Title: A Shallow Grave of Orange Peel and Eggshells
Author: Thoraiya Dyer
Date of First Publication: 2015
Place of Publication: Daughters of Frankenstein: Lesbian Mad Scientists
Type: Short story
Characters: No Characters
Themes: ANDROID; POSTHUMAN; QUEER FRANKENSTEIN; RACE/POLITICS; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS
Critical Summary: In this society that takes place in the near future, there are beings that are not considered 100% human, as they are synthetic. Those individuals are called New People. The two main characters, Caela and Cassandra, are ex-lovers. Caela, who is a human, is in charge of the politics that spread awareness of the New People and perpetuates the notion that they are inferior to humans. Meanwhile, Cassandra is a New Human who ran away from her home and subsequently fell in love with Caela. At the beginning of the relationship neither knew the nature of the other, synthetic or otherwise; it was a relationship solely built on the love they felt. Eventually, Caela discovers that Cassandra is a New Person. Their relationship crumbles as time passes and the war between the humans and New People reaches a critical point. When Cassandra receives a threat, she realizes that Caela knows what she truly is, causing her to leave and seek safety from her ex-lover. Cassandra then realizes she can only save the New People by sacrificing herself. However, the guilt of killing innocent people with her sacrifice is too much for her to process. When she is about to commit the atrocity, she recognizes Caela sitting in the courtyard of where she was staying. She rushes down to speak with Caela and to ask if she had come to arrest her. Caela explains that Cassandra’s reasoning and that she had planned to kill her family with a bomb. Cassandra responds by saying she is only doing this because Caela didn’t love her. Caela disagrees and said she does love Cassandra.
The Android theme is shown through the presence of the New People. We don’t know how they are created but they are not born the same way regular humans are. Cassandra begs the question to as what is considered human as she wants to love one of them and be accepted and almost succeeds in hiding what she is. The Posthuman aspect comes from the time they live in with a world divided into humans and non-humans and their fight. They live in a future where humans have to question who is human and consider if they are even human. The queer aspect comes from the love and relationship between Cassandra and Caela. They have sexual desires for each other and act upon them, Caela even chooses Cassandra as a lover even though she was an outsider. Race and politics are shown through the dominance the humans have over the New People and their exclusion from society. And Cassandra is a sympathetic monster. We see that all she wanted to do is be human and experience what they feel. We see her fall in love and get her heart broken so we empathize with her struggle.
Administrative Notes: Pedro Ruiz, CSUF; Lee Koehler, CSUF (editing)