Here's why you shouldn't swear at a robot...
Blazing Reader,
This is one of my favourite moments from my forthcoming novella, All the Humans Are Sleeping. It begins in 2041, when the entire human race (at least, those who survive World War III) are placed in "human interface pods" and connected to a virtual "metaverse." Three years later, Peter Stevens is the first human to disconnect. The following scene takes place a few weeks after he has been removed from his pod and is being rehabilitated by a robot:
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His mind must still be confused, the robot decided as it slowly bent Mr. Stevens' left leg. The human was lying on his back, yelling obscene curses which contained little logic:
Clearly, a robot bore no resemblance to excrement. Nor did a robot have genitals with which to inflict fornication upon itself. Domestico did concede that a robot had some allegorical similarities to an ass. The word robot comes from a Slavic root referring to forced labour. Both the donkey and the robot had been forced to fulfill the labour of men.
After extending Mr. Stevens’ right leg for the fiftieth time, Domestico set it down and moved to his skinny right arm. Domestico had no intentions of inflicting unnecessary pain. Nonetheless, the robot had reduced Mr. Stevens' morphine injections to only 5 mg per day to prevent an opioid addiction from developing.
Domestico also suspected Mr. Stevens may be overreacting.
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As usual, I try to balance the dystopian theme of my stories with as much humour as I can get away with.
As screenwriter Josh Wheedon has said: “Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke.”
I'm nearing the finish line on All the Humans are Sleeping, but it's still a month or two away from release.
Until then, if you'd like a mix of humour, horror and humanity you can check out my full-length novel, Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story available at: https://MuchAdoaboutCorona.ca
It doesn't contain any obscenities however, for reasons I'll explain in my next post.
—John C. A. Manley
PS Ron deGagne, a practicing member of the Association of Professional Geoscientists of Ontario, had this to say about Much Ado About Corona's humour and witty dialogue: “What a fantastic read. Superb story-telling! Absolutely riveting for a COVID truth-seeker like myself. Well-placed humour, irony, injection of COVID evidence-based science and dismantling of the false narrative made this a powerful read for me.”
PPS Find out why Ron deGagne liked it so much at: https://MuchAdoAboutCorona.ca
John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/
