The Song of the Earth: A Novel

by Hugh Nissenson

Even before his birth, Johnny Baker's life is in danger. His mother breaks the law when she has her fertilized egg endowed with genes that will give her son the potential to become a visual artist. Born in 2038, John Firth Baker is the first genetically engineered artist. At the age of nineteen, at the threshold of his career, he is murdered. Now, ten years after his death, Baker has become famous. An art curator has organized a show of his work, and his biography-culled from journals, e-mails, and interviews with those who knew him best-is published. The Song of the Earth is this "biography." It presents a powerful and haunting portrait of an artist as a young man in the twenty-first century. Baker is born into a world transformed by genetic profiles, space travel, and controlled housing communities are commonplace. Global warming has altered the environment. A planetary gender war is raging, familial structures are shattered, and new religions contend with the old. Yet human needs remain the the search for love, the desire for approval, the longing for fame, and the quest for knowledge. The Song of the Earth is a hypnotic novel about our desire to control our destinies, our yearning for immortality, and the very human impulse to create art. With prose, poetry, and images, Nissenson tells an original tale that brilliantly captures the experience of another time and place.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Novels, Dystopia, Art

244 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Why I own this book involves a used bookstore in an old house in the teeny western wedge of Really Rural Virginia, and that is a tale for another time. But it's a hardback and it's mine, so it's my sixth Short Stack 5'3-in-2023 Clear-the-Shelves-OR-ELSE challenge of this year, and congrats! I hated it. I finished it, but I hated it. We learn from the outset the protagonist dies at 19, and I was rooting for his expiration and basically begging for it by book's end--so much so I was happy the guy was murdered since I'd assumed it was an poetic artistic/arsenogenic suicide.

The cover is mighty compelling, though, as is the premise, as was the thumb-through that made me take it with me when I left that cat-addled bookstore in Virginia. It's twenty-year-old near-futurism, and what Nissenson reads as 21st century threats are both laughable (chess championships) and offensive (transphobic as all heck). It's told in interviews/journals/letters, though there's little to differentiate voices. There's glossy plates of art (these publishing costs must've been !!!) but it's not art I much enjoyed looking at.

Formally I should've adored this, but fictionally / the story itself was just that bad.

Sort of fun to read an unpleasant and confoundingly weird book for the first time in a long time, though; very fun to think of the sacks of books I'll be donating and the shelf space I'll free up.

From Nissenson's 2013 obituary: In 1961, Nissenson covered the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem for Commentary magazine, and said that afterwards, he "could no longer believe that God was operative in human history." He spoke openly about a history of depression, telling the Times in 2001, "All my life I have fought depression. I lost weight. I couldn't eat. I lost between 26 and 40 pounds. I had six major breakdowns. It wasn't fun."

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite a very creative and imaginative premise, this novel falls down in garnering my emotional engagement in the characters and narrative. A lesbian in Nebraska chooses to have a son by artificial insemination, John Baker, whose artistic talent she nurtures. His art reflects his gayness and interest in saving the Earth from ecological disaster. His success and fame is cut short by murder at age 19. All this is told in a preface to the book, which has the form of a biography told from the perspective many people who knew him and copiously illustrated by his drawings and constructions. The big twist to this tale is that the events take place in a dystopia about 40 years in the future. Global warming has created much disaster, genetic engineering is being widely applied to address food shortages, and the clash between the genders often approaches war. John is the product of illegal experimental genetic engineering aiming to enhance artistic talent, a plausible science fiction premise to the story. The cult of Gaia that John becomes attached to is also an effective creation. The move of male practitioners toward adrogeny by use of breast generation genes is a fascinating conception. The art that Nissenson created to portray the evolution of his fictional artist brings a lot of depth to the story.

[Lizzie G. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is so incredibly transphobic I can hardly comprehend it

[Stephen Poltz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the story of a genetically engineered manual artist through interviews, correspondences, and journal entries. By manual artist, the author is differentiating from those who create digital art. The book includes black and white pictures as well as thirteen color plates of the artist’s work. The art is interesting and evocative. The combination of words and art created an emotionally charged book that I could barely put down. Though not usually a genre fiction writer, Nissenon really captured a bleak future as well as a portrait of, well, an artist as a young man. This book won the Gaylactic Spectrum Award in 2002 and was nominated for an Otherwise Award (formerly the James Tiptree, Jr. award)

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[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An unconventional novel that was hard to put down. It was very unique. Not my usual style but definitely a book I would say is worth reading.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

not exactly what you might call a conventional novel, this is a haunting, near-future portrait of an artist as a young man in the 21st century. johnny firth baker's life is in danger, even before his birth, because his mother has illegally endowed her fertilized egg with genes that will give her son the potential to become a visual artist. born in 2038, jfb is the first genetically engineered artist, who then, at the age of nineteen, and at the threshold of his career, is tragically murdered. now, ten years after his death, Baker has become famous. an art curator has organized a show of his work, and his biography -- culled from journals, e-mails, and interviews with those who knew him best -- is published: The Song of the Earth. nissenson presents a world transformed by technology: genetic profiles, space travel, and controlled housing communities are commonplace. global warming has altered the environment. a planetary gender war is raging, familial structures are shattered, and new religions contend with the old. yet human needs remain the same: the search for love, the desire for approval, the longing for fame, and the quest for knowledge. with prose, poetry, and full-color inserts (of jhb's art/original pieces by Nissenson himself, which have an outsider art quality), nissenson tells an original tale that brilliantly captures the experience of another time and place. this is a high-concept work of great originality and verve -- precisely why this will fall into the oblivion of obscurity, unless you read it and pass it on.

[Tyler O'donnell · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is somewhat weird and kinda hard to follow but the underlying theme is that future is to near and there are limits on what we should be able to do with our lives. Johnny the genetically engineered boy has a sure shot to become one of the greatest artists in the world but is short lived due to his murder. The reason that he is destined to become such a great artist is because her mother illegally altered his genes. All of this is much to much to grab ahold of and i would not recommend it for a FUN read. It describes things in our far or possibly near future that are just plain weird and somewhat wrong. Took a little time to understand all of the knowledge but it is interesting to see what he is describing in this book.

[Juan Burciaga · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a pretty good book. i liked it, it was interesting. If anyone who is interested in space, the future, human engineering as well as war, and religion then you will like this book. Its about a homosexual visual artist named John Firth Baker who is born in 2038 the firsth genetically engineered artist. When he turns nineteen he gets murdered right as he became famous. Ten years later an art curator organized a show called "The Song of the Earth" John's biography.

[Bayneeta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Creative, unusual, bizarre, unique. Read for my RA SIG on Science Fiction. In the not too distant future a woman has a child and has his genes adjusted so he will be an artist. Lots of stuff on religion, global warming, feminism, and of course, art. Lots of illustrations and an appendix with the artist's works. Thought-provoking, but ultimately even too quirky for me.

[Norman Howe · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first"," I wished I had read this as an audiobook"," so I could hear the songs"," because I'm sure there's music to go with them.Then I realized I would miss out on the images. I may have to wait for the movie.Now I have to read The Tree of Life.

[Jeanelle Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the strangest book I have ever read.

[Brittany Weaver · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a little werid and hard to follow.