Title: Cash in Hand

Author: Joel Lane

Date of First Publication: 2000

Place of Publication: Hideous Progeny

Type: Short Story

Characters: No Character

Themes: ANDROID; POSTHUMAN; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; QUEER FRANKENSTEIN; RACE/POLITICS; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER

Critical Summary: This short story is a narrative about John and what he will do to make money to support his resurrected love. He lives in a society comprised of two types of being: The “Deads” and the “Revivals.” The Deads are zombified and decaying once-human creatures with limited capacities, and yet intelligence. The Revivals are hosts of living flesh that need to be constantly recharged—or else they die. The ending reveals that John is indeed not human, but in fact a Revival. The question then arises: what happened to humanity? The mad scientists who created these monsters have themselves become extinct.

The post human, quasi-racial differences provoking tension between the Deads and Revivals are echoes of Shelley’s Creature’s estrangement from humanity. There is a strange emphasis on masturbation and sex within the short story that might be considered jarring and gratuitous. However, the unusual sexual desires exhibited by these beings invites comparison with the range of human sexuality, and raises questions about which types of sexual tendencies are okay and which are not. It is purposefully ironic that certain kinds of sexual relationships are taboo.

Administrative Notes: Ash Shute, CSUF; Christian Bazinet (Editing)