★★☆☆☆
(SF Dystopia) Young Leslie and Hardy make a life together, but fall on hard times when his job is automated away. (6,480 words; Time: 21m)
"The Gamecocks," by J.T. Petty [bio] (edited by John Joseph Adams), appeared in Lightspeed Magazine issue 117, published on February 1, 2020.
Mini-Review (click to view--possible spoilers)
Review: 2020.085 (A Word for Authors)
Pro: The biggest strength of the story is the way the couple’s lives are depicted. Their happiness is real, as is their pain as things fall apart for them. It underlines the fact that most automation inevitably hurts the people whose jobs are automated away.
Con: This is a cardboard dystopia, where the companies have so much power that they’ve got the laws changed to repeal not just workers rights but human rights. It also seems to assume that there’s some value in people doing work that’s better done by machines. It reminds me of the story of the worker who complained to his friend that steam shovels were evil because each one replaced a hundred men with shovels. The friend replied that the shovels must be evil too because each one replaced a dozen men with spoons.
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J.T. Petty Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
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Pro: The biggest strength of the story is the way the couple’s lives are depicted. Their happiness is real, as is their pain as things fall apart for them. It underlines the fact that most automation inevitably hurts the people whose jobs are automated away.
Con: This is a cardboard dystopia, where the companies have so much power that they’ve got the laws changed to repeal not just workers rights but human rights. It also seems to assume that there’s some value in people doing work that’s better done by machines. It reminds me of the story of the worker who complained to his friend that steam shovels were evil because each one replaced a hundred men with shovels. The friend replied that the shovels must be evil too because each one replaced a dozen men with spoons.
Other Reviews: Search Web
J.T. Petty Info: Interviews, Websites, ISFDB, FreeSFOnline
Follow RSR on Twitter, Facebook, RSS, or E-mail.
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