Welcome To The Big-Deal Sci-Fi Future, Where The Wildest Dreams Take Flight And It Turns Out Your Chromosomes Were Right All Along

Described as "a dazzling, mind-bending novel of feminist utopias and impossible choices", the novel explores a world where men vanish from the world. The synopsis explains: "Set in a world in which men – all men – suddenly and inexplicably disappear from the face of the earth, The Men follows a group of grieving women determined to bring them back. But as the post-men world becomes ever more perfect, our heroines must reckon with a terrible question: what will be the cost of the men’s return?"

The Human Culgoa Virus starts off as a highly contagious flu, but soon causes aggressive prostate cancer and  kills off 99% of people with prostate glands around the world. The remaining seem to be genetically immune, though no one knows how or why. But generally, it’s game over for the majority of the people with a Y chromosome in Lauren’s Beukes’ latest novel, Afterland.

Alderman’s speculative fiction spurred my own: what if we applied “extreme vetting” to the problem of mass shootings and made a law that only women can use firearms? What if we remade all the guns so the triggers would only respond to people with a double-x chromosome?

Speaking of which, as is almost a New Worlds Weekly tradition now, we’re giving away one copy of Y: The Last Man – Deluxe Edition Book One (hardcover) in this week’s contest to the person who can give the best answer to the question, “What I’d do if I found out I was the last man alive on earth.” Tell us what your reactions would be, what you’d do first (or not do at all), would you be glad or sad and why, what would be your priority (and why) – in 50 words or less – before 11:59 pm IST Wednesday, 16th of August, 2017. You can submit your entries in the comments section below, leave a comment on the FactorDaily FB page or tweet to us with #NWWonFD. All the best!

Every two years, like clockwork.

Welcome to the future!! Welcome to the wildly imaginative future, where up is down, left is white, right is black, topsy’s turvy, the government is a big rock, someone named Mytchel is on the run, and everything’s chromosomes, big-time. Welcome to the feminist sci-fi future, where it turns out your chromosomes were pretty much right about everything all along. There was a big, uh, Y-chromosome flu, and then all the X-chromosomes got activated by a spilled jar of Chemical X-acto-tron, so that’s what we, you know, imagined, so all the women turned into Storm, and all the men exploded, and probably something happened to trans people too. Imagine if your chromosomes dictated every aspect of your life, you know? That’d be nuts, if that happened. Really makes you think, you know? Or makes you die, depending. Either it makes you think, or else it’ll kill you. Can you imagine if you couldn’t control the circumstances of your life because of your chromosomes? What kind of a world would that be to live in, do you think? I imagine it might look a little something like this….

Anyhow, we’ll be imagining this again in another two years, but be sure to forget about this one, because by the next time we imagine it, we’re going to talk as if we were imagining it for the very first time. What if we could solve sexism with chromosomes? That’d be pretty great for everyone. Sorry, almost everyone. What if the world were a wildly different place, and also we just admitted it’s chromosomes? Let’s be honest for a minute, really. It’s just chromosomes! It really just is, and that’s where plagues go. And you know, even with the men gone, there’d still be power. You know? And power, that’s bad, and so powerful people would still abuse their power, which really makes you think again, because even though we sort-of solved the problems with the chromosomal lightning storm, there still are some problems now, but it is better, but it’s not perfect, but it is better, but also maybe it makes you miss sexism, a little bit? Anyhow, we just thought it was an interesting thought experiment, what if your chromosomes were a really big deal, so just think about that for a little while, if you get the chance.

Woman: Reuben, I have long been thinking, what a good world this might be,
If the men were all transported far beyond the Northern Sea.

Man: Rachel, I have long been thinking, what a fine world this might be,
If we had some more young ladies on this side the Northern Sea.

Too-ral-loo-ral-loo, too-ral-loo-ral, too-ral-loo-ral-loo, too-ral-loo-ral-lee,
If...the Northern Sea.

Woman: Reuben, I’m a poor lone woman. No one seems to care for me;
I wish the men were all transported far beyond the Northern Sea.

Man: I'm a man without a victim. Soon I think there's one will be,
If the men are not transported far beyond the Northern Sea.

Too-ral-loo-ral-loo, too-ral-loo-ral, too-ral-loo-ral-loo, too-ral-loo-ral-lee,
If...the Northern Sea.

Woman: Reuben, what's the use of fooling, why not come up like a man?
If you'd like to have a lover, I'm for life your Sally Ann.

Man: Oh my goodness! Oh my gracious! What a queer world this would be,
If the men were all transported far beyond the Northern Sea.

[Big thanks to Kyle Lukoff for reminding me that this is such an oddly-frequent recurrence in breathless sci-fi announcements!]