Title: Living

Author: Scott R Jon

Date of First Publication: 2016

Place of Publication: Eternal Frankenstein

Type: Short Story

Characters: No Character

Themes: ANDROID; POSTHUMAN; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; WOMEN WRITING MONSTER

Critical Summary: The story begins in a normal enough room in the middle of a tundra, five men sit all next to each other, the middle one seemingly the man in charge, Aldo Tusk. Tusk is the head of a clandestine organization known as Eidolon whose works include but is not limited to assassinations and extraction of people or finding information. Before these five men sits a screen, which briefs them on an ongoing situation. It seems that one of their agents known only as an “asset” has gone rogue having been off the radar for several months. The asset has created a message for Tusk which plays for all five of the men to see. The asset recalls her death and subsequent creation. Having been a solider for Eidolon her unit was killed by IED and she was put together with the parts of three different solders, her body mostly coming from the female driver Gorman.  She recalls the many attempts at bringing her to life being first thought a failed experiment and the subsequent work in the field killing, stealing, and dying for Eidolon.  The story comes to a head when the asset decides to break free from Eidolon and after a failed attempt at escape she succeeds. The asset loses her tracker and with the help of fellow hackers, gains autonomy of her body learning to shapeshift with the help of a nanomesh inside of her body. She ends her transmission with a vow to kill Tusk.

The theme of the Android is very present in “Living”. The asset being an amalgamation of both human parts and the latest technology create an Android that is incredibly powerful and volatile.  The scientists who created her do their best to make the perfect machine for their own selfish ends but cannot anticipated her need to be free and the feelings that even a seemingly dead person have when brought back to life. Even the final attempts to corral the asset by making killing a pleasurable experience for her backfire as she begins to find the greatest pleasure in killing Tusk. Much like the creature in Frankenstein whose ponderings upon being giving life once again lead to direct opposition with its creator so too does the asset find herself in the same position.

Posthuman is the perfect way to describe the asset of “Living”. Aside from being post her human body, she has grown far beyond the limitations of the human condition. There is very real fear in Frankenstein that humanity will begin its slow march to extinction because of the arrival of the creature, that fear seems even closer to a reality in “Living”. All the enhancement and the failures at curbing the autonomy and action of the asset on make the creators realize they have sealed their doom.

Administrative Notes: Zackary Van Hauwaert, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner (editing)