R.U.R.(Rossum's Universal Robots, Capek, 1920)

Review
(in full R.U.R.: Rossum's Universal Robots) Drama in three acts by Karel Capek, published in 1920 and performed in 1921. This cautionary play, for which Capek invented the word "robot" (derived from the Czech word for forced labor), involves a scientist named Rossum who discovers the secret of creating humanlike machines. He establishes a factory to produce and distribute these mechanisms worldwide. Another scientist decides to make the robots more human, which he does by gradually adding such traits as the capacity to feel pain. Years later, the robots, who were created to serve humans, have come to dominate them completely. --

xi R.U.R. presented a theme extremely unusual for its time: an artificial human being, a brilliant worker, a Robot deprived of all "unnecessary" qualities: feelings, creativity, and the capacity for feeling pain. In R.U.R., Robots gradually take over all the work and duties of people... Capek asked what such a revolutionary invention would do to humanity.

xviii But no matter what his original intention in writing R.U.R. may have been, audiences and critics alike were fascinated by the idea of an artificial human, and by the consequences of this revolutionary - and still quite fantastic - invention.

p.14 HELENA: You're a lunatic!

DOMIN: People should be a little loony, Helena. That's the best thing about them.

p.27 NANA: Yeah, yeah. I'm telling you, churning out these machine-made dummies is against the will of God... Such blasphemy is against the will of the creator... Heaven'll send down a terrible punishment - remember that - a terrible punishment!

p.44 DOMIN: Boys, precision is a splendid thing. Nothing refreshes the soul like precision. Precision denotes order in the universe. [He raises his glass.] To precision!

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