The Windup Girl (2009) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters edit see section history

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• Jaidee Rojjanasukchai: Captain of the white shirts. "The Tiger of Bangkok". Husband and father of two sons. Hero to his people.
• Kanya Chirathivat: Jaidee's Lieutenant who never smiles.
• Anderson Lake: Manager of SpringLife factory. Seeks the secret to the Thais agricultural independence and success.
• Mr. Yates: the founder and former manager of SpringLife. Inventor of increased capacity algae-powder-coated king-springs.
• Emiko: The Windup Girl, a genetically modified Japanese "toy" for the rich. New People. Created for beauty, pleasure and work. This "windup" was soon discarded when her novelty wore off. She now survives illegally, in this post-apocalyptic Thailand city, only due to bribes paid by her manager who uses her for the entertainment at his club.
• Hock Seng: An old Yellow Card who works for Anderson Lake in the factory as his right hand man. Speaks Thai and Mandarin.
• Gibbons: An old scientist, he is one of the best generippers (geneticist) in the world.
• Richard Carlyle: Major player in the bringing the outside world into Thailand.
• Somdet Chaopraya: The queen's protector.
• Yates: Founder and former manager of SpringLife.
• Lao Gu: an old yellow card Chinese man. Drives a cycle rickshaw
• Akkarat: Minister of Trade. Nemesis to General Pracha.
• Banyat: SpringLife head of QA
• General Pracha: Minister of Environment.
• Chaya: Jaidee's wife
• Niwat: Add a description of this character.
• Surat
• Narong: member of the Ministry of Trade, connected with Akkarat and the Somdet Chaopraya
• Gendo-sama: Emiko's previous owner
• Pracha: General Pracha - head of Environment Ministry
• Raleigh: Seedy nightclub owner.
• Kip: Gibbons' ladyboy girlfriend
• Mr. Yashimoto: Japanese industrialist.
• Mai: Young Thai girl

Quotes edit see section history

• “...nippon genehack weevil..."”

  Various

• “This is the shape of our world, she thinks. Tit for tat until we're all dead and cheshires lap at our blood.”

  Kanya

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• “The ecosystem unravelled when man first went a-seafaring. When we first lit fires on the broad savannas of Africa. We have only accelerated the phenomenon. The food web you talk about is nostalgia, nothing more. Nature.” He makes a disgusted face. “We are nature. Our every tinkering is nature, our every biological striving. We are what we are, and the world is ours. We are its gods. Your only difficulty is your unwillingness to unleash your potential fully upon it.”

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• she does not know how little anyone cares to separate wheat from chaff, when all anyone wants to do is burn a field. 

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• A sudden eruption, and the surprise of realizing that the world he understands is not the one he actually inhabits. 

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• Nothing is permanent. This is the central teaching of the Buddha. Not a career, not an institution, not a wife, not a tree... All is change; change is the only truth.

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• “Food should come from the place of its origin, and stay there. It shouldn’t spend its time crisscrossing the globe for the sake of profit. We went down that path once, and it brought us to ruin.”

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• “Everyone dies.” The doctor waves a dismissal. “But you die now because you cling to the past. We should all be windups by now. It’s easier to build a person impervious to blister rust than to protect an earlier version of the human creature. A generation from now, we could be well-suited for our new environment. Your children could be the beneficiaries. Yet you people refuse to adapt. You cling to some idea of a humanity that evolved in concert with your environment over millennia, and which you now, perversely, refuse to remain in lockstep with.

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• We are all nothing but walking corpses and to forget it is folly. Meditate on the nature of corpses and you will see this. 

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• Raleigh laughs softly. “Sex and hypocrisy. They go together like coffee and cream.”

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• All things are transient. Buddha says it is so, and Hock Seng, who didn’t believe in or care about karma or the truths of the dharma when he was young, has come in his old age to understand his grandmother’s religion and its painful truths. Suffering is his lot. Attachment is the source of his suffering. And yet he cannot stop himself from saving and preparing and striving to preserve himself in this life which has turned out so poorly. 

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• “Laws are confusing documents. They get in the way of justice.” “Justice is always lost where Trade is concerned.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Bangkok

Organizations edit see section history

• Ministry of the Environment: "the white shirts"
• Ministry of Trade: Add a description of this organization.
• Grahamites
• AgriGen
• The Green Headbands

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• Cibiscosis: Disease that destroys crops, and humans.
• Ngaw: English: Rambutan, tropical fruit closely relate to the Lychee.
• Yang Guizi: Foreign Devil
• Megodont: Genetically engineered creature related to the Elephant.
• Mahout: Megodont handler
• Wai: greeting consisting in pressing palms together and raising them to the forehead
• Farang: generic Thai word for westerner

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• Dystopia: An imaginary world generally set in the future which is seen as worse than the world we currently occupy. The opposite of a utopia.
• Human Control Over Ecology: Describe this theme.
• genetic engineering
• Abuse

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Paolo Bacigalupi (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Jonathan Davis (Narrator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Nebula (2009: Best Novel, #1)
• Time Magazine's Best Books of the Year (2009: Best Fiction, #9)
• BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) (Finalist, 2010)
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2010, Winner)
• Compton Crook Award (2010, Winner)
• Hugo (September 2010: Best novel, Winner)
• Locus Awards (2010: Best First Novel, Winner)
• Reference and User Services Association (2010: Best Science Fiction Book, Winner)
• Indie Booksellers Choice Awards (2011)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: N/A
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Graphic scenes Sexual Content (abuse)Language

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Fantasy › Urban
• Books › Science Fiction & Fantasy › Science Fiction

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• Windup Stories: Two stories from the world of The Windup Girl: The Calorie Man, Yellow Card Man
• Amazon
• Wikipedia

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history