At what point could this be deemed conscious behaviour? Sceptics point to the plants’ obvious lack of brains – yet one cognitive scientist involved in the new consciousness declaration pointed out that a cerebral cortex may not be necessary for simple forms of consciousness, opening the possibility of moving away from brain-centric definitions. Perhaps plants have no brain because their lifestyle doesn’t require one. They evolved to thrive while rooted in place. Without the need to move quickly across long distances, there may have been no need for a highly portable command centre. Like an octopus, which has fairly autonomous neurons distributed throughout each of its limbs, a plant might be more like a self-aware system than a consolidated processing centre.
This is an impressive debut novel from a journalist whose gripping story is about an ambitious reporter working for the fictional Irish Sentinel in 1968.
Doggedly pursuing a mystery following the finding of the remains of a missing actress called Julia Bridges, Nicoletta Sarto is a complex young woman who, while having her eye on the prize, is somewhat stymied in her personal life.
There is no one way to be Bolivian just as there is no one way to write a short story. In this light, the most important question is not “What is Bolivian literature?” but “What could Bolivian literature be?”
Judging by the futuristic and genre-bending stories in Colanzi’s third collection, You Glow in the Dark, this question of possibility looms large in her mind too.
Like an archivist, she straddles past and future, shaping these memories into a tale of grit and girlhood that at once disturbs, resonates and warns.