Chatterbox: In This Month's Issue

Andromeda's New Brain 

I definitely didn't think that this would be the reason I came back to the CB to make a post--I've thought about returning for a brief moment or two to talk about all that's happened in the six years it's been since I joined the CB.

But there was a story in this month's issue that immediately caught my eye.

"Three months, twenty-four days, and seventeen hours ago, I died."

What an incredible hook for a story, and I love the terms the author is using here. By being so specific (and almost 'robotic') in Andromeda's narration, they're setting the tone for the rest of the story. Sweet!

Speaking of tone, I also love the way the art frames everything. We're in a sci-fi setting, but if you look closer, it's clear that this is a modern story, repackaged for the future; despite the sci-fi angle the art is going for, the humans in it look the same as they would in our day. A group of bullies wears a futuristic school uniform, but their faces remain the same as any would. 

The art also helped me realise how modern this story really is; the hovertrolley is curved like a hospital bed, her grandfather and her share food from a teapot that may be decorated with fancy, tech-y symbols, but is ultimately a teapot.

And that's what I think is so brilliant about Andromeda's New Brain--the fact that this sci-fi story contains a very basic human one about empathy that can be used in our day. Andromeda may have gotten into a hovercar incident, but that still holds lessons we can learn in the real world; kindness to people who have gotten into vehicle accidents, have been badly burned, amputees, and others. 

A lot of people who try to share their stories, especially those that are visibly injured, are currently dealing with struggles to even be heard on free platforms like YouTube; there are many stories of amputees having their videos age-restricted just for appearing in them. I encourage you to keep an open mind when it comes to situations like these.

And finally, I'd like to talk about the one thing in Andromeda's New Brain that threw me off.

At the beginning of the story, Andromeda calls herself a 'vegetable' when she was in a coma?? I'm unsure as to whether this was out of self-loathing or something else, but we generally do not use that word.

There's a lot of offensive history to the word that I won't get into here, but the basic gist of vegetable being a Not Cool word to use is that it dehumanizes the person in their braindead state; 'vegetable' makes you less than a person, where 'vegetative' describes the state you're in.

Otherwise, this was a fantastic story that I encourage you to read, and I'll be waiting for a part two!