Transmetropolitan's World
Sarah Brown

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    This quote, found on the back of the issue "Year of the Bastard," sums up quite nicely Warren Ellis' comic book Transmetropolitan. 
Set in a futuristic American city, it follows the life of the main character, Spider Jerusalem, a well-known and often well-hated newspaper reporter.  At first glance, this city life might seem entirely different than the city life of present day.  But when it comes right down to it, the people don't seem to have changed that much.  So here's the question: Is Warren Ellis trying to create a sci-fi, dystopian view of the future, or is he simply showing where he feels our world is shortly headed?

    Before this question can be answered, we have to understand exactly what the world of Transmetropolitan is like.

    Technology, of course, has made some huge leaps.  Strangely though, the leaps seem to be in very specific directions.  For instance, cars don't seem to have changed much at all.  But back on track, the most important new technology may be the innovation of the "maker."  A maker is a machine which effectively rearranges matter.  It is fueled with a "base block," a large chunk of raw material; however it is possible to purchase an add-on which allows the maker to create objects out of garbage.  Makers seem to be widely available to all but the lowest class.  Base blocks, however, are expensive and are found only in upper class homes.  There is a quote in one of the comics about middle class families sneaking around in lower class neighbourhoods stealing the garbage.  It's an interesting reversal from the modern.

    The other direction which technology really seems to have expanded is in the area of drugs and biotechnology.  An example of biotechnology is a pill which grows an antenna web over your skeleton and runs off your own metabolism to act as a phone, demonstrated in part one of the "Lonely City" series of Transmet.  Drugs on the other hand are available in all forms, causing all sorts of effects.  "By the way: I want something that'll give me the stamina of a young werewolf, the vision of a shaman, the thoughts of a serial killer and the gentleness of a hungry vampire bat," says Spider to a pusher. "Doable," she responds.  However, the one good thing that seems to have arisen out of all this drug technology is that it isn't as dangerous as it once was.  A perfect example: smoking can no longer kill you because you can simply take some anti-cancer trait.

    So there we have two conflicting arguments for the future that Warren Ellis is depicting.  So how do we solve this little debate?  Well, I let other people debate it for me.  Online at http://www.delphi.com/ellis is a web forum owned by Warren Ellis himself.  Anyone can create discussions about anything, including the comic books he writes, so I decided to create one myself.  I asked the following question:

"I was just wondering if anyone has an opinion on the dystopian view of the world presented in Transmetropolitan. Do you think we are really headed in this direction or do you think it's sci-fi bullshit?"

    There were many interesting responses over the next few days, which began to change my initial opinion about the dystopian world of Transmetro.  These are some of the more interesting quotes:

Dystopian? No. There is an actual belief there that science can be helpful. Cigarettes no longer kill, electricity is clean, makers produce everything easily. - James Smith

The freedoms demonstrated in the City (most of which are provided by technology) feel to me like the most joyous and hopeful aspects of the book. - Mike Tomasulo

There are various indications made during the series, from #1, that the environment is in fact being cleaned up. - Warren Ellis

Including, but not limited to, all energy generation being done by solar panels covering Mercury, and the ability of makers to recycle anything (even human waste? would there be psychological problems to overcome with that?). - Jim "Snow Goon"

Sorry, maybe i'm a bit slow, but what good is there in the Transmet world? It seems fucked up beyond belief...In Transmet everyone's free to get their thrill in whatever messed up way they want, and the world is a worse place for it. - "Homerbert"

Dystopian? The world's gone insane. Every lousy component of American life at present is multiplied by 15 million times. And let me say this: if I ever, EVER have to live in a world where the television bombards you with a transmission that makes you see bloody advertisements in your sleep, I swear to God I will kill every fucking advertising executive on the planet. - Jonathan Mills

Can anyone here want to live in a world with ad bombs, sex muppets as the number one children's toy, machines on drugs, and religions which drill holes into your head? Also Spider has assaulted and injured plenty of innocent people without any form of retribution from police or anyone else. He has assaulted religions, old, homeless and the young. The people in Transmet do not live in a nice world; it's a hedonistic nightmare, but everyone's too off their face to care about anyone else. I know the current world is fucked up, but is it really that bad? - "Homerbert"

The City is a wondrous place. The options and tools available to everyone are staggering. That these people generally choose to employ their tools only to imprison themselves in ignorance, rather than to free and enlighten themselves, is the sad thing... I believe this sort of thing goes on today, and the Internet is a fine example of it. Look at this amazing tool we have and the options it affords us. Look at how our minds can be expanded with it. Now look at one of the industries it's been an enormous boon for...porn... If you really think that it's a dystopian future that's being illustrated here, you should probably take a good, hard look at the world that's around you today. - "Old Scratch"

As far as technology's effects, they haven't been only positive, but the people don't have any less free will than they ever did. They're simply wasting it, in as fantastic a manner as current technology will allow. People who waste their free will and the little bit of money they have are what comprise the "middle class", which is just as fucked as the under class, but able to buy the toys to assuage the fear that comes from that. - James Smith

Obviously the future depicted in Transmet is somewhat optimistic. On the other hand, other, technologically driven ills now permeate the society. Information pollen and G sanitizers and such... - James McFadzean

    So, now it's time for me to make my own conclusions.  Transmetropolitan may seems like a filthy, scary future.  It may even seem like one we are headed into.  But I don't feel that it's all bad news.  Like some of the comments above, there are a lot of good things about this future.  Technology is really helping the world, helping to keep things clean and somewhat sane.  The problem, like it has always been through the history of the world, is the people.  And the people haven't changed.  The only reason Transmetropolitan may at first glance seem like a Dystopian society is because the people have more opportunity to waste their lives, so are doing it more openly.

    Now I leave it in your hands.  Is the world of Transmetropolitan a dismal, dystopian view of the future?  Or is it a rationalized depiction of what we are really becoming?  Regardless, we are the youth, and this future is in our hands.  What will we make of it?