Robot rUr 2000
by Edward Fielding
Title
Robot rUr 2000
Artist
Edward Fielding
Medium
Digital Art - Digital Art
Description
An evil robot from outer space circa 1950s.
R.U.R. was written in 1920, premiered in Prague early in 1921, was performed in New York in 1922, and published in English translation in 1923. The following year, G. B. Shaw and G. K. Chesterton were among those in London participating in a public discussion of the play. Capek responded, via The Saturday Review, to what he felt was the excessive thematic attention they and other critics paid to one of his devices: "For myself, I confess that as the author I was much more interested in men than in Robots." [1]
Virtually every encyclopedia or textbook etymology of the word "robot" mentions the play R.U.R. Although the immediate worldwide success of the play immediately popularized the word (supplanting the earlier "automaton"), it was actually not Karel Capek but his brother Josef, also a respected Czech writer, who coined the word. The Czech word robota means "drudgery" or "servitude"; a robotnik is a peasant or serf. Although the term today conjures up images of clanking metal contraptions, Capek's Robots (always capitalized) are more accurately the product of what we would now call genetic engineering. The play describes "kneading troughs" and "vats" for processing a chemical substitute for protoplasm, and a "stamping mill" for forming Robot bodies. A more imaginative and scientifically plausible description of the artificial creation of armies of workers would have to wait for Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932)
Uploaded
October 27th, 2012
Statistics
Viewed 3,224 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/15/2024 at 4:55 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet
Similar Images
Comments (18)
Recently Viewed
