SF Review: The World Inside is Malthus versus the "be fruitful and multiply" crowd (those who believe that any hindrance to pregnancy is illegal, immoral, and harmful to men), so still relevant. Robert Silverberg has taken elements from the best of Orwell, Huxley, and Bradbury to create his own dystopian future, this time the overregulated kind (as opposed to the post-apocalyptic chaos dystopias -- too little regulation). Though not in their class, this is a nice little counterpoint to or extension of those books. In this particular future humanity has decided to build vertically rather than horizontally, up rather than spreading out. To leave more space for growing food, everyone lives in towers 1,000 stories tall, three kilometers in height, in single room apartments, which they rarely or never leave as going outside the buildings is virtually forbidden. With so many people living so close together dissension and disruption are punishable by death, thus ensuring maximum conformity. Various methods including drugs are used for calming excitable folks. Everyone is fervently religious, promoting unstoppable breeding "bless god." Women are simply baby-making devices with no jobs or decision-making responsibilities to hinder the baby production. Which is, of course, "a woman's proper destiny," presaging The Handmaid's Tale (1985). Is the book sexist. The society portrayed is, but as Silverberg takes a step back from women's greater involvement in society as was occurring in 1970, it's a conscious decision and plot device: representation not endorsement. Women in The World Inside do have some freedoms and are not wholly excluded from male privileges (y'know, other than running society) as they can prowl at night and demand sex also. Apparently inspired by the freedom trumpeted by the New Wave science fiction spearheaded by Michael Moorcock and Harlan Ellison, Silverberg incudes numerous descriptions of sexual encounters, which will not be for everybody. Although the sex is right out front where everyone can see it, I wouldn't call this erotica as it's rarely even close to titillating. It does seem like incel wish fulfillment, however. Sex on demand for all without hesitation is the cultural norm. Incest (at least between siblings, further parameters aren't delineated) is acceptable. Certain other aspects are left unexplained: why marriage, as it's not a religious necessity and little parenting occurs. What about divorce, or perhaps that's solved with drugs. Children leave home and begin their careers at puberty. The central character is 14 years-old, yet he's a major player in a building administration that oversees 800,000 people (a city larger than San Francisco). How does someone that age get the training and experience to handle that responsibility. Each of the seven chapters focuses on a different resident of the building, but there's just not enough plot, nothing seems significant, the story doesn't build, most of the book is exposition, describing and establishing this world of the future, leaving not enough time for explosive human reaction (as portrayed in classic dystopian works ). Each chapter has a dissatisfied person who has some difficulty with society, but this is little different than society today: no one is completely happy with the way things are. Their problems seem almost trivial -- important to them, society couldn't care less. There isn't enough friction in a society designed to minimize discord, which should be fodder for discussion, but Silverberg doesn't take the storyline to its logical conclusions. He forged an interesting set of circumstances, but didn't develop sufficient plot and resolution to go with it. Good, but incomplete. Could've been great. Silverberg leaves the obvious value judgments to the reader, but didn't have the courage to establish the conflicts that would've made The World Inside unforgettable. [3½★]
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