Organa is a fast paced science fiction novella set in the distant, dystopic and eerily plausible future. In this, only one of LaFond's many future worlds, humans are corporate property from birth, outfitted with permanent mechanical augmentation and equipped with artificial companions that provide comic relief and color commentary. Our protagonist, Tray Sorenson, starts life as a simple but lovable specimen who gains dimension and complexity as he rises in his career as a Security Tech.
LL: James, you have constructed this novella with several distinct phases. You show us how humanity might become fully consumed by globalist-corporate culture, with individuals designed and owned by corporations from birth to fill various roles, and with consumer culture having supplanted or invaded all aspects of life. Some people in your fictional world have considerably more material comfort than others, but they all seem equally disposed to oppression of the spirit, or to seek the means of escaping that oppression. Is this something you have observed in your own life?
JL: Absolutely. The most dismayed and despairing souls I have met have been in the underclass and the over-class—not in the middle. the only thing I have noticed as universal among poor, middle and upper class and among both criminals and patriots is a deep desire to be misled as to the actual context of their plight. This led me to develop the avatars as a way of implanting social narrative.
LL: Forgive my nerdy schoolgirl tendencies, but I learned in a high school English class that the main character of a story is the one that undergoes a change. Tray experiences an episode of uncontrolled violence followed by sexual initiation. How do these experiences contribute to his decisions later in the story, when he is moved to take extreme actions in the service of love and beauty?
JL: Men don’t really feel powerful until they have sex. This is more important than latent physical ability. Tray is a physical titan, designed to toss around mobs of traditionalists like those pesky Amish whining about breeding rights. But he lacks agency. Sex gives a healthy man a taste of that. That is why Tray was not permitted to have consensual sex until age 25—yes, it means the person on preexisting sexual probation may be raped—I am predicting that the ancient premanuptials are going to return at the hands of a corporate class of Clintonian perverts.
Oh, by the way, this future world is the same future world in the Sunset Saga, the place where the two time hunters, Bracken and Sensky were built.
LL: A major theme in this work is sexual exploitation, primarily of the title character, but I think that the erotic scene between Tyra and Tray is also somewhat exploitative. It is easy to laugh off sexual aggression when it is directed by women towards men. Does the fact that a man must usually be willing in some measure cause us to discount the harm that may come when women take advantage of this congenital weakness in men? [I want to read and discuss the Samson story together, if you think that is a good idea, but I want to read Taboo You first.]
JL: Great idea. I’ve wanted to look again at Samson after doing the Gilgamesh book. Okay, the murderous bitch that seduces Tray, is one of four sisters, a pod of purpose built, killer lesbian quadruplets designed to protect, control and kill CEOs and secondarily—and as part of this function—to wrangle security and paramilitary meatheads. This is why the military techs are monogamous homosexual males, to make them immune to their wiles. They basically kill during sex. Most of their sexual conduct is supposed to be with the female CEOs, to facilitate control. Any guy they do twice just has to die—no third time around with these whores. Yes, before you ask these women are a composite of women I have been involved with.
LL: Another major theme is that characters willingly take their lives in their hands, whether it be to protect another, or to seek their own freedom. Do you think that it is possible to separate the sacrifice from the freedom, or are they the same thing?
JL: According to Robert E. Howard, the ultimate freedom of the hero was to commit self-sacrifice, which shows through in about ten of his stories as a yearning for a suicidal escape from the dull reality of servitude. I know from experience that the only time I’ve ever really enjoyed myself was when I thought I was throwing my life away.
But in Organa, since Tray is still a man—with most males having been prevented, neutered or emasculated by psychological means—he comes into contact with something he doesn’t understand, the biological imperative to save a woman. This is something he was designed and indoctrinated against—one of his jobs is killing pregnant women, which I omitted as I actually had plans on selling this story—but, when he becomes the Usher he meets the first organic woman in his life—which is a problem. I might as well give this away because I buried it too deeply in the subtext for most readers to pick up. Security operatives who excel are assigned as the Usher guarding these various celebrity organic persons, primarily because being too good at their work makes them a potential danger. The usher detail is their last assignment before they’re terminated.
LL: Thank you, James, for sharing this haunting story with me. Organa can be purchased as a stand-alone novella in paperback or Kindle, an earlier version of the story is available as a pdf at the JL store, and versions are also included Darkly and Motherworld.
(c) 2017 James LaFond & Lynn Lockhart
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