Title: The Windup Girl
Publication Year: 2009
Plot: Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman, but now abandoned to the streets of Bangkok. Regarded as soulless beings by some, devils by others, New People are slaves, soldiers, and toys of the rich in a chilling near future in which calorie companies rule the world, the oil age has passed, and the side effects of bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.
Miscellaneous: This novel won the 2010 Hugo, Nebula, the Campbell Memorial award, and was named the ninth best fiction novel of 2009 by TIME magazine.
We concluded our “Political Science Fiction” reading group with The Windup Girl. The readers really liked this one, a few of them even cited it as their favorite of the books we read. And they wanted to start with the ending and the issue of trusting Gibbons and his intentions with Emiko. Emiko desperately wants to spend time with people/beings that are like her. And Gibbons makes her hopeful that he can make that happen. One reader commented that this is somewhat similar to Pinnochio, and Emiko just wants to be a real person and not stick out as much. Gibbons thinks A.I. is the next step in evolution, that it’s a natural progression in humanity. In this group, we’ve read a few novels with A.I/cyborgs, and we agreed that Emiko is the “most human” out of all the novels we read. She strives to be better and wants to experience what it’s like to be human. She reacts differently under stress. And when she is stressed, she often reveals through her “heechy keechy”movements that she is less than human. A reader compared this to someone who lives in his section. This man has tourette syndrome and sticks out constantly.
Emiko’s journey and the way people perceive her lead us to talking about labels. Emiko is treated differently depending on how they want to use or interact with Emiko. And this gives Emiko quite an existential crisis. The readers related this to their own experience of being “felons” and how people might treat them once they are out. And if they’re treated one way, they might “grow into” acting out that role.
We tried to get to the bottom of something in the novel: who is the villain? And who is the hero? Surely, there is someone who is more evil than everyone else? And while Emiko is the central character, is she a hero in a classic sense? This novel seems to be void of these archetypes. People shift and alliances change. It made for an interesting read.
Lastly, we talked about how we as humans always manipulate our environment. When we start making tools, trying to make our everyday life more uncomfortable, we are manipulating our surroundings for our comfort. And as a society, this can lead down some hairy roads. We talked about what motivates change, as well. Can change be achieved peacefully? With violence? Why do we wait until it’s too late?
This was a great book to end on, as it covers a lot of themes and ideas we touched on in other novels. This was a great group of readers and books. We’re off for a a while, and then back with World Building Narratives in January.
Feel free to leave comments about anything below.
Until next time,
E.