Ohmhole by Tyler Hayden

Imagine a not-so-distant future in which everyone is HIV+ and, sooner or later, ends up in a state-operated hospice dying of AIDS. In a broken socio-economic order, governments have been reduced to a single function: extending the lives of their citizens with anti-retroviral treatment (ART) drugs. Meanwhile, rumours have coalesced into a widespread belief in the existence of a cure for HIV that is also exchanged through bodily fluids. Sex— casual, friendly or indifferent in all its forms—offers a possible cure. Consequently, genders, sexuality and relationships have been altered drastically. Elliott lies in the hospice among the dying, his only remaining purpose: to serve as a subject for sociological and psychological research, research that is conducted via a nano-tech device to which the patient is wired. The device, called a Spade, has a two-fold purpose: to read and manifest Elliott's thoughts, along with bits of cultural detritus, into his room, and to produce a tranquilizing effect on the patient.

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Praise for Ohmhole:

“Here at last is the swift hard kick in the pants CanLit so badly needs.” —Robert Majzels

“Tyler Hayden has written a world that is as thrilling as it is nightmarish, a dystopia where almost everyone is suffering from the same terminal illness that may or may not have a cure, where government is everywhere and nowhere. His language is meditative, sensual, and always engrossing—the work absolutely original and alarmingly prescient. Ohmhole troubles at the same time that it illuminates. Tyler Hayden is a wonderful new talent.” —Suzette Mayr

“In Ohmhole, Tyler Hayden has extruded the inner muck of language into entirely new cavities. I insist this must be done from now on.” —Tony Burgess

Reviews:

“Peter Darbyshire and Douglas Coupland meets Daniel Allen Cox and Tao Lin, minus any sort of attention to character or the construction of a coherent narrative: society run selfishly amuck through a disaffected, repetitive, come-soaked fuckscape.” —Backlisted

“Hayden clearly possesses a strong poetic talent.” —Broken Pencil

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Tyler Hayden was born and lives in Calgary, Alberta, where he writes and teaches. He recently completed an MA in English at the University of Calgary.