Though not a book, Texhnolyze tackles some similar themes in a cyberpunk fever-dream that inspires more questions than answers. Here too people deliberately hack off their limbs to be fitted with more advanced prosthetics. One character actually claims it’s the next step in human evolution.

the daniel: Heh. Excellent. My work here is done.

Richard: Thank you for a fascinating comment and observation. I regret I didn’t reply to it more quickly, it’s been a busy time lately.

“the entire trend in (science) fiction has been towards warning, or exposing the dark sides in things, or making previously ‘innocent’ ideas edgier”

I don’t think so, at least not anymore. When I browse a sci-fi section today, I see a lot of bad fantasy epics and a huge, bomb-laden ton of crap military sci-fi. Both are building illusions as fast as the wallets of the unthinking will let them.

However, “busting your illusions with a wrecking ball” was a big trend during the Deviant Age I mostly focus on in All Tomorrows, and in occasional works (like Antibodies) that have captured its spirit since.

Antibodies is an unusually bleak example, hence my multiple warnings. But I don’t think what that revealing illusions has to go hand in hand with “cynicism and doubt and the There Is No Alternative ideology prevalent today.” Alan Moore’s work is a prime example of the possible synthesis: unafraid to knock down walls, but still aware of the power and beauty of a good idea.

But most writers aren’t Moore, and the usual problem is that the essence of a good story is conflict. People want to get visions beyond their daily lives, to feel or experience something more visceral and extreme. That’s why sex and violence have been enjoying a posh spot in our collective minds since Euripides, and aren’t ever going to leave.

Plus, a good writer (an honest one, at least) isn’t able to turn away from possible flaws in their own visions or goals. If, for example, I was to write a story about a future I’d like to see, I don’t think I could stop from realizing “Well, this part could totally go to hell or backfire… and wouldn’t that make an interesting tale?”

Personally, I think humanity could have a second Renaissance in the coming years, but we’re still going to be us, and there’s no escaping that (remember, the Renaissance was full of turmoil and violence). Better to face it head-on, and that’s what the best illusion-busting writing does.

A prime exhibit here is a beautifully written book (that I can’t stand) by Ursula LeGuin called The Dispossessed. LeGuin’s an amazing, nuanced writer and it’s a valiant attempt at a utopian sci-fi novel, but it shows the many, many problems with the genre. She ends up turning a massive blind eye to some realistic problems with her situations, resulting in ultimately unbelievable characters. In the end, her “utopia” isn’t a place I’d ever want to live (or that would last a year freed from the auctorial hand).

However, a few writers have pulled off the nigh-impossible. I’d advise you to check out Samuel DeLany’s Trouble on Triton, which features a future world with many aspects the author clearly considers desirable, but simultaneously busts utopian illusions and doesn’t shy away from conflict or hard questions.

D: I think their union (of man and cybernetic/prostetic tools) will be necessary at some point

Will it? Maybe, I’m not so sure. There’s a lot of possible paths in the future.

i can’t see anything evil about that.

In and of itself, there’s not. Consider that the same amazing advances in biology and chemistry that made possible life-saving medicine also opened the door to biological warfare.

Humans will find a way to fuck, murder, exploit, build, heal and create with any new tool they find, often all in the same breath. One can hope that the destruction will be outweighed by the positive impacts, but there will be backlashes, psychotic uses and unintended consequences. It’s naive to see our species behaving otherwise.

i can’t imagine anyone, who would for example voluntarily surrender their sense of touch for a pair of cybernetic arms.

Then you really should read Antibodies. It will be shockingly easy to imagine afterwards.

well the first guy who ran track with prostetic legs was disqualified for being like 150% faster then the able-bodied runners.

Not so, though the story of Oscar Pistorius is glorious (he wasn’t the first). Pistorius’ combination of training, talent and determination, along with state of the art prosthetics, placed him on roughly even footing with many other world class runners: his prosthetics are more efficient in some ways, but he has to use dramatically more upper-body power than runners with flesh and blood legs. However, after he got the decision to bar him from Olympic tryouts overturned, he wasn’t quite able to make an qualifying time.

i hope it will make disabled people more accepted (and cool looking).

I’ll just leave it at saying Aimee Mullins is right

Firstly, thanks for writing this great column!

This isn’t a comment on Antibodies, which i’d not heard of, let alone read, before this column (I’m going to rectify that second part as soon as I can!), but more on the paragraph quoted above, which made me think about some things…

I’m about the same age as Neuromancer, or a couple of years younger. It strikes me that in all that time, the entire trend in (science) fiction has been towards warning, or exposing the dark sides in things, or making previously ‘innocent’ ideas edgier. And none of those things are strictly bad when handled well. Some of my favorite stories basically follow the line that human nature won’t change through technology, or social developments, or whatever. Transmetropolitan would probably be a case in point, and I still love that story. It is just that when the lustre has been taken off everything all we have at the end is cynicism and doubt and the There Is No Alternative ideology prevalent today.

I know that utopian fiction can often be patronising, or sanctimonious, or skirt horribly close to crypto-fascism. But it would be nice to read some science fiction that wasn’t seeking to expose illusions (whether or not they were actually real) but to show what might be, could be, or simply what the writer would want things to be like…

(There are of course several wonderful books written in the last thirty years that do just that, before anyone points them out!)

…because i’m not necessarily sure that the tide of awfulness in fiction really reflects the human condition. I mean, if the contents of this blog prove anything, it’s that there’s plenty beautiful and creative in the world, as much as there is all that over-hyped evil and depravity.

I got that far and bought the book from Amazon before continuing with the review. That’s the kind of mood I’m in i guess ;)