Jeff Noon
Butterflies in the Wheat
by Tony Darbyshire
home other articles Five books Vurt Pollen Automated Alice Nymphomation (1997) and Pixel Juice (1998). All can be read singly, or as part of an ongoing cycle of expansion. A rough summary of the themes dealt with by their author Jeff Noon would read: a hermaphroditic intercourse between modern fringe soft-cell science, the nature and biology of sex, and the pharmocologizing of the world. Set in Manchester, to an ambient dub soundtrack. In his first book, Noon introduces us to Vurt: recreational drugs in the form of coloured feathers that produce an interactive dreamstate when administered into whichever orifice the user prefers. Some are legal, others not so, with all the accompanying dangers such as corrupting viruses and Vipers, who nest in the feathered-up world and creep insidiously into the real one. And just as people or objects can be picked up or exchanged, they can also be lost forever. For some, Vurt is not so much a pastime, more a way of life. In the decaying urban wasteland that Manchester has become, it's only to be expected. Technology permeates the entirety of society and blurs away the edges: people are now 'pure' human, dog, Shadow, robo, Vurt, Dodos and any combination therein. As Noon puts it, 'Everything's having it off with everything else and producing kids, and because of this, the people who really survive in this world are those who accept the fluidity. | |
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