The Windup Girl

Windups symbolize an alternative form of humanity designed by the Japanese and despised by the Thai. Emiko has made her way to Bangkok as part of the Japanese delegation that abandoned her, and she has been engineered to practice pure servility. She has, however, also been given an uncontrollable sexual nature as a former “companion.” Windups represent survival, swiftness, and sheer power. After the loss of her obedience, Emiko illustrates the rapidity and violence that windups can inflict. As cyborgs, quasi-humans, and inventions, windups represent a threat to natural humans, as Gibbons indicates. He is at home with these creatures whereas others despise them for their soullessness and lack of karma in a culture permeated by Buddhism. The windups might be seen as humans’ collective karma coming back to haunt them; alternately, they can be viewed as simply the next step in human evolution. 

Genetically-modified foodstuffs are another example of the blurry boundary between the natural and the constructed in the novel, since new foods can be created using genetic manipulation. This practice also raises the question of whether humans should be interfering so drastically with natural, vegetative processes; in the world of the novel, however, and given the blighted environment, creating genetically-modified food has become a necessity.