Dolly (story)
"Dolly" is a 2011 science fiction/police procedural short story by Elizabeth Bear. It was first published in Asimov's Science Fiction.
Synopsis
[edit]When a billionaire is killed by his sex robot, police must determine whether the robot was a murder weapon, or the culprit.
Reception
[edit]In Locus, Lois Tilton found the story "rather sad", and noted that the murder mystery "distract(ed)" from the theme of "humans forming attachments to artificial beings".[1] Tangent Online considered it "interesting", and praised Bear for "subversion of the machine's role".[2]
At the Los Angeles Review of Books, Paul Kincaid described it as "not a bad story (...) efficiently told, with enough detail of character and setting to reward the reader", but added that he was disappointed by what he saw as Bear's re-use of tropes first developed by Isaac Asimov in the 1940s.[3]
Communications of the ACM included it in an article on the use of science fiction to teach computer ethics, noting in particular its relevance to deontology.[4]
Adaptation
[edit]In 2021, Apple announced that it had won the right to produce a full-length adaptation of "Dolly", which would star Florence Pugh, and have a script by Vanessa Taylor and Drew Pearce.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early November, by Lois Tilton, in Locus; published November 5, 2010; retrieved April 3, 2019
- ^ Asimov's -- January 2011, reviewed by Mark Lord, at Tangent Online; published November 14, 2010; retrieved April 3, 2019
- ^ The Widening Gyre: 2012 Best of the Year Anthologies, reviewed by Paul Kincaid, at the Los Angeles Review of Books; published September 3, 2012; retrieved April 3, 2019
- ^ How to Teach Computer Ethics through Science Fiction, by Emanuelle Burton, Judy Goldsmith, and Nicholas Mattei; in Communications of the ACM August 2018, Vol. 61 No. 8, Pages 54-64; doi: 10.1145/3154485
- ^ Apple Studios Lands Hot Package ‘Dolly’ With Florence Pugh On Board To Star And Vanessa Taylor And Drew Pearce Penning The Script, at Deadline Hollywood; by Justin Kroll; published February 10, 2021; retrieved February 10, 2021
External links
[edit]- Text of the story, at Apex Magazine
- "Dolly" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database