The Girl Who Was Plugged In

The narrator addresses an imagined audience of men obsessed with their wealth. She draws their attention to an unattractive girl in a crowd. This is the novella’s protagonist, P. Burke:

P. Burke watches adoringly as three young, beautiful celebrities appear from a shop. The crowd looks on, besotted: “this whole boiling megacity, this whole fun future world loves its gods” (43). Once “the gods” are gone, P. Burke moves along with the crowd. She walks to a park and sits on a bench, unnoticed. There, she attempts suicide by taking some pills and collapses.

The narrator describes the city. The city has banned advertising, billboard signs, and slogans. The Global Transmission Corporation (GTX) is tremendously wealthy and powerful. It manages global communication from its tower in the center of the city and maintains near total control.

P. Burke awakes in a hospital. She’s 17 and has no family, so when a man from GTX arrives and offers her a job working with “gods,” she eagerly accepts. The only condition is she must leave her life behind. P. Burke moves to a luxury hospital. The days pass in a haze of procedures and tests so she can remotely connect to another body.