Title: Queen City Jazz
Author: Kathleen Ann Goonan
Date of First Publication: 1994
Place of Publication: Tor
Type: Novel
Characters: No Character
Themes: MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; POSTHUMAN; ANDROID; BYRONIC HERO; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER
Critical Summary: Queen City Jazz takes place in the ruins of what was once the United States post a nanotech renaissance. Populations of the futuristic dystopia had been wiped out from a nanotech plague that had resulted from the advancement of technology, rooted in the “enlivened” city of Cincinnati.
The story follows Verity, a young and curious girl, who is trying to fit into her adoptive family and better understand herself, her mysterious past, and her strange abilities. Verity’s family is composed of other nanotech plague survivors who live on an isolated farm away from Cincinnati, and anyone or anything related to technology and the sinful lifestyle they say it promotes. Despite her family’s strict religion, which bans sex, technology, pets, indulgence, and sometimes music, Verity finds ways to learn more about the “enlivened” city and its history.
Peace on Verity’s isolated farm is disrupted when John, a member of her community, discovers that Blaze, Verity’s best friend, had been secretly exploring and learning about technology from the abandoned library. John shoots Blaze for his actions, leaving Blaze on the brink of death. Luckily, another community member who had been alive before enlivenment helps Verity wrap Blaze in a nanotech cocoon to preserve his body. To save Blaze from his wounds, Verity must travel to Cincinnati to find someone or something to revive him.
After traveling great distances through dangerous waters and encountering distrustful companions, Verity finally reaches Cincinnati where she befriends Sphere, a jazz musician. Sphere accompanies Verity through the erratic enlivened city where giant flowers on top of buildings receive information from giant bees, children from a young age are programmed to develop nanotech software, and the streets buzz with both real and holographic people. The deeper Verity delves into the city, the more of its history is revealed to her, and the story of its creator, Abe Durrancy. By manipulating biology, Durrancy had become able to create a living city that allowed him to be anyone and everything.
Queen City Jazz best relates to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in the theme of mad scientists and their monsters. Abe Durrancy is a parallel to Dr. Frankenstien, in the way they were both recluses due to their work and intellectual vanity. Their similarities continue in the way that Durrancy manipulated biology to create new life, which unlike Dr. Frankenstein, exhilarated him.
The sympathetic “monster” character is also a common trope from Frankenstein that reoccurs in Queen City Jazz through the character Verity and the bees. Throughout the novel, Verity is constantly struggling to fit into her adoptive family, and when she travels to Cincinnati, she continues to wonder who she is, and who had dealt her this hand. Like the monster in Frankenstein, Verity struggles to be “normal” and suffers as a consequence of her creator’s manipulation of nature. The information-collecting bees also parallel the monster in that they were created and are seen as serious threats, despite craving human emotions and experiences. Verity sympathizes with the misunderstood creatures saying that like children, the bees were not evil but curious
The bees and Verity’s hybrid nature also relate in the theme of Posthuman/Last man in the way they were creations forced to adjust in the wake of a plague. Verity’s questioning of her strange abilities and humanity also follow this theme. Like the monster, Verity eventually obtains enough information to become her creator’s ultimate demise. Here, though fraught with the pain of change, there is a sense of “rightness” and a correction of past excess.
Administrative Notes: Aimee Jurado, CSUF; Dr. David Sandner, CSUF (editing)