Unwind (Unwind Dystology, book 1) by Neal Shusterman

[james_davis_nicoll]

Unwind (Unwind Dystology, book 1) by Neal Shusterman

Comments

[sean o'hara (from livejournal.com)]

You asked whether "the author who wrote this ever met any humans at all?" which suggests that your objection to the subject goes beyond modern Western culture.

And even limited to Western culture, the situation in the book is only unbelievable as an outgrowth of the abortion debate. Western civilization has, within living memory, sanctioned the mass murder of children, the use of children for scientific experimentation, and many other things equally odious.

[thornsilver]

Yes, we did. The thing that I find unbelievable in this particular concept is that it is something that is targeting teenagers that are not actually children of "Others". Because it would mean that not only this particular society condones killing of people for body parts (actually "condones" is not the word, I just can't think of a duly descriptive word for it), it is that it seems reasonable to take an infant, raise it for a number of years, while investing both material and emotional capital and than had it killed.

(And this has absolutely nothing to do with the above argument, but, as a person who did not read this series, it has been driving me crazy: a) Why only teenagers? Why not kids? Why not criminals? b) Do parents get money for the kid they give up for unwinding? and c) Do they find some way to use brain tissue as well? Human has 1:40 brain to body ration, which means that more than 1% of body is unusable for transplants.)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

One of the incidental characters was the recipient of a partial brain transplant. The donor was still home enough to be very confused about their situation.

[thornsilver]

Now, see, *this* is the most horrifying part. I need something with happy kittens before I tackle sleeping tonight.

It would be a different form of dystopia ...

[(Anonymous)]

... if the career criminals were given full brain transplants.

[scott-sanford.livejournal.com]

Since given the silly parameters the brains must be transplanted, it seems only logical that after the teenagers are unwound various career criminals are given brain "upgrades" whether they want them or not. After all, those repeat offenders have demonstrated there's something malfunctioning in their heads and it's obviously cheaper for the government if that can be sorted out.