance Institute. Past collaborators include Google, the BBC, Channel 4 Education, Mind Candy, Shift, Flamingo London, Six to Start, Preloaded, Firefish, Future Lab, Sense Worldwide, Sugru, and Allianz.
Tom speaks and broadcasts around the world on technology, the arts, and media. Appearances include TED Global and the Cannes Lions Festival; authors@Google; the World Congress on Information Technology; Science Foo Camp; Intelligence Squared; the Houses of Parliament; Aspen Seminars for Leaders; and venues ranging from the Sydney Opera House to the Googleplex.
A launch columnist for the BBC’s worldwide technology site, BBC Future, Tom writes and commentates widely in the international media, as well as guest lectures at universities in the UK and Europe. He is a regular on BBC radio and television, and broadcasts around the world.
QUOTE:
If you look at being a student today, you are confronted with almost infinite information on screen. You are bombarded with feeds, fake news, opportunities; how do you engage with this? For me, critical thinking is one of the key skills for coping with an information age, and also for what makes people skilled, unique and valuable in an era of disruption, automation and tidal waves of possibilities sweeping away much that used to be certain
Tom Chatfield is the big brain behind Critical Thinking, our colourful, creative and accessible guide for students at university just starting to think critically about their work and the world around them. To help you get to know Tom better we quizzed him on his critical thinking know-how, plus we've got a preview of that great Critical Thinking book and a video interview with the man himself.
What is critical thinking?
Critical thinking means learning to think twice about the evidence in front of your eyes and to ask what is really going on in the world.
What makes critical thinking so important today?
If you look at being a student today, you are confronted with almost infinite information on screen. You are bombarded with feeds, fake news, opportunities; how do you engage with this? For me, critical thinking is one of the key skills for coping with an information age, and also for what makes people skilled, unique and valuable in an era of disruption, automation and tidal waves of possibilities sweeping away much that used to be certain.
How does critical thinking help students?
If you’re improving critical thinking as a student, you are becoming a more discerning consumer of information. You’re becoming better at differentiating between good and bad sources. You’re becoming better at the fundamentals of making arguments, coming up with explanations and asking what it means to research a subject. It also addresses how you can express your own ideas and take away something of value that belongs to you, rather than just parroting other people’s words and desperately trying to make your way through endless reading.
What problems will this book solve for lecturers?
More and more people are coming into education with higher and higher expectations. A lot of students feel overwhelmed: they feel that so much is expected of them and yet they are not confident in the basics of researching, of engaging with ideas, of being autonomous learners. What I hope this book offers to lecturers, above all, is something they can rely upon to give students of all types more confidence and competence as autonomous thinkers and researchers. So the lecturer can get on with teaching, and be confident that students will go with them on that journey rather than getting left behind.
Tom Chatfield is a writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. He’s interested in improving our experiences of digital technology, and better understanding its use through critical thought. His six books exploring digital culture have appeared in over two dozen countries and languages.
Tom also creates and designs content for games, apps and interactive media, and speaks around the world on technology, the arts and media (appearances include TED Global and authors@Google). A columnist for BBC Future, Tom writes and commentates in the international media (including BBC Two Newsnight, Radio 4 and ABC), as well as guest lecturing at universities in the UK and Europe.
When not working, he plays jazz piano and drinks too much coffee.
Follow Tom on Twitter
@TomChatfield
#TalkCriticalThinking
Dr Tom Chatfield
Former Visiting Associate
Tom Chatfield is a British author, broadcaster and tech philosopher. The author of six books exploring digital culture, he is currently researching critical thinking in the 21st century.
Email: tom.chatfield@oii.ox.ac.uk
Twitter
Profile
Tom Chatfield (@TomChatfield) is a British writer, broadcaster and tech philosopher. Hs is interested in improving our experiences of digital technology, and in better understanding its use in work and living through critical thought.
The author of six books exploring digital culture – most recently “How to Thrive in the Digital Age” (Pan Macmillan) and “Live This Book!” (Penguin) – his work has appeared in over two dozen countries and languages.
Tom’s past collaborators include Google, the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 Education, Mind Candy, We Are What We Do / Shift, Flamingo, Six to Start, Preloaded, Firefish, Future Lab, Sense Worldwide, SAGE Publications, BMJ Learning, Sugru and Allianz.
Recent projects include advisory board membership for Labour’s Digital Government Review; consultancy with Shift Design on a videogame to boost teenagers’ mental health, awarded funding through Google’s Global Impact Challenge; research on digital learning and engagement for the BMJ and SAGE Publishing; and advisory work on the future of broadcasting for ITV and Flamingo London.
Tom is currently Advisor for Technology and Media at Agathos Management LLP; an associate editor at Prospect magazine; a faculty member at London’s School of Life; a past guest faculty member at the Said Business School, Oxford; a senior expert at the Global Governance Institute; and an Associate with Strategy of Mind, the global executive learning firm.
Tom broadcasts nationally and internationally, including as a writer/presenter for BBC radio and television, and writes and commentate widely in the international media. Appearances include TED Global and the Cannes Lions; authors@Google; the World Congress on Information Technology; Science Foo Camp; Aspen Seminars for Leaders; FundForum Asia; and venues ranging from the Sydney Opera House to the Googleplex.
Research interests
Digital culture, ethics of technology, critical thinking, games and play, technology and society
Positions held at the OII
Visiting Associate, February – March 2017
Tom Chatfield on Critical Thinking and Bias
By Social Science Bites | Published: October 2, 2017
LISTEN TO TOM CHATFIELD NOW!
Philosopher Tom Chatfield’s media presence – which is substantial – is often directly linked to his writings on technology. But his new book is on critical thinking, and while that involves humanity’s oldest computer, the brain, Chatfield explains in this Social Science Bites podcast that new digital realities interact with old human biases.
As Chatfield tells interviewer Dave Edmonds, while he defines bias as “an inaccurate account of the way things actually are,” this like confirmation, affect and recency bias aren’t automatically toxic to critical thinking.
A basic problem is the use of heuristics, which are generally necessary and definitely useful (“sparing you the burden of endless research”), can paper over the need to leave our perceptions open to refutation and challenge. “Letting our emotional reaction double as truth, and be substituted for what we think of as truth,” is the problem, and not the mere existence of mental shortcuts.
That tolerance of heuristics is baked into his definition of critical thinking. “What I mean by critical thinking,” he explains, “is our attempts to be more reasonable about the world. And so this tends to involve coming up with reasoned arguments that support conclusions, reasoned explanations that seek to explain why things are the way they are, and perhaps most importantly, doing all this as part of a reasonable critically engaged discourse, where you’re listening to other people, you’re prepared to change your mind.”
Yes, he adds, critical thinking includes the traditional tentpoles of deductive and inductive reasoning, but also something else. “More and more we also need to roll into this the scientific and empirical method of seeking explanations, forming hypotheses, testing theories and – and this is the additional bit for me – building into all this our growing knowledge about human lives, the predictable biases in the way of thinking.”
Chatfield, a former visiting associate at the Oxford Internet Institute, is currently technology and media advisor at Agathos LLP; a faculty member at London’s School of Life; and a senior expert at the Global Governance Institute. He is a regular on the BBC online and broadcast, and has written six books since 2010 exploring digital culture such as Live This Book!, How to Thrive in the Digital Age and Netymology, with a seventh – Critical Thinking: Your Guide to Effective Argument, Successful Analysis and Independent Study– being published by SAGE this month. Chatfield also plays jazz piano and by his own admission “drinks too much coffee.”
A book with shiny writing on the cover
Tom Chatfield
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Jul 23 · 4 min read
When I was seven or eight years old, I used to pick up paperback novels in bookshops and stare at them: thick squat books with huge shiny letters on their covers and titles hinting at horror, thrills or murder. Some of the authors’ names were bigger than the titles. Stephen King. James Herbert. Len Deighton. Writers in an adult world I knew nothing about and wanted to join.
Sometimes, I’d do something I’ve noticed my five-year-old son now loves to do with grown-up books. I’d flick to the very end and see how many pages there were. The more, the better: that was the rule. Stephen King was especially awe-inspiring. Some of his paperbacks felt as thick as they were wide, climbing towards 1,000 pages. Inconceivable! What might it mean to sit down and read a book like that, let alone write one?
I knew that the Lord of the Rings was the longest and most grown-up book it was possible to read, because it filled three thick paperback volumes on the shelf in our hall at home. But the paperbacks in the shops weren’t the kind of books we had at home. They felt more like the videos in the horror section of the video store, whose very boxes were terrifying enough to give me nightmares — but that I couldn’t stop looking at, trying to fathom their contents. They were adult, incomprehensible, amazing.
As it turned out, I didn’t read a Stephen King book for many years, perhaps because there seemed to be something lastingly alien about these shiny-covered bestsellers — these books so different to the stories and poems and literary fiction I read at school and then university. My first was The Shining. I don’t remember exactly when or why I read it, but I do remember how deeply and uneasily it drew me in; how its slow accretion of detail created something like a real place, populated with real people — then cracked open that reality’s walls to let the nightmares in.
I’ve written seven books of non-fiction over the last decade, but I’ve been a novelist for less than a month. Finally, uneasily, astonishingly, I am out there in narrative form. There’s a book with shiny writing on the cover that features my name, that contains my characters travelling a path intended to thrill — and, if I’m honest, that I don’t fully understand. This seems to be part of the deal with fiction. It does things, or fails to do them, at the level of atavistic emotion. What other people take from it may be nothing you intended.
On balance — and bear in mind that I’m new to this game — I love this. No matter how nuanced the non-fiction I’ve tried to write, it has been an exploration in search of a conclusion. Non-fiction defends or asserts a world-view of some kind; a verdict about the way things are. It selects facts and arranges them in sequence. It says: here are some salient truths. Fiction is agnostic. You aren’t critiquing or endorsing a thesis. You’re setting rival world-views in motion, then watching what happens when they collide.
I’ve written my novel from and about the obsessions of my non-fiction: technology, technology’s impacts upon what it means to be human, its uses and abuses and astonishments. But I’ve done so via a cast of characters with fundamentally incommensurable views and experiences. They don’t agree about what the hell’s going on. They never will. They want to kill each other; or, they want to be best friends; or, to destroy each others’ civilisations; or, to have sex. Or several of these things in sequence.
In all of this, they come much closer to life than anything entailing reasoned argument.
It should be self-evident, but somehow isn’t to many people, that being right doesn’t count for much. Not on its own. By the time you’ve gathered people in a room and persuaded them to be reasonable, to listen to each others’ views and abide by the same rules, the most important battles have already been won. And those battles took place outside the room: in the places where human problems are matters for love or violence, for compassion or vengeance, for the accretions and diminishments of time and luck and loss.
Fiction knows this. Shakespeare knew that murder and marriage are more important ways of dealing with disagreement, historically speaking, than any number of syllogisms. The play’s the thing. Clarity and logic and certainty may help us describe the universe outside out heads, but they barely touch the stories we carve through time, wildly looking for purpose and purchase.
I’ve written a novel. I don’t know what it means, and I hope you enjoy it.
This Is Gomorrah (UK Edition)
The Gomorrah Gambit (US Edition)
QUOTE:
Jason Bourne meets Edward Snowden
Interview with TOM CHATFIELD
July 11, 2019 Civilian Reader InterviewCyber, Dark Web, Hodder, Most Anticipated 2019, Mulholland, Mystery, The Gomorrah Trap, This is Gomorrah, Thriller, Tom Chatfield
Let’s start with an introduction: Who is Tom Chatfield?
I’m a British geek in his late thirties who has written a number of books of non-fiction exploring digital culture, and is now embarking on a parallel career as a writer of techno-thrillers with (I hope) a satirical edge. I’m also the father of a couple of small children and a keen jazz pianist, both of which help keep me sane in different ways.
Your new novel, This is Gomorrah, is due to be published soon by Hodder (UK) and Mulholland (US – as The Gomorrah Gambit). It looks really interesting: How would you introduce it to a potential reader?
In five words: Jason Bourne meets Edward Snowden. In slightly more than five words: Azi Bello, a hacker who’s spent much of his life hiding in a shed in East Croydon, finds things getting very real very fast when dangerous knowledge about the darknet marketplace known as Gomorrah drags him into the world of terrorism, political extremism and technological manipulation. With a side order of sardonic wit and romantic incompetence.
What inspired you to write the novel? And where do you draw your inspiration from in general?
I know a lot of thinkers, researchers and experts in the tech space, and I’m in more-or-less constant awe at the stories that come out of that world: the ways in which current realities are stranger than any fiction. As someone who has spent years writing about technology and its significance, I’m desperate to tell a story that bridges the gaps between the things I find most fascinating, the things I’m afraid of – and the kind of narratives I love. I’m a huge fan of genre fiction, and the ever-more-complex kinds of storytelling that’s taking place today in video games and television, and for years I’ve been trying to find a way to become a small part of that creative world.
How were you introduced to genre fiction?
I started reading sci-fi and fantasy books seriously as a teenager: Isaac Asimov, JRR Tolkein, Ursula le Guin, Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Margaret Atwood, everything I could get my hands on. I wrote, and wanted to be a writer, from when I was six or seven years old — and I studied and then taught literature at Oxford (with a bit of philosophy thrown in). But I always loved genre fiction most deeply and purely: for what you can do by playing within and against its expectations; for its obligations of plot and pleasure.
Do you have any specific working, writing, researching practices?
I read a lot, widely, mostly things that have nothing to do with what I’m working on — because otherwise I risk drowning out my sense of my own voice and characters. It’s important to me to be reading, thinking, responding to others’ work; and going for walks and drinking lots of coffee when the writing stalls. Given the presence of a five-year-old and a three-year-old in my life, it’s not like I have a marvellous routine. I work whenever I can, and I love to work, and to revise and to work on a text — there’s an agonising satisfaction in iteration.
When did you realize you wanted to be an author, and what was your first foray into writing? Do you still look back on it fondly?
I started writing poetry when I was six or seven years old, and short stories soon after that. I was incredibly lucky. My house was packed with books (and no televisions until I was about ten years old), my parents were incredibly supportive, and I had a magical teacher at my school who pretty much came out of a book himself: he taught classics, wrote children’s books, played the piano and encouraged me to take writing seriously — and pointed me towards me my first Terry Pratchett, Mort.
What’s your opinion of the genre today, and where do you see your work fitting into it?
I’m someone who reads more speculative fiction than thrillers, although I greatly admire the technique of pure practitioners like Lee Child — and the dark wit of Mick Herron and Christopher Brookmyre. Perhaps most of all, I’m excited by what I feel is the melding of genres and approaches practiced by authors like Naomi Alderman, Julian Gough, Nnedi Okorafor, N.K. Jeremin, Ben Aaronovitch, China Miéville, Charles Stross, and many others working somewhere between fantasy and horror and science fiction and literature: they write worlds that are packed with ideas and beauty and intelligence and possibility, that refuse to be pinned down, and are simply great to encounter.
When it comes to myself, however, I do love the promise that the word “thriller” offers: that you will be thrilled, you will be driven onward to find out what happens next. I’d love my novel to do this for its readers, while perhaps imparting some ideas that feel urgent to me.
Do you have any other projects in the pipeline, and what are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on a sequel to This Is Gomorrah, picking up its characters and taking them in what I hope is an exciting direction. Although, starting to write it while having no idea what the world will make of the first book is somewhat daunting. I’m also working in parallel on a textbook called How To Think, which will be my third book for the social science publisher SAGE, for whom I write books about Critical Thinking skills in the 21st Century, as well as designing online courses and resources. And I have some plans for other books of non-fiction and fiction, although I’m trying not to get carried away given the amount that’s already on my plate!
What are you reading at the moment (fiction, non-fiction)?
I tend to read a lot of things in parallel, partly because I need different things at different moments to spark me into words. I love reading philosophy and books of ideas, and am working my way through some Kant and Hume as well as David Robson’s fine new book The Intelligence Trap. On the genre front, I just finished Summerland by Hannu Rajaniemi, whose Quantum Thief trilogy I adored, and the Imperial Radch trilogy by Anne Leckie. I’m re-reading Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, for its sheer linguistic force, alongside Lillian Ross’s reportage for the New Yorker, and Steven Strogatz’s book about the history of calculus, Infinite Powers. And there are quite a few more, most of them recommendations. My favourite thing to do with books is to ask a friend or someone I admire, “what one book should I read next?” I’ve found plenty of amazing things that way.
If you could recommend only one novel or book to someone, what would it be?
In non-fiction, I have a very soft spot for Bryan Magee’s masterful book about Karl Popper (simply called Popper). In fiction, it is of course an impossible question, but in my current mood I’d have to say the first of Ian M. Banks’s Culture novels, Consider Phlebas. For those who haven’t read it, it introduces a fictional universe that I love very much, and that’s a huge and strange and ultimately uplifting place to explore. I still can’t quite believe he’s no longer with us.
What’s something readers might be surprised to learn about you?
I care a great deal about what they think.
What are you most looking forward to in the next twelve months?
Finishing the next novel!
*
Tom Chatfield’s This is Gomorrah is due to be published by Hodder in the UK (July 11th), and Mulholland in North America (July 23rd).
QUOTE:
thoughtful but fast-paced techno-thriller that takes many of SF's most frightening ideas and extrapolates them into our evolving reality
Chatfield, Tom THE GOMORRAH GAMBIT Mulholland Books/Little, Brown (Adult Fiction) $27.00 7, 23 ISBN: 978-0-316-52669-2
A hacker starts dabbling in the ill-rumored darknet and quickly discovers the rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than pornography, drugs, and weapons.
If there's any drawback to this propulsive debut novel by well-known technology philosopher Chatfield, it's that he knows about hacking, underground networks, and the dangers inherent in new technologies so well it could prove demanding for laymen (or become a new Anarchist's Cookbook or Fight Club for others). The novel opens on a chaotic scene where two new recruits for the Islamic Republic are under fire in Syria. Next, we meet the primary protagonist, white-hat hacker Azi Bellow, who uses a base in his backyard woodshed to disrupt bad guys--currently a neo-Nazi political movement called Freedom, led by enigmatic German Tomi Christian. Azi has been trading files on a network called Gomorrah with a source calling herself Sigma. But his fun is interrupted by an intelligence operative named Anna, who threatens to expose him if he doesn't do her bidding. Armed with a powerful new smartphone, he's off to Berlin to meet Munira Khan, a Muslim woman whose cousins were spirited off to Syria and who is a target herself. All these machinations are necessary to set up a complex but imaginative techno-thriller that pits the aforementioned neo-Nazis against a mysterious Silicon Valley-based think tank in a race to see who can do the most damage first and whether Azi, his best friend, Ad, and Munira can stop the attacks only they can see coming. It's full of cinematic set pieces including gunplay, kidnapping, and killer robots, not to mention a globe-trotting plot that visits America, Greece, and Germany. But the pensive author is also pointing out the futuristic dangers--identity theft, social engineering, virtual reality, and video manipulation among them--that are already upon us.
A thoughtful but fast-paced techno-thriller that takes many of SF's most frightening ideas and extrapolates them into our evolving reality.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Chatfield, Tom: THE GOMORRAH GAMBIT." Kirkus Reviews, 1 July 2019. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A591279185/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=70fe2bc7. Accessed 12 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A591279185
QUOTE:
Chatfield paints a picture of the deadly scenario that skilled hackers seeking world domination are capable of creating. A nonstop thriller that will be a particular treat for high-end techies
The Gomorrah Gambit.
By Tom Chatfield.
July 2019. 304p. Little, Brown/Mulholland, $27 (9780316526692); e-book, $13.99 (9780316526517).
In his debut novel, tech philosopher Chatfield paints a picture of the deadly scenario that skilled hackers seeking world domination are capable of creating. As boys in London's East Croydon, Azi Bello and Adam "Ad" Walker honed their online skills. Years later, with Ad having followed the money to California, loner Azi gets an urgent request from fellow techie Sigma, who's feeling endangered because of information she's gathered about Islamic terrorists. This request triggers a visit to Azi from an organization he later learns is called the Existential Institute, demanding Azis assistance in reaching Sigma. Azi reasons, however, that the real goal is Gomorrah, a darknet site where anything is available and dangerous individuals lurk. Action moves from London to Berlin, where the threat grows, and Azi goes on the run, first to Greece and then to the Bay Area, where he and Ad reunite to target the institute, Ad's former workplace. But continuing to avert Armageddon is an effort that will require eternal vigilance by skilled operatives. A nonstop thriller that will be a particular treat for high-end techies.--Michele Leber
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Leber, Michele. "The Gomorrah Gambit." Booklist, 1 June 2019, p. 41. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A593431478/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=5bf8d3e0. Accessed 12 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A593431478
QUOTE:
Chatfield writes with real skill, intelligence, and, despite the grim story, humor. Readers will look forward to his next foray into fiction."
* The Gomorrah Gambit
Tom Chatfield. Mulholland, $27 (304p) ISBN 978-0-316-52669-2
British technology philosopher Chatfield (Netymology) makes his fiction debut with an accomplished and chilling high-tech thriller. In the ominous opening chapter, a disillusioned publicist for the jihadist cause, who's caught in a battle in Syria in 2014, takes a photo of his cousin's corpse and thinks: "Every life, every death, is now a message. Just add social media and wait for the shares to begin." Later that year in London, hacker and social misfit Azi Bello gets an urgent message from Sigma, an online friend who sends him documents that suggest 50 Islamic martyrs are actually alive and preparing for a massive terrorist attack called Gomorrah. Within minutes of the communication with Sigma, Azi--a self-taught expert on the dark web--gets a visit from Anna, a member of an unnamed intelligence service who knows every detail of his life and uses Azi to ensnare Sigma. Once Azi meets Sigma, the complex game is afoot, moving to Berlin and Greece and ultimately to California's Silicon Valley and a superwealthy think tank, the Existential Institute. Chatfield writes with real skill, intelligence, and, despite the grim story, humor. Readers will look forward to his next foray into fiction. Agent:Jon Elek. United Agents. (July)
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2019 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Gomorrah Gambit." Publishers Weekly, 13 May 2019, p. 26+. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A587262274/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=e0b44c83. Accessed 12 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A587262274
QUOTE:
Recommended for all verbivores, those generally curious about words and their origins, and those interested in the history of technology.
Chatfield, Tom. Netymology; From Apps to Zombies--A Linguistic Celebration of the Digital World. Quercus. Aug. 2016. 272p. notes, index. ISBN 9781623651640. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781623651657. LANG
According to Chatfield (How To Thrive in the Digital Age), as our daily digital lives accelerate and expand, changes to language are happening at an unprecedented degree. In setting out the stories of how new words, phrases, and symbols of the Internet came into being, the author sketches a partial portrait of life today. The book consists of 100 brief essays, each examining the origins, usages, and meanings of such items as: Apple's command key the hashtag, emoticons, @, wikis, grokking, avatars, Bluetooth, the Cupertino effect, typosquatting, memes, and sneakernet. Equipped with detailed endnotes that often cite important documents or the first instance of a word or phrase down to the exact moment of introduction, this engaging volume is not just for the word nerds among us. The stories collected here not only entertainingly illustrate and explain the exploding cybervocabulary, but they also effectively analyze how everyday technology is changing human communication. VERDICT Recommended for all verbivores, those generally curious about words and their origins, and those interested in the history of technology.--Paul A. D'Alessandro, Brunswick, ME
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Source Citation
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
D'Alessandro, Paul A. "Chatfield, Tom. Netymology; From Apps to Zombies--A Linguistic Celebration of the Digital World." Library Journal, 1 Aug. 2016, p. 92+. Gale General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A459805019/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=c15d1f91. Accessed 12 Aug. 2019.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A459805019
QUOTE:
contains sensible, grounded examples, illustrations and help on all of these topics. It serves as a useful primer to the subject and could even serve as a class textbook. ... The design of the book is both its most striking and useful component
Critical Thinking, by Tom Chatfield
0
Sun 10th Dec 2017, 5.00
This generation of school-age students is bombarded with an overabundance of information. Social media, the decline in trust of print media, and the ease with which information can be accessed by smartphones compounds this saturation.
Information is not knowledge, however – students need to know how to put it in context and sift the bad from the good, as well as how to give weight to competing arguments and save themselves from drowning in the ocean of data.
Our school teaches critical thinking across all our year groups. We look at the different systems of belief that influence perspectives and customs, how to detect editorial bias in the media and identify the most powerful and transformative ideas in the history of civilisation.
We are also conscious that we have a responsibility to teach our students how to present arguments clearly and fairly, how to keep themselves safe online, to avoid dangers ranging from email scams to radicalisation, and how to find space for reflection and recreation away from the stresses of an information-saturated society.
READ MORE: Teach critical thought, says Hillsborough disaster academic
As well as being a first-rate introduction to the field, Tom Chatfield’s Critical Thinking contains sensible, grounded examples, illustrations and help on all of these topics. It serves as a useful primer to the subject and could even serve as a class textbook.
Chatfield uses some very old ideas – the section on rhetoric, and the use of the modes of persuasion, “ethos”, “logos” and “pathos”, were first introduced by Aristotle. He also uses very new ideas – definitions of “echo chambers” and “filter bubbles” are included as part of the section on researching and avoiding misinformation online.
He elsewhere addresses the broad challenge of being reasonable in an unreasonable world. He looks at the structure of arguments, paying close but unpedantic attention to the logical fallacies that can distort clear argumentation. He makes sensible points about how empirical evidence and the use of primary and secondary sources can strengthen an argument.
However, we all know that it’s not always the best argument that wins the day, and in the second part of the book, he looks at the tools of rhetoric: how they can clarify arguments, and, conversely, be used by the unscrupulous to confuse, obscure or deflect.
Identifying bias in arguments is important, just as vital is to recognise unconscious bias in oneself, and Chatfield is particularly impressive when he comes to interrogate different heuristics and how for example oversimplification and lack of insight can lead to trouble.
The design of the book is both its most striking and useful component. Key terms are highlighted, margins are wide for notes, and illustrations are bold and clear. He doesn’t skimp on the detail in his explanations, but mixes a formal and detailed approach with up-to-date examples and clever use of social media – chapters include links to YouTube summaries and participation via Twitter is encouraged.
The design of the book is both its most striking and useful component
Structuring the book around the tongue-in-cheek “10 commandments for critical thinking” gives coherence to the distinct elements of the book, making it a usefully self-contained course.
There is also plenty of material here to support a school’s study skills programme. In common with the advice on reasoning and arguments, Chatfield’s advice on how to study and learn are practical, clear and relevant.
This is a book happy to be written on, queried and argued with. The exercises sprinkled throughout are well judged and encourage a deep reading. Overall the book is written with a clear perspective, from the ground up. The consistency of tone and design make it an impressive achievement, bringing light and clarity to an area which can present as murky and vague. I recommend it strongly. It will certainly be a useful addition to the teaching materials my school already uses, but its appeal goes well beyond classroom walls due to its breadth, depth and the clarity of its outlook.
I would be very happy to see students and colleagues alike walking around campus with dog-eared, annotated and bookmarked copies of Critical Thinking.
Critical Thinking, Tom Chatfield – An Honest Review
February 27, 2018 / Aly Davie
Initial Thoughts and Impressions:
The cover and overall appearance of the book does not scream textbook rather it replicates a similar vibe to the wreck this journal by Keri Smith. – It is simplistic, yet eye-catching due to the vibrant yellow and mimics that of a an old school work book.
Upon flicking through the book I am immediately drawn to the vibrant colours of text, which in fact is a page dedicated to a quote. The majority of pages have text in a handwritten style that at first made me think someone had used my copy; to accompany the text specific words are highlighted and referred to in the margins of the book.
This saves time on students’ having to personally highlight and write in the book themselves.
It appears this is not like any ordinary textbook and has the potential to be very interactive. Overall, the textbook is very aesthetically pleasing.
The contents
The book itself is split into two parts:
Part 1: The art and science of being reasonable
Part 2: Being reasonable in an unreasonable world
Each part contains six chapters all with unique titles and subheadings. As I am a typical student with assessments and commitments I have decided to look at 6 chapters that I think are the most interesting and relevant to my studies. I have personally never read or studied critical thinking, yet something about this book makes me excited to?
After watching a video about the author, Tom Chatfield, I now feel I have more of an understanding as to what critical thinking is and a sense of confusion as to why I had no idea what it was before now.
Chapter 1: Understanding the reasons behind things
The first chapter of the book eases the reader into the world of critical thinking. It has a lot of activities to keep the reader on their toes and interacting with the content to make sure they understand it. It begins by discussing arguments and conclusions, something I thought I already knew about, turns out I didn’t and actually got some of the exercises wrong.
The chapter continues in a similar format of exercises based on the text you’ve just read but explores four different types of information commonly found in speech and writing. This chapter would be particularly useful to look at when approaching essays! Even if you didn’t have time to read the whole chapter, the summary at the end of the chapter clearly explains the key points of the chapter.
Chapters 3, reasoning with logic and certainty and 5, developing explanations and theory begin to throw the reader into the deep end. Or at least I felt like I was in the deep end. They discuss topics such as deductive reasoning, valid and invalid arguments and reasoning, abduction, explanations, theories and hypotheses and conducting meaningful research, plus many more topics. Both of theses chapters unlike the first one, truly makes you think and personally I found myself reflecting on my past work and noting how I would do things differently upon reading these chapters. Chapter 3 includes exercises to help understand the text in a similar format to chapter one, there as chapter 5 is more focused on the actual text, rather than exercises. This is more what I am used to and I liked that not all of the chapters were going to be full of exercises. I know for a fact before an assignment I will be looking back at chapter five as a refresher.
Chapter 9: Understanding Cognitive Bias
Chapter 9 once again submerges the reader into the text, testing them on different examples and making them apply the knowledge they have just learnt. By teaching students about Behavioural Economics it allows students to apply this to both the research they read but also interactions with people in their every day life.
As a future marketer it is important to know about the different types of bias and how they are presented.
Chapter 11: Thinking Critically About Technology
Chapter 11 goes into detail about thinking critically about technology and how technologies have their own biases and blind spots and how they overlap with our own biases in complex ways. The most useful topic in that chapter for myself is the “ten tips for spotting online misinformation”. As a student is very easy to follow “fake news” and irrelevant information and these tips help you to decipher the fake from the real. What may seem like obvious tips to most, as a student it is very easy to forget these ten steps. Another essential read for students is “search, discovery and categories of knowledge”, this section helps students to search effectively through search and discovery strategies. Once again, simple enough steps to some people but easily forgotten by students in a panic to write their essays they’ve left to the last minute.
Chapter 12: Putting It All Together: Critically Thinking in Study, Work and Life
The final chapter is fittingly titled “putting it all together: critical thinking in study, work and life”. The chapter goes through steps for good writing in general and good academic writing; quite literally breaking down everything you need to do in order to write to a good standard. It also talks about overcoming barriers that hold you back, which as someone who sometimes suffers with a block of not being able to write, it was refreshing to know that there are things I can do to overcome this.
Particularly the “three things that i cannot change but should worry less about” section. It ends with an exercise reflecting on what you have learnt throughout the book and of course ends with the ten commandments of critical thinking.
What else is there?
There is a reading guide with a list of books that covers topics throughout the book, so if there is a particular section you enjoyed or wanted to learn more about you have a great place to start! There is a very detailed glossary too spanning over ten pages, as well as a synopsis of five valid forms of arguments.
So, what do I really think ?
In all honesty I wasn’t sure how useful critical thinking was going to be to me in my studies or daily life but it is now something I want to look into more. What I particularly like about this book is the way it includes the reader. Each chapter has pages with dedicated exercises and writing space for the reader to interact with the content they have just read. I find this useful as it prevents the common feeling of understanding something because you’ve read it then not being able to understand it and apply it to real examples.
The book itself is easy to read and provides you with highlighted and bold sections leading you to the relevant information. This makes it particularly useful when skimming a chapter to see what it is about.
One of my main focuses when choosing a textbook is the layout and how easy it is to navigate. This book has a brilliantly clear layout, with just the right amount of content on the page and spaced out enough it doesn’t all merge into one big block of text. The pops of colour and the “hand written” notes make it all the more authentic and useful. It also has all the important stuff highlighted and commented on for you, saving other people writing all over the book.
I would definitely recommend this book to other students and would like to see it incorporated into my studies by lecturers.
Back of the book: “beyond the book… there’s more to discover #criticalthinking”
The book is continued as such, on its own website and contains quizzes and videos, including a video by the author. This is useful for students who don’t have the time or the patiences to sit and read. The same easy to use feel is continued online too! For more information on critical thinking use the hashtag #criticalthinking to find out more!
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Book review: This Is Gomorrah by Tom Chatfield
Kate VaneJuly 8, 2019Crime fiction, Reviews
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Azi Bello navigates the darker reaches of the internet from his shed in East Croydon. He is highly skilled, and on his own terms, ethical. He is driven by a sense of mission, creating false identities in order to draw out racists and haters and use what he learns against them.
Meanwhile, Kabir, another young British man, is working for Islamic State in Syria, creating click-friendly propaganda out of death and torture.
When Azi gets an appeal for help from an online friend he knows only as Sigma, he dares to come into the real world to fight a shadowy threat they aren’t even sure exists – the dark net site known as Gomorrah.
What follows is the fast-paced political thriller as the links between these disparate elements are revealed. Sigma draws Azi into both real and virtual worlds where no one is what they seem, where technology can be used both by Azi and against him, and where the man who lived his whole life online finds himself grappling with danger, disguise and desire across continents. At the same time Azi’s history and emotional life are gradually revealed.
I really enjoyed the technological elements of the book and the underlying political issues. By coincidence I’ve also been reading PW Singer and Emerson Brooking’s non-fiction LikeWar, on how state hackers and terrorists use social media to further their cause. This Is Gomorrah feels credible and LikeWar confirms that it is.
Author Tom Chatfield is a tech journalist, and he has clearly brought his skills into his fiction. He explains what Azi is doing (and what is being done to him) in a way that is intelligible but not simplistic.
I wasn’t always as absorbed by the plot but I loved the characterisation. Kabir’s actions are shocking but he is drawn in a way that makes him real and understandable. Azi is wry and self-deprecating, with an eye to the absurdities of contemporary culture.
We gradually learn about Azi’s past and how it made him what he is. His relationship with his childhood friend Ad is particularly poignant. Ad is also into tech but has a much more privileged and secure background than Azi and this plays into the complex dynamic between them.
There are lots of twists and reversals and drama and there are hints at the end that some of the characters in this book might live to fight another day. I’d be interested to see where they go next.
This is Gomorrah by Tom Chatfield
July 30, 2019All posts, Book reviews, Fiction, People of Color, Suspense/ThrillerTom Chatfield
A review by Nalini Haynes
This is Gomorrah opens by convincing me it’s not Gomorrah, it’s hell. ISIS recruited Western brothers, one of whom sees the other shot by enemies while trying to take Syria. The survivor takes lots of photos of his brother’s corpse in the hopes of winning the social media war. That was just the prologue.
Via Azi, aka AZ, we get a crash course in the dark web and how noobs flag themselves for surveillance while pros embed themselves with the opposition. Like a British hacker embedding himself in a neo-Nazi group. Just for trolling purposes, you understand. He’s not obsessive. Well, if pushed he’ll admit to being obsessive. Meanwhile, his employer is getting annoyed that Azi is neglecting his work.
Anna arrives on Azi’s doorstep bringing violence and threats of more violence. Azi is ensnared by this security agency (perhaps), and is coerced into doing their bidding. Thus the thriller picks up speed.
My initial thoughts
Early on I decided that this was either an intelligent book with insights into hacker culture or a deeply flawed book that I would hurl into a wall. On page 159 the plot ‘twist’ reveals… This Is Gomorrah is intelligent. And thrilling. Now the question is, what exactly is going on? And will Azi and Kabir survive?
Gomorrah vs disability
Eleni, a doctor, spots a person wearing what looks like the attachment for a cochlear implant. Being a doctor she says that it is unlikely to be real, and she thinks the man is wearing an earpiece. Eleni says
Anyone can be deaf, of course. But I do not think he is… The worst deaf person is one who does not wish to hear! That’s you, by the way: this is how we talk about a stubborn fool’ (p. 166).
Thus she exposes cultural ableism without critique alongside a critique of Azi’s character. Ableism is (partially) where disability is used as a metaphor for personal failings.
Azi asks if they can test to learn if the man really is deaf, ‘…like throwing a ball at a blind person to test them’ (p.166).
Eleni replies, ‘The implants allow them to hear. This is the entire point of the implants… And what kind of idiot throws a ball at blind people? You have been watching too many movies’ (p. 167).
Throwing a ball at a blind person is another ableist trope, as is the ‘person faking a disability’ trope and the assumption that every blind or vision impaired person either has no sight at all or is faking their disability. Gomorrah does not delve into ableism — it’s not relevant to the plot — but this exchange seems to partially reinforce ableist tropes and partially challenge them.
Gomorrah vs Virtual Reality (disability and Big Brother)
Chatfield’s riff on VR (pp.229-230) is highly accurate and derogatory. It includes Azi musing that in VR ‘You’re at the mercy of flesh in a way that ordinary life rarely achieves’. Ironically VR tends to be less disability accessible than real life because you’re required to be able to see well (the visual gave me a blinding headache within a couple of minutes) and you’re usually required to raise and lower your height, something that may not be possible for a lot of disabled people. Then there’s the manipulation of objects and engaging with the VR environment etcetera. VR is meatspace without disability access. However, Azi doesn’t comment about disability access. Instead he focuses on his own personal discomfort. In his real world he escapes through computers but in VR, ironically, he can’t. ‘It’s the opposite of everything Azi has ever hoped to achieve online.’
‘No wonder, he thinks, so many tech firms are so excited about this most coercive of tools. Why bother changing the world if you can build a virtual one, pixel by pixel, that’s pre-adjusted to corporate settings? Why let people gather in public spaces when you can build a proprietary communal experience?’ (P. 230).
Big Brother isn’t just watching you in VR, Big Brother has total control over your entire VR experience.
Gomorrah vs the real world
Azi thinks ‘…everyone knows that informal conversations between emotionally stunted ideologues are the backbone of innovation’ (p. 230). Chatfield is on a roll here. These informal conversations are not just the source of innovation, they can shape and destroy your world. Once upon a time, there was an international IT company called EDS. They’re the guys who made the high production value 20-minute ‘herding cats’ mockumentary in the very late 1990s, and another about assembling a plane in-flight and another… You get the idea. Corporate rumour had it that there was a certain conversation between friends at a golfing game in the early naughties. You’ve never heard of EDS, right? That golfing game took EDS from ‘have stocks as bonuses’ to ‘you’ve lost your bonuses’ to being consumed by HP. As I type, I am anticipating the next twist in Gomorrah, which I believe will be a play off this premise.
Just like in my first viewing of Sixth Sense, I’m riveted not because I missed the twist but because I’m looking for clues to see if I’m right.
Gomorrah is like Gattaca in that the twist was obvious: the guy in the wheelchair was obviously going to commit suicide right from the time his character was introduced and I was internally screaming all the way through the cinema screening. (If you haven’t seen Gattaca yet, shame on you!)
I was wrong about Gomorrah’s ending.
Gomorrah vs cultural superiority
My experience of Western education is that it venerates Greek and Roman culture. This veneration is ironic given that the White Australia Policy (revoked in 1975) did not allow Greeks with darker complexions to immigrate to Australia. This is classic colonialist misappropriation of culture.
It appears that Azi has had a similar colonialist upbringing in that he lectures Eleni on the intricacies of Greek architecture. She replies, ‘I admit, that is an interesting fact. Which is why all of us learn it in primary school. But thank you for explaining my culture to me’ (p.167). Fist pump for the burn!
Eleni has one more scathing observation about ancient Greek culture that is so venerated by Western Conservatives. Her observation is that it was ‘basically fascist but had some good ideas’ (p.167). At school I learnt that Ancient Greece was the first democracy but now I wonder if it was really the first ‘acceptably misogynistic white attempt at democracy’.
After teachers informed us that Ancient Greece was a democracy, students asked questions… and pointed out historical facts. Like that Ancient Greece did not allow women, slaves or lesser people to vote. So it was not really a democracy at all. I guess Ancient Greece is the Western Conservative idyll and those classroom dynamics were probably most teachers’ nightmares. Gomorrah’s cultural comment is witty and pertinent. I would have loved a book like this to share with my friends at high school.
Gomorrah vs server farms
Azi visits a server farm, described in very sketchy detail. Server farms are, as Gomorrah says, often kept in secure bunkers. I know of server farms in Melbourne that are supposed to be as large as football ovals or larger, but they’re underground. Gomorrah says ‘…the heat is palpable…’ If you’ve ever hosted a LAN (Local Area Network) gathering with multiple computers — I’ve had teenage boys without about 6 computers in my house — you don’t need heaters in winter unless you’re living somewhere EXTREMELY cold. However, the novel does not mention humidity or indoor rain. This is a thing. It can rain in indoor server farms (https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/06/08/facebook_cloud_versus_cloud/). One of Gomorrah’s strengths is its exposure of IT culture and environs, something geeks will discuss. I’m sure geeks will also dissect Gomorrah for flaws, just as Azi and Ad, as teenagers, dissected their beloved War Games movie. Gomorrah’s climax is as flawed but does it matter?
There is one point at which Gomorrah utterly fails at regarding server farms. This has multiple plot ramifications but I won’t discuss specifics because it’s part of the over-the-top splodey climax. Let’s just say that in the climax, plot overrides reality.
The Wrap
This is Gomorrah starts with a basement dweller but this is Britain so Azi dwells in a shitty shed in his own backyard despite having the entire house to himself. A security agency implausibly hijacks his life to go on a thrilling adventure with astute observations of hacker culture and other things. From the outset, it’s plain that Gomorrah either has some huge holes or there will be a twist. There are a few twists. Early on, Gomorrah references the movie War Games; Gomorrah’s climax is as believable, more splodey and as feel good as War Games. A hook at the end makes me wonder if a sequel is planned or if Chatfield is simply ending with social comment and a knife to the reader’s guts. Highly recommended.
Book details
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Publisher: Hodder (Hachett)