Editing Roderick (novel) (section)

==Major themes==
Though the ''Roderick'' books are in many ways serious examinations of philosophical issues surrounding the idea of intelligent machines, their plot is (typically for Sladek) propelled by energetic [[farce]] and [[satire]]. Nearly every human institution, particularly [[academia]] and [[government]], is portrayed as grievously incompetent (the Roderick project itself is originally an elaborate [[fraud]]), and the growing [[computer]]ization of modern society causes no end of trouble for people&mdash;though Roderick is able to turn it to his advantage. A [[running gag|running joke]] throughout is that although Roderick is not particularly human-looking, people are unable to believe that he is a robot or simply fail to notice, and treat him instead as an insane man or a disabled child; but, like [[Candide]] or Prince Myshkin (from ''[[The Idiot]]''), he never complains and always seeks to please.

The story is also peppered with Sladek's usual [[pun]]s and word games, and satirical jabs at other science fiction themes, particularly [[Isaac Asimov]]'s [[Three Laws of Robotics]].