The short story “Paused” by Priya Sarukkai Chabria was published for the first time in 2020 by Future Fiction within the anthology “Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction”.
An entity that is still growing is trying to manage not only its own development but above all the processes that must lead to a new life development. Chaotic memories of the past and genomes to be used for rebirth are among the complications. The entity is among the ones created by the Shell Beings, who knew the stories of the Hairy Ones and the Earth’s death.
Priya Sarukkai Chabria is a writer and poet who wrote works ranging from poems to novels that contain speculative fiction elements. For this reason, it’s not surprising that she wrote a science fiction short story with tones that are almost fairytale-like. Short and intense, it has a vague plot, as it focuses specifically on the memories and feelings of an entity that aims to revive life long after a global catastrophe.
“Paused” is an evocative story for the particular style used to write it. The protagonist entity tells in the first person its feelings and reactions to what it does. Examining various of its memories helps to understand something of its nature, the reason for its existence, and what happened that required its creation.
The story doesn’t include an infodump that can explain it all, so in the end, no details of the story that led to the catastrophe are revealed. These are mostly fragments that follow one another in a sort of incomplete mosaic that leaves the reader with the task of putting them together to form a big picture. In some ways, the fragments are like short kaleidoscopic images part of a semi-randomly edited film.
Reconstructions and reflections on the catastrophe, on the Shell Beings, on the Hairy Ones, and more can come after finishing the story. Due to the style used to write it, while reading it, you get above all, feelings that can echo the ones felt by the protagonist entity and emotions connected to the discovery of what is around it.
A rational analysis of “Paused” is useful to reflect on the story’s contents but to appreciate it, you must let yourself be carried away by the flow of powerful images linked to a cosmic rebirth. Read it and let yourself be carried away by the wave of life! The anthology “Avatar. Contemporary Indian Science Fiction” is available on Amazon USA, UK, and Canada.
