david_rhee 's review for:

R.U.R. by Karel Čapek

3.0

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Someone at church randomly told me about a 1923 Czech play about robots. Apparently, that play is the origin of the word "robot" (so does that make "robot" a Czech word?). I don't know how it came up in conversation, but I didn't need any more reasons to go hunting for a copy. One would expect the robots in a 1923 play to be of the boxy metallic clunky type, however, they were of fleshy exterior and human enough to be mistaken for real people. The reader finds out quickly R.U.R. is more than just science fiction but also a historical dystopian with a philosophical feel where observed social and economic trends are extrapolated to their projected endpoints. There's the age-old theme of the created usurping the creator and the phenomenon of decreasing labor costs driving down the price of goods (...uh yeah, about that...). Predictable? Remember, this was in 1923. R.U.R. is a surprisingly gripping play with a timely tension release in a hilarious epilogue. All in all, it has enough in it to be a pleasant change of pace in one's reading but also its own unique charm to secure its own place in literary memory.