I’ve probably mentioned this before, but one of the really cool things about doing the Take Me To Your Reader podcast is getting to know some classics of the science fiction genre, even if only because they fall into the “related works” category.
In a recent episode, we discussed Eando Binder’s Adam Link story “I, Robot,” the lesser-known predecessor of the Isaac Asimov story collection of the same name. I had no knowledge whatsoever of Eando Binder or the existence of such a story. Once I finish reading all the Adam Link stories, I’ll be sure to write up a review here.
From there, it occurred to me to jump off and see what else there was in the Robot canon that I hadn’t read. Which brought me to R.U.R. (stands for Rossum’s Universal Robots). The origin of the term “robot” in popular culture. You don’t get more classic than this.
Originally a Czech-language stage play, it can now be found in translation in a variety of places. Here, for instance.
I won’t say that it’s some kind of earth-shattering genius work, but the history of it buys it a lot of leeway for me, and it didn’t need much. The play takes place over the course of a great deal of time, from R.U.R. dominating the market for labor, to the world economy basically collapsing because of the inundation of robots into the workforce, to the robots deciding that they have a right to be free and overthrowing their masters.
It’s probably noteworthy that the robots are nowhere portrayed as mechanical men so much as simulacra of humans. So instead of being the all-metal, positronic Asimovian kind, they’re more just synthetic humans.
Being reasonably well-read in science fiction, I saw all kinds of parallels to subsequent books and films, notably R.U.R.’s declining human birth rate, echoed in The Children of Men. There’s also some shades of political uprising, where the one human spared by the robots is someone who works with his hands. The ruling class were all purged, but the working class were allowed to live.
And of course there’s some discussion about man playing God and sowing the seeds of his own destruction. We’ve seen that a few times in subsequent fiction, haven’t we?
I’m absolutely thrilled to have read this. It’s not long, and I just love the idea of getting in on the ground level of something, seeing the influences such a classic work has had on the genre it helped found. I’m sure this won’t be the only time this happens while doing background research for the podcast.
Next up, it’s my first Brandon Sanderson book, Steelheart. And eventually I’ll have to do a summary review for all the Flash New 52 stuff I’ve been reading.