Title: Mr. Boy

Author: James Patrick Kelly

Date of First Publication: June 1990

Place of Publication: Issac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine

Type: Short Story

Characters: No Character

Themes: ANDROID; BYRONIC HERO; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; POSTHUMAN

Critical Summary: Mr. Boy takes place in a futuristic world where genetic altering and bioengineering  has become a popular trend. Using this technology, ultrarich people are able to make dramatic changes to their age, looks, and even species. The main protagonist, Mr. Boy, is a 25-year-old man who has altered his body to look like a pre-adolescent boy of twelve. He has two close friends: a boy named Stennie, who has modified his appearance to look like a dinosaur, and Mr. Boy’s “jailbroken” cyborg servant, Comrade. Though he is a grown man, Mr. Boy behaves like a child. The story begins with Mr. Boy undergoing the gene-altering procedure; afterwards, he drives home with his friends, and Comrade gives him a “death porn” photograph of someone who just died a tragic death, a CEO. Mr. Boy seems to enjoy looking at these kinds of pictures. The next day, while they drop Stennie off at school, Mr. Boy notices a girl he has a crush on and admires her from afar. Later, at a virtual reality party, a man confronts Mr. Boy and asks him to delete the picture Comrade gave him from his computer, warning him that the photo should remain private. Then Mr. Boy finds Treemonisha, his crush, and they virtually sneak out of the party together. It is revealed that Comrade had been communicating with the man who confronted Mr. Boy about the picture. They agree to meet and discuss the picture, the options, and possibilities. Mr. Boy in some ways, ends where it started, with Mr. Boy and his friends infiltrating his mother, who has become a modified miniature statue of liberty, to party. She is the size of a house and often has many people seeing her as a spectacle or tourist destination. Yet there is a sense that Mr. Boy has begun to rethink what he wants in a future where material things no longer have any value at all; when everything can be changed or bought, what matters?

Kelly’s story, like Frankenstein, involves the modification of the human body, and although the circumstances of that modification are fairly different, they both ask questions about the effects of those changes on the humanity of the person involved.

Administrative Notes: Maximiliano Solis Contreras, CSUF; Alex Goodman, CSUF (editing)