Print-Outs

William Blackburn is a professor of English at the University of
Calgary.

Edgar, a computer with feelings, decides there must be more to life than solving problems for the clients of Rent-A-Brain, and he defiantly insists on his own identity and needs. Edgar becomes a rebel, disobeying instructions, peppering his print-outs with satirical poems and graphics, defending himself against frustrated and vengeful programmers. Edgar finally learns the secret of his origin and resolves on a new career as an author.

This story tries to be a version of “The Ugly Duckling.” Edgar, in his rebelliousness, high spirits, and curiosity is a thinly disguised child. The plot is not without an occasional clever turn, but the whole novel is, like its feeble attempts at verbal wit (“old lazy bolts”), laboured and contrived. The page layout mimics a computer print-out but this is a gimmick rather than a necessity; similarly, the appended glossary of computer lingo is not necessary to the comprehension of the novel. All in all, Print-Outs is clever rather than inspired — and pretty thin stuff even at that. It is likely to be more valuable for what it may inspire in young computer buffs than for any intrinsic merit.