February Group Read: War With the Newts

[Jo]

This folder is for discussions about January's poll winning book: War With the Newts. I know in my edition of this book it also includes the novel R.U.R. so if you want to read and discuss this one as well please do.

[Jo]

I've just copied David's comment on the poll in case anybody has not seen it:

"I should mention, for those who intend buying a paper copy of War with the Newts, Catbird Press has a buy one get one half price deal on their website. They have a number of other Capek translations to choose from."

http://www.catbirdpress.com/order.htm

[David]

I'll restrain myself from getting into any details, since we haven't really started yet (yet somehow I find myself half way through the book already). This book is turning out to be far better than I expected. I'll probably finish in the next few days and maybe read R.U.R. too.

[Buck]

I'm about halfway through, too. I hadn't realized that it is a satire, written very much with tongue in cheek.

[David]

I guess it would have to be when the author starts with talking newts as the threat to humanity. It feels like it's poking fun at all those silly sci fi movies from the 50's, but that's impossible. I suppose there were some earlier films similar from the time period that led to all those classic B movies. I have actually laughed out loud at some of the sequences. One of my favorite throw away lines so far is, "You talk as if this was a novel!"

[Jo]

I've read the first four chapters now and am somewhere between enjoying it and being driven mad by the way Captain van Toch speaks. It is already quite amusing in places so I think once I get past this I'm really going to like it.

[Buck]

Finished! You really have to take this in the spirit in which it was written. It's a satire; It's silly and dumb. It's not particularly well written, but of course, that may have a lot to do with the translation from the Czech. But I do like the ending. it's worth all the silliness and dumbness to get to last chapter.

[Buck]

In considering the evolution of science fiction, the premise of this group, I would say that the later science fiction writer that would have been most influenced by The War with the Newts would have to be Douglas Adams.

[Jo]

I am starting to enjoy this now, I particularly enjoyed the chapter on Andrias Scheuzeri. My favourite quote so far: "It is interested in the same things as an average Englishman, and it reacts in a similar way, that is, in the direction of established general views."

[David]

I think the thing this is reminding me of most is Planet of he Apes. Choosing newts who learn to talk is perfect for doing the concept as a satire. They're kind of disgusting in their description, make your skin crawl a little, so we waiver back and forth between horror and humor.

[Jo]

I've finished now, it was quite an odd book and very funny in places. I liked the satirical nature which made a change from things I normally read. You can see how the book was influenced by the politics of the time and I think this made it more interesting. I certainly won't be getting a pet newt!

I also read R.U.R. which is the short play that introduced the word robots. Similarly themed and if you have time it's worth reading.

[David]

I got a bit sidetracked and I'm currently slogging through Up the Ladder of Civilisation. It's not that bad a slog because it's peppered with little gems like, "There is no record of the.Newts ever having chosen to wear little skirts or aprons; probably these would have been a hindrance for them under water or else they would not stay up."

[David]

I think if another intelligent species, like the newts, were to arise on earth, things would go much how Capek describes in Up the Ladder of Civilisation. There would be heated debate over whether or not they have souls, whether they are animals or beings with human rights. I'm surprised we're not discussing the souls of corporations now that we're starting to afford them human rights.

It would be difficult to miss the parallels to slave history here. Capek certainly had an easy model to follow in presenting the rise of the Newts. It's been quite an interesting read so far.

[David]

I finally finished the book. It took me a while because I was buried under a project at work that was eating my brain for the last three weeks. It's hard to see this as a novel in the sense of what we think of one today. The chapters barely mesh as they cobble together the story of the rise of the newts. The chapter with the starlet in the beginning of the book seems more like a short story imbedded in the text because she doesn't really impact the rest of the story. It was a fun chapter, but really doesn't quite belong. We have only the doorman Povondra to carry us through the whole novel and supply the clippings to tell us the story of the rise of the newts and the fall of mankind due to his greed and political maneuvering.

There were passages in here that reminded me a lot of what is going on in the U. S. over climate change. We're completely unable to find the political will to save ourselves. We see it coming but we keep putting one foot in front of the other in the same direction. So, this book is very much a cautionary tale that still speaks to us today.

The last chapter with the author talking to himself, one voice taking the side of saving mankind, the other wanting to leave it with Povondra having seen the newt even as far as Prague, is quite strange. It's like he felt guilty about destroying the world and had to leave us some sort of out, however improbable. But he still allows us to have the Povondra ending, if we so choose. He makes us think about both possibilities in the hope we'll somehow choose a path of survival, if faced with something similar in real life.

I have to say, I liked this book very much, strangely written as it was.

[Stacy]

Late to the party. Just ordered the book form my library. I read RUR decades ago. Never heard of this one.

[Phil]

Buck wrote: "Finished! You really have to take this in the spirit in which it was written. It's a satire; It's silly and dumb. It's not particularly well written, but of course, that may have a lot to do with t..."

Buck, it's like we read different books. I had the Osers translation, which may be the culprit.

I see this book as many things, including satire. It also contains earnest political commentary and pathos. Parts of it are disquieting.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

It may be worth mention that Capek wrote this in 1935. According to wikipedia, here's what happened next:

"In 1938 it became clear that the Western allies, namely France and the United Kingdom, would fail to fulfil the pre-war agreements, and they refused to defend Czechoslovakia against Nazi Germany. Although offered the chance to go to exile in England, Čapek refused to leave his country – even though the Nazi Gestapo had named him "public enemy number two".[36] While repairing flood damage to his family's summer house in Stará Huť, he contracted a common cold.[31] As he had suffered all his life from spondyloarthritis and was also a heavy smoker, Karel Čapek died of pneumonia, on 25 December 1938.[34]

Surprisingly, the Gestapo was not aware of his death. Several months later, just after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia, Nazi agents came to the Čapek family house in Prague to arrest him.[12] Upon discovering that he had already been dead for some time, they arrested and interrogated his wife Olga.[37] His brother Josef was arrested in September and eventually died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in April 1945.[38] "

This may help explain the sense of urgency that I felt in the novel.

[Cheryl]

The beginning is funny, a kind of satire and homage both to the old adventure stories. The Quest for Polar Treasures is a real book, available online (free on Internet archive), Jan Welzl is the adventurer/'author,' Golembek and Valenta are the 'editors.'

The racism of War with the Newts is clearly the characters' (not the author's) but it's still hard to stomach. And on p. 31 there's this tidbit (spoken by our Captain van Toch: "I saw a monkey that could open a tin, a box of tinned food with a knife; but a monkey, sir, isn't any longer a proper animal."

[Rosemarie]

I read in an earlier comment that David considered the book "a cautionary tale". That is a good term for this satire. The newts were exploited because they were cheap labour and considered unintelligent, but they turned out to be very fast learners.

[Cheryl]

Oh, hi, I didn't realize someone would chime in so quickly... I better finish it before I stop back here! :)