A Psalm for the Wild-Built

Chambers continues to explore Freedom and Adventure through Dex’s exhilaration at their journey. Walking through wild forest for the first time, Dex reflects that it is “stunning.” This echoes Dex’s imagining of wild spaces from the monastery in Panga’s city; they have entered the space that they have dreamed of.

Chambers also explores the idea of freedom in a deeper sense. Freedom is not just about adventure, but agency and ethics. Dex refuses to accept Mosscap’s offer to help with the water tank. For Dex, seeing Mosscap carry the tank reminds them of pre-Transition history, where robots worked for humans in factories. It is obvious that Dex is ashamed of Panga’s history: “Dex looked awkwardly at the ground, ashamed of a past they’d never seen” (83). Dex will not willingly deny the freedom of another, especially a robot, who was once subjugated by the human race.

For Mosscap, freedom is being allowed to help its friend. Dex relents when Mosscap points out that, “if you don’t want to infringe on my agency, let me have agency. I want to carry the tank” (83). Mosscap also alludes to their growing friendship. As the robot points out: “If you had a friend who was taller than you, and you couldn’t reach something, would you let that friend help” (83).

Chambers illustrates The Importance of Ecological Sustainability in the societal rules and conventions that Dex lives by. As Dex says: “I can’t walk off the trail. I shouldn’t” (84). Dex emphasizes “I” (as is illustrated by italics) to emphasize that Mosscap exists under a different set of rules. As articulated during the Transition, robots were given access to wild places, whereas humans began to intentionally move their society away from needless destruction and toward conservation. Dex’s shame over human history is once again apparent. Dex has been taught that “everybody thinks they’re the exception to the rule, and that’s exactly where the trouble starts. One person can do a lot of damage” (85). This further emphasizes how humans in Panga want to minimize harm as much as possible.

Dex and Mosscap acknowledge that restraint isn’t natural in animals (including humans) through their discussion of Winn’s Paradox—“the ecosystem as a whole needs its participants to act with restraint in order to avoid collapse, but the participants themselves have no inbuilt mechanism to encourage such behavior” (96). Citizens of Panga brought the natural world close to collapse before they learned the error of their ways. They now follow principles of restraint, although it is an inherently unnatural state, enshrined in their laws.

Once again, Chambers urges readers to draw parallels between the modern world on Earth and pre-Transition Panga, which is characterized by industrialization and oil-dependent machinery. Pre-Transition Panga is conjured in the ruins of the canning factory—“hulking towers of boxes, bolts, and tubes” (90). Dex condemns it as “[b]rutal. Utilitarian” (90). The canning factory evokes Earthen factories. It contrasts with the carefully crafted wooden wagons and homes surrounded by wildness in post-Transition Panga. Present-day Panga is hopeful, warm, and appealing.

Chambers acknowledges that mechanization and industrialization, which has a catastrophic impact on the natural world, was initially motivated by the same instincts which drive any animal—“we’re all just trying to be comfortable, and well-fed, and unafraid” (96). However, she goes on to suggest that, at some point, people must become accountable for their destruction and correct their course to create a better world—“the people who made places like this weren’t at fault either—at least, not at first” (96).