Spindles: Stories from the Science of Sleep
Penelope A. Lewis & Ra Page, ed.
[Comma Press]
What is sleep? As Spindles’ editors remind us, although we spend a third of our lives asleep, we know little to nothing about it – however, recent scientific breakthroughs promise to wake us from our slumber. Bringing these developments to the public, short story publishing house Comma Press has partnered 28 authors with scientists to explore the recondite corners of this universal yet largely uncharted human practice. The results are wildly imaginative, giving us aliens and hominids, space-travelling simians, sleepwalkers, and even a religious megalomaniac who, from his armoured fortress in the Argentine pampas, plots to “cure” the world of sleep.
However, the fiction is far from uniform. While several of the stories are intriguing – notably Adam Roberts’ Dickian prose – some read as mere case studies for the sleep pathologies presented. In fact, the scientific afterwords that purport to “respond” to the stories sometimes seem to be the source material for a story, rather than a response to it. In others, ideas seem rushed, underdeveloped, or they lack editing. Sara Maitland’s ‘The Rip Van Winkle Project’, for example, begins with a forcefully comic description of the sleeping habits of assorted adolescent and celestial characters, only to then omit the actual plot. Such issues notwithstanding, the collection is captivating – so much so, in fact, that it may very well put you to sleep.
Words: Mònica Tomàs White
