The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman
"The Child Garden" is a futuristic narrative set in a dystopian version of London, where bioengineered viruses affect human cognition and lifespan. Designed initially to cure cancer, these viruses inadvertently shorten human life expectancy to thirty-five years, while also enabling children to possess advanced knowledge at a young age. The story follows Milena, a unique individual who resists the societal norms enforced by an entity known as the Consensus, which governs society by assimilating the personalities of its members after they undergo a "reading" process at the age of ten. Milena's journey unfolds as she navigates her emotions for Rolfa, a genetically engineered being, while grappling with the consequences of the viruses on creativity and individuality.
Milena's desire to support Rolfa leads to significant changes in both characters, culminating in a dramatic performance that symbolizes their struggles. As Milena faces her own mortality due to cancer, she is drawn into the machinations of the Consensus and ultimately seeks to transcend her limitations. The narrative explores themes of identity, love, and the implications of technological intervention in human life, culminating in a resolution that hints at the possibility of wholeness and enlightenment beyond the constraints of their society. Overall, "The Child Garden" offers a thought-provoking reflection on the intersection of humanity, technology, and the quest for connection in a rapidly changing world.
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The Child Garden
First published: 1989
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Science fiction—extrapolatory
Time of work: The near future
Locale: Czechoslovakia, London, and outer space
The Plot
In the futuristic London of The Child Garden (subtitled A Low Comedy), bioengineered viruses infect people with common knowledge. Babies can add, and five-year-olds quote William Shakespeare. The viruses were designed to cure cancer. Unfortunately, the cure is worse than the disease, because cells now lack the ability to reproduce after a person reaches the age of thirty-five, halving the normal human life span.
The Consensus governs. It comprises personality copies of all the people who are “read” into it. Reading usually occurs when a person reaches ten years of age. After the reading, a person is given viruses to destroy any undesirable traits.
Milena is virus resistant. She is attracted to women (which is considered “bad grammar”), and the Consensus does not read her because she is unique and creative. She is unhappy as an actress because plays are now being performed as “remembered” and not as vital productions. She meets Rolfa, who is a genetically engineered person resembling a polar bear. Rolfa is a singer who has created an original opera based on Dante’s The Divine Comedy (c. 1320). Milena comes to love Rolfa and wants her to get the benefits of the Consensus—including housing and food—so that she can continue producing her music. She arranges for Rolfa to be read and infected with viruses. It is not until Rolfa is infected that Milena discovers that Rolfa is also attracted to her. The viruses drastically change Rolfa’s personality, and she leaves Milena and goes to Antarctica to work in her family’s business.
Milena decides to produce Rolfa’s opera, and the Consensus offers to help. They plan on having a huge production, projected across the sky from outer space. Milena goes into space with astronaut Mike Stone, who repeatedly asks Milena to marry him. Milena carries the memory of a rose Rolfa once gave her. She tests the projection equipment by sending a copy of the rose holographically to each of the people on Earth.
Meanwhile, the viruses are causing many dangerous and exasperating mutations. Especially disturbing are the “bees,” people who are empathic and can uncontrollably change minds with another’s consciousness, even that of an animal.
Milena learns that the Consensus wants her to be their ambassador in space, holding a model of their world in her mind as she searches out a mate for them. She is told this by the angel Bob, a composite consciousness the Consensus has sent into the Charley Slides, the lines of gravity that compose the universe. Milena then develops cancer. The doctors can use her cells to reinfect people and help them live longer, but her cancer means that Milena cannot personally direct the Comedy, because she is dying. She has married Mike Stone and he is carrying their child, attached to his bowel, within him.
During the final night of the performance, Milena is read, and a copy of her consciousness is stored inside the Consensus. It refuses to do their bidding. The soul attached to Milena’s body rises into space as she dies. It tries to convince the childlike souls trapped by the Consensus to become angels. Many flee, including the soul of Rolfa, which joins with Milena, as do all the other parts of Milena’s personality that were lost to her. Milena discovers wholeness, and all times become transcendentally “now.”