“A great science fiction detective story” - Ian Watson, author of The Universal Machine
This page usually deals in science, not science fiction, but part of its purpose — like it says on the banner — is to look at the culture of artificial humanity, which means turning to the social sciences and to works of imagination.
Today it´s the latter.
The BBC arts program The Strand has one of the better podcasts around, but they aren´t usually given to themes that suit this page.
Anatomy of Japanese folk monsters: Cutaway diagrams from Shigeru Mizuki’s Yōkai Daizukai, an illustrated guide to yōkai anatomy.
Nonetheless, recently they commissioned three stories under the general heading of Future Anatomies, in which authors were asked “imagine the effect developments in medicine and biotechnology might have on humans in the not-so-distant future.”
The first of these is an excellent story called Internal Investigation, by journalist, novelist, and game writer Naomi Alderman [home page, blog, Guardian Newspaper page, interview].
Alderman´s first novel was Disobedience, which raised eyebrows with a story about the daughter of a rabbi who comes out as a lesbian. She has also written a Dr. Who novel and articles about an videogames, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Harry Potter.
The show´s host summarizes it this way:
In Internal Investigations human beings have achieved their optimal physical and mental fitness thanks to performance-enhancing biological implants, a practice opposed by a shadowy cult-like organization called the Silencers.
But that doesn´t begin to get at the story´s strengths.
Internal Investigation imagines a technologically enhanced human state, but it does so naturalistically, from the inside out and without a lot of fanfare. I like whiz bang science fiction as much as the next guy, but this approach is subtle and effective in a way that much techno-celebratory writing is not.
And while I don´t believe the story sides with the Silencers, it does highlight the fact that with new capacities come new opportunities to be incapacitated.
You can listen to the story here.
Bonus link: If you´re interested in the art of anatomy, absolutely don´t miss Street Anatomy, a daily email that looks at the intersection of anatomy and pop culture. I check mine every single day without fail.
They aren´t sponsoring this, I´m just flat out endorsing them. Click the link below to get to their archive and to find out how to subscribe.
Street Anatomy
