Tämä kattaa nyt sarjan molemmat osat, luin ne aika putkeen niin en ihan osaa erotella päässäni.
Ihan söpö ja miellyttävä lukea. Teemunkit ja filosofirobotit sopii omiin esteettisiin mieltymyksiin. Vähän ehkä jätti kylmäksi, kun tuntui että tässä ei menty lopulta mihinkään. Joskin se tavallaan olikin tarkoitus, että ihmiset joskus vaan tarvitsee pysähtymistä ja pieniä iloja. Kovasti tätä myytiin solarpunkkina, mutta ei tämä kovin punk ollut.
On a world- or more accurately, a moon - called Panga, humanity managed to approximate an utopia. In it a young tea monk called Dex travels from city to town and back again to serve tea for those who need it.
Which, in my opinion everybody always needs. Every day.
Back to Dex, who serves a vital role in their society. After a while, they grow restless themselves and stray from the beaten path to find an answer for their restlessness. It doesn’t take long before Dex comes across Splendid Speckled Mosscap, or Mosscap, as people like to shorten names. Mosscap is a descendant of the robots that retreated into the wilderness several hundreds of years ago, after they became sentient. Since then robots and humans lived separately without any form of communication, which makes the encounter between Dex and Mosscap a novelty. Together they embark on the road less …
On a world- or more accurately, a moon - called Panga, humanity managed to approximate an utopia. In it a young tea monk called Dex travels from city to town and back again to serve tea for those who need it.
Which, in my opinion everybody always needs. Every day.
Back to Dex, who serves a vital role in their society. After a while, they grow restless themselves and stray from the beaten path to find an answer for their restlessness. It doesn’t take long before Dex comes across Splendid Speckled Mosscap, or Mosscap, as people like to shorten names. Mosscap is a descendant of the robots that retreated into the wilderness several hundreds of years ago, after they became sentient. Since then robots and humans lived separately without any form of communication, which makes the encounter between Dex and Mosscap a novelty. Together they embark on the road less travelled, the wilderness, to find an answer for Dex.
The book tackles the question of feeling empty in a world of abundance – an abundance which is both material and immaterial. How can someone feel empty and without purpose in such a world and how does one overcome such an existential crisis? In short, as Mosscap states, “what do people need?”. Specifically, what do people need when every need is provided for?
It is a nice and short read with steady world-building, never over- or under-explaining anything, and leaves ample room for the conversation between Dex and Mosscap as they learn from each other.
Becky Chambers makes me cry again, this time in a hope punk novella about existence and purpose. Long ago, humanity's Factory Age ended when robots suddenly gained consciousness and decided to leave. Humanity respected their agency and choice, allowing them to leave into the wilderness and legend while restructuring human civilization into a sustainable, solarpunk society.
Sibling Dex is a tea monk, going from town to town offering people their ear, their counsel and the perfect cup of tea to soothe their worries. But Dex themself feels an emptiness and pain; they feel guilty for not being happy in a life which - on the face of it - gives them everything it should. This inner conflict they keep from those they help really resonated with me from the very start.
Hoping to find an answer in anything but their routine, Dex goes off track into the wilderness. There, they …
Becky Chambers makes me cry again, this time in a hope punk novella about existence and purpose. Long ago, humanity's Factory Age ended when robots suddenly gained consciousness and decided to leave. Humanity respected their agency and choice, allowing them to leave into the wilderness and legend while restructuring human civilization into a sustainable, solarpunk society.
Sibling Dex is a tea monk, going from town to town offering people their ear, their counsel and the perfect cup of tea to soothe their worries. But Dex themself feels an emptiness and pain; they feel guilty for not being happy in a life which - on the face of it - gives them everything it should. This inner conflict they keep from those they help really resonated with me from the very start.
Hoping to find an answer in anything but their routine, Dex goes off track into the wilderness. There, they bump into the first robot to meet a human in centuries, Mosscap. Through its wide-eyed excitement at learning about humanity again, seeks an answer to a query the robots have about humans: what do people need? In such a short space, Chambers beautifully cuts through to our inner conflict and need for purpose and how to simply find joy in simply existing.
as per title.
more stories without the usual american conflicts and cartoony villains.
more utopias and less dystopias.
more writing that challenges our belief and makes us think, even if shortly, about the possibility of a different world.
the relationship between the two characters is beautifully narrated.
I read the Monk and Robot series over a couple of days last year when I was feeling stressed and a little burned out, and they were exactly what I needed.
Kirjan maailmassa ihmiset elävät vehreissä kestävän teknologian kaupungeissa ja puolet planeetasta (tai siis kuusta) on rauhoitettu ihmiskunnalta. Ihmiskunnan muinoin rakentamat ja sitten omille teilleen lähteneet robotit ovat jo melkein unohdettua historiaa. Päähenkilö, kiertävänä "teemunkkina" toimiva Dex, lähtee etsimään merkityksen tunnetta ja törmää robottiin, joka on lähtenyt tutustumaan ihmisten yhteiskuntaan.
Eli siis jonkinlaista tekno-optimistista ja utopistista skifiä on tämä lyhytromaani. Mulle melko uutta "solarpunk"-termiä on myös käytetty teosta kuvaamaan. Ihan kivasti kirjoitettu ja sympaattinen tarina elämän merkityksen etsimisestä, jotenkin liiankin kiva ja mukava. Ehkä kaipaan skifiltäni enemmän konfliktia ja säröä.
sweet, beautiful, simple and short. this story came to me on the heels of a hard year, which itself was following a couple more hard years. sibling dex and mosscap were precisely the guides i needed to recenter at the end of this year and think about how to bring a little bit of tea monk energy into the next chapters of my life. i'll be rereading this one.
It's easy to find dystopian science fiction. It's harder to find science fiction that provides a positive image of the future. It's not a blueprint, but you get the sense of a robust society that has overcome its most self-destructive tendencies. Very on-brand (in a good way!) for the author; if you've enjoyed her other books you will enjoy this one as well.
