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  • Re: "The Czech Play That Gave Us the Word =?iso-8859-7?B?oVJvYm90og==?=

    From Charles Packer@21:1/5 to Lenona on Sat Jan 20 08:57:55 2024
    On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:55:17 -0800, Lenona wrote:

    https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-czech-play-that-gave-us-the-word-
    robot?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

    "Karel Čapek's play 'R.U.R.' premiered in January 1921. Its influence
    cannot be overstated."

    MIT Press Reader

    By John M. Jordan

    By the time his play “R.U.R.” (which stands for “Rossum’s Universal
    Robots”) premiered in Prague in 1921, Karel Čapek was a well-known
    Czech intellectual. Like many of his peers, he was appalled by the
    carnage wrought by the mechanical and chemical weapons that marked
    World War I as a departure from previous combat. He was also deeply
    skeptical of the utopian notions of science and technology. “The
    product of the human brain has escaped the control of human hands,”
    Čapek told the London Saturday Review following the play’s premiere.
    “This is the comedy of science.”

    In that same interview, Čapek reflected on the origin of one of the
    play’s characters...


    (snip)



    I see in the newspaper archives that the play got a big boost
    in September 1922 by having its first American performance
    mentioned in "New York Letter," a nationally syndicated
    gossip column by Lucy Jeanne Price.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Ted Nolan @21:1/5 to mailbox@cpacker.org on Sat Jan 20 18:33:15 2024
    In article <nWLqN.67676$GX69.6058@fx46.iad>,
    Charles Packer <mailbox@cpacker.org> wrote:
    On Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:55:17 -0800, Lenona wrote:

    https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-czech-play-that-gave-us-the-word- >robot?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

    "Karel Čapek's play 'R.U.R.' premiered in January 1921. Its influence
    cannot be overstated."

    MIT Press Reader

    By John M. Jordan

    By the time his play “R.U.R.” (which stands for “Rossum’s Universal >> Robots”) premiered in Prague in 1921, Karel Čapek was a well-known
    Czech intellectual. Like many of his peers, he was appalled by the
    carnage wrought by the mechanical and chemical weapons that marked
    World War I as a departure from previous combat. He was also deeply
    skeptical of the utopian notions of science and technology. “The
    product of the human brain has escaped the control of human hands,”
    Čapek told the London Saturday Review following the play’s premiere.
    “This is the comedy of science.”

    In that same interview, Čapek reflected on the origin of one of the
    play’s characters...


    (snip)



    I see in the newspaper archives that the play got a big boost
    in September 1922 by having its first American performance
    mentioned in "New York Letter," a nationally syndicated
    gossip column by Lucy Jeanne Price.

    I was aware of the play, though I have never seen or read it. I think it
    had a big influence on early SF. Van Vogt in particular, seemed to go with Capek-like robots rather than the clanky kind.
    --
    columbiaclosings.com
    What's not in Columbia anymore..

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)