"Pencil"'s First Review!

October 7, 2008

What If Pencils Took Over The World, Brenden Laurence Wiley’s first step into the literary world is a bolt of lightning wrapped in an electric pencil sharpener which is then dipped in gold, deep fried and then brazenly dropkicked into the very face of neo-American literature.

Short, but far from sweet, What If Pencils Took Over The World’s first act is a bold, audacious two sentences long. Readers discover that there were computer chips and pencils, and that the pencils took over. Move over, Dickens. Computer chips are the new “best of times.” Pencils are the new “worst of times.”

This duality- pencil versus microchip, new school versus old school, digital versus analog, artificial versus organic- takes the 21st Century technological paranoia and modern anxiety hinted at by masterworks such as Radiohead’s OK Computer, Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Mnemonic and turns them squarely on their heads. For so long, writers have shown us technology gone awry; we’ve come to fear the robots, the cyborgs, the computer programs, the things that are trying to kill Will Smith. Wiley takes this tried-and-true literary device and skids a Travis Pastrana-worthy burnout across its grave. This time? The lo-fi wins. And wins big.

Wiley couldn’t be more topical. The unstoppable analog threat of pencils is a tragically perfect metaphor for how little our sophisticated technology can do against renegade gangs of bearded, lo-fi radicals in far-off caves. And, at a time when fear of lead poisoning has re-entered our collective consciousness, Wiley gives us an extended metaphor that makes George Orwell and Animal Farm feel like Bill Keane and The Family Circus. Pencils, the true personification of all the things that scare us in 21st Century society, wreak havoc in ways that are both familiar and brand new. Planes fly into beloved New York City landmarks! Superheroes are laid to waste in ways that defy description! Pencils are driving cars! PENCILS HAVE PROPELLERS!?!

Before it gets too heavy and dark, though, Wiley takes a page from pop-inflected authors like Chuck Palahniuk and Nick Hornby, peppering the story with familiar pop culture characters and references. Superman. Batman. The Joker. The recently reformed Police. Yet, in a genius postmodern zag, neither the classic heroes nor the villain nor Sting Almighty can save us.

Like any debut work, it’s not hard to spot the influences that seep into young Wiley’s writing. The influence of Wiley’s father, a well-known Chicken Little of the turn of the century, and his apocalyptic leanings practically burn across the page in searing strands of genetic code. There are other influences, to be sure, but few so ominpresent.

The postmodern irony of writing a story about the victory of pencils over computer chips (and civilization, for that matter) on a word processing program is inescapable. And visionary. This is, dare I say, the first great American story for Generation Z- the same as The Great Gatsby, On The Road, and Catcher In The Rye. All by an unassuming young author who’s effortlessly revolutionizing the short story genre between bike rides and Guitar Hero. And the world, ready or not, screams in terror.

Paul Jacobsen - Badger Mountain Herald