SciFi Novella Review: The Membranes by Chi Ta-wei (Translated by Ari Larissa Heinrich)

 


Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on June 1, 2021 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.

The Membranes is a novella first published in Taiwan back in 1995, which was remarkable for being a queer piece of Science Fiction dealing with cyberpunk themes.  It's a piece of literature held up as a classic of Taiwanese/Chinese SF, and this June it's being translated into English in a publication from Columbia University Press, complete with an analysis of the novella and its themes attached to the end.  

It's a really nice package honestly, of a novella I would not have gotten to otherwise, and that shows its age in some respects but in others is still very relevant.  Dealing with themes of privacy, of body transplants, of cyborgs and androids, of growing up in a world environmentally ruined, etc.  Just as importantly, it's a story about isolation and growing up, in a world where gender and sexuality is not a big deal (nearly every relevant character is a woman and one major character is trans).  And it's really interesting even now and well worth your time if you haven't encountered it before.  

Quick Plot Summary:  As she turns 30, Momo is the most celebrated dermal care technician in T City, the underwater territory of Taiwan in the 22nd Century.  But she's a woman who always seems to see everything and everyone from a distance, without any individual affections, without any romantic attachments, and estranged from her famous mother for the last 20 years.  But unknown to her clients, Momo uses her special skin product to spy on all their experiences, and to experience their own pleasures for herself.  And so when her mother decides to visit for the first time in 20 years, Momo - still not over what her mother agreed to to save her life 23 years ago - decides to use that product to spy on her mother....but what she finds will upend everything she knows about her past and herself.....

Thoughts:  An essay could be written about The Membranes and in fact, such an essay is included in this published translated edition, which is really well done in exploring the themes and context of this novella when published and its relevance now.  So I'll stick in this review to my own thoughts (although they're obviously colored by that essay).

It's impressive really how relevant and interesting The Membranes is today, even with its dated elements from being published in 1995 (most notably is the belief that Laser Disks would be the data format of the future, but semblances of email and the internet are prominent here which are pretty impressive guesses for 1995).  We have here a cyberpunk-esque story of privacy and privacy violations and feeling one's own feelings through spy devices and particularly of the growing of artificial humans, referred here to as cyborgs, who have clear sentience but are used specifically as organ donors....even though that involves killing the cyborgs.   And for a girl like Momo was at 7 years old, who is asked to and does become friends with her cyborg Andy before her own operation, the revelation that her friend was being killed to replace her own body parts is traumatic for herself, to say nothing of being unfair for the cyborg girl (this is explored through another Andy later in the novella).  And then of course there's the reveal which I won't spoil, which shows how the process takes an even more corporate spin in the end, in which even humans are exploited for corporations and for the purposes of war without even their own knowledge.  

There's also some interesting bits here in the context of this novel in how queer it is, i should mention.  Nearly every character (except for one Andy cyborg I believe) is a woman in the novella, and Momo's mother is a lesbian (Momo's birth is described as coming from the splitting of a peach by Momo's mother and her lover, which is some classic symbolism of a lesbian relationship) and Momo is approached as a teen by another girl, and none of it is ever remarked on as a thing that's unusual.  Momo herself is trans, although there's some consent issues with how that comes about by her mother's decision for her rather than as by her own decision (although Momo expresses little interest in her male parts when she had them and has no regret for them being gone).  It's a context that was very impressive in 1995, and still stands out today.  

So yeah, The Membranes is a pretty solid novella in its themes and ideas, even now 26 years later, and well worth your time if this translation is the first chance you get to read it in English.