17 June 2009

"Jon" Short Story Review

Free Speculative Fiction short stories online.

Read it here: "Jon"
By George Saunders
In The New Yorker
Genre: Science Fiction

George Saunders is interested in consumerist culture. In "Jon" he takes the ideas of consumerism and advertising culture to the extreme. In this story he presents us with young people whose entire function in life is to be marketing testers. Not only that, but their every thought is artificially linked to advertising. The language that results from these advertising links, and from their lives responding to questionnaires, is one of the charms of reading this story.

"Jon" begins with the young people having been shown a film on masturbation and told to try it. Before the night is out, though, love has entered the equation.

Before long, two babies are on the way. At first, this does not seem to be a problem, but then it all becomes complicated. Love, death, sorrow have entered this Eden, and fear for the future. Choices have to be made.

Enjoy.

Cheers
Morva Shepley
http://morvahouse.blogspot.com

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