Saturday, November 7, 2009

Salmonella Men on Planet Porno - Yasutaka Tsutsui

"Ludricrous! What species has no agression?!" Mogamigawa ranted, parading his basi knowledge of ethology. "If they lose their aggression they will also lose relationships between individuals. If relationships between individuals disappear, they won't even be able to reproduce. The same is tru for humans, after all."
"Ah, but this planet is special in that respect," I countered. "I believe the aggressive impulse is incorporated in the erotic here. Think about it. Animals often bite each other's necks when couplating, or chase or grapple with each other in foreplay, don't they. In other words, they do things that, at first sight, seem like aggression when mating. So wouldn't you agree it's impossible to make a clear distinction between the two impulses? And for animals on this planet, the erotic is amplified, since there's no need to show aggression, either to heterogeneous or to homogeneous individuals. So they try to mate with individuals of both types."

This collection of short stories displays the author's wild, humorous, and imaginative mind. The stories read like humorous versions of Twilight Zone shows. The characters are often in seemingly frightful situations, but they are detached and aware of situations too bizarre to be real. The author is a Japanese science-fiction writer and that is evident in these stories. Most are not science-fiction, but strange what-if scenarios. Very well composed and enjoyable to read. I was looking for something light and different after reading too many dark, heavy books and this book was that.

The author's sci-fi background is most evident in the title story, which is also the longest in the book. Like many stories in this collection, it has light-hearted takes on sexuality. On Planet Porno, we see an ecology based around sex rather than survival of the fittest. The world is too fantastic to have any sense of reality, but never-the-less has a premise that is not altogether implausible.

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