   this perfect day (1970), by ira levin, is a heroic science fiction novel about a technocratic dystopia. it is often compared to nineteen eighty-four and brave new world. levin won a prometheus award in 1992 for this novel. this perfect day is one of two levin novels yet to be adapted to film (the other being son of rosemary, the sequel to rosemary's baby). ==plot backstory== the world is managed by a central computer called unicomp which has been programmed to keep every single human on the surface of the earth in check. people are continually drugged by means of monthly treatments (delivered via transdermal spray or jet injector) so that they will remain satisfied and cooperative "family members". they are told where to live, when to eat, whom to marry, when to reproduce, and for which job they will be trained. everyone is assigned a counselor who acts somewhat like a mentor, confessor, and parole agent; violations against 'brothers' and 'sisters' by themselves and others are expected to be reported at a weekly confession. everyone wears a permanent identifying bracelet which interfaces with access points that act as scanners which tell the "family members" where they are allowed to go and what they are allowed to do. around the age of 62, every person dies, presumably from an overdose of the treatment liquids; almost anything in them is poisonous if an excess dose is given. now and then, someone dies at 61 or 63, so no one is too suspicious of the regularity. even opposition against such a life by those few who happen to be resistant to the drugs, or those who purposely change their behavior to avoid strong doses of some of the drugs in the monthly treatment, and who consequently wake up to a day which for them turns out to be anything but perfect, is dealt with by the programmers of unicomp. these long-lived men and women, in their underground hideaway, constitute the real, albeit invisible, world government. they live in absolute luxury and choose their own members through a form of meritocracy. in part, people who choose, through evasion and modifying their own behavior, to leave the main family are subtly re-directed to "nature preserves" of imperfect life on islands. these, however, have been put in plac
1970_novels 1970s_science_fiction_novels American_science_fiction_novels Dystopian_novels Mind_control_in_fiction Novels_by_Ira_Levin Prometheus_Award_winning_works Random_House_books