A great deal of my writing this year has been an examination of the moral fallibility of the human race. It is a disturbing and fascinating topic that does not see enough attention in popular media. More recently, however, I've focused on another kind of fallibility in humans: physical. A long and infuriating string of illnesses basically defined this quarter for me, and it gave me a bit of insight into life in bad health.
Thus was born Replication, a speculative science fiction short story with dark undertones and no redeeming characters. This kind of writing is extremely uncharacteristic for me: I do incorporate fairly dry humor into my writing but the absence of any hope or positive message was out of character. I felt like this was the final push to be done and focus on getting back to good health.
The story began as a fairly comedic work. I wanted to satirize someone overconfident in their own abilities and physical strength, and so I modeled Johannes Koenigsmann as a narcissistic executive who did little work past founding his company. At this point I contracted my first sinus infection, and the story took a pretty dark turn as a result.
Originally I intended to have Kayne embarrass himself at a press conference by trying to demonstrate a revolutionary leap in biological technology which failed miserably. As the story progressed, however, the character developed into too intelligent a man to humiliate him in an entertaining way. I went back to the beginning of the story and modified the character to make him absolutely unredeemable and decided that he would have to learn a lesson the hard way. And so, Kayne loses an eye in a horrifying public display.
Replication stands as the darkest piece I've written to date, and will probably remain in that position for a while to come. The story was a unique way for me to take stock of what was going on and I'm happy to say that it got me through all right.
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