Soylent Red

Soylent Red is a satirical fable mirroring the world as it is. It grew out of an attempt to understand what happens to us, and what is demanded of us, when oppressive regimes gain influence, systems tighten, categories harden, and freedom becomes something carefully circumscribed.

The story follows Babe Holder into a world that looks strangely familiar, even when its colours are regulated and its institutions answer obediently to those in charge. The writing draws on the sideways truths of fairy tales, the logical collapse of Alice in Wonderland, the self-discovery embedded in The Wizard of Oz, and the uneasy environmental warning of Soylent Green. Historical echoes are present too - how societies slide into authoritarian habits, and how people resist in ways that are sometimes quiet, sometimes messy, but always human.

I wrote this partly as satire, partly as a way to hold up a mirror to the absurdities around us, and partly because humour often reveals what straightforward argument cannot.

Soylent Red is published under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, and you are welcome to share it, adapt it, and pass it along, as long as the lineage is acknowledged and the use remains non-commercial.