H(A)PPY by Nicola Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Escaping the ‭Law‭‭ ‭Written‭‭ on the Heart

A prominent theme in Barker’s clearly allegorical novel is “The tuning fork is in our hearts.” This refers to the internal moral compass of those who live within The System in harmony with their fellows who are an homogenous group called The Young. For me, the reference to theology seems unmistakable

In the second chapter of his epistle to the Romans (echoing the fourth chapter of the book of Exodus but reversing the meaning), Paul extols the superiority of the “the law written in the heart” over that of the traditional Jewish law of the Torah. Reinforced in the letter to the Hebrews, this law of the heart is also extended to a “law inscribed on the mind.”

These Pauline pronouncements constitute not just the new religion of Christianity but also a new kind of religion. This is a religion of personal conversion rather than ritual participation. It demands faith in, unwavering commitment to, the contents which have been divinely inserted into the heart and mind, the conscience in other words.

Similarly, each individual in the Barker novel is monitored continuously by his or her personal conscience, The Sensor, which monitors all speech, including the speech of thought. Every word is evaluated as to its meaning and emotional correctness in the context in which it is expressed. Narratives are assessed in terms of their conformity with established narratives stored within The System

In Paul’s idea of religion, the contents to be inserted into the mind and heart were linguistic, consisting of key words and narratives. It was therefore necessary to have a reliable mode of transmission between God and human beings. The church eventually declared itself a Societas Perfecta, that is, the source all information that is needed - from what is allowed to be read, to how what is read should be interpreted. Paul’s church was the ultimate source and authority for truth.

In the novel “The Young are Perfect and The System is Perfect and everything is Known.” Like the Societas Perfecta, there is nothing outside itself which is worthy of knowing. Any extraneous knowledge is at minimum distracting, and potentially disruptive to the harmony and ultimate happiness of the community. Desire to acquire such knowledge is a transgression, a sort of editorial discontinuity as in the H(A)PPY of the title. As such, independent thought is discouraged: “Our survival is dependent upon our unity. We must be dispassionate. The System is our unity. The System is our dispassion.”

Paul’s narrative of ‘conversion by faith’ proved remarkably successful. It still dominates a large part of the world’s population. And it is a narrative which has infected other religions originally founded on a commonality of genetic or cultural heritage. Paul’s influence is so great that many of these other religions now often consider themselves to be ‘faith-based.’

In other words, the narrative of faith has become a global phenomenon and consequently must be more or less continuously adapted to new circumstances, established religious feeling, and unforeseen challenges. This implies that the interpretation of the words of faith must be decided by an ultimate authority - the Magisterium, the Board of Elders, the Conference of Churches, Caliph, Ulama, Chief Rabbinate, etc.

So also in the novel, “The System is, in essence, a creative entity; a truth, an aspiration, a hope, an imagining.” The System adapts and interprets as necessary, and as it does so it adjusts personal narratives accordingly in order to neutralise their disruptive impact before they are made legitimate in The System:

“The Sensor automatically deconstructs [all existing] stories for us, so that we may fully comprehend their true meaning, their immense reach and their invidious power, their ultimately deeply conservative urge to comfort and pander and bolster and reassure. To understand them is to disable them. It’s how we stay safe. By knowing. By being aware. It’s how The Young remain strong and Clean. By keeping vigilant.”

But there is always the possibility of a kind of heresy, unauthorised personal narratives, new stories which have not been vetted and approved by the The Sensor. These have the potential for polluting the entire System and undermining its unity. The protagonist in H(A)PPY, Mira A, is plagued by numerous random thoughts which she is trying to make sense of by fitting the pieces together into a coherent story. She is advised that she is “trying to make sense out of nothing,” which is exactly what she’s doing. And this, she is told, will have dire consequences. “‘You must determine to stop telling this story,… or you will poison The Graph. You will pollute The Information Stream. You will unbalance The Sensor.’”

The Graph is the measure of the well-being of the entire community. A deviation in The Graph for one member shows up in measure for all, since all are one. The protagonist recognises her fault and essentially confesses. “I’m so sorry,… how I have . . .SINNED,” she laments. She knows that doubt is the unforgivable sin and deserving of TERRIBLE DISCIPLINE. In this she conforms exactly with Paul’s proclamation in his letter to the Corinthians that to err in an expression of faith is to affect the entire “one body” ,which is the church, adversely.

Based on these clues, it seems to me a pretty safe bet that Barker’s allegory is one of escape from an encompassing faith-based culture such as that invented by Paul. But yet it also seems clear that the book is not about Christianity per se. Within Barker’s System, for example, personal names are replaced by numeric designators that look remarkably like internet IP addresses, suggesting that technological narratives can be as compelling as religious ones. And The System’s sensitivity to the nuance of language seems an allusion to the extreme’s of today’s ‘woke’ culture.

Getting trapped within official and generally accepted faith-based narratives is what we humans seem to do as a matter of routine since Paul and his friends started the ball rolling 2000 years ago. Perhaps this is what Barker’s novel is about - an escape route. For Mira A the escape involves music which of course evades the language of System indoctrination. But is her escape to merely another prison of faith? Or perhaps worse.

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