Sasha Soren

Arte Six: June 2004
Vol. 2

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BOOKS/WRITERS (features, news, tips, reviews)
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BOOKS/WRITERS
Writers Bloc series
Featured columnist: Natashya Wilson

“Bombshell: Writing Action-Adventure that Rocks”
by Natashya Wilson
Associate Senior Editor, Silhouette Bombshell

Are you writing about kick-ass women who don't hesitate to jump in with both feet and go after the bad guys?

Well, the time for women’s action-adventure stories has never been better, with authors such as Janet Evanovich, Patricia Cornwell and J. D. Robb taking center stage on the best-seller lists, shows such as “Alias”, “Cold Case” and “Tru Calling” heating up television and heroine-led movies such as “Kill Bill Vol. 2”, “Taking Lives” and “Charlie’s Angels” lighting up the silver screen.

That’s why Silhouette Books is launching the new Silhouette Bombshell series, featuring four brand-new women’s action-adventure books every month starting in July. Strong, intelligent heroines are taking action, saving the day and getting the bad guy – or the good guy.

Here are some tips about creating a kick-ass heroine from Natashya Wilson, associate senior editor of Silhouette Bombshell:

1. Create an appealing heroine.
Your heroine should be both appealing and inspirational to readers. Reading about her should give readers a feeling of empowerment in their own lives, as if they too can achieve their goals and never give up.

The heroine should be someone exceptional with exceptional skills and expertise but should also have human flaws that the reader can relate to.

This is a woman readers want to know—or be. She has fears, desires, and other human qualities we all share. She also has the ability to get things done and the guts to act on instinct.

No matter who your heroine is, whether she’s a tough-talking woman from the streets, a smooth, sophisticated operator or an ordinary woman caught in extraordinary circumstances, she should be someone the reader can relate to on some level.

2. Create your heroine’s personal world
No one lives in a vacuum. Give your heroine a background, childhood, friends and family (depending on her situation) and a home.

Figure out what she’s gone through, what her motivations are, what makes her the woman she is in the present.

Show your reader who your heroine is through her home, her clothing choices, the people she respects, the people she does and does not get along with. Does she have a child? A pet? Any phobias? Does she have a romantic relationship? What kind of vehicle does she drive? What does her work space look like?

Ask yourself these questions and more to bring your character to life for the reader.

3. Give your heroine a special skill or quality.
Your heroine should have a quality that gives her an edge. She could have one or more physical skills, such as dexterity, weapons skills, speed, great eyesight, or martial arts training.

She could have mental advantages, such as a photographic memory, an instinct for character, or far-above-average intelligence. She could even have a superhero quality. Or, her quality could be a trait such as courage, stubbornness or insatiable curiosity. Or all three!

Whoever she is, she’s got that certain something that keeps her from giving up in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

In July, Silhouette Bombshell’s heroines include a former military officer, a forensic scientist, a police officer and a CIA agent. Needless to say, their array of skills is diverse.

4. Surround your heroine with other compelling characters.
If your heroine has a love interest, be sure her hero is worthy of her. She may not know at first if he’s a good guy or a bad guy, but the man for her has got to be her equal in his own way.

Secondary characters should also be fully developed, not simple caricatures. Think about creating a villain with depth, someone who challenges the heroine and isn’t a one-dimensional, all-evil person. Explore your characters’ motivations and make them realistic.

5. Create a plot that will challenge your heroine—and grab readers’ attention.
Part of creating an action-adventure heroine is throwing her into a situation that will challenge her, surprise her, put her through the wringer and reveal to her something new about herself. The stakes may have anything from personal to local to worldwide implications.

Whatever your heroine faces, whether it’s something that’s right up her alley or something that will push her far outside her comfort zone, it’s got to be something that can resonate with readers, make them care about the situation and cheer for your heroine as she does what it takes to bring some justice to the world.

6. Give your heroine an emotional stake in the conflict.
Take your heroine a step beyond being involved because it’s her job or because it’s the right thing to do.

Maybe she’s avenging the death of a friend or family member. Maybe she’s redeeming herself after a previous failure. Maybe she’s become a criminal’s personal target. Maybe she has to work with a former lover or sworn enemy. Maybe she has to overcome a fear.

There are endless possibilities. When you give your heroine an emotional tie to the situation, you give your reader even more reason to care about the outcome.

7. Include a romantic subplot
Romantic emotion is universal, something almost every reader can relate to. In Silhouette Bombshell, every book includes an intense romantic subplot. Although the relationship is not the focus of the story, the heroine and her hero do take their relationship to a new level by the end of the book.

Not every action-adventure story includes a romantic element, but including one can give your story an extra edge. The amount of romance should be appropriate for the characters and the situation.

For example, if your hero and heroine are in the midst of a tense sting operation, they aren’t likely to stop and contemplate their feelings for each other.

If they’re going down in a plane, they probably won’t have time or be in a frame of mind to have sex.

However, if they’re stuck together on a long stakeout, they might have more time to explore their emotions and physical attraction.

8. Make the plot and the romance unpredictable.
Keep your heroine and your reader guessing as long as you can. Perhaps the villain isn’t who we think it is. Perhaps the problem the heroine thinks she’s facing is just the tip of the iceberg and further complications arise as the book moves on.

Perhaps the man the heroine is most attracted to seems to be the bad guy. As soon as the heroine and the reader think the situation can’t get any tougher, throw something new and even bigger at them.

The twists you use to create suspense on all levels will keep your reader intrigued and compel her or him to keep turning pages.

9. Use your own areas of expertise.
Familiar with firearms? Like to solve word puzzles in your spare time? Maybe you’re an expert at accounting, or a legal wizard.

Whatever you know, put it to use to make your heroine and her situation believable. Writing about something you know well will infuse your book with credibility. And if you’re writing about something you don’t actually have experience with, research, research, research.

Learn everything you can about the world your heroine lives in—make the book ring true, make your reader believe your heroine knows her stuff.

Follow the above points and you’ll be on your way to creating a multilayered, compelling and unpredictable read with a captivating action-adventure heroine who’ll blow your readers away.


Bio: Natashya Wilson is the senior associate editor of new Silhouette series “Bombshell”, which launches in July 2004. Wilson holds an M.A. in magazine journalism from the S. I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University. She started at Harlequin Books in 1996, when she became an editorial assistant for the Harlequin American Romance and Intrigue series. She has also worked with McGraw-Hill and the Rosen Publishing Group. When she’s not reading Bombshell submissions, which is almost never, she can be found reading other books, riding her Anglo-Arab mare, or honing her own Bombshell skills in her martial arts classes.

About: The Writers Bloc series is an ongoing column featuring practical advice for writers. Nope, not a support group. Not until someone busts out the tequila, anyway...
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BOOKS/WRITERS
Sneak peeks: “The Perfect Cover”, Maureen Tan

Got the CIA on your phone line? You might, if you’re Maureen Tan. [http://www.crescentblues.com/3_5issue/aka_jane.shtml]

Her books “Run Jane Run” and “AKA Jane”, about an undercover MI-5 counter-assassin, were largely informed by up-close-and-personal research into the world of counterintelligence. Who were her sources? She’d tell you, but then she’d have to kill you.

Tan’s downtime hobby -- she trains with the Illinois Search and Rescue canine unit.

Maureen Tan’s new release won’t hit the shelves until late this year.

But, exclusively for the stalwart, artistic, independent and opinionated readers of “Arte Six”, pull up a chair, and get it here first:

[Commentary from Natashya Wilson: Here’s a great example of a heroine, in disguise, blending in with her environment and taking stealth action to get the results she needs. She's doing this to get Anthony Beauprix to agree to work with her to catch a serial killer. And she knows just how to get his attention....]

Sneak peek: “The Perfect Cover”, Maureen Tan

Standing on the other side of the vase, staring in through the flowers, was a man in a tuxedo. He was perhaps six feet tall with olive skin, well-cut dark hair, and hazel eyes. He was smiling with a mouth full of perfect teeth.

My first thought was that this was Anthony Beauprix.

My second was to wonder who he was smiling at.

My third thought was that there was only one possible candidate.

I looked quickly at my feet.

“Do you like flowers?” Beauprix repeated.
I nodded.

“And strawberries,” I muttered thickly and for no particular reason, except that I’d always believed that distinct characteristics and a personality quirk or two were essential to creating a believable persona.

“What’s your name?”

“’livia,” I said, wondering why he could possibly want to know my name. Impossible to think that he had seen through my disguise. Perhaps he was planning to complain to the caterer about her useless staff.

I was wrong.

“You’re doing a fine job, Olivia.”

He flashed me another smile, put the plate he was carrying down on the table, picked up several dipped strawberries from the tray and added them to the bounty on the plate. Then he frowned and looked back at me.

“If you wouldn’t mind, would you fetch me a paring knife from the kitchen?” he said.

I nodded, went on the errand, and returned fairly promptly.
I watched him slice each of the strawberries on the plate into quarters, wondering at the task.

“Thank you, Olivia,” he said.

I nodded, carefully not making eye contact, and didn’t look up until he’d picked up the plate and turned away from the table. Then I lifted my head and watched him, admiring the fit of his formal wear as he moved across the crowded room, pausing to speak with one guest, then another.

He had the muscular build and awareness of body and space that brought to mind a dancer. Or a street fighter. I’d met a lot of cops in the past couple of years, so there was no doubt in my mind: plainclothes had never looked so good. Though it probably helped to have a millionaire’s wardrobe and a personal tailor.

As the crowd parted to let Beauprix pass, I saw that an elderly man -- Beauprix’s father, I guessed—had joined the party. He was sitting in a wheelchair in the center of the room, surrounded by a knot of people whose coloring and bone structure marked them as family. Beauprix joined them.

I kept a close watch on the family group, remaining behind the serving table, but periodically shifting my position so that I could see them through the crowd. My job was easy.

They stayed together in the same spot, chatting and laughing as their guests moved forward to greet the elderly gentleman. Periodically Anthony would lean in close to his father and murmur something that made the old man smile.

Then, after I’d been watching them for about ten minutes,
I saw Beauprix nod and smile at his brother and sister. He signaled to the white-suited waiters to provide everyone with a full glass of champagne. While the waiters did their work, he chatted amicably with his family. Then he knelt, put his arm around his father’s shoulders, and lifted his champagne glass with the other.

“To a good man, our dear friend, and my lifelong hero. Charles Beauprix.”

Anthony Beauprix wasn’t a handsome man by any conventional definition. But I doubted there was a woman in the room who wasn’t aware of him, who didn’t feel her pulse quicken as he walked past, who couldn’t imagine his hands and lips on her body. Certainly, I wasn’t immune to such thoughts. Nor was I oblivious to the effect that Beauprix was having on my libido.

But I had more pressing things to think about. Such as where I was going to set a small, very dramatic fire.

A large cake, lavishly decorated with fresh and spun-sugar flowers, had been baked to celebrate Charles Beauprix’s eightieth birthday. It was several layers tall, rested on a silver-plated wheeled serving cart, and looked like it might serve a hundred people.

Beside the cart was a linen-clad stationary table that supported several large, silver trays holding more dessert—dozens of uniform petit fours arranged in soldier-straight rows. Each tiny cake was covered in a smooth layer of marzipan, decorated with a single sugar rose and a pair of fresh violet blossoms, and topped by a small candle.

Toward the end of the evening, the catering staff began the task of lighting all the candles on the cake and the petit fours. Then most of the lights on the first floor were switched off and the large cake was wheeled to the center of the living room, where the Beauprix family was gathered. I stayed behind, lingering near the table that held the petit fours.

The crowd sang “Happy Birthday,” the elder Beauprix worked on blowing out candles, Anthony Beauprix stood with his hand on his father’s shoulder, and I surreptitiously dripped globs of gel fuel between rows of petit fours.

As the last bits of whistling, cheering, and applause faded, I tipped a lit candle into the silver tray and quickly stepped away from the table. A heartbeat or two later, and there was a satisfying roar.

Someone shouted “Fire!”

While everyone’s attention was focused on the flaming pastries, I made my around the perimeter of the crowded room. Before the overhead lights came on, I was racing up a sweeping staircase whose grandeur reminded me of my adoptive mom’s favorite movie. Just call me Scarlett, I thought, as I reached the hallway.

The second door on the left opened into the room I was looking for. Downstairs, I could hear shouting and the sounds of a fire extinguisher being discharged. That noise was muffled as I pulled Anthony Beauprix’s bedroom door shut behind me.

Time was short, so I gave only the room a sweeping glance. His queen-sized bed was covered with soft bedding in shades of cream and tan, the dresser and desk were polished mahogany, and the desk chair and love seat were covered with a nubby brown fabric. Tall bookcases were built in against one wall. Opposite, ceiling-to-floor guillotine windows flanked by sheer curtains in a surprising shade of tangerine let in the night air from the second-floor gallery. Paintings of tall ships and battles at sea hung on the walls, and a scale model of the USS Constitution graced the fireplace mantle.

Neat and comfortable, I thought, as I crossed the room to Beauprix’s bed and knelt on the pillows. Hanging above the headboard was a gilt-framed oil painting of the Constitution defeating the British frigate Guerriére in 1812. I admired the artist’s use of blue, ochre, and crimson as I swung the painting aside, revealing a vintage wall safe. The safe’s location and Beauprix’s habit of keeping his “piece” locked in the safe when company was in the house was information Uncle Tinh had provided.

Information obtained from the Beauprix housekeeper’s adult daughter, whose husband liked to play the ponies.
In exchange for the information, Uncle Tinh had arranged for a gambling debt to be canceled.

From my apron pocket, I pulled out the electronic device. It was the size of a quarter and attached by thin wires to a pair of ear buds. I put the tiny black pads in my ears, placed the device against the safe, turned the dial slowly, and listened. Right. Click. Left. Click. Right again. Click. A quick tug at the safe’s handle, and the job was done.

I ignored everything else inside and went for Beauprix’s gun, a Colt 45 semi-automatic compact officer’s model. It was exactly the item needed to get Beauprix’s attention. After returning the bullets to the safe, I tucked the unloaded gun securely between my belly and the corset-like padding I wore.

Before closing the safe, I left a handwritten note inside. An invitation, of sorts.

Then I went out the second floor gallery window, shinnied down a vine-wrapped drainpipe, and ran around the house to the kitchen door.

The kitchen was bustling with clean-up activity. The caterer, apparently unruffled by a mere fire, was calming giving directions to her staff. As her back was to the kitchen door, I slouched in through the doorway.

My apron was wet and soiled from my encounter with the drainpipe, so I picked up the nearest littered serving tray from the counter and tipped it toward me, adding a smear of discarded party food to my apron. Then I began scraping the remainders of crackers smeared with paté and thin brown bread topped with a pink-flecked spread into the garbage.

The caterer turned, saw me working hard, and nodded.

“Good, Olivia. Very good.”
I couldn’t help but smile.

The phone call I was expecting came near midnight.

There was no warmth or humor in the deep male voice on the other end.

“City morgue,” Anthony Beauprix said. “6 a.m.”

Then he disconnected.

From: A PERFECT COVER by Maureen Tan
Published by Silhouette Books.
Copyright (c) 2004 by Maureen Tan
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BOOKS/WRITERS
The Agent series

Agents, who needs them? You do! In our monthly series, "The Agent", top lit agents answer your burning questions about life, the publishing industry, and everything.

Featured columnist: Jenny Bent

Q: I have an agent who wants to represent me, but he lives in Minnesota. Do I need a New York agent?
A: When I was an agent working out of Washington, DC, I got this question all the time My answer is always the same: there are talented, reputable agents working all over the country: in San Francisco, New Orleans, Dallas and Washington.
What's important is that the agent have a good track record, not a New York address.

Q. What should I expect from my agent?
A. Open lines of communication. Too often I hear from people who have worked with agents, but don't even know where the agent submitted their manuscripts, or indeed, what the responses were.

Ask your agent if he or she will provide you with a submission list, will keep you informed of all positive and negative responses to your submission, and provide you with copies of any relevant correspondence upon request.

Also make sure that your agent keeps your advance money in a separate, non-interest bearing account, and that he or she will write you your advance checks in a timely manner.

Q: I’m ready to do this – what now?
Please note that these are general guidelines, and some agents may prefer to be approached in a different way.

Most of the agent reference books out there, or often the agent's website, will give you specific instructions for submitting to that agent.

For nonfiction, send a query letter with a detailed description of your project and a detailed bio or resume.

Include a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) with sufficient postage to cover the return of all the material you send (or indicate if the material may be recycled).
For fiction, send a query letter with a brief plot synopsis, a detailed bio or resume and the FIRST THREE CONSECUTIVE chapters. Again include a SASE with sufficient postage.

Some agents will tell you just to send a synopsis, but I feel it never hurts just to throw those sample chapters in. Generally, agents will read them if they're included, and the worst that can happen is that they'll get thrown out

NOTE: E-mail query letters are fine, but you should send all information in the body of your e-mail. Remember that with the proliferation of computer viruses, agents will not open attachments from people they don't know.
If you're sending more than a query letter (i.e. sample chapters) always send via snail mail, unless the agent specifies otherwise.

Q: What is the one thing most important to know as I go on my quest to find an agent?
A: Never, ever, cold call an agent. Agents HATE that.

If you are friendly with John Grisham, and he has read your work and suggested you call his agent, well, that is an exception. Or, if you are John Grisham, and you're looking for a new agent, then by all means, pick up the phone.

But otherwise, it's best to start with a letter including lots of information about you and your project, as noted above.

Follow up with a phone call or e-mail if you don't hear back in about a month.
E-mail is best, because agents won't generally return long-distance phone calls from people they don't know.

NB: Lit agent Jenny Bent is providing this information as a courtesy to readers. She is not accepting new work. Unsolicited materials will not be read or returned.
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Bio: Jenny Bent has ten years of experience working in the publishing industry. She is currently a literary agent with the firm of Trident Media Group, LLC in New York City. Prior to becoming an agent, she worked at "Rolling Stone". She was also an editor at Cader Books, where she was responsible for books on pop culture.

About this series: The Agent is an ongoing series of columns or Q/A sessions with literary agents, providing practical advice for writers.

Next month: What to expect when you’re published.

Subscribe: artesix@sashasoren.com
Read online: http://www.sashasoren.com/newsletter.htm

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TRAVEL (events worldwide, features, scenes)
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TRAVEL/Barcelona

Art Cities: Barcelona
City guide courtesy of Art Republic [http://www.artrepublic.com]

Visual: Detail, Park Güell
Photo: J. Becker

Unlike the more glamorous Madrid, Barcelona’s bizarre architecture and a spectacular contemporary art reputation, covering names like Dali, Gaudi, Miro and Picasso, make it a magnet for folks who appreciate the offbeat.

To do Barcelona justice in one day really isn't possible, but jump the metro [http://www.tmb.net/en_US/barcelona/moute/planols/planols.jsp] and you can give it damn good go. You really don't want to miss any of the wild architecture, courtesy of madhat blueprinter extraordinaire, Antoni Gaudí. [http://www.gaudiallgaudi.com/AA002.htm].
Also, don’t miss a long, luxurious stroll down La Rambla.

Day tripping in Barcelona? Here’s our take on a program for those looking to mix a little art with their look-and-see.

Grab your sunscreen and get moving:

9am: The Eixample
A grid-shaped new town, the "in" place to live, peppered with amazing buildings.
Must-sees are Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia and the Fundacio Antoni Tapies, along with the almost surreal architecture you will pass as you walk. (Well worth strolling around this area for a couple of hours.)

12 Noon: Montjuic
Get the metro to Parallel and hop on the funicular that takes you up to Montjuic.
Great views and it's a short walk to the Fundació Joan Miró, and the Olympic stadium from here. A great place to recharge your batteries and chill for a while.

Find it: Fundació Joan Miró
Parc de Montjuïc, Barcelona
Spain, 08038 Barcelona
Tel: +34 93 291 9080

2pm: Pitstop at Park Güell
Metro: Lesseps
On leaving the metro follow the street signposts for the park.
If you're visiting the park by metro be prepared for at least a 20 min walk, but it’s worth it, a madly colorful and trippy funland for adults.

Technically, it’s a public park. But that description just doesn’t half do it justice. Choose a path, resign yourself to getting lost, and be prepared to goggle. From the tiled lizard at the gates, to the funky little gingerbread towers, it’s open-air architecture run amok.

4pm: La Rambla
Make your way back down Montjuic and into the heart of the city, the five end to end roads that make up La Rambla. This is an area where you could spend hours exploring and below is a quick list of things to see while you roam the streets:

Canalettes: Stop at the iron fountain, legend has it once drunk from you will never leave Barcelona.
Mercat d'Ocells, la Rambla , 132 - Famous for its bird market, with plenty of specimens around.

Sant Josep: Famous for masses of flower stalls and home to the main food market (Mercat Sant Josep) known locally as Boqueria. Grab a snack at the stand-up bars here.
Placa Reial, studded with palm trees, the iron lamps are early Gaudi.
De Santa Monica: Home to Gaudi's Palau Güell, c/Nou de la Rambla and Centre d'Art.
Monument a Colom: See the statue of Columbus pointing out to sea, you can go inside his head 52 metres up for panoramic city views, by lift.
5pm: Museu d'Art Contemporani
Check out MACBA for some more art. What’s on this month:
“Art and Utopia: Limited Action”: June 3 – September 12

Find it: MACBA
1 Plaça dels Àngels
Tel: 34 93 412 0810
Metro: Catalunya

Alternatively, have a look around the Centre de Cultura Contemporanio de Barcelona, located nearby. Adjoining the MACBA, it is housed in buildings that were part of the Casa de la Caritat: a lunatic asylum founded in medieval times.
7pm: Café de l'Opera
La Rambla 74

Not as expensive as the white coated waiters suggest, still a sexy, fashionable meeting place.

If you have any strength left, La Rambla will keep you entertained until dawn. Check out artrepublic's guide to Barcelona by night [http://www.artrepublic.com/wow/travelpage.asp] for some ideas on how to party till the sun comes up – and then catch some breakfast on La Rambla.

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LIFE (stranger than fiction/life, the universe
and everything…)
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LIFE/‘Free’ press
Can something that's free be stolen? Some 2,500 copies of the free Poly Post student newspaper were taken from California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, distribution bins and authorities are trying to determine if a crime was committed.
Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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LIFE/Iliad IM: Helen M.I.A. - Get ships.
Homer's ancient Greek poem "The Iliad," the basis for Hollywood blockbuster "Troy," has been compressed for folks too lazy to see the film, let alone read the 24-book epic that runs to over 15,000 lines.

The first five books of the centuries-old tale, set in the final year of the Trojan War -- which began when Trojan Paris snatched Helen (the face that launched a thousand ships) from Greece -- are now available in the language people use when sending instant messages, Microsoft said on Monday.

Book Two is reduced to just 24 words of 'messenger speak', losing some of the lyricism of the original. "Agamemnon hd a dream: Troy not defended. Ordered attack! But Trojans knew they were coming n were prepared. Achilles sat sulking in his tent."
The translation, designed to publicize Microsoft's messenger product, is not written in Homer's dactylic hexameters but it does use 'emoticons' -- little faces or images -- to emphasize intense moments.

Source: Reuters

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SCI/TECH (news and views)
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SCIENCE/Tech
“Clubbing with Orwell”
Clubbers in Spain are choosing to receive a microchip implant instead of carrying a membership card.

It is the latest and perhaps the most unlikely of uses for implantable radio frequency ID chips.

The Baja Beach Club in Barcelona offers people signing up for VIP membership a choice between an RFID chip and a normal card. VIP members can jump the entrance queues, reserve a table and use the nightclub's VIP lounge.

"The RFID chip is not compulsory," says Conrad Chase, managing director of the club. But he says there are advantages to having it.

The obvious one is that you do not have to carry a membership card around with you, but also it means you can leave your wallet at home. This is because the RFID can be used as an in-house debit card, says Chase.

When drinks are ordered the RFID is scanned with a handheld device and the cost is added to your bill. The chips, called VeriChips, are produced by US company Applied Digital Solutions.
Courtesy: NewScientist.com
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SCI/TECH
“Losing Face: Redefining identity”
A US medical team has requested permission to perform the world's first face transplant.
Researchers from the University of Louisville in Kentucky, have requested approval to carry out the complex and controversial operation. The team is about to submit a lengthy document detailing their plan to a university ethics committee.
Skeptics have questioned whether such a transplant would be worth the side-effects of anti-rejection drugs, and whether the family of a donor would recognize their loved one in the face of the recipient.
The Louisville team has carried out research that, they claim, indicates such obstacles can be overcome. The team has been using the faces of bodies donated for medical research to practice the groundbreaking operation and the results suggest that a transplanted face will not be recognizable as either the donor or the recipient - in effect creating a third face.
“New Scientist” magazine is running a six-page spread about the topic, but so far, no one has addressed the cultural implications of, let’s face it, swapping something that goes a little deeper than flesh and bone.
Geography used to play a huge role in defining tribal or national boundaries and traditions, in isolating gene pools, the development of language. With technology came a greater level of evolution, freedom and rapid change. ‘Identity’ was no longer so clearly defined.
But what continues to be the primary stamp of verifiable ID? Look at your driver’s license. Even if it’s a dorm-room special. Or your passport.
Sure, biometrics has moved on, to include retinal scans and digitized fingerprints. The whole “Gattaca” scenario might not even be as far away as we realize.
Transplanting your face. Hmm. Does a new face give you, by default, a new identity? If you add a new screensaver to your computer screen, does that significantly alter anything about the underlying system?
And, given the popular appeal, also, of movies like “Face Off”, how much experimental scientific research is influenced by pop culture, and vice versa?
Just a random queritorial from “Arte Six”, to ponder over coffee. Or the next Café Scientifique. [http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/cafescientifique]
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UPCOMING: “Arte Six”/July 2004: Secrets of a publicist, absinthe in Cali and Biker Girl hits the road. Stay tuned.
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