TG-30: Body by Body’s Tales from Deep Inside the Internet [NSFW]

by Whitney Kimball on May 23, 2013 e-books

No way, I’ve become…I’ve become a subway seat…I’ve become public transportation! I’m sad, and crying (if that’s even possible), when two stops later, a beautiful woman with a huge ass walks in and sits down right on top of me. Oh wow, maybe this isn’t so bad after all!! Mmmm. Right then and there she farted right on my face…Maybe I spoke too soon!!!! :/

This is a typical excerpt from my latest download, Body by Body’s “TG-30,” from Klausgallery.net’s new series Klaus_e-books, edited by Brian Droitcour. The title refers to thirty transgender (TG) fantasy fiction mini-stories, scrupulously paced with advertorial collage, icons, and GIFs. It’s a page-turner.

“TG-30” covers the bases: man-to-woman, dog-to-man, zombie-to-girl. The punctuation is so casual enough to double as actual Internet fiction. “Buddy rubbed his now human nose against Mary Ann’s neck affectionately,” writes Body by Body. “’Omg, I’m so glad you’re a human now!’ Mary Ann said to herself.”

While sexy, many of the gender (or species) swap scenarios revel more deeply in identity-sharing, where, after some playful protest, characters dive into their own dreamlike logic. Some are more cathartic; a daughter accepts her dad as a hot Latina, and a down-and-out stripper gives birth to a baby man who loves her. As adult fiction goes, the stories offer plenty of variety to keep you reading (I did it in one sitting).

What sets “TG-30” apart from the TG fantasy fiction board TG Storytime (equally varied and engrossing) is its moments which take stock of what we’ve just read. TG’s often happen as a result of uploads, downloads, or hacks, and the computer becomes a tool for a sort of experience exchange. Those stories are often followed by the image of a small nucleus evoking the iTunes “Genius” option. The nucleus, a symbol for a computer’s ability to pre-empt taste, contains a tiny heart: Mac and self are one. (In that way, there’s an affinity with another standalone, Ryan Trecartin’s work process documentation in his magazine spread “Web 1.0.”)

For the most part, characters seem fine with being enveloped. Toward the middle of the book, we come close to breaking the cycle, but then quickly fall back into complacence. Jessica surveys the brands in a health food store, which she heard about on the Internet:

In the current state of the decay of our societies, it is necessary to re-invest in a certain number of lost practices. But faced with the kind of panic that seizes people faced with the abyss, one tries to reassure themselves with the return to pseudo-rural traditions, which would be a possible refuge for quality in agricultural products, whereas in reality one only liberates the inventiveness of advertising to rehabilitate the same industrial shit.

Jessica, still, was a sucker for designer water.

What could be more Internet? Half-remembering some protest, and diving in anyway. “TG-30” doesn’t moralize. It even lets you get off on it.

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