Title: The Membranes
Series: N/A
Author: Chi Ta-Wei
Translator: Ari Larissa Heinrich
Genres: Sci-Fi, Speculative
Publishing Date: 1995
Original Language: Chinese
Pages: ~158
CW: Medical trauma, Medical content, Abandonment, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Confinement, Rape, War, Animal cruelty
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Read if you’re looking for:
- Speculative fiction set in the near future, written by a queer, Taiwanese author
- A future where most people live in habitats under the sea
- Beautiful and evocative writing
- Sapphic relationships
- Exploration of personhood, autonomy, family relationships, & corporate greed
- A whole lot of metaphor
- An interesting reveal
This is a sad & contemplative speculative novel written in the 1990’s, and the author has prescient predictions of some of our future technology. The novel follows our main character, Momo, who is a well-known & sought after dermal technician, who helps the rich & famous remain youthful & beautiful. In this near future, we have destroyed our environment on the surface, & most people now live in habitats on the ocean floor. Momo is a mysterious figure, who seems to isolate herself, never leaving her home studio, & who appears to be emotionally & physically detached from society. As we learn more bout Momo, her past, & her relationship with her mother, we start to see some things that don’t seem to add up.
This was a quick & engrossing read, with beautiful, lyrical writing, & a ton of visual metaphor, including a beautiful description of Momo as a baby being birthed from a peach. It delves into parent/child relationships, & the difficult decisions that parents sometimes have to make to save their children, as well as the corporate corruption & greed that can put families in these difficult situations to begin with. Additionally, this is considered a seminal work of queer fiction in Taiwan, depicting the disconnection from society & feelings of not meeting expectations that queer people may feel. This was a gorgeous & melancholy book, & I recommend it to those who enjoy more philosophical speculative writing.
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