The Gatekeeper/s

Arturina Betta Michela

Description

The Gatekeeper/s blends realism and idealism in a novel way. The style is also unusual in that it moves from rhetorical dialogue to emphatic storytelling. The story is set against a legal system based on seeking consent between parties involved in a negotiation, rather than regarding one party wrong and the other right, as in the old legal system. Rhetoricians are the ones expected to obtain consent from people and they act on behalf of GAIC (Global Authority for Informed Consent) and its negotiators. The main rhetorician is Toni Forti. Achilles is the main negotiator. There are two groups of children interacting with GAIC. In the first part of the story, three children separately challenge the new informed consent to achieve self-determination. In the second part of the story, four children use the system to achieve justice.

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528961752
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Gatekeeper/s
Michela Arturina Betta
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-10-30
The Gatekeeper/s About the Author About the Book Copyright © Michela Arturina Betta (2019) Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 The Other Gatekeepers Chapter I Chapter 2
About the Author
Michela Arturina Betta was born in Italy. She went to school in Riva del Garda and to university in Milan and Frankfurt. Here she completed her studies and received her PhD in philosophy. Afterward, she travelled to Melbourne where she worked as an academic for several years. In 2018, she moved to Stockholm where she is currently living. She has written several fiction books in Italian and English.
About the Book
The Gatekeeper/s blends realism and idealism in a novel way. The style is also unusual in that it moves from rhetorical dialogue to emphatic storytelling. The story is set against a legal system based on seeking consent between parties involved in a negotiation, rather than regarding one party wrong and the other right, as in the old legal system. Rhetoricians are the ones expected to obtain consent from people and they act on behalf of GAIC (Global Authority for Informed Consent) and its negotiators. The main rhetorician is Toni Forti. Achilles is the main negotiator. There are two groups of children interacting with GAIC. In the first part of the story, three children separately challenge the new informed consent to achieve self-determination. In the second part of the story, four children use the system to achieve justice.
Copyright © Michela Arturina Betta (2019)
The right of Michela Arturina Betta to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528916981 (Paperback)
ISBN 9781528961752 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Chapter 1
Achilles had studied genetics, law and art history. Not that drawing and painting were strengths of his, but he had always found great inspiration in artists. He was a lover of the natural sciences and he believed that the new genetics was on the verge of making great breakthroughs. He chose law because he believed in justice. But while the study of arts and genetics gave him enormous satisfaction, he came to increasingly dislike jurisprudence. It was not made for hope. His mother would smile whenever she heard him moaning and groaning when going through his learning material.
“I’ve never read anything as boring as law books,” he would say in moments of desperation, tossing the books he was holding into the first empty corner he came across.
“I warned you that you might end up disappointed. The way codes are created is such that they do not always solve problems; hm, they might even complicate them.”
“What do you suggest? Is there an alternative to the legal system?” asked Achilles, surprised.
“Ah, I don’t know. I think, I don’t judge.”
“You can’t survive without laws. They help us maintain order,” insisted Achilles.
His mother shook her head, “Relationships, business, research, the economy, sex, married life—we handed over all aspects of human existence to the law and we got back rules. Do you really think that’s a sign of progress?”
“There are no alternatives.”
“Exactly,” replied his mother. “When there are no alternatives, we put up with the lesser of two evils.”
“You’re certainly not helping me much. You know that I am struggling with this part of my degree and yet you’re doing nothing to help me get through it.”
“Very well, I’ll hold back from expressing my opinion until you’ve finished your studies,” she said.
And so it was. From that day on, his mother ceased talking about the inadequacies of the legal system and limited herself to putting aside for him critical articles that she came across in the special interest journals and magazines she read. But that sense of inadequacy never left Achilles until he had completed his studies. The day he went to collect his law degree he stated his decision clearly.
“I’m never going to work in this field.”
His mother sighed at hearing him speak this way.
“Never say never,” she would then say, “because life, especially at your age, is full of surprises.”
“I’ll become an art critic and scientific consultant. I think that’s a happy combination. What do you think, Mum?”
“Yes, brilliant idea. But to be honest, I expected you to enrol in a doctorate, at least in one of those three disciplines.”
“I’m thinking about it. There’s a doctoral program being offered at our university and I think I might enrol.”
“What does it involve?”
“Well, they have created a faculty by combining various disciplines such as logic, the natural sciences and practical technologies. It’s called Faculty of Interdisciplinarity and it seems that one of the doctoral programmes brings together arts and genetics; my favourite areas of knowledge, leading to a new profession called art genomics. What do you think?”
“Um… Sounds interesting.”
His mother paused, then asked for more information about art genomics.
“Well, it’s that area of the new genetics that helps create individually tailored, disease-specific cures: cures for people according to their needs and physiological features. To do so geneticists must be like fashion designers; they have to create beautiful genetic solutions for each body. No more medicines administered haphazardly or by guesswork, just as in the past when a pill was prescribed indiscriminately to millions of people without taking account of possible side effects. In the past, people probably died more as a result of these side effects than the diseases that the drugs were meant to cure.”
“And in practical terms what are you hoping to achieve in this field?”
“I don’t know for sure yet but it’s clear that the art genomicist will be required to keep squarely focused and administer cures and products on the basis of individuals’ physical abilities and their budgets.”
“Those with money will be able to get a cure tailor-made to their needs then.”
“Well, maybe the first tailor-made cures will be expensive, but later they will undoubtedly be offered to everyone at acceptable prices, or at least I hope so.” Achilles’ voice sounded a little strained, as if what he had just said offended him.
He saw his mother look at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” she answered, amused. Then she thought that although her son might say that he did not love things legal, he always ended up reacting with a certain annoyance when he was confronted with inequality or potential inequality.
Even Achilles had detected a note of irritation in his response. It was not the first time that he felt a sort of irascibility when discussions turned to the equitable distribution of resources. Every time this happened, his memory revived his time as a student. He could hear the voice of his professor when she reminded her students that a negotiator must never be ruled by emotions, personal values, self-interest or politics.
“Justice begins in the mind of the negotiator,” she always said in a peremptory tone, almost as if to imprint those words in the psyche of her students.
Only one week had passed since graduation. For some strange reason, it felt like months.
Achilles looked at his mother, “I’ve been thinking more about the law than my other interests. Strange, isn’t it?”
“I’ve noticed. Why so?”
“I don’t know. At a rational level, I find I’m not interested in the legal profession. Me, I want to create, not regulate.”
He said it quickly, as if wanting to free himself from something too big and new that required thought. Achilles did not want to think; he did not want to be debating with himself. He had decided not to deal with codes and laws. And that’s how it’ll be, he thought.
His resolution was soon to be challenged. One day, his Uncle William unexpectedly paid them a visit to celebrate his nephew’s graduation.
“Down at the GDPP office they’re looking for new people to hire, especially in areas like genetics, informatics, neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Why don’t you put your name forward?” The GDPP abbreviation stood for Global Director of Public Prosecution.
Uncle William’s suggestion caught Achilles a little by surprise.
“I wanted to enrol in a doctoral programme,” he responded. “I couldn’t do it if I started working.”
His uncle asked him what type of research he was intending to carry out, and after Achilles revealed his plans, his uncle nodded approvingly.
“You’d be in just the right place in terms of your area of knowledge. And anyway it wouldn’t be a problem working and studying for your doctorate at the same time. You would join one of their most important agencies, the one about informed consent.”
His uncle’s enthusiasm was overwhelming. Achilles saw his mother smile; surely she was thinking back to their recent conversation. In the meantime, his uncle continued describing the opportunities that could present themselves to him, and then also said that only promising young people could join the office of the Global Authority for Informed Consent, often called the GAIC.
“Furthermore,” added his uncle, “it’s time to modernise a profession that is starting to smell old and decrepit, and to bring new knowledge, and perhaps also to redefine the role and the place of the law from a scientific perspective.”
Achilles did not respond. He reste