“It’s nothing to do with poisonous gases,” Marek yelled at him. “It’s something a thousand times worse. Listen
carefully to what I tell you, Bondy, this is something beyond human understanding, there’s not the slightest trick
or dishonesty about it. This carburator of mine can burn matter completely, it burns it so perfectly that there’s
not even a speck of dust left behind; or I suppose you’d say it smashes matter, pulverises it, takes it apart electron
by electron, it consumes it, grinds it - I don’t know what to call it. In short, it consumes it entirely. You’ve no
idea just what enormous power there is in atoms. With half a hundredweight of coal in its boiler a liner could sail
all the way round the world, keep the lights on in all of Prague, power a huge factory, whatever you like; with a
piece of coal the size of a walnut you could heat and cook for a whole family. And it needn’t even be coal at all;
you can fuel my carburator with the first pebble or handful of dust you come across by your front door. Every
crumb of matter contains more energy within it than the biggest steam boiler; it simply has to be digested! It
simply has to be burned entirely! Bondy, I can do it; my carburator can do it; you’ll be forced to admit that
twenty years of hard work were well spent.”
I read this book as part of a University course in "Russian & Eastern European Sci-Fi literature", and reading this book was just about the only time I wasn't slightly bitter about having signed up for the course. Like the NYT article states, it paints a vivid picture of how our very human, not-quite-good-but-just-OK intentions frequently lead to utter catastrophe, despite their seeming relatively innocuous at the onset.
I loved the War with the Newts as a kid, though of course I missed half the jokes and commentary about the real world. Later I re-read it as an adult and found out all I had missed.
> reading [War With the Newts] was just about the only time I wasn't slightly bitter about having signed up for the [Eastern European SF] course.
Really? War With the Newts is great, but there’s a lot of other great Russian / Eastern European science fiction. What else did you read in the course?
Funny coincidence, I just read "War With the Newts" a couple weeks ago, and I've been recommending it to everyone. It's a quick read and highly entertaining.
I'm definitely going to check out more of Capek's work.
For something little bit different I recomend Tales from Two Pockets, which contains 48 short stories each just few pages long. All of those are mystery stories and each is unique.
His "R.U.R." really blew me away, considering when it was written and how much I could see its influence in a lot of more current scifi. I haven't read "War With the Newts" yet, but it's now next on my list.
Its worth it I sought out via a library loan after doing RUR at school - you might also want to try We by Yevgeny Zamyatin you can definitely see its influence in 1984 and other dystopian novels and some cyberpunk
While praising, author could use that háček over Čapek last name because that diacritical mark does makes the difference when it comes to pronunciation.
And if you’re into classical music you may enjoy the Makropoulos affair, an opera by Leoš Janáček based on a play of Karel Čapek about the inhuman inhuman concept of eternal life.
Witty and beautiful.
17 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 47.9 ms ] thread“It’s nothing to do with poisonous gases,” Marek yelled at him. “It’s something a thousand times worse. Listen carefully to what I tell you, Bondy, this is something beyond human understanding, there’s not the slightest trick or dishonesty about it. This carburator of mine can burn matter completely, it burns it so perfectly that there’s not even a speck of dust left behind; or I suppose you’d say it smashes matter, pulverises it, takes it apart electron by electron, it consumes it, grinds it - I don’t know what to call it. In short, it consumes it entirely. You’ve no idea just what enormous power there is in atoms. With half a hundredweight of coal in its boiler a liner could sail all the way round the world, keep the lights on in all of Prague, power a huge factory, whatever you like; with a piece of coal the size of a walnut you could heat and cook for a whole family. And it needn’t even be coal at all; you can fuel my carburator with the first pebble or handful of dust you come across by your front door. Every crumb of matter contains more energy within it than the biggest steam boiler; it simply has to be digested! It simply has to be burned entirely! Bondy, I can do it; my carburator can do it; you’ll be forced to admit that twenty years of hard work were well spent.”
I read this book as part of a University course in "Russian & Eastern European Sci-Fi literature", and reading this book was just about the only time I wasn't slightly bitter about having signed up for the course. Like the NYT article states, it paints a vivid picture of how our very human, not-quite-good-but-just-OK intentions frequently lead to utter catastrophe, despite their seeming relatively innocuous at the onset.
It's a damn fun read, too.
Really? War With the Newts is great, but there’s a lot of other great Russian / Eastern European science fiction. What else did you read in the course?
I'm definitely going to check out more of Capek's work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Čapek
He wrote a wonderful illustrated children's book about cat and dog living together:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19431013-all-about-doggi...
https://web2.mlp.cz/koweb/00/04/37/75/99/povidani_o_pejskovi... (originally published in 1929, so it's public domain, Czech version, but at least you can check the illustrations)
Sometimes both brothers wrote together:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Čapek
Josef was actually the one who came up with the word "robot":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Čapek#Etymology_of_robot
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Makropulos_Affair_(opera...