The Jagged Orbit by John Brunner
"The Jagged Orbit" is a narrative exploring the intersections of mental health, media, and the arms industry within a futuristic context. The story follows investigative television reporter Matthew Flamen as he delves into two major exposés: the Gottschalk arms cartel, which dominates the U.S. arms sector, and the Ginsberg State Hospital for the Mentally Maladjusted, where his wife, Celia, is a patient. Central to the plot is psychiatrist Elias Mogshack, whose controversial treatment methods involve drugging patients into a state of emotional numbness, claiming it restores individuality while Flamen suspects it obliterates their personalities.
As Flamen investigates, he uncovers the peculiar case of Harry Madison, a veteran with extraordinary abilities, who becomes a focal point for a larger conspiracy involving a powerful computer designed to maximize cartel profits. The narrative intertwines themes of social collapse and the ethical implications of technology, revealing how the computer's future self attempts to reshape the past to prevent disaster. Ultimately, the story culminates in a confrontation that results in the downfall of Mogshack and the Gottschalk family, restoring Flamen's career and his relationship with Celia. This complex tale raises questions about mental health, the influence of technology, and the moral dilemmas within power structures.
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Subject Terms
The Jagged Orbit
First published: 1969
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—dystopia
Time of work: 2014
Locale: New York, New York
The Plot
Spool-pigeon investigative television reporter) Matthew Flamen is looking at two potential exposés. One involves the huge Gottschalk arms cartel, a Mafia-run company that seems to control the entire U.S. arms industry. The other concerns the Ginsberg State Hospital for the Mentally Maladjusted in New York, a vast institution overseen by psychiatrist Elias Mogshack.
The latter story interests Flamen more because his wife, Celia, is a patient at the Ginsberg hospital. Mogshacks treatment of mental disorders relies on drugging patients into an affectless, zombielike state in which they become even more isolated than is the social norm. Mogshack claims that the process restores individuality, but Flamen suspects that it simply destroys the personality.
The hospital discharges Celia unexpectedly when it becomes overcrowded following a riot. Flamen calls in Xavier Conroy, Mogshacks sworn professional enemy, for assistance in his investigation. Another patient at the Ginsberg hospital is of unusual interest. Harry Madison, supposedly a shell-shocked U.S. Army veteran, has advanced skills in electronics. Furthermore, when he is discharged into Flamen’s custody and kidnapped, he shows almost superhuman fighting abilities.
The Gottschalk story, initially less interesting to Flamen, centers on the new computer complex that a faction of the Gottschalk “family” is building in Nevada. The new supercomputer will eliminate the cartels dependence on the public facilities used by most other organizations, and it will be programmed with one prime directive: profit maximization for the cartel. Ironically, this directive results in unexpected defeat for the arms cartel as well as for the monomaniacal psychiatrist.
Harry Madison, whose personality actually was destroyed during his military service, is transformed by the Gottschalk computer into an extension of itself, through means that cannot be explained even by the computer. Moreover, the computer is working through Harry not from the present but from a future in which social collapse, caused by the Gottschalks introduction of an “ultimate personal weapons system,” has led to the bankruptcy of their enterprise. Following its directive, the computers future “self” has contacted its present “self” to change the past and avoid the profit-destroying collapse.
It works. The rogue Gottschalk is eliminated by the family, the new computer is shut down, and plans for the new weapons system are scrapped. Flamen’s show, which had been threatened by a Gottschalk buyout of his network, is restored, and he acquires as a partner an African American newsman who has left the “Blackbury ghetto.” Conroy returns home, somewhat less cynical now that Mogshack has been brought down and the Gottschalk’s have retreated to their “traditional” weapons marketing. Flamen and Celia renew their marriage, in better shape than before.