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Ricki Lewis

Genetic Linkage

“The Power” – A Dystopian Novel That Turns Misogyny On Its Head, With a Little Help from Genetics

January 7, 2018
Tags: The Power, Naomi Alderman, dystopia
I was thrilled to see Naomi Alderman’s dystopian masterpiece, The Power," top Barack Obama’s list of his favorite books of 2017. OK, the #1 is because the list is alphabetical – but still.

Tables Turned

The multi-layered tale flips misogynistic practices culled from history – from killing female newborns, to rampant rape, to the merely maddening restrictions on driving, education, and working. One example of the turnaround: “curbing,” the ritualistic burning of selected nerve endings in the penis as a boy nears puberty. Read More 
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JIM: More Compelling Than GATTACA

November 24, 2012
Tags: GATTACA, dystopia, genetic engineering, Eugenics, science fiction
"Jim" the film is the brilliant brainchild of self-taught filmmaker Jeremy Morris-Burke.
For 15 years, the film GATTACA has been synonymous with “genetic dystopian future,” and has become a mainstay of genetics classrooms. But I’ve found a better film. It’s called, simply, JIM.

I never could connect with GATTACA, the dark tale of an assumed genetic identity in a society where the quality of one’s genome dictates all. Perhaps because in 1997, the pre-genome era, the idea of ordering a DNA test over the Internet was still science fiction. But ironically GATTACA’s “not-too-distant” future, in which a genetically inferior “invalid” impersonates a “valid” to achieve a dream, sets up a too-obvious conflict, with the details and resolution contrived. I know this from years of reading fiction and watching soap operas. Read More 
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Gene Therapy Subverted in New Dystopian Novel, “When She Woke”

December 30, 2011
Tags: gene therapy, When She Woke, Hillary Jordan, Ricki Lewis, Justin Cronin, The Passage, Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, mutation, Twilight Zone, Star Trek, X-Files, house, SyFy Channel, dystopia
I don’t usually take too kindly to the evil geneticist stereotype in fiction, but I can’t resist a good dystopian novel. "When She Woke," by Hillary Jordan, is the perfect book  Read More 
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