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R. U. R.

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

and not made them well, they imitated humanity so abominably. Hamlet, Act iii, scene 2.

The ultimate problem in Karel Capek's extraordinary play, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) is that the robots created by humanity's journeymen imitated humanity so abominably well.

Written in 1920 and first produced in 1921 RUR opened to critical worldwide acclaim. Although RUR is best remembered for introducing the word robot into the lexicon (the word was coined by Karel's brother and some time collaborator Josef Capek) it is more a somber reflection on humanity than on the emergence of robots.

The play opens on an unnamed island at some point in time after 1920 where lifelike robots are being produced by Rossum's Universal Robots. The officers of the corporation meet a young lady, Helena, who has come to the island on behalf of the League of Humanity, determined to help liberate these robots from the inhumane working conditions that confront them. The executives fill Helena in on the history of the company, particularly the father-son team of Rossums that developed the first robots. Capek makes it a point to describe the difference between the father and the son. The father was a "scientific materialist" whose desire to create an imitation of man grew out of his wish to prove that God was unnecessary. The son thought this was both silly and inefficient and sought nothing more than to produce robots capable of working non-stop.

Each of the following scenes takes place at some unspecified point in the future. The millions of robots produced take on all the industrial and agricultural work performed formerly by men and women. This leads to unintended consequences. First, the lack of necessity (the need to work) in everyday life leads to a few worker revolts. This causes various governments to arm the robots to quell the resulting riots. Further, these governments decide that all future wars will be fought by robots. As one might imagine, a well-trained robot-militia is not conducive to the future health and welfare of the human race. Second, the lack of work and the general lack of purposefulness of life render humans incapable of reproducing.

As the play nears its end, the robots have united and have set out to destroy the human race. Clearly, the robots have learned to think for themselves and as such they have taken on (or evolved into) something that more closely resembles the human race. The fact that the robots behave so abominably does not belie this similarity to their human creators. The problem the robots face is that they do not have the inherent capacity to reproduce (they have a shelf-life a bit shorter than is average for humans) and they have inadvertently destroyed those humans that know how to create more robots. They are faced with extinction just as surely as the humans they have destroyed.

As the play concludes the sole remaining human, Alquist, spots two robots whose clear affection for each other indicates that the robots are about find a means to reproduce without the assistance of the humans who gave them life. This pleases Alquist no end and as the play ends, he `anoints' the robots with his blessing. It is a poignant, jumbled mixture of the creation story (and on the sixth day) and the Song of Simeon (Let us now thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.) The rich irony in this biblical blessing of the new, robotic Adam and Eve brings us to a place dramatically different from the elder Rossum's stated desire to create robots to disprove the existence of God. Alquist's benediction shows man at the height of his humanity and speaks directly to Alduous Huxley's dictum that "the humanity of men and women is inversely proportional to their numbers."

R.U.R. was written at a time when the world was still reeling from the horrors of the First World War, which horrors were magnified by technological advancements that made the killing industry far more efficient than it ever had been in the past. Capek's pessimism must be viewed through that prism. However, it must be noted that Èapek's pessimism was not directed at technology itself. I think his concern was with the unchanging human nature of those who think they control the technology and who direct, for good or ill, its use. In some respects this harkens to the political slogan that "guns don't kill people, people kills people". In this instance and in view of the horrors Capek witnessed first hand, it does not seem inappropriate.

It should be noted that R.U.R. was written 85 years ago and the words Capek wrote were meant to be heard by an audience and not read.. As such, some of the dialogue will sound a bit stilted or dated to the reader. However this bit of apparent aging should not diminish the enjoyment to be derived from reading R.U.R. R.U.R. and Capek' other great dystopian work, War With the Newts are a must read for those interested in some of the early 20th century's most compelling fictional looks into the heart of darkness that is mankind. The introduction by Ivan Klima, a biographer of Capek is noteworthy and adds a great deal of illumination for the reader.

Today Karel Capek's R.U.R. is most famous as the work that introduced the word "robot" (from the Czech word "robit," meaning "work") and for its conceptualization of a bio-mechanical device in human form. Written in 1920, the play startled European audiences, but perhaps had its greatest impact on the New York stage in 1922, where it had particular relevance in the American upward-rush of industrialization of the roaring '20s.

Although the ideas that Capek broached remain extremely influential, the play itself is difficult to evaluate from a modern point of view because in many respects it conforms to then-popular but now outmoded ideas about dramatic structure. Even so, the story of a world gradually consumed and ultimately destroyed through its own technology remains a powerful one--as does the image of the robot, which gradually acquires an unexpected sense of identity and begins to vie with man for domination of the earth.

By and large, plays are written to seen rather than to be read, and this may be particularly true of R.U.R., which proves very difficult to visualize from the page. The seriocomic first act with its emphasis on exposition feels awkward to the modern mind, and the progression of the story has an obvious and awkwardly episodic feel. But it is worth pointing out that if R.U.R. seems obvious to us today, this is because its ideas have been so often used; everything from METROPOLIS to FORBIDDEN PLANET to TERMINATOR, from I ROBOT to RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA has borrowed from it heavily.

Ultimately, the play asks us to consider who will inherit the earth: man or what man has created? Audiences of the 1920s found this an extremely disconcerting question--and if anything, audiences and readers of the present day will find it more disconcerting still. A landmark in theatre history that will interest literary scholars, play-readers, and science fiction fans for generations to come. Assuming, as Capek points out, there are any.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

This science fiction play by the Czechoslovakian writer Karel Capek (1890-1938) introduced the word "robot" (from the Czech word "robota" for work). Any serious student of science fiction should read this play. A factory on an island produces robots (actually, in today's terminology, the products being made by this factory are androids, not robots) to do man's labor and to grow his food. But, as the years go by, governments misuse the robots, having them replace soldiers. Robots begin to be used in wars everywhere. They rebel and man is exterminated. However, the robots don't know how to build new robots and discover that they are doomed to extinction as well. But, the sole two robots of a later model discover beauty, compassion, and love. They become a new Adam and Eve. Interestingly, one of the characters in the play builds robots so that man won't have to work. Yet, he doesn't build any to do his work since it is something he enjoys doing.

I first read this play in the late 1940's when I was in High School. The author died in 1938 at about the time Turing was "inventing" the Turing Machine. Perhaps the author intended this work as a parable about Bolshevism, but the steady growth of the computer makes it read today like a straight-forward prophecy which will come true in about 50 more years. The technology projected is all wrong in the details, of course, but it is fun to read today and draw the parallels and differences.

Looking for the first appearance of the word 'robot'? Look no further! Czech author Karel Kapek coined the term in this classic play. It is not only the first appearance of the word 'robot', (though, not the first appearance of a mechanical man), it is also a great sciene fiction story (although 'science fiction' was not a widely used term at the time).
Essentially, the story surrounds a manufacturing company that makes robots, and continues to make them in mass quantities even with the looming suspicion they are out of control. The robots revolt, and humanity is all but destroyed and replaced.
Very humorous and biting satire, R.U.R. should satisfy virtually any taste for a well written piece of fiction. Essential for sci-fi fans, and this edition, printed beautifully by Dover, at a very small price, is well worth obtaining ownership and then some!

This is a very lean version, with some characters being removed or merged with other characters. Whole sections of original dialogue have been removed, or at best, changed. Avoid this version like a robot plague.

Man-made men have been in the imagination since man first made anything at all - there were golems and many others. Rossum's Universal Robots were the first robots to be called by that name, though. It's a name that stuck, and stuck in the world's imagination.

This story stands well next to Shelley's "Frankenstein." It's about the made thing that was made too closely in the maker's image. Shelley's story is about intellectual hubris, but Capek's is a bit closer to home. It's about financial hubris, about the dividend above all else, and about what a life is worth - $150, including clothing, plus shipping.

R. U. R. is in the form of a play, which always slows my reading. It's very short, though, and perhaps a bit over-wrought. I guess that packing so much emotional response into such a short script tends to leave that feeling, though. It's also interesting to note that the one visible woman was the downfall of this technological Eden, even if the somehat interchangeable men had been nurturing the apple tree before she got there.

This is a brief story, very readable, and very much to the point for anyone who works with technology. There's always that question, or there should be: what if this one really works?

//wiredweird

Apart from the quality of the play, the Kindle edition of this product is in the original Czech, but claims to be in English.

This play is an excellent commentary on globalization that is still valid today. Consider the following segment of conversation that occurs when Helena Glory first meets Harry Domin, the general manager of the robot factory:

Domin: "What sort of worker do you think is the best from a practical point of view?"

Helena: "Perhaps the one who is most honest and hardworking."

Domin: "No; the one that is the cheapest."

This was probably a cutting insight in 1922 when RUR appeared on Broadway. Colonialism was then at its peak but the citizens of Europe and America believed that their superior wealth was due to cultural values of honesty and hard work.

It is also interesting to see that the same story which introduced the word "robot" to the English language introduced the theme of robots running amok by refusing to obey humans. Sharing this theme (as well as minor details like the production capacity of exactly 1,000 robots per day), the recent movie "I, Robot" directed by Alex Proyas bears more resemblance to "RUR" than to Isaac Asimov's stories.

Despite the superb satire and historical significance, I rate "RUR" only as 3 because the plot and character development are unsophisticated by today's standards.

This is a really good play but most reviewers miss the fact that in the play, the robots are not mechanical or androids but genetically engineered from a "protoplasm". I think this really addresses some of the issues today, especially stem cell research.