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I think it's a really good short short-story. As already pointed out, there<br />
seems to be a distinct possibility that the narrator is him-, her- or itself<br />
a robot. The situation on "his" world is paradoxical. It is sterile because<br />
humans have opted for the mechanical rather than the biological, but<br />
introducing segregation between humans and machines turns out not to be the<br />
answer to solving the problem. It introduces pain and sorrow without solving<br />
the preference. This seems to be in part because the dogs retain a natural<br />
preference for their own kind which humans have lost. The girls, in<br />
contrast, prefer their opposites. The robot girl is made miserable by the<br />
way the robot dog shows her her own lack of humanness while the human girl<br />
and her family are burdened by the biological inconveniences of a real dog.<br />
<br />
It's a sad little tale, but brilliantly told and full of unexplainedly<br />
sinister notes and references. The narrator has from the start a slightly<br />
devilish quality that isn't quite substantiated by the apparent facts of the<br />
story. He begins with references to devils hauling sinners off to hell and<br />
acts and speaks throughout like a stalker or a paedophile, though nothing<br />
that he does actually justifies this impression. He's interfering and<br />
unwise, that's all. But maybe that's enough, and maybe that's the - or a -<br />
point of the story. If you're miserable and disatisfied, it's easy to spread<br />
your unhappiness to others. The narrator lives, by his own description, in a<br />
machine paradise and he's the snake in the garden introducing machine<br />
unhappiness.<br />
<br />
Maybe he really is a robot Satan, or at least a robot Satan analogue?<br />
<br />
Nigel<br />
<br />
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