Reading "Science Fiction World" (3) The Limits of Science and the Mystery of Humanity: Guang Yi's "Spirit Body"

Synopsis

Published in the first issue of "Science Fiction World" in 2024.
When Sun Daoxing was a child, she snuck into an office building at night and had a terrifying experience. As a college student, Daoxing learned that what she experienced was a phenomenon called a poltergeist. However, she could not explain why someone had died during the phenomenon, nor could she explain the strange phantoms that had plagued her ever since.
More than a decade after that experience, Daoxing works as an assistant for a research group investigating poltergeists. The members went into the experiment fully prepared, but everyone except Daoxing, who had prior experience, suffered physical and mental abnormalities.
Eventually, Daoxing got a job at an organization called the "Supernatural Research Foundation." There, she met Bai Ju, a former soldier with a prosthetic left eye. As it turns out, she too had been seeing phantoms in her left eye ever since a certain incident. The two head to a data center where poltergeist phenomena are said to occur to solve the mystery of the paranormal, and they attempt the experiment once again, but...

Impressions

This is not the type of science fiction that features space or artificial intelligence, so if you read it expecting that, you will be disappointed. The theme seems to be that there are things that cannot be explained even by science and technology, rather than mysteries being revealed and solved by them.
If I explain it this way, it sounds like an occult novel, but that is not necessarily the case. It is true that the theme of poltergeists is central, so there are points where it is on the verge of being an occult novel. However, I felt that this work focuses more on the mysterious nature of humans themselveswho try to find comfort by attaching such seemingly logical explanations to the unknown.
For example, the story cites the actual scientific experimental process regarding poltergeist phenomena, the thoughts of anthropologists on science and religion, and Chinese folklore known as "Yin Bing Jie Dao" (ghost soldiers walking on the road). It shows that humans have long tried to find reasons for phenomena that cannot be explained, whether scientifically or unscientifically.
Just as one feels relieved when a disease is named, perhaps the fear diminishes when a reason is attached. But since the underlying desire to control emotions through reason is rooted in the feeling of "I don't want to be scared," it is somewhat like an Ouroboros, which is strange.
The title "Spirit Body" refers to the phantoms that appear within the poltergeist phenomenon. The depiction of the spirit bodies is not so much scary as it is reminiscent of school ghost stories, and I even felt a sense of nostalgia. The experiment scene between the two is a masterpiece, but I couldn't help but smile when a spirit body appeared that looked exactly like a scene from the movie "The Shining," and it was explained immediately after that it looked just like "The Shining." I am impressed by the novel's narrative style, which includes humor amidst the seriousness.

About the Author

Guang Yi has been writing mainly short stories since publishing works online in 2013. In recent years, she seems to have developed an interest in the origins of magic and pseudoscience.
Furthermore, the characters in this work also appear in another piece published in the fourth issue of "Science Fiction World" in 2024. Whether this will become a series with loose connections or grow into a grand saga, expectations are high.