A Review of a Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
This novella began as a contracted work of solarpunk, a new genre that envisions a future where we solve ecological challenges, in particular climate change and pollution. Societies are depicted as environmentally conscious, sustainable, and emphasize protecting the environment. It is a future where industrialization is reversed to produce a sort of pastoral utopian society.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built takes place on a moon called Panga, where a tea monk named Dex travels from village to village to serve tea and listen to people’s problems. The journey is a first for Dex, who has spent the bulk of his life in the monastery. As time passes, he improves at customizing tea, listening, and once in a while dispensing some advice. During his trek, he decides to make a pilgrimage to a remote religious site deep in the forest. During his journey he meets a robot named Mosscap, who agrees to guide him to the site.
Decades before the story takes place, Panga’s economy relied on robots and AI to operate factories and the supply chain, providing goods to humanity without requiring human labor. It permitted a higher quality of life but did consume considerable resources and needed a compliant robot workforce. At some point, the sentience of the robots was recognized and it was agreed to separate robot and humanity from one another. The factories were emptied and society transitioned from consumer-based into the pastoral, environmentally friendly version Dex inhabits. Mosscap is a descendant of those robots who left the factories and went into the wild.
The novella itself does a reasonable job not weighing down the story with infodumping, despite some intricate world-building. It is well-built and didn’t present any significant gaps or issues. It did feel a little odd at times. I do not recall whether the robots were built with powerful, self-aware AIs or if evolved on its own. The evolutionary explanation avoids asking why humans would build intelligent, self-aware AI to do cheap labor for them, so let’s go with that.
The story seems to treat the sentience and independence of the robots as inevitable, or perhaps something humanity should have known would happened. As a result, Dex feels guilty for the servitude of robots from that period, which is an obvious analogue to slavery. One of his conversations feels like a white person awkwardly discussing slavery and oppression with a black person.
While reading this, I wondered about the implication of the robot exodus. Once emancipation was achieved harmony followed once there was complete separation or, segregation taken to its logical conclusion. The story hints at some hope of reestablishing relations but otherwise the solution was for one group to pack up their stuff and leave. If the author intended elements of this world to be utopian, I believe there are some questions about this particular element.
In contrast to today’s discourse on such topics, Mosscap is unconcerned about the subjugation of his robot ancestors. Only Dex seems to view it as some past wrong that he must still atone for. Mosscap has no memory of the period itself. Instead he is curious about humans, possibly seeking them out once he is done helping Dex.
While Mosscap’s take was a surprise, the rest of their dialogue felt predictable. It came across as derivative of dialogue from other stories, novels, and movies about AI. They felt borrowed from the countless other AI stories, such as episodes focusing on Commander Data in Star Trek and Sonny from I, Robot. Their discussions and budding friendship just didn’t seem to differentiate itself from so many others I have read or seen.
Source: https://nerdist.com/article/dear-alice-solarpunk-anime-short-studio-ghibli-composer/
The evolution of the robots off in nature, observing plants and animals, appears to be a utopian vision. In other words, it felt like the author loved the idea of sentient robots breaking free of their human oppressors and becoming one with nature. Wouldn’t it be nice? Better than those whiny, materialistic humans.
The social commentary on climate change and the search for meaning were a little more compelling. The story takes place in the aftermath of the industrial age. Factories were left empty and have plants steadily overtaking them as they crumble. It is a utopia based on a commitment to sustainability and reversing the activities that adversely impacted the environment and the climate. Humanity appears to have learned from past mistakes but seem to still bear a mark of shame.
While the history of Panga and the robot revolution is somewhat interesting, the other details of Panga just aren’t. The religions, people, and places all feel familiar or do not stand out. Whatever ambience the author was attempting to build with the journey through the forest to an old site just didn’t resonate with me. The people didn’t feel foreign, futuristic, or unique. In fact, the dialogue all felt distinctly modern and unremarkable.
From the start of the story, you are meant to ask why Dex chose to leave the monastery and become a tea monk on the road? What is he searching for? For readers that lack a strong commitment to any particular faith, especially those with monastic traditions, it is a little difficult to relate to Dex. What does come across is that he is unhappy with his path in life and feels a deeper commitment is needed. He hopes to find the answer at the end of his pilgrimage.
The search for meaning is the strongest theme in the book and the one that is much more subtle in its approach. The author is not providing a meaning as the “right” answer, which would’ve been heavy-handed. It is more about modern life in the comfort of a city not providing the individual with what they need most, purpose. Some philosophers and commentators may argue purpose is great but not necessarily needed to enjoy life.
A minor stylistic issue were the use of preferred pronouns. Using pronouns they/them for a person verbally or written in an email is one thing. Reading a story that is using alternate pronouns for one person but also in the plural is downright confusing. We all learned reading and English using pronouns as defined, with distinctly singular and plural forms. It’s difficult to unlearn that for the sake of one character in one novella.
In the end, the authors progressive message is transparent and likely to turn off a significant number of readers who do not like that type of commentary in their science fiction. However, it isn’t presented in a condescending or inflammatory way. The issue is that most of it isn’t subtle or clever. It was a struggle at times to maintain focus on the story because some sections felt like generic sci-fi plotting and dialogue.
It is a decent novella and worth picking up to get a good feel for the writing of Becky Chambers. It may encourage or discourage you from reading her other works. For me, I came out underwhelmed without much of an emotional or intellectual take away from it. Based on the reviews and ratings, it appears the novella does has a strong following and an appeal to large audience. I just don’t think I’m a part of it.