A Psalm for the Wild-Built

A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers reminded me a little bit of The Velveteen Rabbit. Not that there were any robots in the Velveteen Rabbit. I remember in college my Philosophy of Education professor discussing existentialism. And then he launched into a reading of The Velveteen Rabbit as an example of existentialism.

This story takes place on a world where robots became self-aware and decided that they did not want to be slaves to humanity anymore. The humans accepted this and the robots were given territory of their own, free from human interference. This all happened 200 years before our story takes place. Our protagonist is Dex (they/them) who is a monk. They make their living travelling a circuit of villages offering comfort and tea to those in need. At one point they read about an abandoned hermitage in the mountains and they decide to drop everything and go visit this site. The road into the mountains is not maintained and the going gets rougher. One night a robot walks into camp. Dex is shocked. No human has seen a robot for 200 years. It turns out that the robots were getting curious how the humans were getting along, and this particular robot named Mosscap, volunteered to find out.

Mosscap is sometimes child-like in his eagerness to learn all things human. Dex, however, is wary of the robot. This is not in his comfort zone. Dex just wants to get on with their self-imposed mission to find the hermitage. Alone.

Why does the monk want to find this hermitage? Dex doesn’t really know. They wants to find their purpose, seem desperate to find their purpose. The robot is not interested in purpose. It is “wild-built” that is, it is not one of the original robots from 200 years past but was synthesized from parts of other robots. This is the norm among the robots. Dex asks why they don’t just repair themselves instead of making new robots. If they repaired themselves, the robots would be functionally immortal. Mosscap tells him that is not the way of nature. It is interesting that of the two of them, it is the robot who is the philosopher. The monk is having trouble finding meaning in his life. The relationship between Dex and Mosscap is the center of the story. It is Dex, whose vocation is comforting other people, who finds himself in need of comfort. Mosscap is as instructive as The Velveteen Rabbit. You wouldn’t expect a children’s story to teach existentialism, nor would Dex expect a robot to give lessons on the meaning of life.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built won this year’s Hugo award for best novella. Please don’t be scared off by my use of the word “existentialism.” You do not have to know anything about existentialism or any other philosophical construct to enjoy this story. You can just read it for the good, heartwarming story that it is.

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