A review of Milo by Alexander Pyles, and an interview with the author
Is suffering the greatest evil we can endure? Or is it lack of physical agency? Or lack of mental agency? Or death?
These are the questions that the protagonist struggles with in Milo by Alexander Pyles, part of the Futures series from Radix Media.
Milo has been losing motor function to a genetic disorder slowly over the course of his life. He is tired of trying all the treatments his friend finds, treatments that do nothing. He is tired of living. His friend convinces him to try one more thing: an android body. And it works! Milo has complete motor function again, and is stronger than his human body could ever be! But is it too good to be true?
In classic science fiction style, Pyles seems more interested in introducing and wrestling with questions than answering them, instead letting the reader come to their own conclusions as far as what are the best options in a bad situation. This short piece packs a punch, containing within it curiosity and creativity, horror and heartbreak. It is absolutely worth a read.
After I finished reading Milo, I got a chance to chat with the author about it:
First, give us a quick introduction: Who are you? What do you write?
Well, I’m Alex Pyles and I’m a writer, residing in IL. I write mostly science fiction or literary-ish sci fi, but I’ve been experimenting with more cosmic horror & weird fiction of late. I’ve also dabbled in some fantasy, so really I write speculative fiction – broadly speaking.
Who are some authors that you look up to, whose works made you want to write?
Most of mine are kind of the “greatest hits,” but Tolkien was hugely formative for me as a young writer in my preteens and as a teenager. Hemingway, just by his grouchy mystique. Eventually I was introduced to Frank Herbert and DUNE, which made me take up science fiction without looking back.
This was also when I stumbled on Octavia Butler and the Parable novels, which drove my fascination of the sci fi genre even farther. They are extremely grounded books, but are quite relevant even today, with the question of race and empathy being at the center of them. Butler helped me, more than any other writer, understand the “human element” that needs to be present in spec literature.
I also have a fond affection of contemporary authors who I follow and inform my work even now, such as Jeff Vandermeer, Nathan Ballingrud, Ted Chiang, and N.K. Jemisin.
Tolkien was the author who got me interested in fantasy, as well. Octavia Butler is one of the gaps in my reading of essential science fiction, unfortunately.
She’s amazing and I’m sad she isn’t more widespread, especially since I consider her alongside Le Guin to be on the forefront of “social” science fiction.
Now, I know for me, when I write a story, there is usually a seed that comes first: a character, a particular plot point, an idea I want to explore, or something I read that I want to respond to. Did you have such a seed for ‘Milo’ and if so, what was it?
Honestly, when I saw the call for FUTURES from Radix Media, the story just came out of nowhere to some degree. I was and am still grieving my mother who passed back in ‘16, but she struggled with MS for most of her life.
She was diagnosed at 33 with a pretty progressive diagnosis and she was confined to a wheelchair for the last 7-8ish years of her life. She used a cane when I was younger, but I mostly remember her using a walker and a wheelchair for longer distances. MILO clearly comes from those memories and experiences of my mom’s illness by proxy.
A point of conflict between Milo and his father in your story is the issue of whether suffering can have meaning. Do you think suffering can have meaning, or is it inherently meaningless? Or do you have a different view altogether?
I think it does and it should. It’s one of the reasons why we have stories, isn’t it? We try our best to understanding conflict and evil happenings in our world, by forming narratives. I mean, most of my intellectual understanding of suffering comes from my faith, as a Catholic, but I don’t ever want to minimize how suffering can be seen by those who don’t share those views.
Suffering doesn’t make sense and in some way can have the appearance of meaninglessness, but as the cliche goes, “it’s what you make of it” at least in some form.
This also goes back to how I saw my Mom suffering purely from a fault in her genetic code and I’m personally still wrestling a lot with God about that, especially since her time here was cut so so short. But to answer your question, yes I do believe suffering can have meaning.
The concept of redemptive suffering is definitely interesting. Personally, while I think that it has the potential of being greatly beneficial for people who are undergoing suffering that they can do nothing about, it concerns me how often the idea has been abused as a means of control.
Oh absolutely and I actually saw my Mom wrestle with her own faith quite a bit, but for her she was given moments of great peace because she trusted in it. I know there are probably not many people who could relate to that or reconcile those feelings, but it was one of Mom’s great gifts.
One focus of your piece seems to be body dysphoria, especially in people with illnesses that leave them with a sound mind in a failing body. Is your interest in this topic mainly intellectual, or do you have personal experience with this kind of body dysphoria?
Well, it should be apparent that I have some clear personal ties to this topic. I really wanted to enter into my Mom’s suffering and try and understand her perspective and struggle. She was incredibly smart, she could still crunch large numbers in her head up until she died. Her frustrations were clear to me from a young age, even when she was slightly more able than she later became. The conversations surrounding support groups for MS never went well, because Mom hated talking about it.
She wanted to reduce every reminder that she was sick, to the point of being incredibly concerned about her weight and appearance in public. Obviously, she had every right to be, she had her dignity, even if she never felt like it. It broke my heart later in life to find out that she had hardly ever been told she was beautiful, which as you could imagine would only affirm that she was “less” or “broken.” It has made me painfully aware of how we can be incredibly callous of people with disabilities and how that affects them without us knowing.
That is a good point. Given that, if the technology were developed that allowed people to have an artificial body, whether to prolong life, alleviate suffering, enable physical independence, or allow them to live “normally” in other ways, would it be a choice you would make for yourself or a loved one?
That’s a hard one. I think if we could morally do it, as far as something akin to exoskeletons like that are in development now, or better prosthetic limbs etc that would help alleviate suffering and improve everyone’s quality of life, that would be fantastic.
What Milo undergoes, I don’t think I or anyone would do within reason, if it is at all possible. I don’t think it is. Yet, I think that’s kind of the point of why Milo does it and what it ends up coming back to haunt him.
Yeah. I think that I would be willing to accept artificial body parts so long as there was no risk to my mind. The idea of losing myself like Milo does is terrifying to me.
Right? And I that’s really the feeling I’m hoping to evoke.
And finally, apart from Milo and the rest of the Futures series from Radix, what would be one book you have read recently that you would recommend?
Ugh, I read too much to limit it to just one…I really enjoyed Ted Chiang’s new collection, EXHALATION. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s PRIME MERIDIAN is a beautifully brief near-future scifi, not very far from what the FUTURES stories are themselves. I also got around to reading Ballingrud’s NORTH AMERICAN LAKE MONSTERS and it might be my new favorite collection of short stories ever.
I could probably list a few others, but I think I’ll stop there.
I may just have to look into those! Thank you for joining me, Alex.
Thanks for having me Andrew!
If you are interested in picking up a copy of Milo, you can find it here.You can follow Alexander Pyles on social media, including on Twitter, Facebook, and his blog.
