New Wolfe Story at Subterranean Press

Daniel D Jones · 26 Jun 2007, 23:29 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: ddjones at riddlemaster.org (Daniel D Jones)
Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 19:29:34 -0400
Subject: (urth) New Wolfe Story at Subterranean Press
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On Tuesday 26 June 2007 17:13, Matthew King wrote:
> > "our" in the "our own" in the sentence quoted above?
>
> And why does the narrator give himself the role of the evil dwarf in
> his imagining of a fecund human past?

The one that popped out at me is whether the narrator is robot or human.  Has 
he, perhaps, managed to infect Roberta with his own disgust at his own 
nature? 

"...Either the Robinsons could not have a child of their own, or were 
unwilling to undertake the travail and expense of a real child. I could not?I 
do not?blame them in the least. But I wondered, because I have never had much 
to do with such ?bots, about her schooling..."  What's the significance of 
the word "such" in that sentence?  Has he, perhaps, had "much to do" with 
other types of 'bots?  

"My kind had built a paradise, of which I was a part. A paradise for machines, 
in which the human race, though welcome, could not and did not thrive..."  
What is his kind?  Did machines build the paradise?  Is he part of he 
paradise for machines because he's a machine himself?  When he speaks of the 
human race not thriving, is he speaking as a member of that race - or as an 
observer outside the race?

Why is Roberta, the robot girl, the center of the story rather than Julianne, 
the human girl?  Early in the story, he says "...poor simple little beings 
whose torment I began...."  Who's he referring to here?  The two girls?  Or 
the two robots, one in human form, one in canine?

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