These Are The Rules

Abstract

These Are The Rules is a novel-in progress that follows the lives of Emmanuelle, sole prisoner on a spaceship, and Hector, the advanced artificial intelligence that runs the ship and looks after Emmanuelle. In addition to the overarching plot on the ship, the novel includes scenes from Emmanuelle's life on Earth, as well as moments from Hector's first days of existence. The work also incorporates scenes that reimagine traditional Latin American folklore and colonial history with moments written from the point of view of inanimate objects. Existing within the literary speculative fiction and magical realism genres, the narrative's eclectic framework and use of language combines prose and poetry and the inorganic with the organic, to emphasize the miraculous interlocking combination of details that build up to an individual identity. The chapters also explore betrayal and martyrdom; love and memory; power and helplessness; abandonment and tragic lingering. It asks: How did my ghosts and I arrive here?