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The Last Poet and the Robots
The Last Poet and the Robots • 1934 • SF short story by A. Merritt
Narodny, the "last poet“, has evolved to a god-like state. He and a small, selected handful of scientists separated from the rest of the world and built a world of caverns where they create aesthetic experiments. Historical screen plays and futuristic art forms of every kind, are their thing. The outside world has been taken over by sentient robots with humans as slaves. Only when their music becomes distorted by an alien force, they take action, because it occurs to me that the robots have never produced a poet, a musician, an artist.“
Abraham Merritt wrote for the pulps, and a typical pulp this story is: just ideas, no real characterizations, lack of believability, oversimplified plot resolution, and all the tropes: mad scientist, death rays, unlimited power, etc. What fascinated the readers are the ideas, here the conflict and marriage between art and science. Nowadays, A.I. is capable of producing very good haiku, e.g.
eons deep in the lake
I paint all time in a whorl
bang the sludge has cracked
They also create art, and music, and certainly will become better at it – just use your favourite search engine to dive into that fascinating subject.
Meta: isfdb. Published April 1936 in the Fantasy Magazine.
Narodny, the "last poet“, has evolved to a god-like state. He and a small, selected handful of scientists separated from the rest of the world and built a world of caverns where they create aesthetic experiments. Historical screen plays and futuristic art forms of every kind, are their thing. The outside world has been taken over by sentient robots with humans as slaves. Only when their music becomes distorted by an alien force, they take action, because it occurs to me that the robots have never produced a poet, a musician, an artist.“
Abraham Merritt wrote for the pulps, and a typical pulp this story is: just ideas, no real characterizations, lack of believability, oversimplified plot resolution, and all the tropes: mad scientist, death rays, unlimited power, etc. What fascinated the readers are the ideas, here the conflict and marriage between art and science. Nowadays, A.I. is capable of producing very good haiku, e.g.
eons deep in the lake
I paint all time in a whorl
bang the sludge has cracked
They also create art, and music, and certainly will become better at it – just use your favourite search engine to dive into that fascinating subject.
Meta: isfdb. Published April 1936 in the Fantasy Magazine.
15 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 1936
9 people want to read
About the author
A. Merritt
245 books120 followersAbraham Grace Merritt, wrote under the name of A. Merritt, born in New Jersey moved as a child to Philadelphia, Pa. in 1894, began studying law and than switched to journalism. Later a very popular writer starting in 1919 of the teens, twenties and thirties, horror and fantasy genres. King of the purple prose, most famous The Moon Pool, a south seas lost island civilization, hidden underground and The Ship of Ishtar, an Arabian Nights type fable, and six other novels and short stories collections (he had written at first, just for fun). Nobody could do that variety better, sold millions of books in his career. The bright man, became editor of the most successful magazine during the Depression, The American Weekly , with a fabulous $100,000 in salary. A great traveler, in search of unusual items he collected. His private library of 5,000 volumes had many of the occult macabre kind. Yet this talented author is now largely been forgotten.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 27, 2017
“The Last Poet and the Robots” (1934) – A. Merritt (USA)
Futuristic underworld created by intellectual genius who, with his few scientific comrades (disciples), lived in complete detachment from the rest of humanity re-emerging only when it was expedient for them to annihilate an incoming assault. ***
Merritt wrote about hypnotically attractive alternative worlds and realities.
Noteworthy:
“... crimson sunsets baptized in the blood of slain day dimmed and died and were born again behind the sparkling curtains of the aurora.”
“Now and then, out of the sea of mediocrity, a wave uplifted that held for a moment a light from the sun of truth – but soon it sank back and the light was gone. Quenched in the sea of stupidity. He knew that he was one of those waves.”
“atavist” = atavistic is 'relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral.'
“vitreous” = like glass in appearance or physical properties.
He makes reference to Orpheus (/ˈɔːrfiəs, ˈɔːrfjuːs/; Greek: Ὀρφεύς) a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music, his attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the reception of classical mythology in Western culture, portrayed or alluded to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.
He uses the word 'arpeggio' (Italian: [arˈpeddʒo]) which is a type of "broken chord" where the notes that compose a chord are played or sung in a rising or descending order.
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Futuristic underworld created by intellectual genius who, with his few scientific comrades (disciples), lived in complete detachment from the rest of humanity re-emerging only when it was expedient for them to annihilate an incoming assault. ***
Merritt wrote about hypnotically attractive alternative worlds and realities.
Noteworthy:
“... crimson sunsets baptized in the blood of slain day dimmed and died and were born again behind the sparkling curtains of the aurora.”
“Now and then, out of the sea of mediocrity, a wave uplifted that held for a moment a light from the sun of truth – but soon it sank back and the light was gone. Quenched in the sea of stupidity. He knew that he was one of those waves.”
“atavist” = atavistic is 'relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral.'
“vitreous” = like glass in appearance or physical properties.
He makes reference to Orpheus (/ˈɔːrfiəs, ˈɔːrfjuːs/; Greek: Ὀρφεύς) a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music, his attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music. As an archetype of the inspired singer, Orpheus is one of the most significant figures in the reception of classical mythology in Western culture, portrayed or alluded to in countless forms of art and popular culture including poetry, film, opera, music, and painting.
He uses the word 'arpeggio' (Italian: [arˈpeddʒo]) which is a type of "broken chord" where the notes that compose a chord are played or sung in a rising or descending order.
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February 7, 2024
i cannot believe this came out in 1934. only found this because i was checking out old videos on Tim Rogers' youtube channel and he actually did a narration. i feel like this motherfucker predicted artificial intelligence or at least what it exists as today.
https://youtu.be/82Q0dpN5xcc?si=E3eVq...
https://youtu.be/82Q0dpN5xcc?si=E3eVq...
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews