A Prayer for the Crown-Shy

“If you’re focused on moving from sign to sign, there’s no opportunity for happy accidents. But I suppose I’ve rarely had clear destinations in mind before now. In the wilds, I simply go places.”

In this scene, Dex focuses on and shows appreciation for signs directing them to the village of Stump, but they are also in search of a more spiritual sign to help guide them in life. Here, Mosscap is telling Dex that in its experience, the journey is just as important as the destination, at least in The Search for Existential Purpose.

“‘What do humans need?’ was the impossible question that had driven Mosscap to wander out of the wilderness on behalf of robot-kind.”

A question first introduced in A Psalm for the Wild-Built provides the motivation for Mosscap’s journey. However, because the question is “impossible,” that is, it has no answer, it becomes increasingly rhetorical as the journey continues. What seems like a simple question becomes increasingly difficult as Mosscap learns that people’s needs cannot always be met by simply doing tasks for them.

“[T]he village’s namesake: an enormous stump, wide as a modest house, its spiring might cut clean away in the early days of the Factory Age, a time when not much thought was given to spending twenty minutes on killing something that had taken a thousand years to grow.”

The enormous stump serves not only as the village’s namesake, but also as a shrine to Bosh, the God of Cycles. It symbolizes the thoughtlessness of the Factory Age when technology and nature fell completely out of balance. As such, Chambers uses the stump to comment on current practices such as clear cutting wide-swaths of forest land, which damages the environment of Earth.

“They didn’t want people treating Mosscap like a circus act, or worse, in keeping with why robots had been built in the first place. But for the moment, it was clear from the near-permanent upturn of Mosscap’s metal mouth that it was having a great time.”

Dex ponders the treatment that Mosscap receives in answer to its question, “What do people need?” They are sure that requesting physical tasks is not an adequate answer. Dex’s meditation reveals that they are considering The Ethical Implications of Artificial Intelligence, specifically the ethics of asking the robot to complete tasks the villagers could complete themselves. Complicating Dex’s meditation, however, is the knowledge that serving others in this way makes Mosscap happy.

“Pebs are a way to acknowledge mutual benefit within your society.”

Here, Mosscap summarizes Dex’s economic lesson concerning the system of mutual exchange and benefit that underpins the Pangan post-scarcity, post-currency society in which residents give and receive benefit in roughly equal measure. Chambers’s utopian world-building rests on this key thematic notion.

“So what sort of need pushed us robots into waking up?”

Mosscap begins reading deeply into books theorizing on the source of consciousness, or self-awareness, in human beings. The author Mosscap reads hypothesizes that humans became self-aware because of an external need. Mosscap extrapolates this information and tries to apply it to robot-kind; however, the source of the robotic Awakening remains a mystery throughout the novel. This mystery recalls the epigraph of the book, that mysteries are inextricably connected to all the features of life. Mosscap will never be able to answer this question but becomes content with the mystery itself.

“A riverbuild, as it happened, was whatever its creator wanted to make out of whatever they had on hand. […] The people called the Riverlands home became masters of repurposing, and their settlements quickly drew in landfill miners of a similar ethos.”

During the Factory Age, the river was used as a dumping ground, but during the Transition, the people living in this area learned to put old, discarded items to new use. Chambers uses the Riverlands as an illustration of how a group of people can decide to minimize waste and reuse materials made from natural resource. A feature of the solarpunk genre is offering solutions to what seem like impossible problems, and in this case, Chambers demonstrates how one group of people solved the problem of river pollution while also providing homes for themselves.

“I am an object, not an animal. Would I become something different if I am no longer entirely synthetic?”

Mosscap questions having an organic item transplanted into its mechanical, synthetic body. Its concern echoes contemporary ethical questions of transplantation, specifically the morality of using synthetic items to replace human organs. This section also introduces the notion of the “cyborg,” an entity not wholly human, but not wholly mechanical either. If transplantation of synthetic materials into human bodies becomes widespread, humans might concern themselves with what it means to be human.

“‘So…your body is simultaneously you and not you.’ Mosscap’s head whirred so loudly, it sounded as though it might take flight. ‘Where do you draw the line, between body and self?’”

Mosscap raises one of the most fundamental questions of human existence: What is the relationship between mind and body? Most western philosophers credit French philosopher René Descartes with the first articulation of the so-called mind/body problem, although the notion of dualism extends back to Plato and the Greek philosophers. Descartes argued that mind and body are completely distinct from one another. When Mosscap presses Dex and Leroy for an answer, neither can offer one, demonstrating the complexity of the question.

“It’s an exchange, pure and simple.”

When Leroy says that Mosscap is lucky to have found Dex to take care of it, Dex disagrees strongly with Leroy’s characterization of their relationship. Dex explains that they and the robot cooperate to help each other understand new surroundings. It is a mutually beneficial relationship, not one entity taking care of the other. Chambers uses the dialogue between Dex and Leroy to clearly define the notion of “exchange”—both parties benefit from being together. It is an expression of equality, rather than master and servant.

“Then you’re both lucky. […] Nobody can go it alone.”

Dex and Leroy discuss Dex’s chance encounter with Mosscap and how it has benefitted both of them. Leroy’s observation that no one can live without assistance from others mirrors an important motif throughout the novel—society works best through a system of mutual exchange. Each person gives and takes, depending on ability and need. Dex and Mosscap’s relationship works because they both give what they can and take what they need from each other. Both are happier because they are not trying to “go it alone.”

“In some of the books I read last night, people made each other breakfast after having sex, but not universally.”

Mosscap makes this comment while Leroy is making breakfast for Dex, who has spent the night with him. Again, Chambers portrays Mosscap as a naïf, a young character learning about the ways of the world. In this case, Mosscap demonstrates curiosity and interest in human physical interaction. In addition, Mosscap demonstrates its desire to interact with humans appropriately, although it often fails to understand the nuances of those relationships.

“The robot sat for a moment, considering. ‘I don’t want to separate myself from other robots any more than I already have,’ it said.”

With its decision to not have an implant made from biologic materials, Mosscap demonstrates its desire to remain wholly robotic. This serves to underscore the equality Mosscap feels with Dex, and the equality Dex feels with Mosscap. Colonized peoples and those in subservient positions often adopt behaviors and language as well as clothing and physical appearance of the colonizer or oppressor. Indeed, they see the colonizer or oppressor to be superior to themselves and try to be like them. In this case, Mosscap demonstrates that it values its robotic nature and does not wish to become human or human-like.

“Most of the Coastlands is rewilded territory.”

Dex explains to Mosscap why they can’t take the robot to the beach due to the rewilding of the landscape. Chambers demonstrates an important feature of the Pangan utopia she creates in her novel—that humans have attempted to address their previous destruction of the natural environment by returning large sections of land to their natural state. This also reveals Chambers’s conviction that such reversals are possible.

“If they have an issue with you, that’s on them. And it’s not even about you, personally. They just…don‘t understand what you are. Or maybe they can’t fit you into their beliefs, and that scares them. The unknown makes us stupid sometimes.”

When Dex speaks to Mosscap about the Coastland humans, they try to explain why some people might be mean to the robot. Chambers uses this interaction to theorize why people behave badly when confronted with difference and the unknown. In so doing, she is making a fictional statement that applies to reality, implying that racism and xenophobia are rooted in the fear of the unknown and are thus foolish and illogical.

“Dex reached over and took a worm from the box before they could fall into an existential crisis about it. They baited their hook with a whispered apology.”

Dex registers Mosscap’s dismay at the life and death cycle of the purple crawler worms. Mosscap seems to register all life as equal, whereas Mx. Avery sees worms as merely a means to supply food. Dex is somewhere in between, and Mosscap’s reaction reminds them to be grateful for the worm’s sacrifice. Chambers raises the issue of “existential crisis” here, a term that defines inner conflict over the meaning and purpose of life.

“Me and mine believe the further you distance yourself from the realities of what it means to be an animal in this world, the more you risk severing your connections to it. History tells us loud and clear where that road goes.”

Chambers uses Mx. Avery to express the basic philosophical view of the Coastland communities, which stands in contrast to that of Dex. While the two have fundamental differences in their points of view, both Mx. Avery and Dex treat each other with respect and kindness, demonstrating how it is possible to disagree with another’s value system without judgment.

“Dex did the same, a silent prayer to Bosh running through them. All three sat still, and together, they held vigil as something that had never existed before and never would again ceased its struggling and came to an end.”

When Dex catches a fish, Mx. Avery and Mosscap sit with them, respectfully watching the fish die. Dex prays to Bosh, the God of Cycles. The scene reveals the cycle of life and death that all living creatures are subject to. Even Mosscap, who is not technically “alive,” understands such cycles. It knows that even mechanical beings come to an end. Such knowledge is at the core of understanding existence itself.

“Yet somehow, in the absence of contact, they knew exactly where to stop growing outward so that they might give their neighbors space to thrive.”

The notion of “crown-shy” not only gives Chambers the title to her book, but it also reveals one of the central ideas of the novel—that all organisms, human and nonhuman, must not take their own growth as a reason for denying that growth to others. Symbolically, crown-shyness demonstrates how individuals can live in community with each other. Without losing their own identity, community members can work together for mutual benefit.

“‘I’ve never noticed it before,’ they said, and this bothered them.”

Dex’s words reveal how someone who is very familiar with a landscape can still learn to see it in a new way. In addition, it is ironic that Mosscap, a so-called “artificial” creature and a newcomer to the Shrublands, is more familiar with the natural world than Dex, a natural creature.

 “But being a good neighbor is all about making sure that people you share land with and air and water with don’t need anything, either.”

Theo articulates one of the most important ideas in the novel. It is incumbent on humans to not only meet their own individual needs, but also to care for the humans and nonhumans around them. This means caring for the land, the water, and the air that they all need to survive. In this sentence, Chambers places the book squarely in the camp of solarpunk, demonstrating that with effort and resolve, humans can provide for themselves, others, and the environment.

“[A]n unshakable want arose in them, the same sort of nameless, senseless, rebellious magnetism that had made them turn off the highway into the wilds months before.”

Although Dex and Mosscap know they are supposed to be going to the City, neither of them really wants to go there. Their search for existential purpose has not been fulfilled, and they both feel drawn to the ocean and the natural world without other human beings.

“What if that is enough, for now? What if we’re both trying to answer something much too big before we’ve answered the small thing we should have started with? What if it’s enough just to be…”

Both Mosscap and Dex have been searching for existential purpose throughout their journey but have discovered that the question of what humans and robots need remains unanswered. Whereas earlier such ambiguity gave both of them anxiety, now, fully present in the natural world, Mosscap and Dex come to understand that simply being and being together is sufficient.