Emiko wakes and bathes.
"She's pours a ladleful over her head. Water courses down her face, runs over breasts and ribs and thighs, trickles onto hot concrete. Another ladleful, soaking her black hair, coursing down her spine and curling around her buttocks." P. 102. I only quote this because I question not just the purpose of this scene but Emiko's entire presence in this book. 100 pages and two short scenes.
We learn that she is routinely raped and tormented in her shared apartment. Yippee. She walks down to the seawall to find out about passage north but no luck. She has to disguise the way she moves because windups without papers are "mulched". A man accosts her. He fought windup soldiers and since she's a windup he tries to kill her. She runs, gets overheated, and is rescued by (of course) Anderson Lake.
Chapter 10:
So Anderson rescued Emiko and now they ride together in his rickshaw. They talk and then he starts to make out with her while wondering if she wants to or just can't say no. Ask her, you moron!
This feels like something out of the '70's. Beautiful Asian courtesan/prostitute is rescued by strong, stoic, blond-blue-eyed-white man in exotic location. Gag. Also, is there no oil left? If they can create truly marvelous wonders of genetic engineering why can't they come up with an energy substitute? Okay, Paulie, if oil is a no go for us, (message story, remember?) what are we supposed to do? Also, why Thailand? Or why not a Thai protagonist?
Chapter 11:
Jaidee muses on how stupid the Malayan Chinese (no, I don't know why it's not Malaysian) were to not integrate and become Muslim, unlike the Chaozhou Chinese who assimilated into Thai society, taking Thai names. He believes the "yellow cards" are at fault for not anticipating their own slaughter. He thinks about this while assaulting a Chaozhou Chinese for backtalk. Then he gets called to the Environment Ministry over the cargo burning. Someone has kidnapped his wife. His boss says he'll have to make an apology and accept demotion if they want to try to get her back.
More limited background but still no idea what state the rest of the world is in. I still don't understand how anyone would continue to allow these "calorie companies" such control. Since I'm not a cynical twit I don't actually think any country would allow this or just bend over and take it from another country. How come only Thailand has managed to create new food?
There's also an anti-capitalism vibe running through this. "We haven't had heeya like this since the last Expansion. Money at any cost. Wealth at any price." P.127. Yes, of course, because if you forcibly limit people's ability to make money they would settle down and devote themselves to artistic pursuits. Wars would disappear! Peace on Earth, goodwill towards men! No one would ever again attempt to gain power or control over others. Really, I'm all for regulation of business and such but come on. Be realistic.
Also the amount of detail used to say "Look! We're in Thailand! isn't this exotic!" is irritating. Take this sentence: "She wears the same blue pha sin that she had on when she made him a breakfast of gang kiew wan..." P.126. Pha sin seems to be a type of skirt. Maybe, maybe, you can justify the repeated use of the italicized pha sin. But why do we need to know what he had for breakfast except to add a foreign detail? There are a lot of foreign words introduced without translation that obviously have equivalent English words like: fish, foreigner, skirt, sir, yes, ghost, gangster, fun, canal, side street, why, karma, dharma, hot heart... This is silly. Maybe more on this later.
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