The novel “Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone” by Ian McDonald was published for the first time in 1994.
Ethan Ring is a graphic design expert who helped invent the fracters, a technology with an extremely dangerous potential. Forced to use it for destructive purposes by a European secret agency, after years guilt overwhelms him. His only hope of redemption is to start a Shikoku pilgrimage.
Together with his friend Masahiko, Ethan travels through the pitfalls of a Japan fell into a new form of feudalism. Akira bands, mercenaries paid by local lords and private agencies, control the territory. Another danger is made up of anime downloaded into virtual reality databases.
From the beginning of his career, Ian McDonald showed a preference for “exotic” setting for his Earth stories. “Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone” is set partly in Japan in a future that now is near. The protagonist Ethan Ring is making a Shikoku pilgrimage, which includes 88 temples scattered around the Japanese island of Shikoku.
Ian McDonald uses the Shikoku pilgrimage, a kind of pilgrimage that actually exists, to tell the story of Ethan Ring. The reason for him to go on that pilgrimage is a huge remorse for the use that he made of fracters, the dangerous technology he helped to invent.
The theme of the negative consequences of the use of a discovery or an invention is one of the most classic in science fiction. Ian McDonald tells the story of Ethan Ring alternating that of his present with the pilgrimage and that of his past. The sense of guilt for what he did is so huge that during his pilgrimage the protagonist sees the old Ethan as a different person.
For this reason, the parts of the novel concerning the pilgrimage are narrated in the first person by Ethan while those concerning his past are narrated in the third person. This split is fundamental to the story and Ethan himself says that the person he was before died, killed by guilt.
The neo-feudal Japan of the future is a mix of classic and cyberpunk elements, between Buddhism and virtual reality. “Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone” is a novel for which the labels would be limiting because Ian McDonald brings together several different elements taking what is useful for the story.
There were already stories about dangerous inventions in the cyberpunk movement, such as “Count Zero” by William Gibson and “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson. Because Ian McDonald mixes genres and subgenres, in “Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone” the invention was inspired by Kabbalah. The result could be called “Zen and the Art of Kabbalah” because it also has some similarities with the famous novel by Robert Pirsig.
In the course of the novel, the reader slowly discovers Ethan Ring’s past and his attempt to atonement. The story is very introspective, with little action and lots of ideas. Technology has great significance in the plot but the explanations about it don’t go particularly deep because it’s used to develop the philosophical side of the novel.
“Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone” is a short novel by today’s standards. Today we sometimes complain that some novels are too long and contain unnecessary parts, this one is perhaps too short and fails to fully develop the plot. At the same time, the love story between Ethan and Luka seems to me of limited usefulness because I found it dull but maybe it is my personal problem with romantic elements in general.
Due to its characteristics, “Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone” is a novel that should be read slowly to reflect on each sentence, perhaps rereading it to better capture some nuance of meaning that escaped the first time. It’s not easy to read but if you’re looking for a novel that makes you think I recommend it.
