The Song of the Earth (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Hugh Nissenson
- First Published: 2001
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The twenty-first century
- Setting: Nebraska, Japan, Washington D.C., New York City
- Principal Characters: John Firth Baker, Jeanette Baker, Sri Billy Lee Mookerjee (Srimaanji), Yukio Tanaka
- Genres: Long fiction, Science fiction, Biographical fiction, Superbeing and evolutionary fiction
- Subjects: Homosexuality or homosexuals, Sex or sexuality, Suicide, New York City, Art or artists, Twenty-first century, Washington, D.C., Bioengineering or biotechnology, Genetics, Japan or Japanese people, Androgyny, Nebraska
- Locales: New York, NY, Washington, D.C., Japan, Nebraska
A tale about the near future, The Song of the Earth poses as the chronologically arranged biography of its protagonist, John Firth Baker, “the first genetically engineered visual artist.” It is presented as a compilation, mostly of diary entries, interviews, and World Wide Web downloads, amassed by Katherine K. Jackson, a scholar of twenty-first century manual arts, and illustrated by Baker’s artwork.
The first part of the novel focuses on Jeanette Baker, a Ph.D. candidate and lesbian who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska, in a domed community called Cather Keep. For those...
[The entire page is 1950 words long]
