CZM Book Club: "The Simulacrum," by Max Turner

0:00 Cool Zone Media.

0:07 Book club, book club, book club, book club. It never gets old.

0:12 It never gets better.

0:14 Oh yeah, that's what it never does. It never gets better. Hello and welcome to the Cool Zone Media book club. The only book club where you don't have to do the reading because sometimes we do it for you. More than one person is doing the reading for you this week. I'm your host, Margaret Kildroy. I'm one of the people doing the reading. And so are you, Paisel. Hi, how are you?

0:37 Hi, Margaret. I am doing all right.

0:41 It is, not as we record this, but as you listen to it, the very last week of spooky month. Except, of course, it's always spooky on this earth. Because all of us are only one short day away from dying.

0:57 And.

0:58 It's the last week of spooky month in terms of us doing Cool Zone Media Book Club about it. And there's one last spooky story that we have for everyone. And we're going to read it to you together.

1:09 Yeah. Today we're excited to show you a story called The Simulacrum by Max Turner. This story is really fun. It's like a trance take on Frankenstein tropes. It's very spooky, very Halloween-y. It's also kind of an intense story, so if you're not in the mood for shitty, transphobic mad scientists today, maybe just come back for this one another day.

1:32 But I really like how this story plays with medium. I asked Max, today's author, what he wanted to say about the story, and this is what he said to us. He says, I'm a huge fan of what I like to call, quote, interestingly formatted stories, and this story is my own exploration of that. Using different media to create an epistolary tale. and specifically to use that to ramp up the horror. To date, it's still one of my favorites of all of the many stories that I've written. Unquote.

2:01 Mary Shelley's original novel, Frankenstein, is what's called an epistolary novel. It's like a pretty common Gothic novel thing where the whole story is basically told through diary entries and letters that are written between people. Bram Stoker's Dracula also kind of works this way.

2:17 And one of the things.

2:18 That I've read somewhere is that a lot of these really early novels in like the early 1800s, they're like still developing how a novel is written. They're still developing like how novel plot works and how you tell a story. So that's part of why, I don't know. And I just think that's cool that like these early novels have these like really funky structures. And one of them is telling a novel through letters that are written to people.

2:44 Sort of modern day, we might think about this as being like the found footage horror movies. Like, Like Blair Witch Project is one of the most famous examples of this, where the movie itself is put together from documentary tape. So our story today, The Simulacrum, is going to kind of move between these and play with all of this kind of like found footage, the letters and the documents that are left behind. Yeah, through diaries, government documents and recorded conversations of these two evil doctors who are in way over their heads. Are you ready, Margaret?

3:18 I think I'm ready. I really like that about, you know me, I really like reading old fiction and watching old movies and things like that. And part of it is that form wasn't so concrete. It's less that I specifically want to hear the old timey language because sometimes that's really annoying and I have to look things up.

3:37 And more that I just kind of appreciate that things were written more experimentally because, yeah, like you said, they didn't know how you were supposed to write yet. Which is funny because I actually find the in-between version of this really agonizing. I hate, like, 70s and 80s fiction that's, like, badly written and has tons of head-hopping and things, you know, the stuff you're not supposed to do in modern fiction.

4:03 All of that stuff bothers me. But when they do it before, I don't know, my great-grandparents were born, I was like, this is amazing. This is the best idea ever. Why would you have any traditional structure? So I'm excited about this slightly experimental story. The kind of story that works better with more than one voice reading it.

4:23 Yeah.

4:24 Is it experimental or is it traditional?

4:26 Ooh, the real tradition. Is that like, that art isn't abstract, it just looks like cave paintings? I haven't heard that one before. No one has said that before. There's no reason that anyone would say that. The Simulacrum by Max Turner.

4:41 Transcript.

4:45 Recovered dictaphone recording dating from January 3rd, 1959. Voice identified as that of Dr. Lionel Rush, estimated to be within three days of his death.

5:00 Simulacrum, from the Latin simulacrum, meaning likeness or semblance. It is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. It's not a simple task to create a human being through a method other than conception and gestation. It is even less simple to render that creation correctly. There are so many facets to humanity that can never truly be accounted for. As well as one might know the human body, the minutia of anatomy down to every nerve ending and blood vessel, one cannot truly know or predict the thoughts or feelings that the flesh encompasses and contains. This was our first mistake. During gestation, we considered it a genderless thing.

5:46 One of many, though the first to survive long enough to be considered At some point, unlike with the others before it, we were obliged to give it a sex, and for the sake of ease and with the hope that, should it be a success, we might harvest its ovum for investigation, we saw to it that it was born female.

6:06 We called it Mary. Not after the Virgin Mary, such a thing would have been obscene. Instead, the name was for Mary Shelley, after it had been amusingly suggested by one of the team, our very own monster of sorts, though our methods were much more scientific and hygienic than Victor Frankenstein. Mary was whole, not an amalgam of parts, a seamless simulacrum we assumed. We thought it was whole.

6:36 We couldn't have known how wrong we were, how it had seemed such a simple thing for it to be Mary and not a Percy or Victor or even Joseph. We had not accounted for the mind's connection to the body Or for the soul's connection, perhaps, if you believe in such a thing. If there is, then I am sure my own might be damned.

7:00 Recording ends. Scanned file. Recovered papers from Dr. Rush's office. Scanned image. A large incubation chamber.

7:09 Inside, suspended in fluid, is an amniotic sac holding the fetus.

7:14 File 6, January 2nd, 1952.

7:19 We return from our festive break to find that experiment HAS-14 has unexpectedly thrived. It is certain that the success is due to the adjustment in the gestation period. It is vital for the HAS project that the experiment grows at a faster rate than expected in a human fetus. The same will be necessary once gestation is complete, should we make it that far. But it seems with the previous experiments we were too hasty. at a rate of almost exactly double the growth of a human fetus, we seem to have found success for now. If this continues, then we can expect HAS-14 to be fully gestated by the end of April. A spring baby.

8:05 Scanned file. Recovered papers from Dr. Rush's office. File 41. October 19th, 1952.

8:10 HAS-14, or MARI, is now six months old, but based on growth and appearance, is closer to a two-year-old child. The second stage of the growth development exceeded expectations, and we filed our reports with General Smythe and Director Miller. We remain cautiously optimistic that HAS 14 will continue to thrive in this manner until the third stage. We are less optimistic that the third stage will occur as planned.

8:43 It seems too fortuitous that on our 14th attempt, we bring to gestation an experiment that hits each stage perfectly. Rather than slow in growth to roughly that of the average human, we suspect that this is where HAS-14 will fail, resulting in the continued rapid aging until the experiment succumbs to old age and organ failure. However, in doing so, we will be able to study HAS-14 and plan for adjustments that need to be made to succeed with the next experiment Inevitably, HAS-15.

9:20 Transcript.

9:21 Recovered dictaphone fragment recording dated May 3rd, 1953. Voices identified as that of Dr. Lionel Rush and a child.

9:30 Known as Mary were experiment HAS-14.

9:37 Hello, Mary. How are you today? I don't feel good. Well, I'm sorry to hear that. Have you discussed this with Matron? Is it a stomach upset?

9:48 I just don't feel good. I don't feel right. I feel like there's something wrong inside of me.

9:54 I will discuss with Matron and see if there needs to be any adjustment to your medication. In the meantime, I hear you have progressed. up another level with your reading and writing. Yes, sir. Very good. Let's head into the testing room and we shall see where you now place within a standard school system.

10:12 Recording ends. Scanned file. Recovered papers from Dr. Rush's office. File 126. May 27, 1953.

10:23 I have followed up with Matron regarding HAS-14's assertion of ill health, as well as with Dr. Kennedy, who has now run every full medical test that he possibly can. Physically, there is nothing wrong with it, but it continues to complain of feeling unwell and has now routinely taken to scratching at its skin enough to warrant salves and bandages on more.

10:45 Than one occasion.

10:47 In an effort to tackle any potential neurosis, Matron tried to cheer it up with a new dress. This approach backfired tremendously, with it becoming even more distressed until sedation was required. It now insists on wearing nothing other than the gray jumpsuits originally provided. These could all be side effects from the circumstances of its birth, and so I have asked for close monitoring. Perhaps this is signaling an end to HAS-14. some sort of breakdown that none of us foresaw. It is a puzzle for now, though I would not be surprised to see signs of degradation soon.

11:27 You know what isn't a puzzle and will never degrade?

11:31 Our commitment to our sponsors and the products and services that they provide our listeners.

11:36 There is nothing confusing about that and where we stand.

11:39 Yay!

11:52 And we're back.

11:53 Today, HAS-14 turns three years old and presents as around 10 in physical and mental capacity.

12:02 For the most part.

12:20 I have serious concerns about HAS-14's mental well-being. There has been more than one sign of serious disturbance, and I continue to work closely with Matron to make HAS-14 as comfortable as possible. I believe we are building a rapport. HAS-14 no longer sees me as the mean old doctor with needles and tests, but as a trusted adult with one of the most continuous relationships it has known. Therefore, in these files, I now find myself referring once more to it and HAS-14. Not for the same distance that I had at the start of this project, but out of respect for HAS-14 itself. It has been very vocal on hating the name Mary, and in fact, it is uncomfortable with being addressed in the feminine at all. Perhaps

13:08 this dissociation comes from who HAS-14 is and how it came to be here. I have tried to discuss this with Dr. Rush, but he has little interest in AJS-14 beyond the scientific and remains convinced that AJS-14 will not last more than another year. I don't agree. But it's hard to say whether that is my opinion as a physician or as someone who personally cares for its well-being. Actually, delete that last sentence.

13:36 Scan file. Recovered papers from Dr. Rush's office. File 276.

13:40 August 12th.

13:40 1957.

13:47 HAS-14 continues to be withdrawn and does not seem to be improving. Whilst it has been surly and insular since it first began to complain of this phantom illness, it has never previously been uncooperative. Now, it has had to be coerced into several training sessions with Dr. Smythe's men, under threat of restrictions. Up until these apparent teenage years began to present themselves, Progress with Smythe had been outstanding.

14:14 As designed, HAS-14 immediately took to the human automation soldier training and is now qualified as a skilled field medic and trained in close quarters combat. Smythe is keen to progress to more aggressive skills. If Stage 3 doesn't occur, it will have been a wasted investment, but the director has assured us that it is a risk they are happy to take on balance. Kennedy is now certain that HAS-14 is approaching estrus and will soon start a monthly cycle. However, given its rapid growth, it remains to be seen what schedule this will adhere to. If HAS-14 does fail, we can reap its ovum for future investigations and perhaps see if making HAS-15 male has any pertinent effect.

15:07 Voice is identified as that of Dr.

15:09 Lionel Rush and Dr.

15:11 George Kennedy.

15:13 Did Matron update you about the name?

15:16 Wollstonecraft? Yes. I can't say I'm pleased. I want to know which blasted idiot has been filling its head with nonsense. I certainly didn't approve Shelley on its reading materials.

15:28 Stone, actually. It wants to be called Stone. After Wollstonecraft.

15:33 Whatever next? Perhaps I've been too lenient. I waved off any concern when it insisted on cutting its hair. It seemed practical for its training to have shorter hair. And apparently it keeps asking Matron to refer to it as he. I did put a stop to that nonsense. I assume it comes from being around Smythe's team. All boys together and all that. But now this name thing. I suppose it is fitting, though. A stone.

15:59 An object.

16:00 Something that might be picked up and used as a weapon or fashioned into one. I assume that isn't what you came to discuss, though?

16:07 No, I wanted to let you know that I've completed the egg retrieval. The lab will begin their tests immediately.

16:13 Excellent news. Just consider, George, what if we're able to create more in this manner? What if the next stage is having them gestate their own young?

16:23 Ready-made, Army.

16:25 Don't take that tone. You know what you signed on for, and you like how much you're being paid. Were there any problems with the harvesting?

16:33 No, it's pretty much out of its mind with pain. It hasn't had a break in estrus for two months. Now that we've harvested, might I suggest we try to do something about that? Have you read about those progesterone treatments?

16:46 Might be worth- No, I don't think we should introduce any treatments that we haven't already given rigorous consideration to. We have no idea how hormone treatments will interact with it. I think we'll wait it out and see if stage three presents. If not, then the situation will soon resolve itself with menopause and then death.

17:02 God help us.

17:04 Does he help those who choose avarice?

17:07 Damn you, Rush.

17:10 Recording ends. Scanned file. Recovered papers from Dr. Rush's office. File 611.

17:16 July 30th, 1958.

17:16 HAS-14's tests have confirmed it has entered stage 3. There had been signs of its metabolism slowing.

17:30 Not least, its estrous cycles had become less regular, which has alleviated some of its distress, which is better for all of us. Now, approximately at the equivalent of a 20-year-old, trained in many military aspects and ready to be deployed, it seems HAS-14 is a success. The deployment won't happen, of course, if we are able to recreate this experiment, hopefully even improve upon it to have a more mentally stable product. then we are anticipating the production of a range of HAS-19s and 20s ready for action. This means that HAS-14 is now surplus to requirements. I have suggested to the director that we continue to observe its growth so that we can be sure of the stability of Stage 3. I get the impression he is not keen,

18:16 and it may come down to costs. He has mentioned several times that he doesn't believe life expectancy once deployed will be something we need to be concerned with. My hope is that we can compromise and keep HAS-14 for another year or two in order to study further before euthanization. Every day we might learn something that will improve our next experiment. If agreed, we will, however, need to move it to the secure facility. I believe it is becoming too confused and aggressive to be treated with anything like humanity.

18:48 A good point to make to the director, I think. This is an issue we will need to address with HAS-15.

18:55 Transcript.

18:57 Recovered dictaphone recording. Dated December 13th, 1958. Voices identified as that of Dr.

19:03 Lionel Rush and Dr. George Kennedy.

19:08 I'm recording now. Please repeat what you just told me and do try to calm down. Be clear for the tape.

19:13 Dammit, man, I need your permission to administer more sedation.

19:17 Stone has- I believe you're referring to HAS-14. You piece of- Yes, HAS-14.

19:23 Our permitted level of non-surgical sedation needs to be increased right now.

19:29 You asking me or telling me?

19:31 Rush, what is wrong with you? I have just come in here and told you that HAS-14 has had an episode, has smeared menstrual blood all over the walls, has clotted his breasts, dug into the flesh in chunks. I need to stitch him up. Either allow for greater waking sedation or let me book the operating room.

19:52 It kennedy it isn't it it might be considered a she based on anatomy which you yourself have just attested to given your reference to what it is doing with its own menstrual.

20:02 Blood fine it it just let me help it This is the first menstrual cycle it's had since they let up.

20:09 It.

20:10 Please, Rush. For the love of God, let me sedate it.

20:14 Very well. Sedate it for the duration of its cycle. Stitch it up and.

20:18 You know, if you didn't just let it be as it wanted to be, we wouldn't be in this mess. If it says it's male, we should have respected that. Worked with it, and now instead.

20:27 We have this. And once you've done that, I want you back here so we can discuss your future on this project.

20:33 Reporting ends.

20:36 But you know who will always have a future here?

20:39 Is it products and services?

20:42 I hope so.

20:45 It's probably podcasts. That's what I usually get when I listen to Cool Zone Things. But sometimes it's other things. Some of them are even good. Who's to say?

20:54 And we're back.

21:11 Scan file. Recovered papers from Dr. Rush's office. File unnumbered. Date estimated to be between 5th and 6th January, 1959.

21:20 This file was handwritten, but has.

21:23 Been typed for clarity.

21:26 I am unable to record this on tape as I fear I will be heard. I am hidden, but I can hear everything. My creation, my simulacrum. is imperfect, a monster, not in ways I could have predicted. The truth is, Kennedy was right. He always got better cooperation when he addressed it as it wished to be, as male, as stone.

21:49 Should it have been male? Was its mind male? Its soul? All I can hear is screaming now, echoing in my mind. The real screams have already stopped, but they seem to be remembered in the walls. I found Matron dead a day ago, From the carnage in the facility, it looks like she was one of the first. And I'm under no illusion that I will be last. It isn't that I've successfully avoided it. I've been the only living person here for at least a day, so there's no doubt I'm simply being toyed with. I wonder if it would have killed Kennedy were it here. Certainly, it must have held Kennedy in the same regard as Matron. And yet she is dead. I saw it.

22:29 Him.

22:29 I heard screams of pain and thought it was another survivor. It came from the training room that had been used to teach field medicine. By the time I got there, the screaming had stopped, and it wasn't another survivor. Instead, Stone sat up on a gurney, panting and covered in blood. He had removed his own breast tissue, discarded slabs of meat on the floor. The remaining flesh was stitched together with a hand steadier than it had any right to be.

23:00 I stood there, staring at him, until he looked up and grinned at me. And at that moment, I realized the breadth of the mistakes we had made.

23:09 That I had made.

23:11 We created a soldier, and they made us its enemy. I ran then, and have been waiting since. I've caught a glimpse of it in the corridors, barefoot, wearing just the gray sweatpants and bandaging around its bare chest. He might look like a regular male patient, if not for the blood. Everywhere, caked in his hair, clothes drenched with it.

23:33 and then dried and dark and hard. He doesn't just wish to kill me. He wishes to terrorize me. And he is succeeding. I should open this door and shout, I'm sorry, stone. But we would both know the words were only to save my own skin. So I choose instead to keep what little of my dignity remains and say nothing at all.

23:56 LR.

23:56 Case code name.

24:00 Simulacrum.

24:02 File summary.

24:03 Case closed.

24:05 Due to security measures, eight days passed between loss of contact and investigation. All facility staff and General Smythe's unit were found dead. The mutilated and burned remains of Dr. Rush were found posed at his desk in his office, his final note set before him. Subject AJS-14, self-identified as Stone, was not discovered amongst the remains. AJS-14 is presumed at large.

24:34 All scientific files and genetic materials relating to the HAS experiments, including all remaining HAS embryos, were destroyed by fire. Former employee, Dr. George Kennedy, has not been traced. All materials relating to this investigation and the HAS experiments have henceforth been classified. Investigation concluded 17th.

24:57 October, 1961.

24:58 End. What did you think, Margaret?

25:08 I mean, I love things that play with transness as monstrosity and specifically understanding the ways in which we are viewed by society as monstrous and not necessarily hiding from those things. I don't always know that I like totally want to lean into them, but I enjoy experimenting with them. I enjoy this kind of thing that says like, Look, if you're going to create, like, a Star Wars-style clone army, you just got to at least have them express their own gender.

25:40 You know?

25:40 Like, it is kind of funny, right? Because, like, the actual problem here isn't that they misgender HAS-14. Like, it's not that Stone doesn't get to be called he. It's that, like, Stone was built into a terrible society in which he was only bred for war, and his life doesn't matter, and the way he chose to express his individuality was by trying to control his gender. And that is relatable.

26:08 Yeah.

26:10 Because the actual problem that we are up against is not just that it's hard to be trans. It's that it's hard to be, you know?

26:19 Yeah. I think the story is really fun, and I really... We were talking about this at the beginning, but I really like what it does with form and kind of the way that it creates some distance from... like really gory things that are happening and you don't have to like experience them firsthand, but we still know that they exist.

26:41 I think that is, I think that's a really smart and interesting way to like deal with representing horror and violence and gore, you know, without really putting that in front of the audience.

26:56 Yeah.

26:56 There's like only a couple scenes, like the only scene where it's really like, oh, this is bloody is the like, I opened the door into the field medic training and there's like, you know, breasts on the floor as slabs of meat or whatever. Like it allows it to be like a specific sharp punctuation rather than a continuous tone throughout the whole thing. You know, I kind of just like this story, which is funny because I actually tend not to like the child of experiment stories. V for Vendetta does it. Stranger Things does it. I've seen other stuff that does it. It's, like, not something that specifically interests me particularly, but I'm, like, weird. There's tons of tropes I just don't like and just, like, don't find

27:44 particularly engaging. And this is usually one of them, and yet this story appeals to me. Like, this story is interesting enough to me.

27:52 The thing that I think is really interesting about this story is that it kind of gets to the way that governments deploy gender and why governments are invested in people continuing to perform as, you know, whatever gender they were assigned at birth.

28:16 Whatever their gag is, government assigned gender.

28:20 Maybe.

28:21 Causes a gag reflex.

28:23 Oh, maybe.

28:24 Yeah, but just the six here, right, are, I mean, obviously both there's like transphobia and distolerance and discomfort with gender transgression but there is also like so much tied up in like the fact that they chose you know the scientists were invested in this particular person being female so that they you know could use it for reproduction to you know continue to reproduce this you know a genetically engineered army reproduce the power of the state as well as Playing with the gender trouble also of the masculinity of being a soldier and kind of the fraught tension of that.

29:07 I don't know.

29:08 Just big government-assigned gender vibes.

29:13 What I like that it's like the scientist is like, we probably didn't need to do that. Probably this all would have worked without that. But he's so insistent on the fact that he's like, no, we control it. We control its life. sense of identity its name we like struggle with the fact that we have to give it a name even though it's just a slab of meat itself you know and the absurdity of that over strong need to control and hold something. You know, there's a point where they're like, well, if we continue to not just kill this thing, if we continue to not kill him, we got to put him in like special containment housing, you know, because we need tighter control on him because he acted out. So we need to Tighten our grip

30:00 even further. And it's so obvious when you're reading it that you're like, ah, but that's not going to be the right answer, you know? And like our entire state structure, whatever country you live in, is built on that exact same idea. It is built on the idea that when someone is not acting within the constraints presented to them by society, the solution is tighter control. And it's just so funny because if you have a dog, that's how you get a bad dog. There's no such thing as a bad dog. There's only bad circumstances and bad training.

30:38 But the way you get what people would consider a bad dog is that you hit it when it acts out, is that you try to tighten your grip further and further. And I'm just waiting for us to understand that that's true socially as well. And next week, I'll turn some other story into an anarchist parable as well.

31:05 Yeah. It's been a minute since I've, you know, read the original Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. But I also love the little nods to that sort of throughout. Both with like the initial dead naming of the protagonist as Mary. And with the themes of, yeah, trying to grow a person. And the eventual naming of Wollstonecraft being Mary Shelley's middle name from her mother, who was like a proto-feminist. Yeah.

31:41 Wrote A Room of One's Own and is considered as one of the first Western feminists. I know more about that family than I know about their writing. It's actually really embarrassing. I know a lot more about the politics of writers than what they've done with their actual writing.

31:54 Yeah.

31:54 I could talk to you about Percy Shelley's relationship with his father-in-law's anarchism because Mary... Shelley's father was also considered one of the first Western anarchists, and none of that directly relates to what they wrote.

32:08 But I think the reframe of when Stone sort of chooses their own name and chooses this other aspect of Mary Shelley's name and is reaching back through the lineage towards the proto-feminists and the people who are yearning for gender liberation, but also making it his own and shortening it to Stone... Number one, what a fucking trans guy name. Oh, yeah.

32:32 I mean, like Stone Butch Blues is right there.

32:34 Yeah.

32:34 Yeah, exactly.

32:36 I just think that's like a little nice nod to the history. Yeah.

32:40 Well, I think that's what we have for this week. But I wanted to tell you about Max Turner. I want to tell you about the author. Well, not you. You're the one who put this into the script. But I want to read the biography. I want to read Max's biography. Max Turner... is a writer of speculative fiction, science fiction, urban fantasy, horror, and LGBTQ plus fiction. This includes gay and trans romance and erotica. Max is also the publisher of A Coup of Owls Press, and that's coup like the thing that you shouldn't let Franco do in 1936, C-O-U-P. You can keep up with his work at maxchurneruk.com. And I'm Margaret Kiljoy, and I have a new book of short stories. When I say book, I mean zine. I have a new zine of short stories

33:30 that is up for pre-order all this month. It's released on Halloween.

33:34 It's called.

33:35 I know what it's called. I know what my own book is called. It is called The Folk Tales of Lowland Sacon, and it is set in the same world as The Sapling Cage. It is five fairy tales set in that world. You don't need to have read The Sapling Cage in order to understand it. It's entirely... hundreds and hundreds of years different. It just happens to be in the same world. And it is beautifully illustrated. It is perhaps the prettiest publication that has ever had my name on it. And you can pre-order it at TangledWilderness.org because it was put out by Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness, which is an Anarchist Collective publisher that I'm part of.

34:11 That's me. What about you?

34:12 I am Hazel Acacia. Mostly you can find me working behind the scenes on this pod, or you can... Read my zine about abortion. Also at strangers because we're bitches.

34:28 Yeah.

34:29 Yeah.

34:29 That's all I got.

34:30 All right.

34:32 Thank you, everyone. And until next week, may we become dangerous to our enemies and may they find no respite even in their sleep. May they have to handwrite their fearful notes, afraid to put them into dictaphone, afraid that we're listening. Thanks for listening.