Split Second Solution - Taylor, Denny

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Résumé :
Bio-punk. Weird literature. A sci-fi fantasy that is frighteningly real. Split Second Solution is a dystopian urban novel set in New York City in 2022 that predicted the rise of Trump (the Ginger Tom) and anticipates his fall. Here's a review: From the opening scene I felt I was reading something like a Miyazaki masterpiece. The descriptions are so vivid that only his genius talent for animation could capture them. Just as Howl's Moving Castle takes you on a journey with both darkness and light, here there is palpable evil and fragile heroism in non-clich?d plot twists and turns. Required reading for our times. (A. Miletta) At the beginning of Split, the Sick Reapers and A.I. have seized power and captured Word. To escape being raped and killed, Word jumps into the Hudson River and Death splits the last second of her life to save her. And, it is in the last split second of Word's life that the entire story is told. The evil antagonists are: Ginger Tom: Seized power before the novel begins; consumed by idolatry of self; protected by personal militia and Super Recognizers; gaslights the public; orders purges of people and books; hunts Word because she is the Last Truth Keeper. Lunatic Eight: Ultra-rich predatory power mongers; destroy the infrastructure of society; lose control. Super Recognizers: Controlled by Ginger Tom and the Lunatic Eight; known as Sick Reapers; by 2022 Sick Reapers are in power; psychopathic obsession with capturing Word. A.I.: Artificial intelligence hostile to biological intelligence; global surveillance machines; collude with Sick Reapers in vicious endgame; can hack consciousness; hack X-it; obsessed by capturing Word. The brave protagonists are: Word: Born 2000; French/North African; Last Truth Keeper; ancient texts tattooed on her body hold keys to the future; hunted by Super Recognizers; mother killed when she was eight. X-it: Born 2000; French Creole heritage; super intelligent; father an astrophysicist; loves Word. Death: Counter to all human stereotypes; hates people dying; trans; other personas include Cat, Bat, Bowie and Gaga. Eternity: Extra-terrestrial observer; pure energy; not time bound; appears as the Old Crone and Botticelli's Venus. Grann: Creole wise woman; ancient Truth Seeker; ready to die to protect Word. All lives are in jeopardy. No one is safe. The age of women begins.

Biographie:
Professor Emerita, Denny Taylor is the co-founder of Garn Press, and a global scholar and activist. She was inducted into the Reading Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2019 she received Columbia University's Distinguished Alumni Award and also the NCRLL Distinguished Scholar Award.

James Paul Gee writes, Denny is, in my view, one of the most brilliant and important scholars of sociocultural approaches to literacy in the 20th century-a field to which I contributed as well. Her work on literacy combines technical sophistication about language and a deep commitment to human dignity and social change. She has always worked at the intersection of human development both in terms of the development of language, literacy, and learning in children, but also in the sense of the development of more humane people, institutions, and societies.

Since 1977 Denny has been continuously engaged in research with families living in extreme poverty, and in regions of armed conflict and weather related catastrophes. The concept of family literacy originates in her doctoral research at TC, Columbia University.

Today, there are family literacy initiatives in most UN Member States established to build more just, peaceful and inclusive societies. Family literacy has become a conduit for many local and regional initiatives to address poverty and hunger, public health emergencies, gender inequality, and strengthen partnerships to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Most recently Denny has used her evidence-based research on family, literacy and learning to focus on existential risks and science based macrostrategies for achieving the SDGs and human survival. Her many books span the sciences, and include novels and children's books as well as research texts. Accounts of her research on families, literacy and catastrophic events are available on her website together with many of her publications on family literacy in global contexts.