The public domain is a wonderful source of inspiration for artists of all mediums. This collection of works who copyright has expired, or which were never copyrighted in the first place, is extremely fertile ground to remix, reinterpret, recontextualize, or just straight-up adapt, many great works from the past. In doing so, those works are kept alive, and help create new works of art. Where am I going with this? Why, to the audio drama we'll reviewing today, of course. We're taking a look at The Iron Heel.
It was a grim time to be sure, but the first embers of revolution were beginning to glow. It began in California with a simple worker named Ernest Everhard. He caught to eye of Avis Cunningham, the daughter of a wealthy university professor. Ernest convinces Avis of the righteousness of the socialist cause, and of the plight of the working class. It's a good thing too, for a storm is brewing on the horizon. An oligarchical cabal of businessmen, industrialists, and other robber barons are plotting to seize control of the government and reshape America in their image. In time they shall be known as The Iron Heel.
I first became aware of The Iron Heel, as in the audio drama, when series creator Edward Einhorn accounted it on the r/audiodrama subreddit. The audio drama is three episodes long, and was released in its entirety on, fittingly enough, May Day. For those who don't know, that's May 1st. Not too long about this, Edward contacted me to let me know about the show, and if I'd be interested in reviewing it. I'd previously reviewed his other audio drama, The Resistible Rise of J. R. Brinkley. I said yes, and now here we are.
Jack London often gets thought of primarily as a writer of adventure stories. This view tends to get reenforced, at least in America, by English class. It's here that you'll likely encounter Jack London via stories like Call of the Wild or "To Build a Fire". In truth, however, Jack London wrote several works of fiction which can be classified as science fiction or horror. He was also quite involved in the socialist movement and the labor movement. Jack London ran for mayor twice as a socialist candidate, and lost both times. Unsurprisingly, in later years, London's work proved incredibly popular in the Soviet Union and the rest of the Eastern Bloc. In fact, there's a lake in the Russian Far East named Jack London Lake, name in his honor.
The Iron Heel is notable for being one of the first modern dystopian novels, but also one of the first depictions of fascism in literature. It predates Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and Fahrenheit 451. However, being the first does not necessarily mean being the best. It is generally agreed that a lot of the ideas and concepts brought up by The Iron Heel were better explored by later novels. The Iron Heel isn't exactly a page-turner; it suffers from pacing problems, and the plot often gets derailed so that London can pontificate about his socialist views. It's not exactly a novel that invites itself for adaptation.
As such, I must admit I was somewhat surprised when Edward Einhorn announced his coming adaption of The Iron Heel. Still, being familiar with Edward's work in the past, I was cautiously optimistic. I should mention that this is a very faithful adaption. Edward doesn't really add or subtract anything from the plot, nor does he throw in any twists or unexpected turns. The production takes the plot of The Iron Heel lock, stock, and barrel. The biggest difference is that the characters in the framing device will periodically sing various songs associated with labor movement, the socialist movement, or some other leftist social movement.
And what fine music it is. I'm a big fan of folk music, and I've actually listened to several of the songs featured in this audio drama. However, there were also plenty of new songs to discover. I particularly liked "Solidarity Forever." It's sung to the tune of "Battle Hymn of the Republic." It was a common practice among the socialist movement to take the tunes of popular contemplate songs, and rework the lyrics to be about socialism. This was hardly an unusual tactic. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist Church, did something similar. He reworked popular drinking songs to be about Christianity and Bible stuff.
I also liked The Iron Heel's rendition of "Which Side Are You On?" The lyrics had to be rewritten out of necessity. The original song was written about the 1931 United Mine Workers Strike in Harlan County, Kentucky. Obviously, keeping the lyrics as they were wouldn't work. So, they were changed to be about the members of the resistance movement fearing that the unions have been infiltrated by agents of the Iron Heel. However, the spirit of the original song, and more importantly its tune, have been preserved.
However, one song that didn't do so well was the closing number "The Red Flag." It's sung to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree", but all the singers sound like they're about to fall asleep. To be fair, this is a problem with pretty much all version of "The Red Flag" that use the traditional tune. It's generally agreed that the lyrics are excellent, but the tune and tempo leave something to be desired. The socialist singer Billy Bragg certainly thoughts so, and created what I consider the definitive version of "The Red Flag." It's high energy, accompanied by flutes, drums, and electric guitar, and it sounds exactly like what a song of the revolution should sound like. If Edward and company couldn't have gotten the rights to the Billy Bragg cover, they could at least have taken a page, and made their version of "The Red Flag" more upbeat.
Another aspect of The Iron Heel I really liked is its structure. One of the biggest complaints I had about The Resistible Rise of J. R. Brinkley was that it felt very disjointed, and at times downright schizophrenic, due to its structure. Thankfully, that's not an issue here. Whereas Resistible Rise would switch between the play itself and Edward's interviews with various scholars, The Iron Heel stays 100 percent focused on the play. The end of each episode includes a brief excerpt from an interview Edward did with various experts specializing in the labor moment. The full interviews are available on The Iron Heel's webpage. This makes for a streamlined experience. The focus stays on the play, as it should be, and the interview excerpts never overstay their welcome. It is clear that Edward took what he learned from Resistible Rise, and used it to make The Iron Heel the best it could be.
So, how is the plot? Well, it has a few issues. As I've previously stated, the plot is lifted almost directly as-is from the original novel. Consequently, this means that the audio drama also imported the novel's pacing problems. There's also the somewhat awkward fact that the novel, and audio drama, begin in 1912, a year that has already happened. For example, at one point Germany launches a surprise attack on Hawaii. However, the international forces of the labor movements unite to prevent a war from happening. In our world, the forces of imperialism and capitalism proved more powerful, and thus World War I happened. To be fair, Jack London was hardly the only writer to make this mistake. Hmm, I guess this means that, in the world of The Iron Heel, Bluto from Animal House was right. The Germans really did bomb Pearl Harbor!
I guess this technically makes the audio drama alternate history, but I don't believe in using alternate history as a dumping ground for futures that failed to come true. Hence, why this review is released under The Audio File, no The Alt-Hist File. Still, can't help but feel that it was a missed opportunity to not play up the alternate history aspect. Edward and the gang could have incorporated actual historical figures into the narrative, and set them on alternate paths. Eugene V. Debs, the famous Socialist presidential candidate, would be a shoe-in for such a role. Or maybe have famous businessmen like Henry Ford and J.D. Rockefeller be part of the Iron Heel. Or have other famous historical figures make cameos. The possibilities are endless.
Okay, so how are the Iron Heel as villains? Yeah, they leave something to be desired. At the start, we are shown that things are bad for workers, but it doesn't seem any worse than typical Gilded Age abuses and excess. That's not to say that working conditions during the Gilded Age were light and fluffy. However, give that this audio drama is based on a dystopian novel, I was expecting something, well, more dystopian. I suppose that perhaps this is due to The Iron Heel being more conservative in its speculations, compared to novels such as Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World.
I will say I did like the scene where Ernest confronts some academics at a party. The academics make a big show of being socially aware they are, and how they care about the poor, but it's pretty clear that they mostly just use social causes as conversation starters. They also far more clueless about the plight of the working class than claim to be. In fact, speaking with Ernest is pretty much the first time they've actually talked to a working-class person. Wow, somethings really haven't changed.
Anyway, so the first two episode have a sense of rising tension. Not very much happens, and the Iron Heel itself hasn't even come to power. Then episode three happens and things reach...an anticlimactic conclusion. More tension builds, Ernest and Mavis take a trip to Chicago, where a fight breaks out and... that's pretty much it. We do get some snippets showing how things progressed for the resistance over the years. Apparently, the Iron Heel successfully crushed the revolution, and it took two or three more revolutions before the Iron Heel was finally overthrown. The in-universe explanation is that records from the first revolution are scarce and incomplete by the 27th Century. I should again emphasize that this is all absolutely faithful to the novel. It's faithful, but it doesn't make for the most riveting listening experience. Still, all of the actors gave very strong and compelling performances, so I never felt bored.
Then we get that dreadful ending song, which we've already discussed. I thought to myself "this is one of the whitest pieces of music I've ever listened to." Then a troubling question entered my mind: where are all the black people? There's no mention of black people or other racial minorities, not even in the framing segments. This, combined with the notable lack of black influences in the music, gave the impression that ethnic cleansing had occurred under the resistance. Unions have been some of the most racist organizations in America History. For example, California labor unions layer a huge role in getting the Chinese Exclusion Act passed. So, this got me thinking, how do we know the records are telling the truth?
The real reason the music sounded so white was, well, because most music used by the labor moment was written by white people. As previously mentioned, racial minorities who tried to get involved in unions were often accosted by people wearing white hoods, and waving baseball bats. Still, the wheels of speculations began to spin within my mind.
What if the Iron Heel wasn't as bad as the resistance claimed? Oh, it might have been bad, but what if their flaws and excess were blown out of proportion. Going even further, what if the Iron Heel didn't exist at all? What if it was a boogie man the "resistance" fabricated to justify overthrowing the established government? And what if the resistance wasn't actually heroic freedom fighters, but zealous fanatics trying to force socialism on the world by any means necessary? And what if Ernest and Mavis were just made up for propaganda purposes? And what if there's no black people because the whole thing is actually a left-wing version of The Turner Diaries?
Okay, this is getting seriously speculative, and I doubt any of this was Jack London's intention. Still, there is at least some evidence to suggest this could be the case. During the framing device, some characters question if the record of events is really how things occurred. The main researcher lady says that of course it is...because it has to be. Um, what? It sounds like she's taking it on faith, to an almost religious degree, or possibly has been drinking too much Flavor-Aid. Yes, contrary to popular belief, it was Flavor-Aid, not Kool-Aid, that was used at Jonestown. I guess what I'm saying is, the 27th Century segments made me wonder if the history of The Iron Heel had been written by the winners.
Okay, enough with the speculations. What are my overall thoughts on about The Iron Heel? In many ways, the deck was stacked against the audio drama from the start. It is, if nothing else, incredibly faithful to its source material. And yet that maybe have been its undoing, and perhaps it would have benefited from deviating from the original plot somewhat. Still, there's, mostly, plenty of lovely music to listen to. The cast also make the most of what they have to work with, and give stellar performances across the board.
This audio drama is also much better than any of the audiobook adaptions of The Iron Heel. I realize that doesn't should like much of a compliment. However, I am an audiobook connoisseur, so that is big praise coming from me. If nothing else, The Iron Heel is only three episodes long. Even if you don't like it, you won't have wasted much time. So, why not give it a listen and decide what you think for yourself?
Well, I think that should do it from me for now. I will see you guys next time.
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