L'Eve future (Tomorrow's Eve) (scan of original french language text) comte Auguste de Villiers de L'Isle-Adam (1838-1889) (Gallica, biblioth�que num�rique de la Biblioth�que nationale de France). In L'eve future, a fictional Thomas Edison creates an android replica of a woman, Alicia, for his friend Lord Ewald. An interesting parallel is noted in the book Living Dolls by Gaby Wood; Edison actually made a talking doll with a miniature phonograph in its chest cavity in the year Villiers died, 1889.
The Sandman (1815) by E.T.A. Hoffmann, an english translation from the original german "Der Sandman". This story served as the basis for the ballet �Copp�lia� by Arthur Saint-L�on (choreography) premiered on May 25, 1870 at the Th��tre Imp�rial de l'Op�ra (Paris Opera). The Sandman story inspired "The Tales of Hoffmann" ("Les Contes d'Hoffmann") an opera by Jacques Offenbach. "The Tales of Hoffmann" premiered on February 10, 1881 at the Op�ra Comique, Paris. Sadly, Offenbach didn't live to see his opera performed; he died on October 5, 1880.
Pygmalion & Galatea in Ovid's epic poem "Metamorphoses" adapted from Greek mythology. Pygmalion, a sculptor living on the island of Cyprus (also the birthplace of Aphrodite), creates a statute of Galatea.
"Pygmalion had seen them, spending their lives in wickedness, and, offended by the failings that nature gave the female heart, he lived as a bachelor, without a wife or partner for his bed. But, with wonderful skill, he carved a figure, brilliantly, out of snow-white ivory, no mortal woman, and fell in love with his own creation. The features are those of a real girl, who, you might think, lived, and wished to move, if modesty did not forbid it. Indeed, art hides his art."
After praying to the goddess Aphrodite at a festival, his sculpture is transformed into a real woman. The stage play "Pygmalion", written in 1916 by Bernard Shaw (1856�1950), was based on this myth. This play does not involve a statue but rather the transformation of a common woman into a lady. Pygmalionism is an erotic attraction to statues. An odd twist on Pygmalionism occured in 1931 at Key West, Florida. A radiologist, 56 year old Carl von Cosel, fell in love with 22 year old Maria, a patient at the sanitorium where he worked. After Maria died, von Cosel hid her body in his home. Over the next seven years he kept the body repaired with piano wire, wax and rags. Read the full story here
The Golem a page of links to different aspect of the literary golem. A golem is an artificial being, first mentioned in the Talmud, and a literary tradition in Kabbalistic lore. In one version of the golem legend, Rabi L�w (Judah Loew ben Bezalel 1513-1609) of Prague (Czech Republic, central Europe) creates a golem to protect the Jewish community. Some versions of the golem story have sexual overtones when the daughter of the rabbi who created the golem falls in love with the creature. The golem legend also appears in popular culture. The TV series The X-Files has a golem episode Kaddish as does the "The Simpsons" in "You Got to Know When to Golem". Side note: Gerald Jay Sussman, a researcher in Artificial Intelligence and a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), dedicated his doctoral thesis to Rabi L�w. Source: "God in the Machine" by Anne Foerst, Plume, 2005.
List of fictional robots and androids from the movies, television, comics from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Images and links.
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley. Written around 1816 it is the archetype of the Victorian Gothic novel. The industrial revolution and research into electricity (Faraday, Galvani, Volta, Amp�re and Ohm were active around this time) undoubtedly played a part in the theme of the novel (Galvani had discovered that electrical current would animate frog muscles). Frankenstein raises questions about science that are more relevant today than when the novel was written. Are there ethical limits to scientific research? What are the consequences of creating artificial beings? Frankenstein is available from Project Gutenberg in plain text, see link above.
Metropolis (1927) by Thea Von Harbou (1888-1954). Classic android novel, made into a movie of the same name by Von Harbou's husband, German director Fritz Lang (1890-1976). Here is an excerpt from the novel. (a description of the android when Joh Fredersen, Master of Metropolis, first sees it)
The being was, indubitably, a woman. In the soft garment which it wore stood a body, like the body of a young birch tree, swaying on feet set fast together. But, although it was a woman, it was not human. The body seemed as though made of crystal, through which the bones shone silver. Cold streamed from the glazen skin which did not contain a drop of blood. The being held its beautiful hands pressed against its breast, which was motionless, with a gesture of determination, almost of defiance.
The text of this novel is in HTML format from Project Gutenberg of Australia.
Victorian-era Robots featuring the exploits of boy inventor and world traveller Frank Reade. Reade was the protagonist in dime novels (beginning in 1876) by Harry Enton (1854-1927) which featured a steam-powered robot and later an electric robot. An earlier author, Edward S. Ellis (1840-1916) wrote novels about fictional inventor Johnny Brainerd and his steam man. Here is an excerpt from "The Steam Man of the Prairies" published in 1865
Perhaps at this point a description of the singular mechanism should be given. It was about ten feet in hight, measuring to the top of the 'stove-pipe hat,' which was fashioned after the common order of felt coverings, with a broad brim, all painted a shiny black. The face was made of iron, painted a black color, with a pair of fearful eves, and a tremendous grinning mouth. A whistle-like contrivance was made to answer for the nose. The steam chest proper and boiler, were where the chest in a human being is generally supposed to be, extending also into a large knapsack arrangement over the shoulders and back. A pair of arms, like projections, held the shafts, and the broad flat feet were covered with sharp spikes, as though he were the monarch of base-ball players. The legs were quite long, and the step was natural, except when running, at which time, the bolt uprightness in the figure showed different from a human being.
The full text is available from Project Gutenberg at "The Huge Hunter; OR, The Steam Man of the Prairies" by Edward S. Ellis.