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fynie's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
trin's review against another edition
3.0
This is the play that coined the term “robot.” It’s a (now) fairly standard dystopian/apocalyptic scenario, most interesting at this point as an artifact. I’m glad I read it, though.
sidharthvardhan's review
5.0
This is the book that introduced concept of robots. And the play seems to get a lot of things about dynamics involved right too, and surprisingly right. It is criticism of result and productivity centered approach that seems to have taken over the world ever since industrial revolution:
" From a technical point of view, the whole of childhood is quite pointless. Simply a waste of time."
Or
" He took a good look at the human body and he saw straight away that it was much too complicated, any good engineer would design it much more simply."
Or
"Man is a being that does things such as feeling happiness, plays the violin, likes to go for a walk, and all sorts of other things which are simply not needed."
The people that are too sure of themselves to say things like that are such because they believe in one and only one value (in this case productivity, in Hitler's case it was imagined superiority of Aryan race). And thus they are wrong.
The Best part for me though is Helena's reaction. We develop compassion to things or people in proportion of how much they are like us - their physical similarity seems to imply that they must have similar feelings too. We are more compassionate to humans than animals, to mammals than insects etc. And thus, Helena can't understand that a machine that looks so much like a human doesn't have emotions.
Now, politicians know it best. That is why they must create or emphasize already existing artificial categories - race, caste, class, sex, rationality, religion etc. The R.U.R. knows it too and uses it to keep robots from getting united.
"... each factory will produce robots of a different colour, different hair, different language. The robots will be strangers to each other, they'll never be able to understand what the other says; and we, we humans, we'll train them so that each robot will hate the robots from another factory all its life, all through to the grave, all through all eternity."
Read Glenn's review.
" From a technical point of view, the whole of childhood is quite pointless. Simply a waste of time."
Or
" He took a good look at the human body and he saw straight away that it was much too complicated, any good engineer would design it much more simply."
Or
"Man is a being that does things such as feeling happiness, plays the violin, likes to go for a walk, and all sorts of other things which are simply not needed."
The people that are too sure of themselves to say things like that are such because they believe in one and only one value (in this case productivity, in Hitler's case it was imagined superiority of Aryan race). And thus they are wrong.
The Best part for me though is Helena's reaction. We develop compassion to things or people in proportion of how much they are like us - their physical similarity seems to imply that they must have similar feelings too. We are more compassionate to humans than animals, to mammals than insects etc. And thus, Helena can't understand that a machine that looks so much like a human doesn't have emotions.
Now, politicians know it best. That is why they must create or emphasize already existing artificial categories - race, caste, class, sex, rationality, religion etc. The R.U.R. knows it too and uses it to keep robots from getting united.
"... each factory will produce robots of a different colour, different hair, different language. The robots will be strangers to each other, they'll never be able to understand what the other says; and we, we humans, we'll train them so that each robot will hate the robots from another factory all its life, all through to the grave, all through all eternity."
Read Glenn's review.
veronika1235's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
welshmartian's review
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
carrotsoup's review against another edition
dark
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
cmelnel's review against another edition
miluji karla capka celym srdcem ale bohuzel musim konstatovat ze rur je jeho nejslabsi prace je mi lito muselo to byt receno neznam vic overrated knizku
c_youssef's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
millaisofelia's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
funny
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
nocteconsilium's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75