A Night on Bare Mountain

Charnock, Graham. "A Night on Bare Mountain." In New Worlds vol. 64.

A strongly po-mo cyberpunk story about what could have been the end of the world—possibly from a nanovirus (305)—but isn't, for most people. The "po-mo" part of our "po-mo cyberpunk" phrase refers to the high degree of foregrounded, highly conscious intertextuality of this story, allusions to aspects of popular culture, mostly ours. The cyberpunk, decaying setting includes a device called "Thumb": an augmented human thumb or prosthetic on the hand of the female lead that is gendered ("he), technologically powerful, and intelligent (298 f.). In a Fantasy or Horror world, this AI Thumb would be a variety of Magic Helper, or body part that had taken on an identity of its own. In the world of this "Bare Mountain," we accept on faith that some sort of nanotechnology gives Thumb "his" powers. (RDE, 17/05/01)