★★★★☆ Creepy but Logical, and Definitely Memorable
(Dystopia) The narrator is taken away when she can’t pay her “survival tax.” At the Center, she’s got 24 hours to think how to make her end a dignified one. (4,733 words; Time: 15m)
"National Center for the Preservation of Human Dignity," by Youha Nam (translated by Elisa Sinn and Justin Howe, edited by Neil Clarke), appeared in Clarkesworld issue 157, published on October 1, 2019.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2019.581 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: This isn’t really about the injustice of killing people just because they’re poor (which is a decent metaphor for how poor people really do die younger); it’s about how a person in an impossible situation decides to die with dignity—and what that even means.
Given the circumstances, I wasn’t surprised by her decision at the end, and it really was the only thing she could do to take control of her situation.
Con: Arguably, this is a story about someone committing suicide. It’s definitely a story about someone simply giving in to the dictates of a tyrannical government rather than fighting back.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Youha Nam Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
Pro: This isn’t really about the injustice of killing people just because they’re poor (which is a decent metaphor for how poor people really do die younger); it’s about how a person in an impossible situation decides to die with dignity—and what that even means.
Given the circumstances, I wasn’t surprised by her decision at the end, and it really was the only thing she could do to take control of her situation.
Con: Arguably, this is a story about someone committing suicide. It’s definitely a story about someone simply giving in to the dictates of a tyrannical government rather than fighting back.
Other Reviews: Search Web
Youha Nam Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
There is a biography of the author at the Science Fiction Writers Union of Korea website.
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