My friend Cathy named her blog after robots - she's what I'd call a robot sympathizer. When our metal masters finally make their move, Cathy and I will have one of those tense, emotional face-off scenes, like in 'The Sound of Music' when Liesl and her family are escaping and they come face to face with Rolf and there's that moment of silence...where he might do anything...where he might tap into his humanity and let them go...but then Rolf blows his whistle and sh*t goes down.
Now, I love Cathy, and she's funnier in her offhanded comments than I am when I try really hard, and she also named her blog after tea, which is the perfect beverage, and I am in NO WAY comparing one of my dearest friends to a Nazi. I'm just saying that if Wall-E and that creepy little kid from A.I. had me cornered in an Austrian nunnery and Cathy stumbled across my hiding spot, the next thing you'd hear would be the piercing digital activation of her robo-whistle.
But it turns out that Ray Bradbury was on Cathy's side.
"I am not afraid of robots. I am afraid of people."
Back in the 1970's (or as the metal ones will call it, during the Era of Flesh), author Brian Sibley wrote to Ray Bradbury to say how much he admired his books, and also to comment on how insanely creepy those animatronic Disney robots are. Brian Sibley is clearly a right-thinking fellow. Bradbury responded with a nice little note, followed by a lengthy P.S. in which he compares robots to books, says humanity is the true threat, and suggests we let robots teach our children.
I share some of Mr. Bradbury's doubts about people. But much like my dear Catherine, he has been blinded by the shiny metal promise of robots - blinded to the sad, inevitable truth. *sigh* I'm sure their robo-ganda posters will have Ray Bradbury's face plastered on them.
Vive la Robo-sistance!
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