Monday, August 19, 2002
Title: Junk DNA
Author: Tania Glyde
Publisher: Codex
Junk DNA is not as much of a hectic collision as Glyde's story in Disco 2000 was, the work that most people who are aware of Glyde are likely to be aware of. At its core the mapping of the human genome and the ideas of what the results of that kind of knowledge could be, particularly the sense that everyone will be able to pinpoint who they are from their DNA.
The central character is Reg, a faux-therapist who has played on people's problems for years. With the mapping of the genome she feels that she will become redundant, so is looking to change her profession, preferably becoming a performance artist - hitting on the use of animals and genetic engineering as her artistic tool of choice. Along the way she becomes involved in the dispersal of a new drug, the side effect of which is that women become allergic to children and chaos breaks out through out the country.
Overall the Britain that Glyde creates is a twisting of the contemporary so that it is not entirely recognisable - taking some of the worst aspects of the social/political environment in this country in the last 30 or so years and exacerbating them in a manner that is mildly horrifying. Coupled with the action of the narrative the Britain that Glyde projects is certainly one that you wouldn't want to see coming about.
The downside of Junk DNA is that it is perhaps a little detached, more of a sense of things going on peripherally than actually happening, the drive not being as dynamic as Glyde can be. Apart from which it is an interesting and on balance enjoyable book, despite being woefully short.
RVWR: PTR
August 2002
