Date: Mon, 09 Sep 2002 13:53:54 -0500
From: James Jordan 
Subject: (urth) Smith & Wolfe: Robots

Oh, yeah. It's very clear in Smith. Something like: Language is a sign of 
the "image of God" wherever it is found. Speaking is linked with free will 
is linked with worship.
         I asked Wolfe years ago about Smithian influence on him, and he 
said he was not aware of any. He had not read all of Smith, but after our 
conversation said he thought he'd better. (I was very surprised at his 
answer, BTW, since I thought all "literary SF types" were into Smith; you 
know, LeGuin, Ellison, etc.)
         Still, if he'd read very many, he'd've encountered underpeople and 
robots. And "Dead Lady" is a much anthologized classic.
         Yet, the motif is so broad that "great minds think alike" could 
easily account for it. From "The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories" we 
know that Wolfe had absorbed Wells's early exploration of the theme.
         FWIW.
         And BTW, thanks for the reminder of one of the most beautiful 
pieces in all SF.

Nutria

At 09:30 AM 9/9/2002, you wrote:
>The robots in "The Dead Lady Of Clown Town".
>
>Lady Panc Ashash, stuck in a robot body as a travel guide:
>
>and the fighter robots sent to kill D'Joan
>
>
>
>
>This is what we all remember: the first authentic picture tape of the entire
>incident:
>
>The gold and black sergeant, his milky eyes staring at the Lady Panc Ashash
>
>The Lady herself, in the pleasant old robot body, lifting a commanding
>hand.
>
>Elaine, distraught, half-turning as though she would grab the robot by his
>right arm. Her head is moving so rapidly that her black hair swings as she
>turns.
>
>Charley-is-my-darling shouting, "I love, love, love!" at a small hand-
>some man with mouse-colored hair. The man is gulping and saying nothing.
>
>All this we know.
>
>Then comes the unbelievable, which we now believe, the event for which
>the stars and worlds were unprepared.
>
>Mutiny.
>
>Robot mutiny.
>
>Disobedience in open daylight.
>
>The words are hard to hear on the tape, but we can still make them out.
>
>The recording device on the police ornithopter had gotten a square fix on
>the face of the Lady Pane Ashash. Lip-readers can see the words plainly;
>non-lip-readers can hear the words the third or fourth time the tape is run
>through the eyebox.
>
>Said the Lady, "Overridden."
>
>Said the sergeant, "No, you're a robot."
>
>"See for yourself. Read my brain. I am a robot. I am also a woman. You
>cannot disobey people. I am people. I love you. Furthermore, you are
>people. You think. We love each other. Try. Try to attack."
>
>"I cannot," said the robot sergeant, his milky eyes seeming to spin
>with excitement. "You love me? You mean I'm alive? I exist?"
>
>"With love, you do," said the Lady Pane Ashash. "Look at her," said the
>Lady, pointing to Joan, "because she has brought you love."
>
>The robot looked and disobeyed the law. His squad looked with him.
>
>He turned back to the Lady and bowed to her: "Then you know what we
>must do, if we cannot obey you and cannot disobey the others."
>"Do it,"she said sadly, "but know what you are doing. You are not really
>escaping two human commands. You are making achoice. You. That makes
>you men."
>
>The sergeant turned to his squad ot man-sized robots: "You hear that?
>
>She says we are men. I believe her. Do you believe her?"
>
>"We do," they cried almost unanimously.
>
>This is where the picture-tape ends. but we can imagine how the scene
>was concluded. Elaine had stopped short, just behind the sergeant-robot.
>The other robots had come up behind her. Charley-is-my-darling had
>stopped talking. Joan was in the act oflifting her hands in blessing, her
>warm
>brown dog eyes gone wide with pity and understanding.
>People wrote down the things that we cannot see . . . .
>
>
>
>
>
>
>And many more
>
>
>     hartshorn
>
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Dan'l Danehy-Oakes" 
>To: 
>Sent: Monday, September 09, 2002 5:58 PM
>Subject: RE: (urth) Heavy Hyacinth
>
>
> > Hartshorn wrote ...
> >
> > > The robots in Smith's stories may be precursors of the chems
> > > and of the many "moral" mechanisms in Wolfe's stories (which
> > > reach as far back as the guard robots in 5HC)
> >
> > ...okay, I'm blanking. The only robots I remember from
> > Smith are the Manshonyaggers, which I somehow can't really
> > think of as "moral." What am I forgetting ...?
> >
> > --Blattid
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> >
>
>
>--



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