Light Verse (Asimov)
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Light Verse is a science-fiction short-story by Isaac Asimov It was first published in 1973 in The Saturday Evening Post. It later appeared in the collection Buy Jupiter and Other Stories in 1975 and in The Complete Robot in 1982.
This story details a small portion of the life of Avis Lardner, the widow of a noble astronaut William J. Lardner.
After his death, she receieved a large pension, which she invested wisely and then became very wealthy. She then bought many jeweled artifacts from a number of countries, and displayed them in her home. She then takes up the art of light-sculpture, which fascinates many, but she refuses to make money off of them and only paints them at parties. A roboticist at the U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men Corporation named John Semper Travis tries to imitate her art by attempting to use the math related to his robotics to sculpt but fails. In an act of kindness to Ms. Lardner, he adjusts her maladjusted robot named Matthew. She is furious at him, and it is revealed that Matthew is the one who does the light-sculptures, and she picks up one of her artifacts, a jeweled knife, and murders him.
[edit] Similarities to other Asimov works
- The idea of a robot having creativity would be repeated in The Bicentennial Man
- Light-sculpture was performed by Gladia Delmarre in The Naked Sun
