The writer’s eighth novel is a psychologically perceptive observation on the soul life of robots and humans.
Author Marisha Rasi-Koskinen has been awarded the Tähtivaeltaja Prize for her most recent novel, Caesura. The prize has been given yearly for the last 40 years, to a work of fiction that bends and expands the definition of sci-fi and speculative literature. It is also unique in Finland, in that both original and translated novels published in Finland during the year compete for the prize. Previous winners include Kazuo Ishiguro, Margaret Atwood, Lauren Beukes, and Cormac McCarthy, among others.
Known for her eerie, mind-boggling, Lynchian fiction, Rasi-Koskinen was praised by the jury for “an extraordinary feat of power that sheds light on the formation of a thinking mind” and its uncompromising nature, showing “how humans create another being in their own image, but then refuse to recognize their similarity”. (See full jury statement below.)
Caesura is Rasi-Koskinen’s eighth novel; her previous adult novel REC was hailed as a structural, stylistic and narrative phenomenon, and won the prestigious Runeberg Prize, as well as the Torch-Bearer Prize, given yearly to a title considered to have the most potential to succeed outside Finland. As the Tähtivaeltaja jury rightly summed it up: Rasi-Koskinen’s works are “of world-class quality, and would immediately earn a place on the lists of international awards.”
In her speech, Rasi-Koskinen emphasised that, to her, “speculative fiction hasn’t been so much a genre as a way to live in this world. (…) This manifests itself in two lifelong attempts: an attempt to search for and question the structures behind phenomena that seem self-evident to us; and an attempt to show courage and look for alternatives.”
Rasi-Koskinen’s works have been previously sold to France, Denmark, Hungary and Lithuania.
FULL JURY STATEMENT
Marisha Rasi-Koskinen’s eighth novel, Caesura, is an extraordinary feat of power that sheds light on the formation of a thinking mind. It mirrors human consciousness and the information processing of artificially constructed brains. Psychologically perceptive, even crude in its uncompromising nature, this work shows how humans create another being in their own image, but then refuse to recognize their similarity.
[In the novel, it is near future], and we have learned to build human-like androids, which are trained to perform various maintenance and care tasks. Initially childlike, the artificial beings are shaped and develop organically, through what they learn and experience. Biological growth is imitated by insect-like transformations from one growth stage to another.
The main character, an android named QED, is passionately seeking connection with the world and other species, but finds it difficult to identify with human beings. Through the mutual reflections of QED and his android siblings, we are led as if by stealth into the dilemmas of epistemology: what can be known and how can one know that one does not know.
The story, which skillfully moves through several time levels, unfolds gradually, dispensing information and surprising twists at just the right pace. The sharp difference in the agency and innate value of humans and androids echoes the gap in the modern world between humans and other species of animals. Instead of being moralised, the reader follows a chilling observation of what kind of boundaries are erected between different sentient beings, and how difficult it is to tear them down.
Androids are at the same time fascinatingly alien in their biology, but shockingly relatable in their psychology. Ethical and moral reflections on the mental processes of artificial intelligences could not be more timely.
Much has been written about the soul life of robots in recent decades, but Caesura offers a rare fresh perspective on the ingredients of consciousness and how circumstances shape it. A work that dives straight into the depths is of world-class quality, and would immediately earn a place on the lists of international sci-fi awards.
