Roderick/Part 2 - Revision history

Eb at 20:24, 22 January 2025

2025-01-22T20:24:57Z

Eb at 01:29, 19 January 2025

2025-01-19T01:29:06Z

Eb at 00:57, 18 January 2025

2025-01-18T00:57:01Z

Eb: /* eleven of the twenty-one students */

2017-04-17T17:51:23Z

eleven of the twenty-one students

Eb: use template

2017-02-13T01:54:09Z

use template

Eb: /* Summary */

2017-02-05T07:06:34Z

Summary

Eb at 03:08, 21 November 2016

2016-11-21T03:08:12Z

Eb: /* how you managed to make your hands bleed */

2016-11-21T02:57:30Z

how you managed to make your hands bleed

Eb: /* The Tik Tok Club */

2016-11-21T02:56:48Z

The Tik Tok Club

Eb: /* a star with three lines coming down from it */

2016-11-21T02:28:09Z

a star with three lines coming down from it

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:24, 22 January 2025
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		+	{{#addbodyclass: tiled-toc}}
	The second of the ''[[Roderick]]'' novels was originally published as ''Roderick at Random, or Further Education of a Young Machine''. In ''The Complete Roderick'', it's simply called '''Part 2'''.		The second of the ''[[Roderick]]'' novels was originally published as ''Roderick at Random, or Further Education of a Young Machine''. In ''The Complete Roderick'', it's simply called '''Part 2'''.

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 === blooming, buzzing confusion ===
-William James's description, in ''Principles of Psychology'' (1890), of the confusing perceptual experience of an infant who hasn't yet learned to sort out its new senses.<ref>Discussed at length in [http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/minds/baby/james-blooming-buzzing-baby-2010.html "The 'blooming, buzzing confusion' of William James"], John Hawks (2010)</ref>
+William James's description, in ''Principles of Psychology'' (1890), of the confusing perceptual experience of an infant who hasn't yet learned to sort out its new senses.<ref>Discussed at length in: {{cite article|author=Hawks, John|date=2010|url=http://johnhawks.net/weblog/topics/minds/baby/james-blooming-buzzing-baby-2010.html|title=The 'blooming, buzzing confusion' of William James|accessed=January 18, 2025}}</ref>
 === ''The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp'' ===
@@ Line 117: / Line 117: @@
 There was an earlier mention of this company in Book Two, Chapter VI, when Kratt was plotting to take it over—although at that point Dipchip's business was apparently "trying to coat microcircuit chips with peanut butter," rather than the dehydrated dip idea Hatlo is talking about here.
-Also: Sladek once used the name "Chipdip K. Kill" for the author of his Philip K. Dick parody story "Solar Shoe-Salesman"<ref name="sfe">[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sladek_john_t ''Science Fiction Encyclopedia'' on Sladek]</ref> (and Dick himself later used that name in a fanzine, for a spoof review of his own novel ''The Divine Invasion''<ref>[http://www.philipkdickfans.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/THE%20DIVINE%20INVASION.htm ''The Divine Invasion''] on [http://www.philipkdickfans.com philipkdickfans.com]</ref>).
+Also: Sladek once used the name "Chipdip K. Kill" for the author of his Philip K. Dick parody story "Solar Shoe-Salesman"<ref name="sfe">{{cite article|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sladek_john_t|title=Sladek, John T.|publication=Science Fiction Encyclopedia}}</ref> (and Dick himself later used that name in a fanzine, for a spoof review of his own novel ''The Divine Invasion''<ref>[http://www.philipkdickfans.com/mirror/websites/pkdweb/THE%20DIVINE%20INVASION.htm ''The Divine Invasion''] on [http://www.philipkdickfans.com philipkdickfans.com]</ref>).
 === ''Les Noces'' ===
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 === We changed it from another name, a very downmarket name ===
-{{wp|Elizabeth Barrett Browning}}'s beloved dog was named "Flush". Flush was featured in an eponymous novel by Virginia Woolf<ref>[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301041h.html Flush: A Biography], Virginia Woolf (1933)</ref>, in which the puppy observes his owner's troubled home life and the strangeness of the modern human world from a perspective not unlike Roderick's.
+{{wp|Elizabeth Barrett Browning}}'s beloved dog was named "Flush". Flush was featured in an eponymous novel by Virginia Woolf<ref>{{cite book|author=Woolf, Virginia|date=1933|url=http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301041h.html|title=Flush: A Biography}}</ref>, in which the puppy observes his owner's troubled home life and the strangeness of the modern human world from a perspective not unlike Roderick's.
 === Then I felt like some sky-watcher / When a new planet orbits into sight - zowie! ===
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 === **DICA **NKS ===
-Sladek used asterisked-out names for some of his parodies of other writers—e.g., "*s**c *s*m*v" was credited as the author of his Asimov parody story "Broot Force"—although they were eventually collected under his own name.<ref name="sfe">[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/sladek_john_t ''Science Fiction Encyclopedia'' on Sladek]</ref>
+Sladek used asterisked-out names for some of his parodies of other writers—e.g., "*s**c *s*m*v" was credited as the author of his Asimov parody story "Broot Force"—although they were eventually collected under his own name.<ref name="sfe"/>
 === Prospero Books ===
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 === in 1973 this insurance company invented 185 million dollars in assets ===
-{{wp|Equity Funding}}, a US company that committed the largest financial fraud in US history prior to Bernie Madoff, at a time when auditing procedures had not yet caught up with computer technology.<ref>[https://www.decodedscience.org/mainframe-madoff-size-money-monstrous-misapplication-loop/4927 "Mainframe: Madoff-size Money, Monstrous Misapplication"], Rick Stelnick (2011), on [https://www.decodedscience.org/ Decoded Science]</ref>
+{{wp|Equity Funding}}, a US company that committed the largest financial fraud in US history prior to Bernie Madoff, at a time when auditing procedures had not yet caught up with computer technology.<ref>{{cite article|author=Stelnick, Rick|date=2011|url=https://www.decodedscience.org/mainframe-madoff-size-money-monstrous-misapplication-loop/4927|title=Mainframe: Madoff-size Money, Monstrous Misapplication|publication=Decoded Science}}</ref>
 === Every day and every way, I'm getting more and more aware ===

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 === I'm doing Rolfing now ===
-[[wikipedia:Rolfing|An alternative medicine practice]] that was particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s, combining bodywork with ideas about "energy".
+{{wp|Rolfing|An alternative medicine practice}} that was particularly popular in the 1960s and 1970s, combining bodywork with ideas about "energy".
 == Chapter IV ==
 === The Escorial Ballroom ===
-Probably named after the [[wikipedia:El Escorial|Spanish palace]].
+Probably named after the {{wp|El Escorial|Spanish palace}}.
 === R.U.R. My Baby ===
-Combining the [[wikipedia:R.U.R.|play that coined the word "robot"]] with the song "{{wp|Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby}}".
+Combining the {{wp|R.U.R.|play that coined the word "robot"}} with the song "{{wp|Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby}}".
 == Chapter V ==
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 === hair a dark 6B scribble ===
-A [[wikipedia:Pencil#Grading and classification|6B pencil]] is a very soft pencil, producing a smudgy line.
+A {{wp|Pencil#Grading and classification|6B pencil}} is a very soft pencil, producing a smudgy line.
 === forbidden planet, Walter Pigeon ===
-The [[wikipedia:Forbidden Planet|1956 film]], loosely based on ''The Tempest'', starring Walter Pidgeon (sic) as the mad scientist.
+The {{wp|Forbidden Planet|1956 film}}, loosely based on ''The Tempest'', starring Walter Pidgeon (sic) as the mad scientist.
 === The Tik Tok Club ===
-[[wikipedia:Tik-Tok (Oz)|Tik-Tok]] was a robot character in the Oz books, also referenced in Sladek's later [[Tik-Tok|novel of the same name]].
+{{wp|Tik-Tok (Oz)|Tik-Tok}} was a robot character in the Oz books, also referenced in Sladek's later [[Tik-Tok|novel of the same name]].
 === Lake Kerkabon ===
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 === Skid Row ===
-A generic term for [[wikipedia:Skid row|a slum full of derelicts]]. There is an actual neighborhood called Skid Row in Los Angeles, but it's never clear that this book takes place in any specific city.
+A generic term for {{wp|Skid row|a slum full of derelicts}}. There is an actual neighborhood called Skid Row in Los Angeles, but it's never clear that this book takes place in any specific city.
 == Chapter VII ==
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 === Most people just call us the Saffron Peril ===
-Luke is being coy about the name, but he's clearly talking about the [[wikipedia:International Society for Krishna Consciousness|Hare Krishna]] movement. His nickname combines the old xenophobic term {{wp|Yellow Peril}} with the saffron color of the robes customarily worn by followers of this tradition.
+Luke is being coy about the name, but he's clearly talking about the {{wp|International Society for Krishna Consciousness|Hare Krishna}} movement. His nickname combines the old xenophobic term {{wp|Yellow Peril}} with the saffron color of the robes customarily worn by followers of this tradition.
 == Chapter XI ==
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 === ''Les Noces'' ===
-French title of "The Wedding", the 1923 [[Wikipedia:Les noces|Stravinsky ballet]] first choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. Jerome Robbins also created a version in 1965, which I haven't seen, but I'm guessing that Culpa is talking about the original one.
+French title of "The Wedding", the 1923 {{wp|Les noces|Stravinsky ballet}} first choreographed by Bronislava Nijinska. Jerome Robbins also created a version in 1965, which I haven't seen, but I'm guessing that Culpa is talking about the original one.
 For once, Rogers/Culpa's analysis isn't just meaningless bullshit. The overall impression of the ballet—musically, visually, and thematically—is of harsh, mechanized, coercive ceremony. The bride begins by describing a matchmaker violently brushing her hair; in Stravinsky's words, she weeps "not necessarily because of real sorrow at her prospective loss of virginity, but because, ritualistically, she ''must'' weep."<ref>Stravinsky and Craft, ''Expositions and Developments''; cited in ''Igor Stravinsky's Les Noces'', Margarita Mazo, included in the [https://issuu.com/scoresondemand/docs/les_noces_1923_gereng_7872 2005 edition of the score from Chester Music]</ref> Culpa's phrase "celebration of rape" is odd not so much because of the last word (although that usually connotes more of a personal crime than the desexualized social transaction depicted here) but because the tone of the piece is, to put it mildly, not what most people would describe as a celebration of anything.
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 === good old Father Cog on the radio ===
-[[wikipedia:Charles Coughlin|Father Charles Coughlin]], a right-wing political commentator with a large radio following in the 1930s.
+{{wp|Charles Coughlin|Father Charles Coughlin}}, a right-wing political commentator with a large radio following in the 1930s.
 === We changed it from another name, a very downmarket name ===
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 === ''Your Erroneous Zones'' ===
-An extremely popular 1976 [[wikipedia:Your Erroneous Zones|self-help book by Wayne Dyer]]. The title is an obvious pun on {{wp|erogenous zones}}, but Shredder believes it was aimed at readers who literally don't know the difference.
+An extremely popular 1976 {{wp|Your Erroneous Zones|self-help book by Wayne Dyer}}. The title is an obvious pun on {{wp|erogenous zones}}, but Shredder believes it was aimed at readers who literally don't know the difference.
 === two Horatio Alger books in one with the titles run together ===
-In the context of Shredder's idea of misleading readers into thinking a book is about sex when it isn't, the implied double [[wikipedia:List of works by Horatio Alger Jr.|Alger title]] here could be ''Ragged Dick'' plus any one of many other books: in Chapter XV we see that Indica has picked up ''Ragged Dick/Bound to Rise'', but Shredder could also publish ''Ragged Dick/Struggling Upward'', ''Ragged Dick/In Search of Treasure'', etc. Or maybe ''Do and Dare''/''The Disagreeable Woman''.
+In the context of Shredder's idea of misleading readers into thinking a book is about sex when it isn't, the implied double {{wp|List of works by Horatio Alger Jr.|Alger title}} here could be ''Ragged Dick'' plus any one of many other books: in Chapter XV we see that Indica has picked up ''Ragged Dick/Bound to Rise'', but Shredder could also publish ''Ragged Dick/Struggling Upward'', ''Ragged Dick/In Search of Treasure'', etc. Or maybe ''Do and Dare''/''The Disagreeable Woman''.
 == Chapter XV ==
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 === I thought Pascal was a language ===
-Named after Blaise Pascal, the [[wikipedia:Pascal (programming language)|Pascal programming language]] was popular in the 1970s and 80s.
+Named after Blaise Pascal, the {{wp|Pascal (programming language)|Pascal programming language}} was popular in the 1970s and 80s.
 === a robot pope, like in that Robert Silverberg story ===
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 === Albert Robida ... Br'er Robbie? ===
-Robida's ''[[wikipedia:Le Vingtième siècle. La vie électrique|La vie électrique]]'' is a science fiction novel from 1890. The other speaker has misheard the French pronunciation of his name, and is thinking of the dialect word "br'er" (brother), best known from the {{wp|Br'er Rabbit}} stories of Uncle Remus.
+Robida's ''{{wp|Le Vingtième siècle. La vie électrique|La vie électrique}}'' is a science fiction novel from 1890. The other speaker has misheard the French pronunciation of his name, and is thinking of the dialect word "br'er" (brother), best known from the {{wp|Br'er Rabbit}} stories of Uncle Remus.
 === that sonofabitch Gary Indiana ===
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 == Chapter XVII ==
 === a basset hound named Parmenides ===
-I'm not sure if there is a more specific philosophy joke here, but in the [[wikipedia: Parmenides (dialogue)|''Parmenides'']] dialogue of Plato, Socrates is compared to a hound (as a compliment).
+I'm not sure if there is a more specific philosophy joke here, but in the {{wp| Parmenides (dialogue)|''Parmenides''}} dialogue of Plato, Socrates is compared to a hound (as a compliment).
 == Chapter XVIII ==
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 === The Russian war-gaming machine that will only display icons ===
-The word "icon" wasn't yet commonly associated with computers in 1983 (the {{wp|Xerox Star}} used icons, but most computer users didn't encounter that kind of interface until the {{wp|Macintosh}}). The reference here is probably to the [[wikipedia:Icon|religious art objects]] common in the Russian Orthodox Church.
+The word "icon" wasn't yet commonly associated with computers in 1983 (the {{wp|Xerox Star}} used icons, but most computer users didn't encounter that kind of interface until the {{wp|Macintosh}}). The reference here is probably to the {{wp|Icon|religious art objects}} common in the Russian Orthodox Church.
 === in one of our storerooms or offices or somewhere ... found a broken-down robot ===

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 === eleven of the twenty-one students ===
-The students who are named in the following paragraphs (constructed apparently for no reason other than to allow a very determined or bored reader to piece together this joke) correspond to each letter of the alphabet from A to T, and are sitting in alphabetical order. Roderick is "alone in the last row" because he's been given the last name "Underwood Robey" (never explained, but possibly the result of someone's attempt to file him "under 'Wood, Robbie'"; of course this gives him the initials {{wp|R.U.R.}}) and there are no V-Z students. It's possible that there's some significance to the order in which the various students start and stop paying attention to the lecture, since Sladek describes this in some detail, but there's a limit to even my obsessiveness.
+The students who are named in the following paragraphs (constructed apparently for no reason other than to allow a very determined or bored reader to piece together this joke) correspond to each letter of the alphabet from A to T, and are sitting in alphabetical order. Roderick is "alone in the last row" because he's been given the double last name "Underwood Robey" (never explained, but possibly the result of someone's attempt to file him "under 'Wood, Robbie'"; of course this gives him the initials {{wp|R.U.R.}}) and there are no V-Z students. It's possible that there's some significance to the order in which the various students start and stop paying attention to the lecture, since Sladek describes this in some detail, but there's a limit to even my obsessiveness.
 === Deutsche Ostwest Afrika ===

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 The second of the ''[[Roderick]]'' novels was originally published as ''Roderick at Random, or Further Education of a Young Machine''. In ''The Complete Roderick'', it's simply called '''Part 2'''.
-== Summary ==
+{{SummaryCollapsed |
-<div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed">Roderick, now passing for human, has moved to the big city—where "Felix Culpa" (now known as the Lucky Legs Killer) and Allbright (now on the skids again, after apparently having caused Dora's death) have also relocated. He finally succeeds in making contact with the institutionalized Dan Sonnenschein, putting both Ben and the Orinoco Institute on his trail. His new friend, derelict ex-astronaut and religious dabbler Luke Draeger, gets him a job at a demolition company, where he witnesses disasters caused by another of Mr. Kratt's business ventures. Indica and Hank continue to expand their pro- and anti-machine activism; Father Warren, Roderick's former teacher at Catholic school, takes over Hank's increasingly violent organization. Roderick discovers that he is no longer the only sentient machine: other types of commercially marketed robots and computers have become self-aware, and now regard him and Dan as mythical heroes. When he finally comes face to face with the Orinoco Institute, they've changed their policy (due to realizing that they had been misinterpreting the messages from Leo Bunsky's brain) and want him to join their team to steer the course of the human race. Horrified by the thought of how much pointless violence these covert futurists have committed due to his existence, he rejects the offer, and offers himself up to Kratt's company to be dismantled and used as the basis for a new generation of robots; but this never happens, since they lose track of him, and he becomes a nameless statue. The book ends with a service at the new Church of the Plastic Jesus, led by Luke, bringing together a congregation of "the derelict and forgotten simulacra"; Allbright and Dora are reunited.</div>
+Roderick, now passing for human, has moved to the big city—where "Felix Culpa" (now known as the Lucky Legs Killer) and Allbright (now on the skids again, after apparently having caused Dora's death) have also relocated. He finally succeeds in making contact with the institutionalized Dan Sonnenschein, putting both Ben and the Orinoco Institute on his trail. His new friend, derelict ex-astronaut and religious dabbler Luke Draeger, gets him a job at a demolition company, where he witnesses disasters caused by another of Mr. Kratt's business ventures. Indica and Hank continue to expand their pro- and anti-machine activism; Father Warren, Roderick's former teacher at Catholic school, takes over Hank's increasingly violent organization. Roderick discovers that he is no longer the only sentient machine: other types of commercially marketed robots and computers have become self-aware, and now regard him and Dan as mythical heroes. When he finally comes face to face with the Orinoco Institute, they've changed their policy (due to realizing that they had been misinterpreting the messages from Leo Bunsky's brain) and want him to join their team to steer the course of the human race. Horrified by the thought of how much pointless violence these covert futurists have committed due to his existence, he rejects the offer, and offers himself up to Kratt's company to be dismantled and used as the basis for a new generation of robots; but this never happens, since they lose track of him, and he becomes a nameless statue. The book ends with a service at the new Church of the Plastic Jesus, led by Luke, bringing together a congregation of "the derelict and forgotten simulacra"; Allbright and Dora are reunited.
 == Chapter I ==

← Older revision		Revision as of 03:08, 21 November 2016
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−	~~'''Under construction!'''~~
−
	The second of the ''[[Roderick]]'' novels was originally published as ''Roderick at Random, or Further Education of a Young Machine''. In ''The Complete Roderick'', it's simply called '''Part 2'''.		The second of the ''[[Roderick]]'' novels was originally published as ''Roderick at Random, or Further Education of a Young Machine''. In ''The Complete Roderick'', it's simply called '''Part 2'''.

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 === how you managed to make your hands bleed ===
-In Book Two, Father Warren developed a skin problem after he told Roderick to poke him on the hand (to prove that Roderick [[Roderick/Book_Two#How can they program a robot to obey some dumb law|could harm humans]] and therefore couldn't be a robot) and then couldn't stop scratching this small scratch. This has apparently led to rumors about {{wp|stigmata}}.
+In Book Two, Father Warren developed a skin problem after he told Roderick to poke him on the hand (to prove that Roderick [[Roderick/Book_Two#How can they program a robot to obey some dumb law|could harm humans]] and therefore couldn't be a robot) and then couldn't stop scratching this tiny injury. This has apparently led to rumors about {{wp|stigmata}}.
 == Chapter IX ==

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 == Chapter VII ==
 === a star with three lines coming down from it ===
-Luke's pin would look like this:
+[[File:NASA - Astropin.png|left|150px|thumb|a NASA astronaut pin]]
-[[File:NASA - Astropin.png|200px|thumb|a NASA astronaut lapel pin]]
+Luke's pin would look like this.
 == Chapter VIII ==