“Windup Girl” is a biopunk novel where science has provided genetically modified plants and animals, including “new people” or windups who are developed in the lab to have special abilities. The calorie companies, which are based in Des Moines, Iowa, have control over the foodstuffs of the world, selling sterile grain so that they can have control over the seed stock. The genetically modified humans come mostly from Japan, and include pleasure girls, construction workers and soldiers.
Unfortunately, the development of these superior crop and animal stocks has the disastrous results that current naysayers fear. Viral infections that attack both plants and humans are rampant, and so food is in short supply, and there is a never-ending fear of the next human epidemic. Early experiments with animals that were not sterile have introduced invasive species that prey on and destroy natural populations. The world-wide natural seed stocks have been depleted. Add to this that carbon fuels are hard to come by, and you have the state of the world after globalization where isolationism is viewed as a safety net.
Thailand has protected itself with the Environmental Ministry and its general Pracha, who is in charge of controlling the borders against epidemics, plant diseases and modified humans. They are at odds with a Trade Ministry led by Akkarat that wants the advantages of expansion. Caught in the middle is the child Queen and her regent, the Somdet Chaopraya. Each organization is militarized, with captains and generals and troops, the legacy of the previous king.
Thailand cannot survive completely isolated. The ocean levels have risen, and Bangkok is protected by dikes and sea pumps, which Thailand does not produce. They import these and Japanese expertise to build ships in a post-carbon-based world. Ocean transportation is by ship and dirigible, and the latter is provided by industrialists from the U.S. Other foreign businessmen own factories in Bangkok that produce the technologies, such as kink-spring devices, that are needed in a society where most energy is derived from food and delivered by human or animal power.
The intrigue of the novel is played out through the lives of Anderson Lake, who poses as a businessman but is really a spy for the calorie companies; his factory manager Hock Seng, a Chinese refugee of the Malaysian purges who freely embezzles from Lake and plans to steal his technology; Jaidee, a ruthless officer of the Environment Ministry who will do anything to protect his country and Queen; and Kanya, a favorite of Jaidee who has secrets that jeopardize his efforts. They are tied together by Emiko, a “new person” who ekes out an existence as a sex slave and is a catalyst for the upheaval to come.
The charm of the book comes from the interplay of technology and traditional values and culture. There is an effort for maintaining technology, with hand-cranked LED lights and treadle computers, but the Buddhists beliefs direct the use of resources. Loyalties are designated by color: white shirts, green headbands, yellow cards, black panthers and saffron robes.
Every character is rich, and we are sympathetic to none and to all. The story tells the internal conflict of the various ministries, the need of the industrialists to find the right allies within the government and the underworld, and the clash of technology and traditional values and culture. But all are battling against what science has wrought and the desire of all life to grow and reproduce regardless of its origins.
The book raises important questions, but leaves you wondering if it is too late, and nothing we can do can stop the progression from where we are now to this or some similar outcome.
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