Take a letter, Maria. Address it to... Send a copy to...
Maria is the prototypical stenographic robot. She - and definitely gendered is she - knows how to compose business correspondence.
In an advanced household, there's a corresponding secretary who handles the mails. Many tasks do not need the attention of the head of the household, yet need doing. The secretary answers the incoming, but does not initiate outbound.
The Maria interface handles outbound correspondence, not inbound. Maria has to project authority and agency, though she does not have it herself. There are many ritualized communications strategies. Maria knows them all, and how to prompt her mistress to conform to protocol.
How many ways can you express a common sentiment? Maria reads greeting cards in her spare time.
(Hall)Mark is the male voice of the same system.
The challenge is to appear fresh, even if you are dull and hackneyed. Dull, hackneyed, pedestrian, and trite.
[written in 2016 at the People's Food Coop, Ann Arbor]
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