The first episode in its spine tingling entirety! Introduction by Josh Glenn!
Here it is: the first episode of “Parallel Universe: Pazzo,” Hilobrow.com’s Radium-Age Science Fiction podcast, recorded every month (as of January ’10) at Pazzo Books, here in Boston. Below, you’ll find an introduction to Radium-Age (roughly, 1900-35) science fiction, about which I’ve written a series of posts for Gawker’s sci-fi blog io9.com. Our podcast’s inaugural episode is devoted to Radium-Age mechanical and quasi-organic humanoids, which is to say, to ROBOTS.
Transcript of my introduction to the 1st episode:
The term “robot” was introduced in Karel Capek’s 1921 play R.U.R.: Rossum’s Universal Robots. The Czechoslovakian play, from which the TV show Dollhouse took the name of its sinister corporation, is set in a [probably American] factory of that mass-produces biological humanoids designed for blue-collar occupations. The term “robot” from the Czech word for “serf labor.” These days, however, we’d call Capek’s creatures “androids,” not robots. However, [Radium Age] science fiction is replete with our kind of robot: electricity-, steam-, and clockwork-powered machine-men who — like the Industrial Revolution from which they sprang — promised either to free us from the burden of labor… or else destroy or enslave us.
Parallel Universe: Pazzo (1) ROBOTS by HILOBROW
Who is the brilliant, charming author of this item, the “I” of “I’ve written a series of posts,” the “my” of “my introduction”? He sounds fascinating and very handsome.