"It Takes Two" is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

short story by

Nicola Griffith Nicola Griffith (; born 30 September 1960) is a British-American novelist, essayist, and teacher. She has won the Washington State Book Award, Nebula Award, James Tiptree, Jr. Award, World Fantasy Award and six Lambda Literary Awards. Persona ...

, about

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

and

neurochemistry Neurochemistry is the study of chemicals, including neurotransmitters and other molecules such as psychopharmaceuticals and neuropeptides, that control and influence the physiology of the nervous system. This particular field within neuroscience e ...

. It was first published in the anthology ''Eclipse Three'', in 2009.

Synopsis

After a businesswoman falls in love with a dancer, they discover that they were both participants in an experiment.

Reception

"It Takes Two" was a finalist for the 2010

Hugo Award for Best Novelette The Hugo Award for Best Novelette is one of the Hugo Awards given each year for science fiction or fantasy stories published or translated into English during the previous calendar year. The novelette award is available for works of fiction of ...

.2010 Hugo Award Nominees
at TheHugoAwards.org; retrieved February 10, 2019 The ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' called it "neatly constructed, intellectually challenging and smoothly written", and described its theme as "(h)ow much control should our bosses have over us?"Many Angles on the Future
by Martin Morse Wooster; published July 23, 2010; retrieved February 10, 2019 At ''

Strange Horizons ''Strange Horizons'' is an online speculative fiction magazine. It also features speculative poetry and nonfiction in every issue, including reviews, essays, interviews, and roundtables. History and profile It was launched in September 2000, and ...

'',

Abigail Nussbaum The Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer is the Hugo Award given each year for writers of works related to science fiction or fantasy which appeared in low- or non-paying publications such as semiprozines or fanzines or in generally available electro ...

felt that the story was structurally flawed, but nonetheless "brilliant" for noting that if true love can be chemically induced, then it can also be

commodified Within a capitalist economic system, commodification is the transformation of things such as goods, services, ideas, nature, personal information, people or animals into objects of trade or commodities.For animals"United Nations Commodity Trad ...

; Nussbaum further lauded Griffith for not concealing "the fact that Susanna he dancerhas sold herself in the most profound way possible, and that Cody he businesswomanhas bought her", concluding that the story is "simultaneously satisfying and horrifying" due to the "tension between romance and revulsion".2009 short fiction
by

, at ''

''; published March 8, 2010; retrieved February 10, 2019

References

External links

Text of the story
at ''

Clarkesworld ''Clarkesworld Magazine'' (ISSN 1937-7843) is an American online fantasy and science fiction magazine. It released its first issue October 1, 2006 and has maintained a regular monthly schedule since, publishing fiction by authors such as Elizabet ...

'' 2009 short stories Science fiction short stories LGBT speculative fiction 2000s LGBT literature LGBT short stories {{LGBT-fiction-stub