ABSTRACT
The fi rst paradox relates to the uncomfortable discourse surrounding technology in Young SF, as established in previous chapters. When discussing representations of technology and attitudes towards it in Young SF, cloning is a particularly complex issue. Clones are created by technology, and are therefore embodiments of it; however, they are also people, and in the vast majority of the novels discussed in this chapter, young clones are the protagonists. While other forms of technology featured in previous chapters are perceived by the authors as external to the human and are often depicted as dehumanising as part of a technophobic agenda, cloning is embedded within the human body (or rather a post-human body) and as such clones are harder to negate or demonise. In order to settle this paradox, many authors attempt to differentiate between the technology of cloning and the attitude towards its product-the clone. This is often achieved by defi ning the ‘human’ and applying the defi nition to the clones as that which transcends their clone-ness.
