This to me seems like a story about a neuro-atypical, Asperger's-like young man who runs afoul of a society geared toward only those who think and feel along "normal" parameters. It holds up a mirror to the absurdities of the modern justice system and its deficiencies in doing anything but maintaining norms for the society.

Looking forward to reading some commentaries about this one so I know what I should think and how I should feel about it.

"If by some extraordinary chance the blade failed, they would just start over. So the thing that bothered me most was that the condemned man had to hope the machine would work the first time. And I say that's wrong. And in a way I was right. But in another way I was forced to admit that that was the whole secret of good organization. In other words, the condemned man was forced into a kind of moral collaboration. It was in his interest that everything go off without a hitch."