I just read "Tyche and the Ants" and it's sticking with me for some reason. It's sweet and it's sad and I really loved it. I have a niece who is four years old and she's kind of my best friend, so I really loved Tyche, who acts around that age.
I really like how it ties in that magical thinking, imaginative mentality that children are known for and puts it in the future amidst all of the technology. She lives on the moon, but she still has her imaginary friends and still plays outside and does everything that children do on earth today.
One thing that I'm left curious about was just the nature of Tyche. A physical description is never really given, and all we really know is that she isn't purely human, so I wonder what she is. Is she by all appearances human, just with the genetic enhancements to make her live so much longer. Or is she an early AI robot? I'm mostly curious because a biologically human child running around on the moon by herself would be really dangerous.
I'm also super sick, so I hope that there were coherent thoughts in here for you.
I pictured her as an android, presumably one who appears almost entirely human, but that's just me. Also, most of the abandoned equipment and mythology she mentions are Chinese, so that's what I thought she was, but Tyche and Sofia are Mediterranean names, so who knows?
ReplyDeleteI also pictured her as a type of android, but for some reason this story made me think about the Doctor Who episode, Girl in the Fireplace. I think the part about cutting out parts of humans to make the ship work can be related to the way Tyche was going to be "cut" to figure out what she was. So I pictured those robots while reading this story.
ReplyDeleteI initially thought she might have been of Chinese decent as well but an android makes a little more sense. It kept talking about how she was brave and could help the Moon people from the ants. I never got the message that she was a young girl but maybe she was. I have a hard time believing a girl around 4 years old could have accomplished everything in this story.
ReplyDeleteIt was a really sweet story. I got the impression she was mostly human and still a child, though it surprised me how self-sufficient she was, having made her own suit and everything. I really loved the opening to the story. "The ants arrived on the Moon on the same day Tyche went through the Secret Door to give a ruby to the Magician." It was like we talked about in class with the Girl Thing Who Went Out For Sushi, making you read further just to decipher what's going on.
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