The Fortunate Fall: a review by the Intersex Book Club

For our June 2023 book pick we read The Fortunate Fall, a cyberpunk novel from the mid-1990s written by a trans intersex author (Raphael Carter). Intersex author Bogi Takács has argued that the book deserves being read for its intersex themes, which have gone underappreciated. We had a lovely discussion about the book and here are some notes summarizing our reactions. Spoilers ahoy!

INTERSEX THEMES

• The book has two characters who self-describe as hermaphrodite in ways that are fairly minor. The intersex-ness of this book does not come from centring on explicitly intersex characters but instead through themes that speak to intersex experiences. (Please note: the h-term is generally considered a slur against intersex people. This is the language used in a mid-1990s book by an intersex author.)
• A major theme of the book was coercive medical procedures and the maiming of one’s body. Characters such as the protagonist are described as having literal holes in them. The State requires invasive body modification of queer people to “suppress” their queerness and enforce conformity.
• Which gets to the suppressor chips. In the end of the book the main character has her suppressor chip removed which brings back her memories of a previous sapphic relationship and who she was before she became a “camera” (ie. a journalist/influencer). We read the suppressor chips as a metaphor for how so many intersex people have their medical histories hidden from them. We also talked about how this could be read as a metaphor for people who deny their own queerness (e.g. transness, gayness, etc)
• This will come up again when we read The Deep by Rivers Solomon but there’s a trend in intersex literature to portray intersex people as sea creatures. One of our hermaphrodite (their term) characters refers to themself as a mermaid and has a mental link with a humpback whale. We talked about how deep sea creatures are a great vehicle for writers to explore both the strangeness and the naturalness of being intersex. The ocean is intensely familiar but also foreign, and features animals whose sex determination schemes are far more fluid (ha) than us humans.

OUR PRIMARY REACTIONS (SPOILER HEAVY)

• Elizabeth: “I was not expecting the book to end with honey I need to move in with you because my whale is about to die“
  
• Michelle: “this was a darker book, started with a news report on genocide and ended with saddest breakup in gay history”

POSITIVES

• OMG THAT ENDING
• A uniquely devastating sapphic romance
• The viscerality of jacking one’s brain into a digital set up. A lot of modern cyberpunk has paved over the physicality and the grotesqueness of body modification and this book did not shy away from it.
• A book that argues for animal rights in a technological society. It got us talking about what an internet that serves other animals would be like.
• Some excellent lines such as “The state allows you to hate it but only enough so as not to threaten it.” and “You can’t just show people the evil of the word, people will turn away. You need to show them hope.” which got us talking about activism and how to make political change

NEGATIVES

• This book is pessimistic AF
• No real denouement. Could be intentional to make the ending weigh on you more but also means less sense of what happens at the end.
• The whale is never given a name! 😭
• Disability as worse than death trope
• Afrofuturism felt kinda weak; Africa is one country and it has surprisingly little effect on other cultures despite supposed superpower status

WHAT WE THOUGHT THE BOOK MIGHT BE TRYING TO SAY

We spent a bunch of time speculating as to authorial intent with the book. Here are some things we brainstormed:

• In a totalitarian world where you’re an influencer and people literally tune into your brain, self-preservation comes at all costs including those you love.
• Queer romance can be deep and tender, and societal prejudice can cause real hurt (remember: book came out in mid-1990s).
• A cautionary tale to not back down from your love or your principles.
• Huge leaps in technology won’t change social structure. We can invent technology to experience what other people have experienced and it alone won’t lead to increased acceptance of queers or protection of the environment/animals. (Again, remember: written in mid-1990s, a time of legit optimism about the internet.) From the book: “The Net should be the most democratic form of communication that the world has ever known…. But instead it is being used to enforce an official vision of humanity.”
• @scifimagpie: a thesis of this book was “we fucking failed at saving the whales”

HOW IT HELD UP

• Predicted: the enshittification of the internet
• Predicted: influencer culture
• Holds up: the sense of wonder that we can connect people across time and space
• Holds up: the need to consider other animals in creating networked technologies
• Dated: internet as a physical metaverse
• Dated: fixed-location telephones
• Dated: presentation of Christianity and its relationship to Russian culture
• Disappointing: a future where there are still cars in cities

READ IF YOU LIKED

• Idoru by William Gibson
• Star Trek IV (the one with the whales)
• The Matrix
• Animorphs #19
• Ancillary Justice