#RRSciFiMonth The Long Way to A Small Angry Planet Read-Along Week No.2

For SciFi Month I’m  participating in a special Read-ALong of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. If you’re interested in joining in, visit the SF/F Read-ALong group for more information.

Banner by Anya @ On Starships and Dragonwings

Week 1 (Friday, November 6th): “Transit” to “The Job” – hosted by Over The Effing Rainbow
Week 2 (Friday, November 13th): “Port Coriol” to “Cricket” – hosted by Chris @ Galleywampus
Week 3 (Friday, November 20th): “The Last War” to “October 25” – hosted by Claire Rousseau
Week 4 (Friday, November 27th): “Heresy” to end – hosted by Over The Effing Rainbow

***Warning: there may be spoilers contained in the questions and answers.***

1. There has been significant conversation about AI, what it means to be alive, whether or not AI should have rights, whether or not a person can fall in love with a specific instance of AI, etc. This is a bit of a sticky situation. After the discussion between Pepper and Jenks, how do you feel about Lovey’s and Jenks’ relationship? Should they move forward with their plan?

If Jenks’ plan was to stick Lovey in a body kit, and the two of them were to ride off into the sunset (so to speak) to live the rest of their lives alone far away from civilization, for always and happily ever after, I would totally say go for it. Things get complicated once you get into discussions of AIs and personhood, or whether or not sentient machines should have rights and whatnot, so for this situation I’m tempted to just say “Love as thou wilt.” They should be able to do whatever they want, as long as their decision will not be harmful to anyone else.

 But it’s not that simple, isn’t it? If their plan involves staying on The Wayfarer, I think I’d be much more against it because of all the other lives they would affect. Ashby in particular would have a lot to lose if someone ever found out what Jenks and Lovey did, and it could destroy the rest of the crew’s careers. Even if the rest of them are totally cool with the idea, it’s not fair to make them choose between their livelihoods and their friendship with Jenks. But seeing as Jenks is open to leaving The Wayfarer to be with Lovey if it comes down to that, it might not be a problem, but it would still suck to split up the crew. Somehow I doubt that would happen, though.

So, short answer, I think what Jenks and Lovey have between them is really sweet. They should go forward with the plan if that’s what they both want, but Lovey is right in that they should hope for–but not completely count on–their captain’s support.

2. In the chapter “Intro to Harmagian Colonial History,” we see Dr. Chef’s perspective of having been a mother, though he is currently male, and Sissix’s perspective that children aren’t people yet. Ohan is referred to as they/them. The Akarak are referred to as xyr/xe. These perspectives and preferences are perspectives actually held by different groups of humans in our own world. Do you think assigning these perspectives to aliens rather than humans make them easier or harder to sympathize with?

Well, even on Earth now there are no universal truths, so it is unrealistic to expect any different when we widen the scope and look at the entire galaxy. And in this book, it’s not just the aliens who have cultures and physiologies that are vastly different from humans. Even among humans themselves, you get very different ways of looking at things. Take Jenks and Pepper, for example, and look at their disparate origins. To someone from an Enhancement colony, a Survivalist might seem as strange as any alien–and vice versa. Generally, emphasizing the differences isn’t going to make sympathizing with someone easier, whether they are an alien or another human. Rather, I believe looking for the similarities and a shared experience is the key.

3. How might the ship robbery have been different if the Wayfarer were armed?

I might be alone on this, but I honestly don’t think it would have played out any differently. From the conversation between Ashby and Pei, and from the scene of the crew after they landed on Cricket, we find out that most of the humans in the GC are pacifists, and like Ashby, they aren’t comfortable with the idea of being armed. Even they had weapons on The Wayfarer, there probably wouldn’t have been any initiative to use them, especially with Ashby in charge. Jenks and Kizzy might have a fascination with things that go boom, but that’s still a huge difference between actually being able to point a gun at someone’s face and threaten to shoot them, even in self-defense. With this crew, using weapons would be the last resort, and at no point did the robbery escalate that far, once Rosemary was able to communicate with the pirates.

4. As I finished the fourth chapter in my section, “Cricket,” I thought it might be a good place to stop and talk about some of our favorite humorous moments so far. What scenes really tickled your funny bone? Who makes you laugh the most and why?

This is actually a really tough question, because looking back, there really hasn’t been that many funny ha-ha moments to me. Sure, there were plenty of scenes with humor and levity, but if I actually think about it, many of those close in solemnity or end with a point — the scene on Port Coriol with Kizzy and the soap is a perfect example. I still find this story fun though, even if it hasn’t made me laugh out loud. I love scenes that show friends enjoying each other’s company, like Rosemary’s first dinner with the crew, the girls’ shopping trip at Port Coriol, Dr. Chef and Sissix smack talking humans for fun, Jenks and Kizzy reuniting with the friends on Cricket, etc. Scenes like that always make me smile!