"Unrequited Love"

Jesper Svedberg · 28 Jun 2007, 10:12 · from 2007-June.txt.gz

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From: jsvedberg at gmail.com (Jesper Svedberg)
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 12:12:42 +0200
Subject: (urth) "Unrequited Love"
In-Reply-To: <001401c7b918$067da640$15c95a42 at rclackey.stic.net>
References: <001401c7b918$067da640$15c95a42 at rclackey.stic.net>
Message-ID: <5b926a550706280312n609410d8n33e4fd1e8c240c83 at mail.gmail.com>

2007/6/28, Roy C. Lackey <rclackey at stic.net>:
>
> This is my take on the story. Some of these points have already been made
> by
> others.
>
> I think that the narrator is in fact a robot. The reference to "dwarves"
> refers to his diminutive size. He was a boy robot like Roberta, and of
> course robot children never grow up like human children. He has been
> "alive"
> so long that he can no longer pretend he is a real boy. His human
> "parents"
> (human, as indicated by the meat scraps at his home) eventually grew tired
> of the farce of having a perpetual child (thus "our" house).

I don't think he's a boy robot based on the part you quote below:

"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."

I interpret the "such 'bots" in this section as being child robots. If he
was a boy robot, he would himself have gone to school, but if he is an adult
robot he would have been created full size and fully functional and then it
would make sense for him to be curious to know what an intelligent robot
would do in first grade.

There's also the option that the narrator isn't entirely humanoid, but
instead some form of household robot or some weird kind of pet.

He could also be a lovebot, such as Gigolo Joe is in A.I. (a movie that has
quite a few things in common with this story). I kind of like this theory,
since it would fit with naming the narrator Romeo as someone suggested, and
since it would add an unspoken love situation between him and his mistress
(who perhaps loves him, but to whom he in unable requite the love, just as
the dogs are unable to with the girls).

Someone mentioned the racial issue as well, and I think that sounds very
interesting. There is a big difference between racial segregation and
robot/human segregation in that racial segregation can eventuall be blended
away ("Grey if you mean paint. Brown if you mean people.") whereas robots
and humans are forever separated. If the narrator wants children (and he
seems to like them at least) perhaps being in a sexual relationship with a
human woman would be extra off putting, due to its barrenness.

  // Jesper
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