Most
often referenced as the cyberpunk guy
due to his initial association and promotion of the sub-genre, few remember
Bruce Sterling is also the person who declared cyberpunk dead, and went on to
write in different modes and with differing aims. Craftily becoming one of the contemporary
generation of writers’ most subtle satirists, novels like Holy Fire and Distraction
nevertheless do not receive the same amount of backwards genre gaze as The Artificial Kid, Schismatrix, or Islands in the Net. The subversiveness so
delicate as to fly under the radar of most media, 2009’s The Caryatids is another novel to add to Sterling’s stellar
portfolio of satire.
As
deadpan flat as Sterling has ever written, it would be easy to mistake The Caryatids as a ‘boring’ novel. Naturally, this would be to miss the
point. The story of four women, cloned
sisters bred to rule the world in fact, Sterling draws a bead on a couple of significant
topics through the offshoots of their lives.
Vera is an idealist, specifically an environmental activist putting her
money where her mouth is and working to clean up a toxic waste area in Croatia
for a major global company called Acquis.
Radmila is a Hollywood celebrity, or at least what counts for such in
2060, and is faced with some ‘serious’ decisions with regards to how her image
is used, and to what degree her family’s interests play a part for the second
major global player, the Dispensation.
The third sister is something of a medical specialist, though political
butterfly also suits her. Letting the
winds of politics buffet her where they will—as long as she has time for love
and adventure along the way—she finds herself caught up in the interests of the
third major global player, the Chinese government. And the fourth sister, well, she’s best
introduced in the story.
The
political backdrop (a point on which Sterling usually shines, and this novel is
no expection) is quite interesting. The
major political divisions of the world having collapsed following global
environmental disaster, The Caryatids
addresses a post-state form of political existence wherein the three major
entities, Acquis, the Dispensation, and the Chinese government, attempt to hash
out power through diplomatic and commercial means, that is, rather than direct
conflict (at least, usually). Acquis is
a techno-anarchy-socialist agency which deals directly with environmental
issues, whereas the Dispensation is an entity which attempts to deal with
(profit from?) the environment using capitalist ideology that includes putting
its weight behind major marketing, research and fund-raising campaigns as ways
of advancing their cause. (The usage of
Jack Vance’s Eyes of the Overworld in
real-world tech is gloriously funny.)
But
beyond politics, it is the humanity at the heart of The Caryatids which makes it so good. The book centered on the lives of three
people, their personal stories help relate the idea that even an environmental
collapse cannot shake humanity from the myriad courses of life it designs for
itself. The dedication to causes, both
ben- and malevolent, the balance of individual ego vs. society, long term
versus short term views—these elements play key roles in outlaying the humanity
inherent to the three sisters, and by default, as representative of a portion
of mankind. We have a strong will to
survive when the going gets tough, but Sterling would seem to say only because
we keep putting ourselves in such tough situations.
In
the end, The Caryatids is the most
deadpan of satire served in a story that requires thought to piece together its
intentions—a conniesseur perhaps, to fully appreciate the manner in which
Sterling attempts to engage with environmental issues, cultural trends, the
narrowness of perception, uncurbed idealism, the whimsy of rebellion, and the
overall human condition. If orthogonal
delivery of story is not engaging, don’t read it. If you’re expecting cyberpunk aesthetics,
look elsewhere. If, however,
environmental critique on a solid foundation of informed human observation is
to your liking, by all means have a go.
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