Emergency Skin: Forward collection
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Imagine having skin that is immortal. Impossible, you say!Well, maybe not so fast. The premise of NK Jemisin’s 2019 “Emergency Skin”, a short story in the Amazon Forward Collection devoted to exploring how technology might affect human development and behavior, delves into this idea. And there is a basis in fact for this notion.In 1951 scientists unexpectedly found certain human cells could be grown in a lab and replicate without dying after a set number of divisions, even though separate from the African-American donor, Henrietta Lacks, who had died. Generally, human cells lasted at most a few days. These were named the “HeLa” cells using the first two letters of her names and would be used by Jonas Salk in the development of his polio vaccine.Set in a future the tale opens when an offshoot of the human race has moved to a distant planet. A traveler acting as a scout is returning to Earth, or Tellus, to acquire HeLa skin cultures. The scout is accompanied by the consensus consciousness of the new planet Founders through whom most of the action is narrated.Presumably the scout is enclosed in some kind of composite skin – sort of like a cell wall - while traveling but able to “initiate emergency-skin fabrication” when needed.As might be expected, this trip moves through unexpected discoveries and explanations for the missing results of past journeys from the distant planet.The story development is mainly dialogue with no descriptive passages, adding a disembodied weightless quality to the quest. For me this approach got confusing at times and took some work to track who was speaking with the main narrator. I am still little unsure how the story ended.That said, learning about HeLa cells was fascinating and certainly worth the price of admission.(If interested, here are links to my Amazon reviews for other Forward Collection short stories:Amor Towles’ “You Have Arrived at your Destination”:https://www.amazon.com/review/R3I9Q3EY81DYTF/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8Veronica Roth’s “Ark”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1BH20S06203HK/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8Paul Tremblay’s “The Last Conversation”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2Q3HWY0SCW9R5/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8Blake Crouch’s “Summer Frost”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2Q3XD351WUGT9/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8Andy Weir’s “Randomize”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R314XTTT53LDYH/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8)
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Imagine having skin that is immortal. Impossible, you say!
Well, maybe not so fast. The premise of NK Jemisin’s 2019 “Emergency Skin”, a short story in the Amazon Forward Collection devoted to exploring how technology might affect human development and behavior, delves into this idea. And there is a basis in fact for this notion.
In 1951 scientists unexpectedly found certain human cells could be grown in a lab and replicate without dying after a set number of divisions, even though separate from the African-American donor, Henrietta Lacks, who had died. Generally, human cells lasted at most a few days. These were named the “HeLa” cells using the first two letters of her names and would be used by Jonas Salk in the development of his polio vaccine.
Set in a future the tale opens when an offshoot of the human race has moved to a distant planet. A traveler acting as a scout is returning to Earth, or Tellus, to acquire HeLa skin cultures. The scout is accompanied by the consensus consciousness of the new planet Founders through whom most of the action is narrated.
Presumably the scout is enclosed in some kind of composite skin – sort of like a cell wall - while traveling but able to “initiate emergency-skin fabrication” when needed.
As might be expected, this trip moves through unexpected discoveries and explanations for the missing results of past journeys from the distant planet.
The story development is mainly dialogue with no descriptive passages, adding a disembodied weightless quality to the quest. For me this approach got confusing at times and took some work to track who was speaking with the main narrator. I am still little unsure how the story ended.
That said, learning about HeLa cells was fascinating and certainly worth the price of admission.
(If interested, here are links to my Amazon reviews for other Forward Collection short stories:
Amor Towles’ “You Have Arrived at your Destination”:
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3I9Q3EY81DYTF/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8
Veronica Roth’s “Ark”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1BH20S06203HK/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8
Paul Tremblay’s “The Last Conversation”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2Q3HWY0SCW9R5/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8
Blake Crouch’s “Summer Frost”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2Q3XD351WUGT9/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8
Andy Weir’s “Randomize”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R314XTTT53LDYH/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8)
Well, maybe not so fast. The premise of NK Jemisin’s 2019 “Emergency Skin”, a short story in the Amazon Forward Collection devoted to exploring how technology might affect human development and behavior, delves into this idea. And there is a basis in fact for this notion.
In 1951 scientists unexpectedly found certain human cells could be grown in a lab and replicate without dying after a set number of divisions, even though separate from the African-American donor, Henrietta Lacks, who had died. Generally, human cells lasted at most a few days. These were named the “HeLa” cells using the first two letters of her names and would be used by Jonas Salk in the development of his polio vaccine.
Set in a future the tale opens when an offshoot of the human race has moved to a distant planet. A traveler acting as a scout is returning to Earth, or Tellus, to acquire HeLa skin cultures. The scout is accompanied by the consensus consciousness of the new planet Founders through whom most of the action is narrated.
Presumably the scout is enclosed in some kind of composite skin – sort of like a cell wall - while traveling but able to “initiate emergency-skin fabrication” when needed.
As might be expected, this trip moves through unexpected discoveries and explanations for the missing results of past journeys from the distant planet.
The story development is mainly dialogue with no descriptive passages, adding a disembodied weightless quality to the quest. For me this approach got confusing at times and took some work to track who was speaking with the main narrator. I am still little unsure how the story ended.
That said, learning about HeLa cells was fascinating and certainly worth the price of admission.
(If interested, here are links to my Amazon reviews for other Forward Collection short stories:
Amor Towles’ “You Have Arrived at your Destination”:
https://www.amazon.com/review/R3I9Q3EY81DYTF/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8
Veronica Roth’s “Ark”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R1BH20S06203HK/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8
Paul Tremblay’s “The Last Conversation”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2Q3HWY0SCW9R5/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8
Blake Crouch’s “Summer Frost”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R2Q3XD351WUGT9/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8
Andy Weir’s “Randomize”: https://www.amazon.com/review/R314XTTT53LDYH/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8)
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 16, 2022
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 8, 2020
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"The babble of the rabble."
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