Brian Aldiss - Supertoys Last All Summer Long

Supertoys Last All Summer Long is a short story about an imaginary world in the near future. The genre is science fiction, because it is characterized by a fictive environment in science or technology, which has made a big impact on the society and the individuals. In the story we meet the family Swinton. The Swinton’s live a very idyllic life; they have a big house, a garden and live in a good neighborhood, compared to the rest of the world who are busy, overcrowded and over populated, they live the good life. The store is basic about the live between human and machines and the feeling of still feeling lonely. Even though machines can do a lot, they can’t replace humans and even though robots can mimic feelings it will never been like real human feeling. People live in an illusory world, where holograms creates fake surroundings, and it’s like people turn their backs on reality, and live in their own little world. The story is told from the narrator´s point of view and who is omniscient which makes us get David´s, Monica´s and henrys point of view. We don’t get Teddy´s point of view because he isn’t in the same level as David is. The story consist changing location between Henry who is making a speech in front of his company, and the family´s home where Monica, David and Teddy stays.
In the text we meet Monica Swinton. She’s twenty-nine years old, and is married to the director of Synthank, Henry Swinton. In the text she’s described as beautiful, and that she has a graceful shape and lambent eye. She doesn’t have a job; she stays at home, taking care of David who is her “son”, Teddy who is David´s teddy bear but also a supertoy and her lovely garden. Her garden is an artificial garden, and she controls it, that’s why it’s always summer. Even though Monica has good looks, spend all day in her garden, surrounded by blooming almond trees and roses, or just sitting in her living room, alone waiting. And even though she has David and Teddy to hold her with company she is lonely. Henry tries to comfort her with supertoys, so she won’t be so lonely, but it just makes her lonelier. She tries to be a loving mother to her “son” David. But she is a bit insecure because she does not know how to communicate with her “son” in the right way. David is not a real child, he is also a supertoy but he is created with feelings, so that Monica can feel like she has a real child. When Monica reads the letter David wrote, she start to cry because it frightens her that David actually considers her as his mother, because they only had David because Monica is depressed and lonely. Monica is in despair, until she gets a letter, where Henry and Monica gets permission to conceive their own “real” child, and Monica gets so happy and excited, because then she gets to experience “real” love from her own child.
The title “Supertoys last all summer long” describes that David is to his parent only a supertoy, that only last when its summer. But then again, it is summer all year in the Swintons´garden. But in the end of the story when Monica and Henry get the letter where they get permission to receive a real child, they won’t have the supertoys. The supertoys only last until the summer ends, and Monica can decide when it ends. In the ending we hear that the summer is fading away, and so are the supertoys.
Themes in the story could be real love, because it shows when we find out that David is a robot, that he is created to feel and to love. David love Monica very much, but he doesn’t know how to say it, because he is scared that Monica don’t love him back. Monica is scared because she knows that the love David feels is programed and not real. In the end when they found out that they can have a real child, Monica is ready to send David back to the factory, because now she will have a real child. It shows that real love is more powerful than created love. Created love isn’t real it’s just something you imagine, and what it to be real. But real love is something we can’t control. Another theme in the text could be loneliness because an overcrowded world is the ideal place to be lonely, just like Monica. Even though Monica has a husband and her supertoys she seeks for another kind of attention. She seeks the love from Henry she can’t get because he is always working. Because he is always working Monica seeks David so she doesn’t feel so lonely, and she tries to find love in David, but it’s hard when she knows he isn’t real. Monica is lonely so she uses Davis´s artificial feelings, and in that way she won’t feel so lonely and instead she will fell some kind of love.

.