Toward the Radical Center: A Karel Capek Reader

Rating:
Summary: useful, but inconsistent levels of translation
Review: Capek was a genius and an all-around literateur, succeeding with fairytales, novels, plays, and sketches. He could even draw. (and he liked cats, which endears him to me).

A Czech friend first got me interested in Capek, and made me read WAR OF THE NEWTS, one of his novels, which I adored. WAR OF THE NEWTS is part of this series.

This reader is certainly a good addition to any library, particularly for anyone interested in Capek's work or Czech writing in the Golden Age (the first Republic, before Chamberlain's bargain with Hitler carved up the new state of Czechoslovakia).

However, the translations here do not do Capek justice. While e the translation of the play R.U.R. (a play which introduced the word "robot" to the English language, and which was once more heavily anthologized and taught in America than O'Neill)does include scenes that were cut from the Broadway productions of 1921 and 1945, scenes never before available in Englishl, the translator also takes idiomatic Czech and makes it oddly formal, stilted. "To staci" for example is translated as "That will suffice," which is literally the meaning, but doesn't capture the informality of the phrase. "That's enough" would have been more speakable. If you're a director, use this text only for research but don't give it to your actors-- it will bore an audience, and lacks Capek's humor and zest. And some of the translation, according to native speakers, is simply inaccurate (a word that can mean "scissors" in context was translated as "provisions.") Just as poetry should really only be translated by a poet, plays should really only be translated by playwrights (working with native speakers if necessary). Too much is lost.

Still, the book does put in English, however flawed, much that had been long out of print, and all of it is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: useful, but inconsistent levels of translation
Review: Capek was a genius and an all-around literateur, succeeding with fairytales, novels, plays, and sketches. He could even draw. (and he liked cats, which endears him to me).

A Czech friend first got me interested in Capek, and made me read WAR OF THE NEWTS, one of his novels, which I adored. WAR OF THE NEWTS is part of this series.

This reader is certainly a good addition to any library, particularly for anyone interested in Capek's work or Czech writing in the Golden Age (the first Republic, before Chamberlain's bargain with Hitler carved up the new state of Czechoslovakia).

However, the translations here do not do Capek justice. While e the translation of the play R.U.R. (a play which introduced the word "robot" to the English language, and which was once more heavily anthologized and taught in America than O'Neill)does include scenes that were cut from the Broadway productions of 1921 and 1945, scenes never before available in Englishl, the translator also takes idiomatic Czech and makes it oddly formal, stilted. "To staci" for example is translated as "That will suffice," which is literally the meaning, but doesn't capture the informality of the phrase. "That's enough" would have been more speakable. If you're a director, use this text only for research but don't give it to your actors-- it will bore an audience, and lacks Capek's humor and zest. And some of the translation, according to native speakers, is simply inaccurate (a word that can mean "scissors" in context was translated as "provisions.") Just as poetry should really only be translated by a poet, plays should really only be translated by playwrights (working with native speakers if necessary). Too much is lost.

Still, the book does put in English, however flawed, much that had been long out of print, and all of it is worth reading.

Rating:
Summary: The (almost) forgotten Czech genius
Review: Karel Capek may have won the 1936 Nobel Prize in literature, were it not for his implicitly and at often times explicitly anti-totalitarian views. It is an unspoken truth that the Swedish Nobel Academy feared Hitler's growing regime as much as anybody in Europe... Instead, Mr. Capek died a heartbroken man in 1938, a few months after Britain's Chamberlain handed the writer's beloved Czechoslovakia over to Hitler, in exchange for "peace in Europe." Germany invaded Poland a few months later... Karel Capek was amongst Europe's greatest writers and playwrights during the period between WWI and WWII. His love of mankind and all living creatures is legendary. Few people have ever written with such eloquence, or insight, about matters of eternal significance. It should also be noted that his anti-Utopian play "R.U.R.," which gave birth to the only Czech word in the English language (robot), was offered to the world 9 years before Aldous Huxley's somewhat analogous 1932 "Brave New World." The collection of plays, essays and short stories under review is exceptional. It gives the reader a most enjoyable and poignant introduction to the heart and soul of the Czech people, through the wisdom of their most honorable representative. Arthur Miller's foreword also is a masterpiece...

Rating:
Summary: Helpful introduction, if a grab-bag in intrinsic interest
Review: My three stars aren't to fault Capek's evident talent and his humanistic charm. It's simply that a lot of the pieces here gathered seem lackluster (the detective tales, the vignettes, a good chunk of the plays) and may not have weathered well the shifts in literary taste since WW2. The decline in tension in RUR from its strong beginning to a too-romantic fadeaway surprised me; I expected a harder-hitting plot. Still, worth a read for anyone curious about the robot vs. human conflict at its birth. The next play, the Makropoulos Secret, only gathers steam near its conclusion, in the whole rationale for immortality. Capek's genius to me appears erratic and while powerful in certain speeches given his theatrical characters, dissipates over the course of these two plays taken as a whole.

As for the stories, the two versions of the single footprint mystery deserve attention, and the "money" story, although contrived, makes an effective point. The more investigative tales doubtless will appeal to fans of the detective genre, but they didn't do much for me. The feuilletons anthologized here make for pleasant reading, continuing a French/Czech specialty, but really aren't meant to be earthshattering in their simply observed reflections. As a journalist, Capek shows both the immediacy and the impermanence common to much of this genre.

The shorter pieces included rarely roused my interest; exceptions, however, made my reading worth it. Two superb considerations of how the bakers felt about Jesus' miracles of the loaves and the fishes and (especially) Pilate's reflections on his famous query "What is truth?" show off Capek's skills very effectively.

Also, the reflections in the last quarter of the book, on Czechoslovakia (just before the Nazi invasion) as the center of Europe, on what's truly revolutionary as centered more in the transformation of the individual by gradual change rather than sudden political overthrow, and a brief essay that shows the plight of the urban poor rival Orwell in their combination of the perspective of the little man with the insight of the intellectual.

Rating:
Summary: A collection of great works by one of the greatest authors e
Review: Outside his native Czechoslovakia the author Karel Capek (to be pronounced as: Chah-pek) is not as well known as he would merit. In fact, he is one of the 20th century's greatest authors, with a masterful talent for sharp observation and profound reflexion. This collection - "Towards the radical center" - contains, inter alia, his two most famous theater plays: 1. "Rossums Universal Robots", which was written in 1920, introduced the word "Robot" (Czech for the forced labour of serfs) into practically all modern languages, in the sense of an automaton that without protest performs all the chores humans themselves are loath to do themselves. In his play Capek underlines that the process of creating a class of intelligent servile automatons inevitably leads to cruelty. In the end the robots revolt against human oppression.
2. "The Makropoulos Affair". A central theme in this theater play is that of a youth elixir that provides eternal life. It turns out that, in the very long run, this is more a curse than a blessing.
Apart from these two famous plays, the selection contains a number of essays and short stories which, without exception, are very whitty and profound. Every cat lover should read his brilliant one page essay "From the point of view of a cat".
In 1936, appalled by the threat of expanding Nazism, Capek elaborated the main theme of "Rossums Universal Robots" in an even grander way in his novel "War with the Newts". This novel - which is not included within this selection but separately available on Amazon - is an anti-utopian ("dystopian") novel at least as unsettling as Orwell's "1984" or Huxley's "Brave New World". Not having read Capek means missing a vital part of 20th century world literature.
Capek died soon after the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938.

Rating:
Summary: Not having read Capek = missing a vital part of world litera
Review: Outside his native Czechoslovakia the author Karel Capek (to be pronounced as: Chah-pek) is not as well known as he would merit. In fact, he is one of the 20th century�s greatest authors, with a masterful talent for sharp observation and profound reflexion. This collection - �Towards the radical center� - contains, inter alia, his two most famous theater plays:
1. �Rossums Universal Robots�, which was written in 1920, introduced the word �Robot� (Czech for the forced labour of serfs) into practically all modern languages, in the sense of an automaton that without protest performs all the chores humans themselves are loath to do themselves. In his play Capek underlines that the process of creating a class of intelligent servile automatons inevitably leads to cruelty. In the end the robots revolt against human oppression.
2. �The Makropoulos Affair�. A central theme in this theater play is that of a youth elixir that provides eternal life. It turns out that, in the very long run, this is more a curse than a blessing.

Apart from these two famous plays, the selection contains a number of essays and short stories which, without exception, are very whitty and profound. Every cat lover should read his brilliant one page essay �From the point of view of a cat�.

In 1936, appalled by the threat of expanding Nazism, Capek elaborated the main theme of �Rossums Universal Robots� in an even grander way in his novel �War with the Newts�. This novel - which is not included within this selection but separately available on Amazon - is an anti-utopian (�dystopian�) novel at least as unsettling as Orwell�s �1984" or Huxley�s �Brave New World�.
Not having read Capek means missing a vital part of 20th century world literature.
Capek died soon after the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia in 1938.

Rating:
Summary: Capek's genius
Review: This book is a compillation of some of the greatest works by the brilliant Czech writer Karel Capek. Here there are some of his best-known plays and a selection of tales which can be found entirely and unabridged in "Crossroads" and "Tales from Two Pockets". The plays included are "RUR" (Rossum's Universal Robots), "The Makropulos Secret", Act II of "The Insect Play" and "The Mother".
"RUR" is a comical though moving to thought play about the limits of technology from a social and moral point of view, and how men playing God can lead humankind to a complete disaster. However, the play has a happy and very funny end.
"The Makropulos Secret" is a sort of Faustian comedy which leads to discussion upon immortality and the final conclusion that it's better to remain mortals because nobody could bear immortality's boredom.
"The Insect Play" (better read it complete) depicts the insects' world as a microcosmos which reproduces human behaviour, greed, powerlust, war, shallowness, every human vice incarnated in insects.
"The Mother" is related to Capek's increasing worry about war and the rising of totalitarianism.

One of the best qualities about Capek, apart from his obvious wit, is that he never moralizes, he takes things from the side of the "ridicule" rather than from a sort of preacher's view. His works are very funny, but no less deep. His sense of humour never conceals the depth of his thought, and humour thus makes things even more serious.