O Human Star by Blue Delliquanti tells the story of Alastair “Al” Sterling, a prodigious engineer and pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence. After a sudden and tragic death, Al wakes up 16 years later in a completely synthetic body, unsure of who’s behind it. To understand more, Al reconnects with former business partner and lover Brendan Pinsky, who has taken the development of artificial intelligence far beyond Al’s imagination as there are now fully synthetic people with their own selfhood, agency, and protected rights. Al also meets Brendan’s daughter Sulla, an excitable and gifted synthetic teenager who’s base code is Al himself. Al is suddenly confronted with the truth he kept so deeply hidden from others, while still trapped in a body that never really felt comfortable.
How does the synthetic experience in the story resonate with the trans experience?
It’s safe to say that the theme of “identity” lies at the core of O Human Star. Beyond the discussion of “who am I?”, the story also tackles the question of “what makes me who I am?” This questioning is most evident with Sulla and Al, although in seemingly different ways at least at first. While Al struggles with his unrequested new lease on life as a synthetic being, Sulla is starting to reach out to organic people and build connections. Their journeys start at the other’s end goal, in a way. What their journeys have in common is the agency of (re)building their own identity. They are both aware that the benefit and privilege of being synthetic is the fact that the intangible essence of their identity is encased in a malleable body. Their body is theirs to change, which is what Al seems to quickly learn. He sees that, for society at this point in time, and for synthetic people in particular, identity is no longer tethered to bodily determination.
Credit: Blue Delliquanti
A six-panel page.
First panel: Sulla hands Al a bag labeled as SYN as a distracted Al looks nervously over his shoulder.
Al: They’re looking at me. Every robot in here has tried looking at me at least once. Do they recognize me?
Sulla: I wouldn’t worry about it. They can tell your synthetic. I don’t think they know any more than that.
Second panel: A close-up of Sulla pulling a cookie out of her own bag.
Al (off-panel): They can?
Sulla: Well, yeah. You know, Mr. Sterling, we’re both really lucky.
Third panel: A close-up of Sulla holding a cookie in her hand as she talks to Al.
Sulla: There’s a lot you can change about yourself when you’re synthetic. There’s this kind of freedom that organic people don’t really have from the start. You can look however you want. Whatever suits you best.
Fourth panel: A close-up of the café employee taking a cookie out of a case with a pair of tongs. She has visibly synthetic arms and wire-like hair styled as dreadlocks. The top half of her face is styled as a visor, with lines over her cheeks.
Sulla (off-panel): But to look human — passably human, I mean — takes technology that’s still super-duper expensive. I can look the way I want to look because, well, Brendan. And you... who knows? But most of the others can’t really afford to look like us yet.
Fifth panel: A close-up of Sulla’s arms as they lie on the table. They are completely smooth, no hint of synthetic materials or build.
Sulla: Synthetic people, we can spot each other. We know what to look for. But most organic people would probably never realize there was anything that made me different from any other girl.
Sixth panel: A close-up of Sulla’s profiled face, looking solemn.
Sulla: And I guess there’s a kind of freedom in that, too.
Regardless of this plasticity, achieving one’s intended outward presentation is not free of obstacles, sadly. As Sulla points out, she and Al are extremely privileged due to Brendan’s resources. Other synthetic people, those who don’t have the sufficient means or connections, may not be able to ever afford their dream bodies. It is a clear analogy of the real-life difficulties of transitioning. Expensive costs and unsupportive healthcare systems keep many people in a body that they are not comfortable in. It is important not to overgeneralize, though, which is not to say that O Human Star does anything of the sort. As in real-life, in the story not all synthetic people desire to transition into an organic-passing body like Sulla’s or Al’s. As Sulla points out, it’s about the freedom to look however one wants to look. While passing as female and human is important for Sulla, it is implied that not all synthetic people have this in mind because it is not who they are.
Credit: Blue Delliquanti
A five-panel page.
First panel: Al and Sulla are sitting across from each other. Sulla is looking up excitedly.
Al: You know, I never would have guessed. You pass really well.
Sulla: For real?
Al: Yeah. If it weren’t for the flying, you’d look positively human.
Second panel: A close-up of Sulla, looking a little embarrassed.
Sulla: I — Oh, human. Oh. Well, Brendan’s been working on me for so long that I guess he’s made me look... convincing.
Third panel: A close-up of Al, with a reassuring look on his face.
Al: Well, it works. You could pass for any regular sixteen-year-old girl I’ve ever seen.
Fourth panel: A close-up of Sulla, avoiding contact with Al with a hint of pride in her smile.
Sulla: Fifteen
Fifth panel: Sulla is holding Al’s hand to her face, surprised. Al is completely calm.
Sulla: Hey, your hand! How’d that cut get there?
Al: Huh? Oh. I just wanted to see what it looked like, you know, underneath.
Towards the end of his first day in his new body, Al decides to look under the hood to see how his body works. While at first this can be chalked up to engineering curiosity, it is much more symbolic upon rereading. The idea is depicted much more literally in a dream Al later has where a Brendan-like figure rips Al’s skin off demanding to see his real self. It is a violent and deeply disturbing dream that Al wakes up from in shock, yet it depicts Al’s dilemma with poignant accuracy. While in theory Al understands that he has agency over his body, especially now that he’s synthetic, in practice the expectations of others keep him trapped. His reputation and Brendan’s expectations force him into a traditionally male role. Colonel Lee, for instance, is primarily interested in Al because of his perceived gender, and he condescendingly overlooks Brendan and the other engineers at first for not being traditionally masculine men or men at all. Similarly, as a gay man, Brendan is romantically interested in Al because of his maleness, which in turn makes Al feel like a liar because he’s not a man. Overall, Al’s literal examination of his inner body is representative of the symbolic exploration of his true self. Sulla is proof enough that it’s there but encumbered with a lifetime of expectations.