A look at "Variables" by Roland Jovaik
You're not listening to The Voice of Dog, I'm not Khaki, but the story today is still "Variables" by Roland Jovaik.
You can listen to it here
https://www.thevoice.dog/episode/variables-by-rola...
And find more of this excellent author's work in the episode description,
Summary:
A lifelike android studies and researches his fleshy counterparts in society. Esten tries to integrate, his stated mission, and believes a crucial part of this initiative is to instigate a romantical relation in order to better understand some of the deeper complexities of the world around him. The subject he selects is the local barista fox, Cory, who works in the coffee shop he frequents (pretending to drink, naturally), which he suspects as having a crush on him.
Though Esten is calculating and somewhat distant and robotic at first, he quickly begins to sense small inconsistencies with himself as he pursues this flirting business. Feelings he wasn't aware he was capable of having, spontaneous actions which he doesn't entirely control. Inconsistencies more associated with personhood.
Esten, with the aid of several contradicting and illogical lines of advice from a book he found, "The Art of Dating and Gun Maintenance", completely botches up his first date with Cory. He is simply too concerned with what his book told him, and unconcerned with the wishes of his date, instead annoyed with how illogical Cory acts when presented with high value foods, drinks and settings, which should, logically, corelate to a good date. It only serves to drive Cory to tears and Esten back to his apartment alone.
In Part two, Esten decides to pursue someone else instead, deciding that Cory has fallen out of the scope for a second date, and being incapable of understanding what he might have done wrong. The mood is cold. He decides to find another café, and comes across the ringtail Jesse, who is entirely different from the fox. Very forward and spontaneous, bubbly but kinda' pushy. All in all, a bit of a stereotypical power twink. Esten adjusts his methods and initiates another date.
Jesse is eager at frist, but not impressed as the night move on. Esten's adjustments are mostly in accordance with what might have worked with Cory. But Jesse has his own motives. He's vain and superficial, obnoxious and considerably inappropriate. The night culminates in what can only be described as sexual assault. Esten realises, after reflecting on his failed date, that he ought to tell Cory that he's sorry. He knows he needs to tell the truth about his being an android, but he's incapable of it, or of understanding why he should be sorry. He dodges what he perceives to be the issue for a while but gets no closer to a reconciliation. A spontaneous kiss doesn't make it any better either, as Cory runs off with considerable finality.
One of the main elements of the story centres around a box which Esten has only been told to open "when he's ready". He decides that now is that time. The box contains an explanation of his "malfunctioning" programming, which is his emotions, and with this knowledge, his determination is again strengthened.
Esten returns to the coffee shop, tries to explain again what what he feels. He apologizes, and begs for another chance, which he finally receives. The audience breathes a sigh of relief. The story has a happy ending, and ends on the promise that Esten will reveal his secret, and the hope that it'll go well.
My thoughts on all of this, in no particular order.
Roland does a great job of showing how illogical us humans are, and how logical this is to us, as well as how illogical the cold calculations of Esten are to us, but how logical they are to him. That could perhaps be worded better, but I can't really remember the parallel I wanted to use. Rest assured, it was very clever, as was this premise. I liked the clash of internal narration of Esten, which made sense, with the external response of those he adressed, which also made sense.
Cory is truly a sympathetic character. His cautious and discreet flirting is so genuine and sweet that I had a few "aaw" moments out loud. Esten is sympathetic too, incredibly. It's probably hard to see him as sympathetic by the end of the first part, where he's hurt the feelings of certified sweetheart Cory, but through the second, he redeems himself both through the realisation of his own mistakes, and his genuine and heartfelt attempts to make things better. Though he messes up a lot, it's all in good faith, like a clumsy but diligent housekeeper. The character conflict between Cory and him is very believable, and Roland keeps building the tension between them so skilfully that the ending came as a huge sigh of relief and joy. I believed, then, that everything would be okay. The ending, in short, was absolutely within the intent of The Voice of Dog, and my life is richer and happier for having experienced it.
The story is told effortlessly through the androids calculating perspective. The way Esten thinks and the reason and logic he employs is elegant and well thought out. It often takes just a single sentence to inform the reader that Esten is being flirted with, and that he's entirely baffled by this. And yet, for all Esten's flaws, which are not flaws to him, he doesn't fail to be at least a bit likable and relatable, only growing more so as the story continues and he develops.
Esten's emotions are subtle and interesting. A carefully considered injection of the slightly imperfect into Esten's flawless programming, a little bit at a time. A very believable, heartening and hopeful element of the story is to see how these slight emotions become more powerful as we move through the story, and eventually take over.
In a sense, I suppose you can draw parallels to Pinocchio, but only very superficially. The premise might be somewhat comparable, but Roland gives his Esten a much more complex personality, the development of which is something we can relate to and learn from in a more pertinent way. I had to agree with Esten's assessment of the illogical process of courtship, even as I cheered for him to delve deeper into it and experience these new and fun emotions. I felt his anger and frustration when his logic failed him, and his programming prevented him from doing what his newfound emotions informed him to be the right thing, in much the same way our complacency and comfort might prevent us opening ourselves up to those we love. When that which he truly desired was removed from his reach through the fault of his own actions, which he couldn't fully understand, I felt that too. It was so very real. Esten was already a boy before he opened that chest. There was no magical transformation by a fairy or however Pinocchio ends, because he transformed as we witnessed it, throughout the story. Heck, the ending informed me that it was the android who fell in love with the fox. To Cory, Esten is as real as they come, and whether or not he was an android was never what prevented Esten and him from being together. To Esten, from what I could feel, this acceptance is everything.
I'm sure a lot of clever parallels can be drawn, but I was just left with the thought of how little it takes to make someone's life complete, and conversely how huge a task that can be for some. How amazing, addictive, dangerous and confusing love can be.
This wasn't how it was meant to be, I thought, and yet, I knew in my heart that it was. I don't usually cry from happy endings. I wrestled with the controls, unresponsive, as the story unfolded. I could see the airfield in the distance. The far distance. "It was a damn close-run thing, friend," the story said, putting a ghostly hand on my shoulder. "We'll make that landing the next time."