Gibsons novelist turns page on exploitation and inequity
Gibsons-based Mutatis Mutandis publishes 'The Doctrine of Recovery'
Mutatis Mutandis, who writes under an alias, is depicted in a portrait created by Philippine painter Jose Paulo Acyatan.Mutatis Mutandis photo
The debut novel by a Gibsons-based author — whose identity is intertwined with his literary pseudonym, Mutatis Mutandis — is about to blur the lines between speculative fiction and reality.
Mutandis published The Doctrine of Recovery following an earlier work, a coming-of-age tale in London that paralleled his own biography of life after his move from Guyana (Return Empty to Paradise). His latest book is something else entirely: part science fiction, part technocratic manifesto, and a wholly optimistic vision for the future of humankind. If Ayn Rand’s cerebral protagonists stretched their zeal for utopian makeovers to cover the globe, they would start to resemble Mutandis’s enigmatic hero: Herstel Fidia.
“Some of the things I’ve written about are pretty controversial,” Mutandis acknowledged. “I think things like fairness, common sense, and compassion are embedded in every human being. But we also have a dark side. Though if people are allowed to live their lives without too many obstacles and tribulations, they pretty much know what they want. They’re hard-wired to be happy, however they define that.”
The book’s middle-aged protagonist achieves instant notoriety by besting competitors in the London Marathon. The dreadlocked Fidia uses the post-race press conference to spread his philosophy and its corresponding super-intelligent website, Mighty Blue. “I ran for the future of humanity,” he announces. “You must now all reimagine yourselves and run for your future.” Over subsequent months, documented through conversations that play out in major population centres (including Calgary), the worldwide metamorphosis accelerates.
A British television presenter plays a vital part in helping Fidia spread his push for universal equity. Soon even the Dalai Lama and the United Nations are talking about it. Meanwhile, a host of autocratic leaders are systematically eliminated through seemingly random catastrophes.
Amid the resulting hegemonic turbulence, Fridia opens his address to the UN Assembly with a poetic rap (“I am not here to / articulate nor pontificate. / A group of Judases seized the day / and the centuries”) before delineating 17 concrete goals for sustainable development.
Mutandis conceived of The Doctrine of Recovery as a rejoinder to the series of papal decrees issued in the 15th century, known popularly as the Doctrine of Discovery. The policies purported to give Christian nations the right to subjugate and enslave other groups of people. The Vatican finally repudiated the doctrine in 2023, noting that it had amplified the destructive forces of colonialism — particularly in the Americas.
For Mutandis, whose background in the business sector gives him facility with statistical data that ground his hero’s axioms, effacing the legacies of the Doctrine of Discovery is a matter of collective willpower and access to expert knowledge.
“The idea of Mighty Blue,” Mutandis explained, “is that if you were given the opportunity to live what I would call a sensible, fruitful existence without obstacles. I think you would do that. The only way we could achieve that is if we all help each other do that. Obviously, in the real world, not everybody will want to pursue that path.”
Mutandis’s pen name signifies the redrafting of a legal document to provide clarity — while retaining the essence of its meaning. In the same way, he plans to bring the fictional Mighty Blue website to reality by synthesizing the book’s deeply researched appendix into a publicly accessible online resource.
“It’s something that is just going to be there and be open, almost like Wikipedia,” he said. “The purpose of Mighty Blue is for people to go and identify what they want, what they need, what their obstacles are, and how to invite resources to assist each other.”
Another new project will entail publishing speculative dispatches from the future via the email newsletter platform Substack. Regardless of the outlet, Mutandis’s outlook is solidly rooted in hope. “I think that the overall reaction to the book has been: oh my God, if only that could happen,” he reflected. “And the other is: you know that bits of this are possible, don’t you?”
The Doctrine of Recovery by Mutatis Mutandis is available for purchase from online book retailer Amazon.ca. https://a.co/d/1ZMGvjh