334 (novel)
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334 is a science fiction novel by Thomas M. Disch, written in 1972.
The novel is a gritty, subtly dystopian look at everyday life in New York City around the year 2025, when there have been few real technological advances except for new recreational drugs. There have been no dramatic disasters, but overpopulation has become a constant problem despite compulsory birth control; class divisions persist; and feelings of apathy and alienation are widespread. Sexual norms have loosened considerably, while other personal freedoms have been subtly curtailed. The city government is highly bureaucratic, and the federal government has become an outright welfare state, with every citizen provided a stipend for the purchase of basic needs through an agency called MODICUM. Almost nothing is mentioned of the world outside of New York, except that the U.S. continues to be embroiled in Vietnam-like wars; most citizens are so politically uninvolved that "Democrat" and "Republican" are used only as sexual slang. On one level it is a plausible prediction of future social trends; on another, it is a satire of urban America in the 1970s.
The structure of the novel is unusual, reflecting the experimentation characteristic of New Wave writers (Disch's frank treatment of sex is also typical of the New Wave). It contains five independent novellas (previously published separately) with a common setting but different characters, and a longer sub-novel whose many short sections trace the members of a single family forward and backward in time. The focus is on the characters' personal relationships, and the ways that these relationships are shaped by social change while still being based on universal concerns.
The title refers to the address of a huge housing project where most of the characters live (formerly Disch's own address), and also to the year AD 334 during the later years of the Roman Empire—a secondary theme of the novel is that the United States may be a superpower in decline.