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R.U.R. and The Insect Play
Josef and Karel Capek were the best known literary figures of liberated Czechoslovakia after 1918. Josef won a considerable reputation as a painter of the Cubist school, later developing his own playful primitive style. He collaborated with his brother in composing sketches, stories, and plays, as well as writing two short novels of his own and critical essays in which he defended the art of the unconscious, of children, and of savages. Following Hitler's invasion of 1939, Josef Capek was sent to a German concentration camp. He died at Belsen in April 1945.
Karel Capek became a journalist and for a time stage manager of the theatre in Vinohrady. Though a writer of novels, visionary romances, travel books, stories , and essays, Karel is best known for his plays. His last plays, written just before the entry of Hitler into Czechoslovakia, deal with the rise of dictatorship and the terrible consequences of war. Karel Capek died on Christmas day, 1938.
After the success of R.U.R. ( Rossums' Universal Robots , 1920) seen in London in 1923, the brothers collaborated in their best-known work, The Insect Play (1921). Both plays are satires depicting the horrors of a regimented technical world and the terrible end of the populace if they fail to rise against their oppressors. They reflect the world in which the Capeks lived and give a commentary on its grosser follies.
Karel Capek became a journalist and for a time stage manager of the theatre in Vinohrady. Though a writer of novels, visionary romances, travel books, stories , and essays, Karel is best known for his plays. His last plays, written just before the entry of Hitler into Czechoslovakia, deal with the rise of dictatorship and the terrible consequences of war. Karel Capek died on Christmas day, 1938.
After the success of R.U.R. ( Rossums' Universal Robots , 1920) seen in London in 1923, the brothers collaborated in their best-known work, The Insect Play (1921). Both plays are satires depicting the horrors of a regimented technical world and the terrible end of the populace if they fail to rise against their oppressors. They reflect the world in which the Capeks lived and give a commentary on its grosser follies.
188 pages, Paperback
First published December 31, 1961
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About the author
Josef Čapek
103 books16 followersJosef Čapek was a Czech artist, writer and poet and brother to author Karel Čapek. Josef Čapek was a student of Cubism, which combined with his own playful style, exhibited a primitive note in his paintings. Josef Čapek collaborated with his brother on numerous occasions, which produced many plays and short stories. Josef Čapek is also famous for penning the Czech children’s classic Doggie and Pussycat. Although his brother Karel is usually noted as the man who coined the word Robot, it was actually Josef; Karel introduced the word Robot into literature. Due to his and his brother’s negative attitude towards Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Regime, Josef was arrested shortly after the German invasion in 1939, and was sent to the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp where he died in 1945. While in Bergen-Belsen he wrote a collection called Poems from a Concentration Camp.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
September 13, 2023
La obra de Capek gira en torno a la sátira social, un poco pesimista respecto al destino de la humanidad, pero con mucho tino y sentido del humor. Esto se aprecia claramente en los dos escritos contenidos en este libro, y que el autor perfeccionaría aún más en su obra maestra, "La guerra de las salamandras".
En "R.U.R." asistimos a la génesis del robot como tal, pero el concepto es lo de menos, ya que en pocos diálogos expone toda la problemática social, laboral, económica y moral que implican estas célebres creaciones, adelantándose a miles de argumentos futuros de novelas, comics o películas. Un genio este checo.
"El juego de los insectos" es otra burla a la humanidad, donde diferentes insectos van representando diferentes tipos de hombres, exacerbando vicios sobre virtudes, resultando paralelismos de lo más ingeniosos, divertidos y con un poso filosófico brillante.
Muy recomendable lectura.
En "R.U.R." asistimos a la génesis del robot como tal, pero el concepto es lo de menos, ya que en pocos diálogos expone toda la problemática social, laboral, económica y moral que implican estas célebres creaciones, adelantándose a miles de argumentos futuros de novelas, comics o películas. Un genio este checo.
"El juego de los insectos" es otra burla a la humanidad, donde diferentes insectos van representando diferentes tipos de hombres, exacerbando vicios sobre virtudes, resultando paralelismos de lo más ingeniosos, divertidos y con un poso filosófico brillante.
Muy recomendable lectura.
May 4, 2014
R. U. R. introduced the German word robot (derived, according to the third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, from the “Czech robota, [meaning] forced labour, drudgery”) to the English language in its modern sense as a manufactured slave. Originally it referred to the form of serfdom abolished by the Austrian Empire in 1848. The playwright’s brother Josef suggested the use of the word.
The inventor Rossum discovered a way to chemically create living matter. He had a theological point about God and humanity that he wanted to make, but his son had a more practical use for the robots: cheap labor. So after the old man passed away full scale production of the new emotionless and obedient serfs began on a remote island. When the play opens Helena, an agent of the Humanity League has come to argue with the General Manager of the Company Harry Domain to grant the robots, as synthetic humans, some human rights. Domain laughs at the idea and brings in his whole management team—five other men—to explain to this naïve, idealistic young woman, how the emotionless, fearless, and simple minded machines, who exist only to work, have no interest in “rights.” And because of this all humanity will be relived of the burden of work, a utopia of leisure is about to dawn.
But do the managers send Helena off the island on the next boat? Oh no! She’s the only human young woman on the island, everybody else, except these six men, are robots. Having had enough of batching it, they all fall in love with her, and Domain proposes marriage. As act two open the audience realizes that Helena has accepted the proposal, it’s now several years in the future and all the humans are planning to escape the island. Helena had convinced Dr. Gall, the factory’s chief physiologist to tinker with the robots, to give them emotion and make them more human. As a result the nightmare of every slave owner from antiquity to pre-Civil War America has occurred: the robots are in revolt. “The judgment hour has come.”
In The Insect Play a semi-sober tramp in a park observes, and comments upon, three groups of insects, butterflies, “creepers and crawlers,” and ants. The butterflies flit about flirting, and absorbed in romantic love, some playfully, some pining with unconsummated desire and some callously. The creepers and crawlers are all about looking out for #1, amassing capital, preying on others, and rejoicing when they can profit from another’s misfortune. The tramp concludes that all this self-centeredness, whether for love or profit, is why humans rule the world and not insects.
“Insec’s won’t work together. Man
Will. ‘E can form a general plan.
There’s something great in ‘im what fights
And perishes for the nation’s rights.
…
I’ve ‘it it! That’s what makes men great—
Given’ their lives up for the State!”
Then in come the ants, and they’re all work, collective consciousness for all. Except, of course for the other ant hill with whom they’re about to go to war. The war followed by a general massacre ensues, and the tramp is left pondering the futility of life.
The inventor Rossum discovered a way to chemically create living matter. He had a theological point about God and humanity that he wanted to make, but his son had a more practical use for the robots: cheap labor. So after the old man passed away full scale production of the new emotionless and obedient serfs began on a remote island. When the play opens Helena, an agent of the Humanity League has come to argue with the General Manager of the Company Harry Domain to grant the robots, as synthetic humans, some human rights. Domain laughs at the idea and brings in his whole management team—five other men—to explain to this naïve, idealistic young woman, how the emotionless, fearless, and simple minded machines, who exist only to work, have no interest in “rights.” And because of this all humanity will be relived of the burden of work, a utopia of leisure is about to dawn.
But do the managers send Helena off the island on the next boat? Oh no! She’s the only human young woman on the island, everybody else, except these six men, are robots. Having had enough of batching it, they all fall in love with her, and Domain proposes marriage. As act two open the audience realizes that Helena has accepted the proposal, it’s now several years in the future and all the humans are planning to escape the island. Helena had convinced Dr. Gall, the factory’s chief physiologist to tinker with the robots, to give them emotion and make them more human. As a result the nightmare of every slave owner from antiquity to pre-Civil War America has occurred: the robots are in revolt. “The judgment hour has come.”
In The Insect Play a semi-sober tramp in a park observes, and comments upon, three groups of insects, butterflies, “creepers and crawlers,” and ants. The butterflies flit about flirting, and absorbed in romantic love, some playfully, some pining with unconsummated desire and some callously. The creepers and crawlers are all about looking out for #1, amassing capital, preying on others, and rejoicing when they can profit from another’s misfortune. The tramp concludes that all this self-centeredness, whether for love or profit, is why humans rule the world and not insects.
“Insec’s won’t work together. Man
Will. ‘E can form a general plan.
There’s something great in ‘im what fights
And perishes for the nation’s rights.
…
I’ve ‘it it! That’s what makes men great—
Given’ their lives up for the State!”
Then in come the ants, and they’re all work, collective consciousness for all. Except, of course for the other ant hill with whom they’re about to go to war. The war followed by a general massacre ensues, and the tramp is left pondering the futility of life.
July 21, 2010
I'm far more enamored of the ideas of the two plays contained here than of the scripts themselves. Whether that's due to Capek's writing or shoddy translations, I don't know. I take a little solace in the fact that the beloved Isaac Asimov had a similar reaction, giving credit to Capek for introducing the word "Robot" into the mainstream with his play "R.U.R." while still admitting that the play itself is rubbish.
Big chunks of "R.U.R." are rubbish. Produced in the 1920's, the play is filled with what modern audiences would consider silly characterizations of science and biology, borderline offensive gender stereotypes, and a narrow scope that doesn't make nearly enough room for the huge ideas its trying to illucidate. But the ideas themselves are good ones. Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein' over 100 years before Capek wrote "R.U.R.", and though he tells a similar tale of man's scientific creation run amok, he actually adds a myriad of motivations for why human's would want to create their Robots, whether it be greed, scientific curiosity, attaining godlike powers, or for the wellfare of mankind. The problem is Capek's script doesn't possess anything resembling subtly of Shelly's prose. Just endless, repetitive melodrama spouting from hysterical women and cadish men.
I checked, and the Czech Republic's public domain laws kick in at 70 years after the author's death. Karel Capek died in 1938. "R.U.R." has been in the public domain for 2 years now. I'm seriously tempted to sit down and rewrite the damn thing.
As for "The Insect Play", co-written with his brother, Joseph Kapek, it's much more jaunty and fun, but with similarly pessimistic undertones. Essentially, a jovial Tramp eavesdrops on the insect world and compares their lives to those of men. Man's greed explored via the Dung Beetle, his fickleness in love via the lives of Butterflies, and so forth. Its far less melodramatic than the Robot play, and builds nicely to a dark yet touching finale.
As a middle school theater director, I'm tasked each year with finding multiple scripts appropriate for my kids. I've grown a bit tired of directing shows geared specifically toward teenagers, and have started branching out to some more advanced material. As they relate to the kids I work with (who are a pretty whip-smart crowd when given interesting text to chew on) I think either of these shows have potential. I just wish "R.U.R." were better written, because its ideas are exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.
Big chunks of "R.U.R." are rubbish. Produced in the 1920's, the play is filled with what modern audiences would consider silly characterizations of science and biology, borderline offensive gender stereotypes, and a narrow scope that doesn't make nearly enough room for the huge ideas its trying to illucidate. But the ideas themselves are good ones. Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein' over 100 years before Capek wrote "R.U.R.", and though he tells a similar tale of man's scientific creation run amok, he actually adds a myriad of motivations for why human's would want to create their Robots, whether it be greed, scientific curiosity, attaining godlike powers, or for the wellfare of mankind. The problem is Capek's script doesn't possess anything resembling subtly of Shelly's prose. Just endless, repetitive melodrama spouting from hysterical women and cadish men.
I checked, and the Czech Republic's public domain laws kick in at 70 years after the author's death. Karel Capek died in 1938. "R.U.R." has been in the public domain for 2 years now. I'm seriously tempted to sit down and rewrite the damn thing.
As for "The Insect Play", co-written with his brother, Joseph Kapek, it's much more jaunty and fun, but with similarly pessimistic undertones. Essentially, a jovial Tramp eavesdrops on the insect world and compares their lives to those of men. Man's greed explored via the Dung Beetle, his fickleness in love via the lives of Butterflies, and so forth. Its far less melodramatic than the Robot play, and builds nicely to a dark yet touching finale.
As a middle school theater director, I'm tasked each year with finding multiple scripts appropriate for my kids. I've grown a bit tired of directing shows geared specifically toward teenagers, and have started branching out to some more advanced material. As they relate to the kids I work with (who are a pretty whip-smart crowd when given interesting text to chew on) I think either of these shows have potential. I just wish "R.U.R." were better written, because its ideas are exactly the kind of thing I'm looking for.
May 24, 2014
The book consists of two short plays. Just about the sole reason anyone's ever heard of them is that the Capeks (in R.U.R.) introduce to our consciousness and language the word "robot". Otherwise, there's not much here.
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May 27, 2025delightful! funny, and has this delightful gothic twist to me, with this woman coming to an island of fucked up guys and being kept there (semi-consensually?) for ten years while they hide the truth from her; and my fav trope which is mad scientists doing v dumb things that are defo gonna bite them in the ass. it always surprises me how many ideas were established from the outset for works that define/started a genre (like neuromancer). we got androids who are indistinguishable from humans, and we got both the hubris-of-man-over-god scientist and the rampant greedy capitalist scientist too.
the robots are a fordist nightmare of stripped down humanity (they remove all the "inefficient parts"); they're also a symbol of worker solidarity from the perspective of the elite. aside from Helena's nurse, all the humans are of what we would now call the professional-managerial class; their fears in the penultimate act of the workers outnumbering them 100 to 1, of being in control of all factories/boats/mail/etc., and of being one united mass undivided by race are the fears of a capitalist controlling class over the workers. it was crazy prescient that Capek even predicted that the roboticists were looking forward to the revolution, and prepared for it by building an ark just for them to hang out in and wait for the whole thing to blow over. it was also crazy prescient that he includes a back and forth where Domain (head of the factory) predicts a world where robots do everything for humanity and everyone lives happily: "it's bound to happen. there maybe be some terrible doings first ... that simply can't be avoided". this "its bound to happen" goes crazy; science and progress hallucinated as a force of nature that humans don't have control over is a damaging framework that has echoed for 100 years since. alquist's reply that "there was something good in service ... some kind of virtue in toil and weariness" i think speaks to how working and being a worker is part of being human.
however, the robots are ambiguous; their revolution is not a happy one; they cannot reproduce (humans also start to become infertile (or stop having sex?) as the ubiquity of robot workers/servants grows) - they are missing some human part, and their use by humans is reducing some human part in the human population as well. when Helena questions Gladius about why he won't work / malfunctions, he says he is superior to man, that man is superfluous, and that he wants to be a master, not a worker. the only hint we get to the motivation for their rebellion is the instruction to destroy everything but preserve the factories, as work must continue. by being a product of Fordist efficiency, capitalist greed, and slavery the robot revolution appears to recapitulate the ideals of their creators - of efficiency and domination.
so the whole thing gets tied a little too neatly in the final act, in that the last human, Alquist, identifies and christens the robot Helena and Primus as the new Adam and Eve. this is because these two robots fall in love and are willing to die for one another. though a little too pat, i do think oppositions in this play -- humanity and robot are BOTH inhuman by the end because of their focus on work, production, domination; it requires a board wipe and for someone to rediscover joy, love, sacrifice -- are neat. that being said i guess the socialist struggle session critique is that there is something misanthropic at the heart of killing everyone and starting anew as the way to fix corporate greed and human domination. anyway great play, read it!
the robots are a fordist nightmare of stripped down humanity (they remove all the "inefficient parts"); they're also a symbol of worker solidarity from the perspective of the elite. aside from Helena's nurse, all the humans are of what we would now call the professional-managerial class; their fears in the penultimate act of the workers outnumbering them 100 to 1, of being in control of all factories/boats/mail/etc., and of being one united mass undivided by race are the fears of a capitalist controlling class over the workers. it was crazy prescient that Capek even predicted that the roboticists were looking forward to the revolution, and prepared for it by building an ark just for them to hang out in and wait for the whole thing to blow over. it was also crazy prescient that he includes a back and forth where Domain (head of the factory) predicts a world where robots do everything for humanity and everyone lives happily: "it's bound to happen. there maybe be some terrible doings first ... that simply can't be avoided". this "its bound to happen" goes crazy; science and progress hallucinated as a force of nature that humans don't have control over is a damaging framework that has echoed for 100 years since. alquist's reply that "there was something good in service ... some kind of virtue in toil and weariness" i think speaks to how working and being a worker is part of being human.
however, the robots are ambiguous; their revolution is not a happy one; they cannot reproduce (humans also start to become infertile (or stop having sex?) as the ubiquity of robot workers/servants grows) - they are missing some human part, and their use by humans is reducing some human part in the human population as well. when Helena questions Gladius about why he won't work / malfunctions, he says he is superior to man, that man is superfluous, and that he wants to be a master, not a worker. the only hint we get to the motivation for their rebellion is the instruction to destroy everything but preserve the factories, as work must continue. by being a product of Fordist efficiency, capitalist greed, and slavery the robot revolution appears to recapitulate the ideals of their creators - of efficiency and domination.
so the whole thing gets tied a little too neatly in the final act, in that the last human, Alquist, identifies and christens the robot Helena and Primus as the new Adam and Eve. this is because these two robots fall in love and are willing to die for one another. though a little too pat, i do think oppositions in this play -- humanity and robot are BOTH inhuman by the end because of their focus on work, production, domination; it requires a board wipe and for someone to rediscover joy, love, sacrifice -- are neat. that being said i guess the socialist struggle session critique is that there is something misanthropic at the heart of killing everyone and starting anew as the way to fix corporate greed and human domination. anyway great play, read it!
March 20, 2023
It seems appropriate to read R.U.R. on the centenary of its first publication in English, as the literary work which first introduced the word robot to the English language. R.U.R. stands for Rossum's Universal Robots, a firm that produced artificial workers to take care of the drudgery that human workers didn't like doing.
The firm is based on a remote island, from which it exports its products to many parts of the world, and business is booming when governments discover that robots make efficient soldiers too, with the advantage that they have no relatives to mourn their loss. The island-factory is visited by Helena Glory, who is concerned about whether the robots may be sentient beings, and there for might possibly have, or perhaps ought to have, legal rights similar to human rights, and eventually there is a robot revolt.
The Insect Play, which I found even more interesting from the point of view of history of literature, seemed to be in the same category as the plays of Jean Genet or Samuel Beckett of 20-30 years later. Perhaps they were pioneers of the genre. The Insect Play reminded me of The Balcony by Jean Genet, a kind of precursor of the theatre of the absurd.
For more thoughts inspired by reading this, see my expanded blog post Robot Centenary.
The firm is based on a remote island, from which it exports its products to many parts of the world, and business is booming when governments discover that robots make efficient soldiers too, with the advantage that they have no relatives to mourn their loss. The island-factory is visited by Helena Glory, who is concerned about whether the robots may be sentient beings, and there for might possibly have, or perhaps ought to have, legal rights similar to human rights, and eventually there is a robot revolt.
The Insect Play, which I found even more interesting from the point of view of history of literature, seemed to be in the same category as the plays of Jean Genet or Samuel Beckett of 20-30 years later. Perhaps they were pioneers of the genre. The Insect Play reminded me of The Balcony by Jean Genet, a kind of precursor of the theatre of the absurd.
For more thoughts inspired by reading this, see my expanded blog post Robot Centenary.
June 27, 2018
کارل چاپک نمایشنامه نویس و داستاننویس اهل چکسلواکی در سال ۱۸۹۰ بدنیا آمد. نویسندگی را هنگام تحصیل در دانشگاهای سوربن و پراگ آغاز نمود کار مستقل وی با نوشتن داستان مصلوب آغاز گردید در سال ۱۹۲۰ اولین نمایشنامه اش بنام راه زن انتشار یافت.
وی طی دوره جنگ جهانی اول به روزنامه نگاری پرداخت و پی از جنگ از معاشران صمیمی توماش مازاریک بود. انتشار اولین نمایشنامه به نام «روباتهای عمومی روسوم» سبب شهرت جهانی او شد این نمایشنامه در هجو و انتقاد از تمدن ماشینی است که به زعم وی میلیونها انسان را از کار برکنار خواهد کرد
واژهٔ روبات را او در کتاب کارخانه رباتسازی روسوم (.R.U.R) معرفی کرد و مفهوم آن را تبیین کرد. البته مستنداتی مبن�� بر نام گذاری کلمه ربات از جزف برادر کارل نیز وجود دارد
وی با همکاری برادر نقاشش بنام یوزف چاپک دو اثر «گودالهای نورانی» و «باغ کراکونوشا» را منتشر کرد. همچنین در سال ۱۹۲۳ با برادرش «راز ماکروپولوس» را نوشت وی زندگینامه گونهای مفصل از مازاریک نیز نوشته است.
وی در سال ۱۹۳۸ درگذشت.
«کارخانه مطلق سازی» و «داستانهای جن و پری» نیز از آثار این نمایشنامه نویس است. هر دو کتاب به فارسی ترجمه شده است.
وی طی دوره جنگ جهانی اول به روزنامه نگاری پرداخت و پی از جنگ از معاشران صمیمی توماش مازاریک بود. انتشار اولین نمایشنامه به نام «روباتهای عمومی روسوم» سبب شهرت جهانی او شد این نمایشنامه در هجو و انتقاد از تمدن ماشینی است که به زعم وی میلیونها انسان را از کار برکنار خواهد کرد
واژهٔ روبات را او در کتاب کارخانه رباتسازی روسوم (.R.U.R) معرفی کرد و مفهوم آن را تبیین کرد. البته مستنداتی مبن�� بر نام گذاری کلمه ربات از جزف برادر کارل نیز وجود دارد
وی با همکاری برادر نقاشش بنام یوزف چاپک دو اثر «گودالهای نورانی» و «باغ کراکونوشا» را منتشر کرد. همچنین در سال ۱۹۲۳ با برادرش «راز ماکروپولوس» را نوشت وی زندگینامه گونهای مفصل از مازاریک نیز نوشته است.
وی در سال ۱۹۳۸ درگذشت.
«کارخانه مطلق سازی» و «داستانهای جن و پری» نیز از آثار این نمایشنامه نویس است. هر دو کتاب به فارسی ترجمه شده است.
January 16, 2021
R.U.R. (hermanos Capek). Una empresa se dedica a la fabricación de robots baratos que le quitan el trabajo a la gente. Como era previsible, los robots quieren acabar con los humanos y empieza la guerra. Solo un extraño milagro podría evitar la extinción de ambos.
En esta obra de teatro parece estar la semilla de la que brotaron desde Blade Runner hasta Matrix pasando por Terminator. Parece un miedo antiguo este de ser dominados por lo que nosotros mismos creamos.
El juego de los insectos (hermanos Capek). En sus delirios alcohólicos, un vagabundo interactúa con mariposas, escarabajos, grillos, moscas, larvas, crisálidas y hormigas guerreras. El vagabundo encuentra, en la brutalidad de los insectos, la esencia del ser humano.
No me pareció muy lograda esta obra de teatro de los hermanos Capek. Sobre todo me pareció un poco complicado llevarla a escena. También un poco forzada la forma en la que el vagabundo interactúa con esos bichos.
«Los insectos no tienen política», decía Brundle-mosca...
En esta obra de teatro parece estar la semilla de la que brotaron desde Blade Runner hasta Matrix pasando por Terminator. Parece un miedo antiguo este de ser dominados por lo que nosotros mismos creamos.
El juego de los insectos (hermanos Capek). En sus delirios alcohólicos, un vagabundo interactúa con mariposas, escarabajos, grillos, moscas, larvas, crisálidas y hormigas guerreras. El vagabundo encuentra, en la brutalidad de los insectos, la esencia del ser humano.
No me pareció muy lograda esta obra de teatro de los hermanos Capek. Sobre todo me pareció un poco complicado llevarla a escena. También un poco forzada la forma en la que el vagabundo interactúa con esos bichos.
«Los insectos no tienen política», decía Brundle-mosca...
March 6, 2023
I've been curious about R.U.R. for years as it's my understanding that the Capek brothers made up the term "robot" for the play. This is fascinating if true. To think about how universal the word is now...and it came from this play from the 1920s. Wow.
So the play itself is a tale of human hubris and what may just be the resulting end of the world - so right up my alley. However, the writing is just so dated it simply doesn't hold up. To say nothing of the female lead - yikes. Problematic from top to bottom for her empty-headedness.
I suppose one could argue that it's all a satire and therefore the playwrights take the characters to the extreme. Here's the thing with that...I don't buy it.
Liked the concept, did not enjoy the execution - too dated.
So the play itself is a tale of human hubris and what may just be the resulting end of the world - so right up my alley. However, the writing is just so dated it simply doesn't hold up. To say nothing of the female lead - yikes. Problematic from top to bottom for her empty-headedness.
I suppose one could argue that it's all a satire and therefore the playwrights take the characters to the extreme. Here's the thing with that...I don't buy it.
Liked the concept, did not enjoy the execution - too dated.
December 11, 2019
I received this book back in 2012 and am only now finishing it. Within are two plays, each of which is entertaining, surprising, and finally very apt, as you see the human condition so faithfully portrayed. Brilliant. Reading this, I both regret not having read it sooner as well as value the fact that there are so many more wonderful books just waiting to be opened.
April 14, 2024
El juego de los insectos no me gustó para nada, el acto de las hormigas estuvo bien pero aún así no me gustó lo suficiente.
R.U.R. si es más entretenido de leer y me gustó.
Y en general, no puede gustarme el leer obras de teatro, no leía una desde que salí del colegio y no sé si quiero volver a leer.
R.U.R. si es más entretenido de leer y me gustó.
Y en general, no puede gustarme el leer obras de teatro, no leía una desde que salí del colegio y no sé si quiero volver a leer.
January 30, 2024
Two plays from Czechoslovakia in the early 1920s which are reflective of their time and place. Robots, labor and capital. Butterflies, dung beetles, and ants. Still an interesting read although the chief attraction is in the first use of the term 'robots'.
June 23, 2017
The play that gave the world the word Robot. Of its time, but still quite interesting. The ending is a bit meh, but this is Westworld before there's Westworld, ditto Blade Runner. Also, recently has been done with partial and full robot casts. Now, that's interesting!
July 23, 2017
4 1/2 stars
August 13, 2020
Insect Play was on the Literature in English syllabus in Kenya in the 1970s. It was presented to students in translation!
June 4, 2024
"R.U.R." is a great play, but I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed "The Insect Play". I had never read it before and it was excellent.
Read
August 21, 2025czech people trying to articulate something horrible they are experiencing 'what if I was a bug"
May 9, 2023
(1) R.U.R.
This is by no means a perfect play in terms of consistency of ideas and plot execution, but it's by no means as bad as Asimov claimed. In fact, for a play that's mostly Half a Dozen People in a Room Talking, there are moments of genuine theatrical cunning, for instance the last act, with its approaching masses of robots dead set on the extermination of the last humans.
In essence this is an early attempt at what eventually became the novel War with the Newts, which is superb. Readers shouldn't pass this one up, however, especially those with advanced cases of AI on the brain.
Selver and/or Playfair did do some modest damage to Čapek's text, most notably by halving Alquist's final speech. Spot comparison with the later and apparently rigorously faithful translation published by the University of Adelaide (and available for free at archive dot org) suggests to me that if anything Selver and/or Playfair cut too little!
Four stars.
(2) The Insect Play.
"Trivial" hardly begins to describe this. The animal allegories aren't exactly imaginative, nor are they examined in much depth but instead belabored to death by the Tramp character. Yeah, butterflies are flitty things and ants work and fight in hive mind manner. We get it, Tramp. Oh, and the Chrysalis quickly becomes annoying.
Strictly speaking, Playfair isn't the translator; instead he and Clifford Bax "adapted" the translation by Paul Selver. What they've done is taken Selver's work, cut out lots of it (not a bad idea, actually), and rewritten the rest, primarily by taking Selver's Vagabond, renaming him Tramp, making significant cuts, and rendering what's left in Cockney.
Two stars for everyone concerned.
Three stars on balance for the entire volume.
This is by no means a perfect play in terms of consistency of ideas and plot execution, but it's by no means as bad as Asimov claimed. In fact, for a play that's mostly Half a Dozen People in a Room Talking, there are moments of genuine theatrical cunning, for instance the last act, with its approaching masses of robots dead set on the extermination of the last humans.
In essence this is an early attempt at what eventually became the novel War with the Newts, which is superb. Readers shouldn't pass this one up, however, especially those with advanced cases of AI on the brain.
Selver and/or Playfair did do some modest damage to Čapek's text, most notably by halving Alquist's final speech. Spot comparison with the later and apparently rigorously faithful translation published by the University of Adelaide (and available for free at archive dot org) suggests to me that if anything Selver and/or Playfair cut too little!
Four stars.
(2) The Insect Play.
"Trivial" hardly begins to describe this. The animal allegories aren't exactly imaginative, nor are they examined in much depth but instead belabored to death by the Tramp character. Yeah, butterflies are flitty things and ants work and fight in hive mind manner. We get it, Tramp. Oh, and the Chrysalis quickly becomes annoying.
Strictly speaking, Playfair isn't the translator; instead he and Clifford Bax "adapted" the translation by Paul Selver. What they've done is taken Selver's work, cut out lots of it (not a bad idea, actually), and rewritten the rest, primarily by taking Selver's Vagabond, renaming him Tramp, making significant cuts, and rendering what's left in Cockney.
Two stars for everyone concerned.
Three stars on balance for the entire volume.
July 4, 2012
I picked this up entirely for "R.U.R." but ended up reading "The Insect Play" anyways because I felt guilty leaving the book incomplete.
"R.U.R." is where the term "robot" is coined. The story itself isn't anything too spectacular aside from that. Basically a company makes robots so that people will never have to work, but eventually the robots revolt and slaughter all mankind but one man. It's kind of weird, especially the part about Helena. She comes to the island where robots are made to see the factories and all six men in charge there instantly fall in love with her. The scene ends and suddenly it's five years later and she's married the manager. The robots in this story are kind of human duplicates, as opposed to more machine like. Rossum, the inventor of robots, came up with some super secret formula to create life and so the robots look like humans. That combined with their twenty year life-span kind of reminded me of the replicants from Blade Runner.
"The Insect Play" is just weird. A tramp watches insects and occasionally has conversations with them while comparing their characteristics with mankind's characteristics. The butterflies are all just trying to hook up, the beetles are obsessed with possessions, the crickets are entirely focused on family, the fly is greedy and hoards food, the ants are focused on war, etc. It was actually better than I expected it would be. Kind of strangely entertaining.
"R.U.R." is where the term "robot" is coined. The story itself isn't anything too spectacular aside from that. Basically a company makes robots so that people will never have to work, but eventually the robots revolt and slaughter all mankind but one man. It's kind of weird, especially the part about Helena. She comes to the island where robots are made to see the factories and all six men in charge there instantly fall in love with her. The scene ends and suddenly it's five years later and she's married the manager. The robots in this story are kind of human duplicates, as opposed to more machine like. Rossum, the inventor of robots, came up with some super secret formula to create life and so the robots look like humans. That combined with their twenty year life-span kind of reminded me of the replicants from Blade Runner.
"The Insect Play" is just weird. A tramp watches insects and occasionally has conversations with them while comparing their characteristics with mankind's characteristics. The butterflies are all just trying to hook up, the beetles are obsessed with possessions, the crickets are entirely focused on family, the fly is greedy and hoards food, the ants are focused on war, etc. It was actually better than I expected it would be. Kind of strangely entertaining.
December 16, 2008
robota: Czech for "drudgery"
Another short delightful romp into the mind of Karel Capek. It was nice to finally read the original robot story, although it was essentially what I expected it to be. R.U.R. fits in well with other Capek stories: sociopolitical commentary, lighthearted dialogue amidst serious events, and a theme of general disappointment regarding the human race. Although they are not exactly the men of steel that have become synonymous with the word "robot", this story really set the pace which robot stories have mostly maintained ever since.
Fitting into the same theme, the Insect Play compares mankind not to synthetic humans, but to the lowly bugs that we share so much in common with. The implications regarding human nature are more broad, and generally sticks to the theme that we are no better than the animals.
Both are fun and quick, but don't read them if you're looking to feel better about humanity.
Another short delightful romp into the mind of Karel Capek. It was nice to finally read the original robot story, although it was essentially what I expected it to be. R.U.R. fits in well with other Capek stories: sociopolitical commentary, lighthearted dialogue amidst serious events, and a theme of general disappointment regarding the human race. Although they are not exactly the men of steel that have become synonymous with the word "robot", this story really set the pace which robot stories have mostly maintained ever since.
Fitting into the same theme, the Insect Play compares mankind not to synthetic humans, but to the lowly bugs that we share so much in common with. The implications regarding human nature are more broad, and generally sticks to the theme that we are no better than the animals.
Both are fun and quick, but don't read them if you're looking to feel better about humanity.
January 6, 2010
R.U.R. narra como un grupo de trabajadores, desde tecnicos, cientificos, administradores, financieros, etc. trabajan en torno a los logros de los Rossum, padre e hijo, el viejo tratando de crear un ser viviente tan apegado al humano y el joven con mentalidad industrial de la epoca (principios del siglo XX) hacerlos como herramientas y generar ganancias, y sus peleas eran muy fuertes. Despues de la muerte de ambos, los robots, simples herramientas de trabajo, son usadas para la guerra, carecen de sentimientos por lo que sus matanzas son inhumanas. Entonces se intenta crear un ser con sentimientos, pero a este ser no le gusta la esclavitud. Todo esto en formato de teatro, con un circulo de gente de altos puestos en la R.U.R. Un excelente libro.
October 22, 2014
Capek brødrende er satiriker af stor grad som forstår at stille spørgsmål til de politiske tendenser i ders samtid op i mod anden verdenskrig. Deres sprogbrug er helt i top på tros af en meget simpel tone. men det der gør dem til noget helt særligt er deres humor og evne til at karikere.
Ikke den bedste bog de har skrevet men bestemt vær at læse.
Ikke den bedste bog de har skrevet men bestemt vær at læse.
May 8, 2012
R.U.R. is better than the Insect Play, which is just social commentary. R.U.R. is the play which created the word "robot" and is actually critical in many different directions. (Slav 117- Univ Sophomore)
August 24, 2012
R.U.R. is mindnumbingly bad. Famous as the source of the word "robot", you can see the influence the play had on Asimov's (incomparably better) Robot stories. Worth reading to say you read it, but for little else. The Insect Play is (slightly) better.
April 24, 2016
I wish to see the play on theatre
Almost 100 years since it was written, sci-fi is way more developed now. Still though in Arab world sci-fi sadly only exist in kids show.
It is awesome if you are interested of pre-WWII eastern european litrature
Almost 100 years since it was written, sci-fi is way more developed now. Still though in Arab world sci-fi sadly only exist in kids show.
It is awesome if you are interested of pre-WWII eastern european litrature
August 31, 2011
2 for r.u.r. and 1 for the insect play.
December 6, 2012
Reread for my West End pitch. I think that it could be an interesting show to put up in Theaterland.
January 4, 2016
This one is the Insect Play. they were not fond of communism.
July 15, 2012
Read this.
November 29, 2012
Brilliant. First use of the word "robot"
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