Anderson's "Quixote and the Windmill" describes its single robot in the third person. At one point only, we begin to enter the robot's pov:
"His electronic detectors sensed the eddying pulses that meant nervousness, a faint unease..." (p. 8)
But we are also told how the surrounding human beings regard him. The main part of the story is a conversation between two men, then between them and the robot. All three are externally described and none is given a narrative pov. This is unusual but works.
Each of the following two instalments in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History begins not by describing a scene but by propounding an issue:
"The most dangerous is not the outlawed murderer, who only slays men, but the rebellious philosopher; for he destroys worlds."
-Poul Anderson, "Holmgang" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2 (Riverdale, NY, February 2018), pp. 19-50 AT p. 19.
"It was the old argument, Historical Necessity versus the Man of Destiny."
-Poul Anderson, "Cold Victory" IN The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2, pp. 53-70 AT p. 53.
They then do describe scenes to which we will return.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
You're right, none of the stories in I, ROBOT are narrated from the robots POV. But THEY, ROBOTS would be a weak alternative.
I thought only one of those two men actually spoke with the robot in "Quixote"?
Absolutely, what Anderson said about the "philosopher." Crazed ideologues, beginning with the monstrous Robespierre, have done vastly more harm than mere criminals. Massacres, purges, mass arrests, gulags, grinding tyrannies, etc.
Ad astra! Sean
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