One of the
undercurrents of science fiction is a concern for the relationship
between biotechnical advances and wealth.
Immortality available only to the rich an oft used premise, there is an
awareness among sci-fi writers that the evolution of technology may not be
applied democratically given the economic system we currently exist
within. Locating one such rich boy in a
post-human context, James Patrick Kelly’s 1990 novella Mr. Boy examines the possibilities in highly imaginative fashion,
the boy eventually falling on one side of the title coin.
Mr. Boy is the story of Peter Cage, legally known as
Mr. Boy. Though twenty-five years old,
his ultra-rich mother has paid for stunting surgery twice, and at the start of
the story Mr. Boy is emerging from a third, his twelve year old body fresh and
ready. But what makes him truly happy is
that his sidekick, a ‘jailbroken’ assistant called Comrade, has just stolen for
him a nice piece of death porn. The autopsy
photo of a murdered CEO, Mr. Boy delights in the image on his way to a
party. Meeting a hippi-fied girl there,
getting to know her proves a game-changer in his life. But it’s the photo which comes back to haunt
him.
