R.U.R. Review

For the past two or three decades, Terminator has seemingly been the go-to reference when people talk about the dangers of AI. I think most people have heard references to and understand "SkyNet" even if they haven't seen any of the Terminator movies. The James Cameron movies were hardly the first to discuss some of the possible negative outcomes of letting computers run everything; even within pop culture, there's more than a few of the original Star Trek episodes that focus on this theme. But Cameron and lead actor Arnold Schwarzenegger did capture many of the key elements of the idea with some very memorable, in many cases downright iconic, moments. And all of the ideas it presents are packaged within a very enjoyable action movie. But again, it's hardly treading any new ground.

I've been nominally aware that the word "robot" dates back about a century to a Czechoslovakian piece. On the handful of times I've tried to look more into it, I would basically only find short summaries about Karel Čapek's play R.U.R. and perhaps some notes about how it was popular for a time in the 1920s, but seemingly fell out of public favor and consciousness. There was always something of an unsaid implication that, beyond the contributing the word "robot" to modern language, there wasn't much note-worthy about the work. Particularly since the the robots of the play are entirely organic creatures, and bear little resemblance to what we think of as robots today.

Which brings us to 2020, the hundredth anniversary of the original play. Kateřina Čupová created a lauded graphic novel adpatation of the work in Czechoslovakia and, now in 2014, it's been translated into English and been published by Rosarium Publishing.

The story starts with Helena looking to gain more information about the Rossum's Universal Robots factory for The League of Humanity. They are concerned about the treatment of the robots and feel they should not be treated as slaves. Director Domin gives her a full tour of the facilities and repeatedly assures her that the robots have no real self-awareness or consciousness as we know it. That they are indeed soulless automotons, no different than a vacuum cleaner or a blender. He goes on to note that any number of visitors -- from missionaries to anarchists -- have tried to convince the robots to rebel, but to no avail. She is unconvinced, but Domin offers to let her stay at the facility and try as long as she likes. Sher ultimately winds up staying ten years, marrying Domin in the process, but seems unable to sway any of the robots.

Eventually, though, one of the robots does "break his programming" so to speak and is able to cause the robots -- all of them -- to rebel. The factory itself has hundreds of thousands of robot workers with less than a dozen actual humans, so the rebellion takes little time and results in the deaths of everyone except Alquist, who offered no resistance. He was largely kept alive because Helena had previously burned all of the notes regarding the robots' construction and they therefore did not have enough details to create more. Without creating new robots, the existing ones will fail within twenty years. While Alquist resists, he notes a spark of real humanity in two robots that are in love and he coerces them to go freely into the world to become the next Adam and Eve.

Quite unlike the previous impression I had been given, Čapek has a LOT to say about life in the 21st century. About robot work, certainly, but also about business, capitalism, humanity, art, technology, society... virtually every aspect of human life. And while there are certainly some elements that are rooted in their time (the blatant sexism against Helena goes as far as her essentially not even having a choice whether or not she wants to marry Domin) there's a lot that directly speaks to 2024. While characters tout various reasons why robots are good -- and some of those reasons even seem sincerely altruistic -- the hubris of the various R.U.R. human employees is what directly leads to their deaths. Alquist is the only one to survive until the end, in part, because he's the only character to have enough perspective to still want to "touch grass" as it were.

I have not seen the original production, so I can't compare Čupová's version against that. But I thought she created a very powerful and moving depiction of the work. It conveys, I think, precisely what Čapek wanted to convey and it does so in a compelling manner. Even with whatever crude costuming and makeup would've been available back in 1920, I expect audiences were blown away by the story even if it were only presented half as well as what is here. From what research I've done for this, many of the interpretations and adapations have retroactively given the robots of R.U.R. a more robotic appearance. But the story clearly does not identify them as mechanical men, but creatures of flesh and blood, and Čupová does indeed emphasize that here, both with her basic character designs but also by use of watercolors and a relatively loose, expressive line. Her art style very much serves to underline the story's entire point, and I commend her for leaning into that.

Čupová's storytelling is solid as well. While there were a couple parts that seemed a little discordant at first glance, the color palettes she uses quickly help identify them as happening somewhat apart from the main narrative. Some of her illustrations, too, are expressly metaphorical, but here again the coloring helps the reader to readily identify these. The only complaint I can really make is the book's production itself -- I found that two separate pages towards the end had been duplicated; a minor production error, but one that did take me out of the story momentarily.

If you are unfamiliar with R.U.R. , as I suspect many of you are, I would highly recommend picking this version up. As far as I'm aware, it's the only comic book version that's been published and it makes for an excellent introduction to this story. The book debuted last month and should be available from all major book sellers. The hardcover retails for $32.99 US.

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