Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
and, in some cases, the general ethos of a technological society. For writ-
ers with a humanities background the authorial voice is invariably criti-
cal, usually satirical, as in the prototypical work on robots, Karel Čapek's
R.U.R
. (1921). On the other hand, the robot stories by writers who have
come to fiction from a career in science are usually markedly different in
tone. Isaac Asimov's robots, for example, are the heroes of the stories in
which they appear, being 'morally' as well as intellectually superior to
the flawed human characters whom they so devotedly serve.
12
Specters of mechanism continued to haunt twentieth-century horror
films. Apart from the many versions of
Frankenstein
,
The Cabinet of
Doctor Caligari
(1919),
Dr Cyclops
(1940) and the three film versions of
Wells'
The Island of Doctor Moreau
13
, the Romantic condemnation of
rationalism and mechanism finds expression in numerous details. For ex-
ample, we should
know
from film conventions that Dr Strangelove
(1963) is suspect because his withered hand and his motorized wheel-
chair mark him as being cut off from Nature, just as, in medieval times,
physical ugliness was believed to indicate the moral imperfection of al-
leged witches.
(v) The alchemist figure is often also an idealist, intense, highly moti-
vated, and focused totally on his quest to transcend the human condition.
Frankenstein is the heir of Baconian optimism and Enlightenment confi-
dence that everything can ultimately be known and that such knowledge
will inevitably have a beneficial outcome. Deterred by M. Krempe's em-
phasis on the daily grind of chemistry, he responds ecstatically to M.
Waldman who, in language reverberating with biblical echoes, claims for
modern chemistry supremacy over other branches of knowledge because
12
Asimov's robots have spawned a lucrative progeny of 'cute', harmless robot charac-
ters, popularized in films, such as the R
2-
D
2
and C-3PO models of
Star Wars
(1977).
Like E.T., these robots are essentially novel pets with just enough initiative to make
the games interesting but always, in the long run, deferential to their humans. In some
ways, the complacency they generate could be regarded as the most sinister response
of all.
13
The Island of Lost Souls
(1933) directed by Erle Kenton and starring Charles Laugh-
ton as Doctor Moreau;
The Island of Doctor Moreau
(1977) directed by Don Taylor
and starring Burt Lancaster as Doctor Moreau;
The Island of Doctor Moreau
(1996)
directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Marlon Brando.
