Karel Capek: father of robots / Karel Capek, otec robotu

Did you like the movie “I, Robot” or “A.I.” (Artificial intelligence)? These movies are a pure rip-off of one of Karel Capek’s novels called the R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots). In this masterpiece Capek introduces the now frequently used international word “robot” – the non-human intelligent being. The word itself was invented by Karel’s dear brother Josef and it is derived from a Czech verb “robotovat” which is an archaic word for “working”. Capek is one of the great – if not the greatest – writers of the inter-war Czechoslovakia. Beside being an author of numerous fabulous books what was he like? Don’t be misled by his meek look. He had quite an adventurous life: he was expelled from high school, later married an actress and becomes a good friend of the president (T.G. Masaryk). His science-fiction books such as R.U.R. were addressing the aspects of mass production, atomic weapons and non-human intelligent beings long before this kind of genre was even officially established. Some of his books also address various society themes such as dictatorship (Nazis), violence and social disasters.

If that wasn’t enough, he is also well-known among the children readers because of his magical fairy tales. And who can go on without mentioning “Dasenka“, a biography of Capek’s Jack Russel terrier with the puppy’s awesome black-and-white photo collection that Capek himself created? For his enormous talent Capek almost received the Nobel Prize for literature. That unfortunately never happened since Sweden didn’t view it as favorable to award an anti-fascist at the advent of WWII.

As is usually the case, the most awesome human beings are “balanced out” by some not-so-awesome burdens in life. Capek’s burden was his health; his whole life he had suffered with breathing problems, which later caught up with him.

After the Western allies backed off of helping Czechoslovakia to get rid off Hitler and the Nazis took over the country, thanks to his “provocative” writing Capek was pronounced the “public enemy number 2”. Even though he was offered an exile in England, he bravely turned this life-saving opportunity down and chose to standby his country. Shortly after the war started and after a part of Bohemia was annexed to Nazi Germany Capek died on December 25th, 1938 after battling a double pneumonia at the young age of 48.

CZ:Videli jste americky film “I, robot” nebo “A.I”? Tak asi vite, ze tato myslenka byla “ukradena” od naseo milovaneho Karla Capka a jeho novely R.U.R.. Zde totiz Capek poprve zminil slovo “robot”; bylo vynalezeno Karlovym bratrem Josefem a pochazi z archaickeho slova “robotovat”. Jak je vseobecne znamo, Karel Capek je jednim z nejvetsich autoru vsech dob, a to hlavne v mezivalecnem obdobi. Nejenze psal sci-fi novely jiz dlouho pred tim, nez toto zanrum bylo oficialne vynalezeno, ale take se ve svych dilech zabyval problemy spolecnosti (masova produckce, diktatorstvi nacistickeho rezimu…) a psal take pro deti! Kdo by mohl zapomenout na nasi drahou Dasenku….Mimo to, ze napsal tisice svetoznamych knih, divite se nekdy, jaky byl jeho soukromy zivot? I kdyz z fotek vypada Karel jako velmi jemna povaha, nenechte se mylit: v mladi byl vyloucen z gymnazia, pozdeji se ozenil se znamou hereckou a jeden z jeho nejlepsich pritelu (krome bratra Pepicka) byl sam president T.G. Masaryk!

Nebylo to zadne velke prekvapeni, kdyz byl Capek za sve spisovatelske nadani navrhnuty na Nobelovu cenu. Bylo to ale v predvalecnem obdobi, mnoho vlivnym lidem – hlavne Svedum – se nelibil Karluv proti-nacisticky postoj a cenu nikdy neobdrzel. Pote co Naciste prevzali moc v Cechach, se Capek stal “nepritelem statu cislo 2” (!!) I kdyz mel tesne pred valkou moznost emigrovat do Anglie, tuto nabidku odmitl a verne zustal se svymi rodaky v Cechach. Hned po zacatku Druhe svetove valky Capek podlehl sve dlouhodobe nemoci a 25. prosince 1938 zemrel na zapal plic.

Sources:

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/79408

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Capekhttp://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2007/01/72500

http://capek.misto.cz/obrazky/portrety/portraits.html