School’s back in session. Time to learn something new. Do you know where the word “robot” comes from?
Meet Karel Čapek. He loves dogs. He loves gardening. He is a Capricorn with impeccable bone structure and an asteroid named after him. If he sounds like your perfect man, he is unfortunately both married and dead. Luckily, you still can encounter this Czech writer through the myriad works he left behind.
A true Bohemian, he was born in Bohemia, 1890. A true intellectual even at a young age, he performed well in school. A true rebel, he was kicked out of said school, due to membership in a secret anarchist society. His political views, both anti-fascist and anti-communist, later informed much of his work.
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| Karel Čapek |
One particularly important production is his 1920 play R. U. R., or Rossum’s Universal Robots. This is the story of a factory that produces human-like machines, destined for hard labor and indistinguishable from real people; they eventually lead a revolt against their creators. The word “robot” describes these humanoid machines, and derives from the word “robota,” Czech for “work.” Though his brother, the painter Josef Čapek actually invented the word, Karel’s usage introduced it to the wider public.
A true lover of theater, Čapek wrote several other plays, including The Insect Play, a bug-filled satire of post WWI Czechoslovakia, or perhaps a harbinger of the 1998 cinematic masterpiece “A Bug’s Life.” Čapek even married an actress, Olga Scheinpflugová. She, like any good playwright’s wife, later died on-stage performing one of his plays, Mother. She was a writer too, prolific with sixteen novels, seven books of poetry, ten plays, and more.
No fear if plays aren’t your thing, though. Čapek was also a novelist. Consider his 1936 sci-fi work War With Newts. It's a scathing indictment of contemporary European politics, shrouded in a story of humans’ war with a race of intelligent newts.
If fiction doesn’t do it for you, Capek wrote plenty of nonfiction too. The Gardener’s Year chronicles his year spent in the garden, recording meditations on flowers, battles with unruly garden hoses, and tips for seed-planting. Dashenka or The Life of a Puppy follows the exploits of his fox terrier Dashenka in her first year of life. Goodreads’ description for it reads: “A naughty puppy's log book, followed by the fairy tales Capek told his puppy while trying to get her to sit still for photos, followed by the endearing photos.”
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| Dashenka |
Though nominated for the Nobel Prize seven times, Čapek never won it. Nevertheless, his legacy endures as one of the most important Czech writers, a key figure in establishing a Czech PEN Club, a contributor to epistemology and politics, and, of course, promoter of the word “robot.”
You can purchase some of his works from Eagle Eye Book Shop! Just follow the links below.
R.U.R.: https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9780141182087
The Gardener's Year: https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9781529096248
The War with the Newts: https://eagleeyebooks.com/book/9781612190235
