Status Updates From Waste Tide

‘—for the lineage to continue—a survival strategy based on rapid mutations—weeks had passed but that episode felt like it was from another era—plastic bags filled with oddly shaped prosthetic organs—like fresh transgenic lemons—at supermarkets—prostheses had—become a part of the definition of human life—repositories for our joys—sorrows—terrors—passions—our class—social status—our memories. Your prostheses are you.’

‘—there are many forms of cleanliness—fairness—happiness. All we can do is to choose from among them, or to have our choices be made for us—Jincheng retrieved a pack of high-quality blue-packaged Zhongnanhai cigarettes, picked one out, tapped it, and held it between his lips—The radio in the cab played the familiar leitmotif of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture—The air was filled with the fragrance of magnolia’

Not entirely unique theses, but undeniably interesting as a recent sci-fi. Will make a great movie if it embraces the music mentioned (e.g. The Prodigy).

‘—wild cekêgcao (herb) first boiled into a stock and mixed with lard and sticky rice flour into dough. Then—filled with a mixture of bean paste, glutinous rice, peanuts, shrimp, and pork. Next, heart-shaped cakes were pressed from the dough with wooden molds. Steamed on a bed of fresh bamboo or banana leaves, the finished cakes were endowed with a unique herbal fragrance. The people of Silicon Isle made them—’