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Dacey's Patent Automatic Nanny

Ted Chiang, 2019

short_story

Quadrant Scores

Time Structure
LinearFractured
Pacing
Action-DrivenObservational
Threat Scale
IndividualSystemic
Protagonist Fate
VictoryAssimilation
Conflict Style
Western CombatKishōtenketsu
Price Type
PhysicalIdeological
Todorov's Stages
equilibrium
Description of the starting status quo.
disruption
The inciting incident or protocol failure.
recognition
When the protagonist realizes the disruption.
repair
The attempt to fix or survive it.
new equilibrium
The new, altered status quo.

Structural Analysis

1. Protocol Fiction Mapping (Summer of Protocols)#

  • Render a Rule:
  • Rehearse a Failure Mode:
  • Reveal a Human Insight:

2. Actantial Model (A.J. Greimas)#

  • Subject:
  • Object:
  • Sender (Destinator):
  • Receiver (Destinatee):
  • Helper:
  • Opponent:

3. Todorov's Equilibrium Model#

  • See YAML Frontmatter for stage breakdown.

4. The Freytag Pyramid#

  • Exposition:
  • Climax:

5. Propp's Morphology of the Folktale#

  • Applicable Narratemes:

6. Genette's Narrative Discourse#

  • Order / Duration / Focalization:

7. The Monomyth / Hero's Journey#

  • Subversions:

8. Dan Harmon's Story Circle#

  • The Take (The Price Paid):

9. Save the Cat! Beat Sheet#

  • Pacing Deviations:

10. Kishōtenketsu (Four-Act Structure)#

  • Applicability:

11. The Three-Act Structure#

  • Plot Points:

12. Lévi-Strauss's Binary Oppositions#

  • Primary Binary:
  • Secondary Binary:
  • The Mediator:

13. Cognitive Estrangement (Suvin / Shklovsky)#

  • The Familiar Concept:
  • The Estranging Mechanism:
  • The Cognitive Shift:

14. Bakhtin's Chronotope#

  • The Spatial Matrix:
  • The Temporal Flow:
  • The Point of Intersection:

15. Aristotelian Poetics#

  • Hamartia:
  • Peripeteia:
  • Anagnorisis:

16. Jungian Archetypal Analysis#

  • The Persona:
  • The Shadow:
  • The Anima/Animus:
  • The Trickster:

17. Genette's Transtextuality#

  • Intertextuality:
  • Paratextuality:
  • Metatextuality:

Characters8

Lionel DaceyMathematician and son of Reginald Dacey

Reginald's son, who dedicated his life to vindicating his father's theories by raising his own illegitimate son with the Automatic Nanny, ultimately realizing the tragic flaw in the experiment.

Edmund
Nanny GibsonHuman nanny

Lionel Dacey's human nursemaid who routinely beat him and administered vile laxatives as punishment until she was fired.

Mrs. MenhenickCustomer

A purported customer from Colwyn Bay whose testimonial appeared in an advertisement for the Automatic Nanny.

Mrs. HastingsCustomer

A purported customer from Eastbourne whose testimonial appeared in an advertisement for the Automatic Nanny.

Mrs. GodwinCustomer

A purported customer from Andoversford whose testimonial appeared in an advertisement for the Automatic Nanny.

Nigel HawthorneInfant

An infant who was fatally thrown from an Automatic Nanny in September 1901 after his parents tampered with its mainspring.

Dr. Thackery LambsheadConsulting physician

A physician consulting at the Brighton Institute who correctly diagnosed Edmund's condition as inverted psychosocial dwarfism and introduced remote manipulators to communicate with him.

Lambshead
Eleanor HardyEdmund's biological mother

A former maid for Lionel Dacey who was the biological mother of Edmund.

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