Page "Golem" Paragraph 29

The existence of a golem is sometimes a mixed blessing.

Golems are not intelligent, and if commanded to perform a task, they will perform the instructions literally.

In many depictions Golems are inherently perfectly obedient.

In its earliest known modern form, the Golem of Chelm became enormous and uncooperative.

In one version of this story, the rabbi had to resort to trickery to deactivate it, whereupon it crumbled upon its creator and crushed him.

There is a similar hubris theme in Frankenstein, The Sorcerer's Apprentice and some golem-derived stories in popular culture.

The theme also manifests itself in R. U. R.

( Rossum's Universal Robots ), Karel Čapek's 1921 play which coined the term robot ; the play was written in Prague and while Capek denied that he modeled the robot after the Golem, there are many similarities in the plot.