R.U.R. (Rossum's universal robots)

84 pages

English language

Published Nov. 3, 2004 by Penguin Books.

ISBN:: 978-0-14-118208-7
OCLC Number:: 52895643

(1 review)

Written in 1920, premiered in Prague in 1921, and first performed in New York in 1922—garnered worldwide acclaim for its author and popularized the word robot. Mass-produced as efficient laborers to serve man, Capek’s Robots are an android product—they remember everything but think of nothing new. But the Utopian life they provide ultimately lacks meaning, and the humans they serve stop reproducing. When the Robots revolt, killing all but one of their masters, they must strain to learn the secret of self-duplication. It is not until two Robots fall in love and are christened “Adam” and “Eve” by the last surviving human that Nature emerges triumphant.

7 editions

KathyReid@bookwyrm.social reviewed R.U.R. (Rossum's universal robots) by Karel Čapek (Penguin classics)

Review of "R.U.R. (Rossum's universal robots)" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This dystopian landmark challenges our notions of what it means to be human, the value of labour and the creation of meaning through struggle and suffering.

While not explicitly Marxist in outlook, it echoes principles put forward by Paulo Freire around the education of oppressed populations. Čapek resolves this tension not with a new relationship between student and teacher, but by eradicating the human race, encouraging us to go back to the beginning of the lesson.

Gender roles are challenged directly, which was prescient given the year in which the book was written - 1920 Czechoslovakia, bordering newly-Bolshevik Russia - which the only female lead of the play at first being portrayed as beautiful, as engaging, but devoid of intellectual power. Čapek challenges us to consider these as uniquely human traits, contrasting with the efficiency and strength and stamina of Rossum's Universal Robots. Ultimately it is the female protagonist - …

This dystopian landmark challenges our notions of what it means to be human, the value of labour and the creation of meaning through struggle and suffering.

While not explicitly Marxist in outlook, it echoes principles put forward by Paulo Freire around the education of oppressed populations. Čapek resolves this tension not with a new relationship between student and teacher, but by eradicating the human race, encouraging us to go back to the beginning of the lesson.

Gender roles are challenged directly, which was prescient given the year in which the book was written - 1920 Czechoslovakia, bordering newly-Bolshevik Russia - which the only female lead of the play at first being portrayed as beautiful, as engaging, but devoid of intellectual power. Čapek challenges us to consider these as uniquely human traits, contrasting with the efficiency and strength and stamina of Rossum's Universal Robots. Ultimately it is the female protagonist - Helena - who takes the fateful action that resets humanity's path.