Jul 19, 2025
Poor Julius accidentally made history.
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Poor Julius accidentally made history.
Could Elijah Bailey solve the Kira murders?
Could catch Kira, would survive
Could not catch Kira, would survive
Could catch Kira, would not survive
Could not catch Kira, would not survive
I love reading books and seeing two characters who are thematic opposites of each other and then picking them up like barbie dolls and making them kiss
Funniest thing ever was when I hadn't finished the robot series, I was making a playlist for Elijah Bailey and there was this one song about cheating on your wife and EVERY time I heard this song I kept thinking "fuck. This is so Elijah but he'd never cheat on his wife" and guess who cheated on his wife in the third book LMAOOOOO
THE NAKED SUN by Isaac Asimov (New York: Doubleday, 1957) Cover art by Ruth Ray. // (London: Michael Joseph, 1958) Dust wrapper by Kenneth Farnwell.
Sequel to THE CAVES OF STEEL. Science fiction mystery.
Astounding Science Fiction, October 1956. Edited by John W. Campbell. Cover by H.R. Van Dongen.
THE NAKED SUN [Part 1 of 3; Elijah (Lije) Baley; Robots] by Isaac Asimov. Illustrated by H.R. Van Dongen. [Part 1 of 3]
“What They’re Up Against” by John Hunton. llustrated by Frank Kelly Freas
“Death March by Algis Budrys. Illustrated by H.R. Van Dongen
“Sound Decision” by Randall Garrett & Robert Silverberg. Illustrated by H.R. Van Dongen
“Ceramic Incident” by Theodore L. Thomas. Illustrated by Frank Kelly Freas
(New York: Bantam, 1958) Cover by Richard Powers. //(London: Corgi, 1960) Cover design by Richard Powers.
More black people in robot fiction please!! My god, what I've been missing out on! What with: primarily, the Purpose of robot fiction; secondarily, the development of a world in which robots exist; and thirdly, black people existing in movies. Detective Del Spooner being a robot-racist is a fun spin cause he's black, but...come on man, you ain't tryna tell me racism's over because we invented a slave class. Like Harry Domin indirectly stated - as long as we are different, we will hate each other for being different. Robots are similar even if not identical, and thus do not - even cannot - hate each other. Y'all coulda kept the Elijah Bailey vibe...Lije wasn't too thrilled about robots, but he accepted them as part of the world and kept his dislike for them harmless and professional. Like Eddie Valiant with toons. Man, Roger Rabbit's a good movie.
Will Smith got his fuсkin Converse All-Stars and his sweet potato pie and he out to solve some murders! He's even got a god damn guitar wall in his little apartment. Bet your аss he don't play one of them in the movie. EVEN BETTER,, THE FIRST WHITE PERSON TO SPEAK IN THIS MOVIE (though he be the hologram of the dead roboticist, Alfred Lanning), IN HIS FIRST EVER LINE, CALLS DETECTIVE DEL SPOONER "son". YES! THAT IS WHAT I CALL...UH...well it's not exactly racial subtext, but also that's exactly what it is. R. Sammy and everything. I wish they'd've gone a little further with the "robot" designation used as a method of...not dehumanization because they're not living or humans, but...devaluing? It is obvious that Giskard Reventlov is a robot, so it is considered rude to distinguish him from other Aurorans with that R., whereas the Earthmen delight in devaluing their machines by insisting on that R, denying them last names, giving them names like "Sammy", and calling them "boy"...sound familiar? Anyways that's how it is in the novels, I wish it were the same here.
Del Spooner thinks a robot can do crime even though no robots have ever done crimes. He thinks this because he is prejudiced. This is the weakest facet of the movie. He's prejudiced because one time he and another car got shoved off a bridge into the water, and a passing NS-4 saved him but not the little girl in the other car. They say it's about percentages, and it is, but the robot should still have been positronically affected by not being able to save Sarah as well. Like those poor Solarians who couldn't save Dr. Delmarre. It should at the very least exhibit some cognitive dysfunction as a result of not being physically able to obey such a strong Law.
I think if a robot can commit a crime then the First Law must be strengthened. The definition of "harming a human being" would need to be expanded. It would lead to slight issues like Herbie and might make robots less useful, but the point of the Laws is to promote safety over usefulness. I am glad then to see that no robot who obeys the Laws has ever committed any crime.
Anyways Del's a cop with a "documented history of savage violence against robots" man come on, grow up. Get some god dаmn therapy
Aight so they put the Laws onscreen before the movie fully starts, but then Del asks Dr. Calvin some very basic questions genuinely and it's like...Del man how you live in this world and you don't know how the Laws relate to and conflict with each other?? I know USR is still in its relatively early days, but come on! Well, he's the type to endanger himself, his passenger, and every other motorist by taking manual control of a self-driving car. Spoon's the type of guy who opens the front door of a house that ain't his, LEAVES it open, and then gets spooked when the wind slams it shut. That's why he hates robots, man. He's just that kind of guy...the entitlement combined with the proud humanism.
They shoulda subtitled this movie "Will Smith Does Millions Of Dollars Worth Of Property Damage" bro even before the NS-5s start attacking him he's blowing their positronic brains out...man those things ain't cheap! Or maybe they are! I don't know! Del's grandma can't seem to afford one, but they're mass produced and their creator Alfred Lanning wanted robots in every household. Bet he'd love Solaria
On one hand I understand and agree with Del's reluctance to talk around what is in this film possibly corporate spyware. On the other hand the anticorporate subtext in this movie kinda muddles the whole robot racism thing. Like yeah I'd be polite to FedEx NS-4 but I'd also shoot down Amazon drones with a BB gun so
Elijah “Lije” Bailey from the Robot series is robosexual!
Imagine a Daneel/Elijah fic that's written from an in-universe perspective as a fic of the hyperwave drama :D Bonus points if it's from an Auroran perspective, with lots of fascinated/condescending description of Elijah's Earthliness and Daneel's robothood. Like, I'm imagining a C/Fe fic where the Spacer author, like Vasilia, doesn't consider either of them quite human. OR it's something along the lines of My Immortal!
Oh, wouldn’t this be AMAZING? I always adore stories that are written as fanfic created by the people in the world (Superman and Batman had a movie made about them inside the universe some time ago, and Bruce was blond in it because of course they had no idea, and I just LOVED imagining the fic it would have produced). That condescending tone would be really hard to get just right, but would be really rewarding and funny in its own way. “My Immortal with Robots” sounds fantastic--just reams of purple prose and an Auroran self-insert who teaches them to accept that their love transcends the filthiness of Eathers into something actually pure and worthwhile...