"Appropriate Love" is a

science-fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, sp ...

short story by

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

writer

Greg Egan Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Lo ...

, first published in '' Interzone'' #50 in August 1991. The short story was included in the collection ''

Axiomatic An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or fi ...

'' in 1995 and ''

The Best of Greg Egan ''The Best of Greg Egan'' is a collection of science fiction stories by Australian writer Greg Egan, published by Subterranean Press in 2019. The collection contains 20 stories which were published in a variety of original publications. It is ...

'' in 2019.

Plot

After a horrible car crash, which completely shattered the body of her husband Chris Perrini, his wife Carla Perrini is offered a strange solution to restore his former life as their insurance only covers the cheapest option: By enclosing his

brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...

in a fluid-filled

membrane A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but stops others. Such things may be molecules, ions, or other small particles. Membranes can be generally classified into synthetic membranes and biological membranes. Bi ...

, putting it inside her

uterus The uterus (from Latin ''uterus'', : uteri or uteruses) or womb () is the hollow organ, organ in the reproductive system of most female mammals, including humans, that accommodates the embryonic development, embryonic and prenatal development, f ...

and connecting it to her bloodflow, it can be kept alive while a new brainless body is

cloned Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical genomes, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction; this reproduction of an organism by itself without ...

for him. The process takes two years in total. Chris wakes up in his new body and expresses his love for Carla. When they sleep together again, she begins to realize, that the fake pregnancy and his youthful body causes her to begin loving him like a son.

Translation

The short story was translated into French by

Sylvie Denis Sylvie Denis (born 10 November 1963 in Talence) is a French science fiction writer. She is also a translator and co-edited the magazine "Cyberdreams." A novelist, she won the Solaris Prize in 1988 for ''L'Anniversaire de Caroline'', the Prix Rosn ...

and Francis Valéry (1994 and 2006), Finnish by Tapani Ronni (1997), German by Irene Holicki (1998), Hungarian by Orsolya Erdo (1998), Spanish by Carlos Pavón and Sonia Baldrés (1998), Czech by Petr Kotrle (1998), Romanian by Mihai-Dan Pavelescu and Florin Pîtea (1999), Italian by Riccardo Valla (2003), Japanese by Makoto Yamagishi (2003) as well as Korean by Kim Sang-hoon (2002). The French translation appeared under two different titles, the former being "Baby Brain" and the latter being a French translation of "Appropriate Love". The Chinese translation appeared in ''

Science Fiction World ''Science Fiction World (Sci-Fi World; SFW)'' (, Kehuan Shijie), begun in 1979, is a monthly science fiction magazine published in the People's Republic of China, headquartered in Chengdu, Sichuan. It dominates the Chinese science fiction magazi ...

'', as well as in translations of the collections ''

'' and ''

''.

Reception

Reviews

Russell Letson, writing in '' Locus'' magazine, states that "Egan does not shrink from looking into any abyss, whether the topic is the authenticity of subjectivity or the genuineness of the most intimate relationships." He adds that "the agent of change is not some neurological black box but, ironically, the severe physical and emotional adaptations the narrator undergoes in order to save her husband's life. Nevertheless, despite her genuine initial devotion, romantic attachment evaporates." Karen Burnham writes in ''Greg Egan (Modern Masters of Science Fiction)'', that the short story "asks how much trauma we may require loved ones to go through in order to preserve the life of a family member" and that "Egan’s fiction paints a rather cynical view of the healthcare industry as a whole and the insurance industry in particular."

Awards

The short story reached the 9th place in the '' Interzone'' Reader's Poll in 1992 and was nominated for the Seiun Award in 2004.

Literature

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Appropriate Love Australian science fiction short stories 1991 short stories Short stories by Greg Egan