The Roberts | |||||
Michael Blumlein | |||||
Tachyon, 94 pages | |||||
A review by Seamus Sweeney
The Roberts is an impressive novella (originally published in the July 2008 issue of Fantasy and
Science Fiction) packing an emotional as well as intellectual punch which serves as an example of how
speculative ideas and approaches can enhance rather than detract from the emotional core of a story. It tells,
in clean straightforward prose, the story of Robert Fairchild, an architect of global renown; his
innovative career, personal isolation, the solution he finds to the search for love, and the unexpected
consequences of that solution.
Michael Blumlein begins with Fairchild, "first and only child of June and Lawrence, warm and cozy in his
mother's womb. He was two weeks overdue at birth, as though reluctant to leave that precious corpuscular,
sharply scented, deeply calming place -- determined, as it were, to remain attached." From this opening themes
of attachment, rootedness, loneliness and companionship echo through the prose. Robert's father, "a physicist,
an academic devoted to his work, highly respected by his colleagues and rarely at home," is the precursor
of the elder Robert, an architect whose very success seems to isolate him.
Robert initially seems set to follow his father's path even more directly by studying mathematics in
college. However halfway through, he abandons "the queen of sciences" for art -- painting, then
sculpture. But "his work was never more than mediocre; some of it, by any standard, his own included, was
out and out ugly. And these were not the days when ugly was beautiful." Robert literally runs into an
architecture student called Claire, falls in love, and begins on his architectural career. From
Claire "he learned... how sweet and vivifying love could be... she invigorated him and inspired his earliest
work." Despite this, she leaves "citing his self-centredness and preference for work over her... he had poured
his love for her into his work, to a fault, neglecting the real live person." After this, he loses one eye
in a freak accident.
Again, the themes of love versus work, love expressed through work, the love of work, the work of love are
introduced. Up to now, there have not been any explicit science-fictional elements. They begin to accrue to
the story with Robert's meeting Julian Taborz, a bioengeering entrepreneur. Their collaboration ultimately
leads to the creation of Pakki-Flex, a "living skin" or more specifically a "bio-epidermic membrane applied
to a matrix of polycarbon activating thread... it was flexible, it was durable, but its biggest selling point
was that it mended itself." Living cells are part of the material: "living cells were needed for it to work
its magic. The immunocompetence of these cells, the mechanism by which they protected themselves from harm
and guarded the surrounding extra-cellular environment, had been enhanced." What's more, the Pakki-Flex
structures reflect the emotions of their residents. A dream building material if ever there was one.
A few paragraphs later we read that "the first lawsuit was settled out of court." Pakki-Flex, like skin itself,
turns out to be prone to a range of auto-immune and allergic phenomena; the material goes from being Robert's
signature innovation to Fairchild's folly, the object of the schadenfreude of his peers. Again Robert is
in the slough of despond, lonely, embittered and isolated. The search for love, and increasingly desperate
reflections on why he lives with a lack of love, begins to dominate. Finally he meets Julian and discusses his dilemma.
Julian has "followed Robert's decline with both sympathy and chagrin, offering various well-meaning and
sometimes outlandish pieces of advice culled from chat rooms, blogs, immersible realities and the like,
where he got most of his information, including information about the opposite sex. Women themselves, in the
flesh, were more of a mystery to him. But all mysteries, sooner or later, yielded to science and
technology. This he firmly believed. And science and technology were nothing if not concrete.
Julian tells Robert that he "knows a guy", a parthenogeneticist, who can help the initially horrified
Robert pursue what could be called the Bride of Frankenstein solution to loneliness. Overcoming his initial
scruples (in the world of the novel, "the process succeeded much more often than not. Though there were
no guarantees") Robert embraces the process, leading to the creation of a bespoke woman, Grace. Beautiful,
compassionate, in every way lovely, Grace provides Robert with the secure foundation and inspiration
for him once again to scale the heights of his profession. And so a cycle begins again, and a tale of
artificial humanity and cloning ensues with manifold ironies and ramifications.
The emotional impact in day-to-day life of speculative fiction concepts is a fertile and, in my view,
under-utilised source of inspiration. Michael Blumlein has provided a model with this text that haunts
the reader far beyond the brief hour or two required to read it.
Seamus Sweeney is a freelance writer and medical graduate from Ireland. He has written stories and other pieces for the website Nthposition.com and other publications. He is the winner of the 2010 Molly Keane Prize. He has also written academic articles as Seamus Mac Suibhne. |
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