An inquiry into fiction's response to posthumanism must begin with Mary Shelley's classic work Frankenstein. A lot of people think they know what this book is about, but if you haven't read it, you don't really know. The best example of enduring dystopic fiction is definitely Aldous Huxley's Brave New World. It is remarkably relevant today, especially in the discussion of germline genetic engineering. If you want to read a wide selection of excerpts chosen by the president's council on bioethics (Leon Kass was chairman at the time), read the anthology Being Human. You can find Hawthorne's story "The Birthmark" in this anthology. My favorite contemporary vision of the world that genetic engineering may bring us is Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.
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