Title: Seventy-two Letters
Author: Ted Chiang
Date of First Publication: 2000
Place of First Publication: Vanishing Acts (anthology)
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character
Themes: RETRO SF; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; RACE/POLITICS
Critical Summary: In nineteenth-century century England, just as Queen Victoria has risen to the throne, a boy named Robert Stratton is playing with a clay doll. The boy removes the doll’s name, smashes it into clay, and remakes it into something else; replacing its name in the process. The boy is experimenting with a strange form of “name giving” science, drawn from the legend of the golem. The rules of the name giving requires that seventy-two letters from the Hebrew alphabet be used to name an object. This will define the object’s function.
Robert grows up studying this science and eventually becomes a professional nomenclator in London. He arrives at a factory to show off his latest creation, an automaton that can perform dexterous tasks; but his intent is mistaken as an attempt to mechanize the work force.
Rejected, Robert is accosted by a man named Davies who requests a meeting between Robert and the man’s employer, Lord Fieldhurst. At this meeting, Lord Fieldhurst reveals that he has determined that humans have only a few generations left to live. He wants Robert to discover a way in which humanity could continue living on through the power of naming. Robert later discovers this is all a ruse. Fieldhurst’s true goal is to create a method in which he can control the lower classes. Wanting no part of this, Robert goes off on his own to secretly find a way to counteract any harm Fieldhurst would cause if he were to succeed.
The idea of man creating creatures through the name giving process is similar to Frankenstein’s giving life to his lifeless experiment. The steam punk aspect of the work comes from the alternate timeline, a world where the industrial revolution was, in fact, an automaton revolution. Race and Politics plays a role in this as well: there is a definite upper class versus lower class layer to this story. The lower class is scared of losing their jobs to Robert’s newest creation, and Fieldhurst desires control over the lower class. Science versus religion is an aspect as well. This is seen in the way some people revere the words as a way to understand God, and others just use the words to help society progress.
Administrative Notes: Alexander Rubio; CSUF. Mark LaMonica (editing)