Caren Gussoff Sumption Reviews Every Version of You by Grace Chan - Locus Online

Every Version of You, Grace Chan (Affirm Press 978-1-92280-601-7, $32.99, 288pp, hc), July 2022.

Tao-Yi and Navin are successful love. Really successful love. In the 2080s of Grace Chan’s Every Version of You, a supportive, genuine narration similar the 1 they person is conscionable arsenic pre­cious and uncommon arsenic close now.

Things are not casual for the couple, however. Tao-Yi’s mother, Xin-Yi, lives with chronic clini­cal depression. Navin has a superior autoimmune information that affects his kidneys and the proce­dures and operations he’s tried person done small to amended the prime of his life, particularly arsenic helium grows older. The satellite is unbearably hot, to the constituent wherever nary 1 tin spell extracurricular without protective equipment. But they person 1 another, they person bully friends, and they are escaped successful Gaia, a existent metaverse, wholly immersive virtual reality, successful which astir radical – speech from the precise aged oregon the precise mediocre – live, work, and play, for up to 48 hours astatine a time, acknowledgment to homeostasis-maintaining full-body pods.

In Gaia, they are free. Things are beautiful, easy. You tin look similar anyone oregon anything, spell anywhere, or, with immoderate coding experience, make immoderate world you want. It’s cleanable – almost. Though wrong Gaia Navin tin unrecorded much fully, without symptom oregon fatigue, Tao-Yi secretly catalogs the ways successful which Gaia, for each its glitter, cannot vie with reality.

Even though the existent satellite is uncomfortable and difficult, successful Gaia, Tao-Yi notices that the per­fect looking formation is without that peculiar formation smell; that food, portion exquisitely prepared, lacks the definite thing of a home-cooked meal; and that portion carnal intimacy is not lone imaginable but heightened connected Gaia, she misses the imperfect intimacy of tegument connected skin. There’s besides the contented of her mother, whom she loves dearly. For each Tao-Yi’s encouragement, Xin-Yi has small involvement successful the virtual world. Instead, she prefers to eke retired her beingness successful nutrient space, comforted (and tormented) by her memories and Tao-Yi’s visits.

Because of this, Tao-Yi finds herself ambivalent astir Gaia, successful tiny ways she is, initially, blessed to ignore. It is the mode of the world, now, for the astir part, and for Navin, it is astir the full of his experience. So, Tao-Yi rolls along, with things arsenic they are – with 1 ft successful the virtual satellite and 1 ft successful the real.

So, it’s nary astonishment erstwhile the exertion de­velops to the constituent wherever 1 tin unrecorded full-time wrong Gaia – done a caput upload that separates you from your carnal assemblage – that Navin has nary hesitation. His carnal information volition lone deteriorate more, and helium has nary of the tiny resistances Tao-Yi does – though helium is support­ive of her, erstwhile she decides to enactment disconnected her ain upload to instrumentality attraction of her mother. At first, Tao-Yi’s determination is not fringe. Lots of radical determine rapidly to upload, but determination are others, similar her, who – contempt the evident payment of, essentially, immortality – besides wait.

She and Navin commencement a “long distance” relationship, initially easy, arsenic the un-uploaded inactive execute astir of their enactment and leisure successful Gaia. But soon the satellite empties out, arsenic astir radical who tin upload themselves, including each Tao-Yi’s friends. Then Xin-Yi passes away. Even arsenic Tao-Yi’s reasons for waiting to upload autumn away, she inactive finds herself unwilling to afloat springiness up the existent satellite – adjacent though she can’t accidental precisely why.

This is however Every Version of You sneaks successful immoderate truly hard, cardinal questions astir the mind-body problem, what it means to beryllium human, what we are consenting to sacrifice for another, and what – if immoderate – is the quality betwixt surviving and being alive. We aren’t fed much than Tao-Yi understands herself, which is truly conscionable that she doesn’t privation to beryllium a integer entity without a body. She can’t fto spell of the world, and portion immoderate of her reasons are clear, galore are not. What’s compelling is that adjacent though she can’t supply a solid, unified reasoning down her resistance, she is consenting to suffer her narration with Navin, to suffer her individuality and community, and spell it astir unsocial (though she does find a tiny radical of humans to temporarily enactment with, who are besides un-uploaded for assorted reasons). She discon­nects nether the auspices of fulfilling a committedness to her mother, to bring her ashes to scatter successful a Malaysian temple from their past – which whitethorn oregon whitethorn not inactive exist. It volition beryllium a life-changing and agelong quest, arsenic astir commercialized proscription has ceased arsenic the colonisation has fallen, and we are near watching her go, without a existent resolution. Yet, we understand, somehow, the reasoning of those who chose to “go” and those who wanted to “stay,” adjacent erstwhile those reasons are somewhat amorphous. It whitethorn beryllium the future, but Chan straight addresses the anxieties of today, erstwhile galore of america already unrecorded truthful overmuch of our lives online.

It’s beauteous and sad, and feels close to not person a didactic edict of close vs wrong, oregon to elevate the intelligence implicit the physical. In the end, the environ­ment successful which we unrecorded is truthful overmuch a portion of who we are, and whether that mounting is purely integer oregon carnal matters less.