Yeah, same here. It definitely has some dark undertones.<br><br>I get the following out of it so far (SPOILERS AHEAD):<br><br>- Robots are at the same time perfect (and more convenient), but not as good as the real thing.
<br><br>- Real is messy, imperfect, inconvenient, and is being slowly exterminated for it.<br><br>- I think there's a contrast of impurity/purity implied there, too. Roberta teaches Julianne. Roberta is blond (pure), while Julianne is brunette (impure) (according to some folklore - not sure where I'm getting that, maybe pulpy werewolf stories).
<br><br>- Roberta the robot girl pities Robber the robot dog, and through this we get to see her self pity. At the same time she pities him, she loves him. Maybe she loves him because he is like her, or because she empathizes with him. And maybe her understanding is why he loves her (as shown by his attempts to get back to her - I'd like to think it's because she understands and values him, and not just because they're both robots).
<br><br>- I think Julianne kills Rover the real dog.... At least that's what the narrator wants us to think, without coming out and saying it.<br><br>- Maybe the narrator does, but I don't think so. There's the repeated hedge imagery when Rover comes into his yard and when the dog dies, but I think it more likely that the narrator is some incarnation of death.... Or something. His talk at the beginning about the inevitability of death, his fascination with the girls, his attempt at proving the value of living things through his dog-swapping experiment, and his collection of the dead dog at the end lead me in that direction. As a side note, I thought "penetrated" was an odd word choice in the following sentence: "Roberta's puppy had penetrated the hedge that separates the Robinson's back yard from our own." With the screaming in the same paragraph, it could take on a violent or sinister quality like what Michael Swanwick says of "A Solar Labyrinth".
<br><br>- A question that popped out at me while I was reading: Who is the "our" in the "our own" in the sentence quoted above?<br><br>- The narrator fixates on innocence. He mentions it when he talks about the girls and baby dogs/animals. There may be parallels between his relationships to the girls and their relationships to the dogs.
<br><br>- Some other things I noticed: Both the narrator and Roberta tried to teach. Robots, children, and small animals share the quality of innocence, and the narrator definitely does not (or believes he does not). <br>
<br>Just a bunch of bits and pieces. That's what I often end up with at the end of a first reading of Gene Wolfe, however. Not quite enough to put it all together, yet. Maybe it'll help move the discussion along, though!
<br><br>--Joel<br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 6/26/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Dan'l Danehy-Oakes</b> <<a href="mailto:danldo@gmail.com">danldo@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Just read it. It looks like one of those stories Wolfe does occasionally<br>that seem kind of pointless at first and come back to whack you later.<br>This one hasn't come back to whack me yet, but I feel it in there trying
<br>to figure itself out.<br><br>On 6/26/07, Matthew Keeley <<a href="mailto:matthew.keeley.1@gmail.com">matthew.keeley.1@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>> Hi,<br>><br>> <a href="http://Subterraneanpress.com">Subterraneanpress.com
</a> just posted a new Wolfe story. Should be an<br>> interesting read. Does anyone know if Wolfe plans to publish any books with<br>> Subterranean? It's a great small press, and I wouldn't mind seeing a Wolfe
<br>> volume from them.<br>><br>> -Matt<br>><br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Urth Mailing List<br>> To post, write <a href="mailto:urth@urth.net">urth@urth.net</a><br>> Subscription/information:
<a href="http://www.urth.net">http://www.urth.net</a><br>><br><br><br>--<br>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes, writer, trainer, bon vivant<br>-----<br><a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer">http://www.livejournal.com/users/sturgeonslawyer
</a><br><a href="http://www.danehyoakes.com">http://www.danehyoakes.com</a><br>Soon, where Toon Town once stood will be a string of gas stations,<br>inexpensive motels, restaurants that serve rapidly prepared food. Tire<br>
salons, automobile dealerships and wonderful, wonderful billboards<br>reaching as far as the eye can see. My God, it'll be beautiful.<br>_______________________________________________<br>Urth Mailing List<br>To post, write
<a href="mailto:urth@urth.net">urth@urth.net</a><br>Subscription/information: <a href="http://www.urth.net">http://www.urth.net</a><br></blockquote></div><br>