"Robbie" | |||
---|---|---|---|
Short story by Isaac Asimov | |||
Country | United States | ||
Language | English | ||
Genre(s) | Science fiction | ||
Publication | |||
Published in | Super Science Stories | ||
Publication type | Periodical | ||
Publisher | Popular Publications | ||
Media type | Print (magazine, hardback, paperback) | ||
Publication date | September 1940 | ||
Chronology | |||
Series | Robot series | ||
|
"Robbie" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was the first of Asimov's positronic robot stories. In 2016, "'Robbie" won a retrospective 1941 Hugo Award for best short story. [1] "Robbie" was the fourteenth story written by Asimov, and the ninth to be published. It was the first story in Asimov's Robot series.
Central to the story is the technophobia that surrounds robots, and how it is misplaced. Almost all previously published science fiction stories featuring robots had followed the theme of robot turning against their creator, in common with the monster featured in Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein . Asimov has consistently held the belief that the Frankenstein complex was a misplaced fear. The majority of Asimov's works concerning robots attempted to provide examples of the help that they could render for humanity.
Asimov began writing the story on June 10, 1939. [2] He was inspired to write a story about a sympathetic robot by the story "I, Robot" by Otto Binder, which had recently been published in the January 1939 issue of Amazing Stories . [3]
After John W. Campbell of Astounding Science Fiction rejected the story in June, Asimov briefly hired Frederik Pohl as literary agent, but he could not find a magazine to accept it. Pohl then became editor of Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories in October 1939. In March 1940 Pohl purchased "Robbie" for the latter magazine. For its first publication, Pohl renamed the story “Strange Playfellow,” a title Asimov thought "distasteful". [4]
When the story was reprinted in the first collection of Asimov's robot stories, I, Robot (a title Asimov had not wanted), he had his preferred title of "Robbie" restored. The reprint contained a number of revisions to the text. "Robbie" was later reprinted in The Complete Robot (1982), and Robot Visions (1990).The story was the first of Asimov's positronic robot stories to see publication.
In the year 1982, a mute robot, nicknamed Robbie, is owned by the Weston family. He serves as a nursemaid for their daughter, Gloria.
Mrs. Weston has become concerned about the effect a robot nursemaid might have on developing social skills and worries that he might malfunction and harm her. Gloria prefers Robbie's company to that of other children. Mr. Weston gives in to his wife's badgering and returns Robbie to the factory. Gloria's parents claim that Robbie had, for no reason, "walked away". They have replaced him with a collie dog called Lightning.
The effort fails. Gloria, missing her best friend, stops enjoying life. Her mother thinks it would be impossible for Gloria to forget Robbie while surrounded by the places where they once played. Mrs. Weston convinces her husband to take them to New York City, where he happens to work. Gloria, getting the wrong idea, optimistically thinks that they are going to the city in search of Robbie.
Among other tourist attractions, the Westons visit the Museum of Science and Industry; Gloria sneaks away to see a "Talking Robot" (in modern terms, a computer), an immobile machine which takes up the whole room. It can answer questions posed to it verbally by visitors. Gloria asks the machine if it has seen Robbie, "a robot... just like you." The computer, unable to comprehend the question, breaks down.
Mr. Weston approaches his wife with the idea of touring a robot factory. Gloria can then see robots as inanimate objects, not "people". During the tour, Mr. Weston asks to see a room where robots make other robots. One of the robot assemblers is Robbie. Gloria runs in front of a moving vehicle in her eagerness to get to her friend, but is rescued by Robbie. Mrs. Weston confronts her husband: he had set up the encounter all along. When Robbie saves Gloria's life, an unplanned part of the reunion, Mrs. Weston relents. The two friends can stay together.
The revised version changes the date to 1998 and adds a cameo appearance by Susan Calvin, at that time a college student studying robots, during the Talking Robot scene. Other changes include:
The story was broadcast as episode one of a five-part 15 Minute Drama radio adaptation of I, Robot on BBC Radio 4 in February 2017. [5]
Groff Conklin called the story "completely charming". [6]
I, Robot is a fixup collection made up of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 and were then collected into a 1950 publication Gnome Press in 1950, in an initial edition of 5,000 copies.
Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as popular science and other non-fiction.
The Robot Series is a series of thirty-seven science fiction short stories and six novels created by American writer Isaac Asimov, from 1940 to 1995. The series is set in a world where sentient positronic robots serve a number of purposes in society. To ensure their loyalty, the Three Laws of Robotics are programmed into these robots, with the intent of preventing them from ever becoming a danger to humanity. Later, Asimov would merge the Robot series with his Foundation series.
The Galactic Empire series is a science fiction sequence of three of Isaac Asimov's earliest novels, and extended by one short story. They are connected by their early place in his published works and chronological placement within his overarching Foundation universe, set around the rise of Asimov's Galactic Empire, between the Robot and Foundation series to which they were linked in Asimov's later novels.
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov, which were to be followed by robots in several of his stories. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although similar restrictions had been implied in earlier stories.
Edward Groff Conklin was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories, wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet. From 1950 to 1955, he was the book critic for Galaxy Science Fiction.
"The Bicentennial Man" is a novelette in the Robot series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in Robot Visions, Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same, for a science fiction collection to be published in honor of the United States Bicentennial. However, the arrangement fell through, leaving Asimov's the only story actually completed for the project. Asimov sold the story to Judy-Lynn del Rey, who made some small changes to the text. Asimov restored the original text when the story was collected in The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories (1976).
The Complete Robot (1982) is a collection of 31 of the 37 science fiction short stories about robots by American writer Isaac Asimov, written between 1939 and 1977. Most of the stories had been previously collected in the books I, Robot and The Rest of the Robots, while four had previously been uncollected and the rest had been scattered across five other anthologies. They share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots and morality, and put together tell a larger story of Asimov's fictional history of robotics. The stories are grouped into categories.
"Blind Alley" is a science fiction short story by American writer Isaac Asimov. It was first published in the March 1945 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and later included in the collection The Early Asimov (1972).
"I, Robot" is a science fiction short story by Eando Binder, part of a series about a robot named Adam Link. It was published in the January 1939 issue of Amazing Stories.
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics. Gnome was one of the most eminent of the fan publishers of SF, producing 86 titles in its lifespan — many considered classic works of SF and Fantasy today. Gnome was important in the transitional period between Genre SF as a magazine phenomenon and its arrival in mass-market book publishing, but proved too underfunded to make the leap from fan-based publishing to the professional level. The company existed for just over a decade, ultimately failing due to inability to compete with major publishers who also started to publish science fiction. In its heyday, Gnome published many of the major SF authors, and in some cases, as with Robert E. Howard's Conan series and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, was responsible for the manner in which their stories were collected into book form.
Miles John Breuer was an American physician and science fiction writer of Czech origin. Although he had published elsewhere since the early 20th century, he is considered the part of the first generation of writers to appear regularly in the pulp science fiction magazines, publishing his first story, "The Man with the Strange Head", in the January 1927 issue of Amazing Stories. His best known works are "The Gostak and the Doshes" (1930) and two stories written jointly with Jack Williamson, "The Girl from Mars" (1929) and The Birth of a New Republic (1931).
Super Science Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine published by Popular Publications from 1940 to 1943, and again from 1949 to 1951. Popular launched it under their Fictioneers imprint, which they used for magazines, paying writers less than one cent per word. Frederik Pohl was hired in late 1939, at 19 years old, to edit the magazine; he also edited Astonishing Stories, a companion science fiction publication. Pohl left in mid-1941 and Super Science Stories was given to Alden H. Norton to edit; a few months later Norton rehired Pohl as an assistant. Popular gave Pohl a very low budget, so most manuscripts submitted to Super Science Stories had already been rejected by the higher-paying magazines. This made it difficult to acquire good fiction, but Pohl was able to acquire stories for the early issues from the Futurians, a group of young science fiction fans and aspiring writers.
"Deadline" is a 1944 science fiction short story by American writer Cleve Cartmill, first published in Astounding Science Fiction. The story described the then-secret atomic bomb in some detail. At that time the bomb was still under development and top secret, which prompted a visit by the FBI.
Giants Unleashed is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Grosset & Dunlap in 1965. A paperback edition followed from the publisher's Tempo Books imprint in April 1966. It was reprinted, minus the introduction and under the alternate title Minds Unleashed, in October 1970.
Six Great Short Science Fiction Novels is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in paperback by Dell in November 1960. The book should not be confused with his similarly titled earlier anthology, 6 Great Short Novels of Science Fiction.
Science Fiction Oddities is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in paperback by Berkley Medallion in November 1966. It was split into two volumes for its first British edition, issued in hardcover by Rapp & Whiting as Science Fiction Oddities and Science Fiction Oddities: Second Series in June 1969.
17 X Infinity is an American anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in paperback by Dell in August 1963 and reprinted in April 1969. The first British edition was issued by Mayflower-Dell in 1964 and reprinted in 1965.
Science Fiction Thinking Machines: Robots, Androids, Computers is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by American anthologist Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Vanguard Press in May 1954. An abridged paperback edition titled Selections from Science Fiction Thinking Machines was published by Bantam Books in August 1955 and reprinted in September 1964.
Operation Future is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in paperback by Permabooks in July 1955 and reprinted in September 1956.
Included in: | Series: | Followed by: |
---|---|---|
I, Robot The Complete Robot Robot Visions | Robot series Foundation Series | "Robot AL-76 Goes Astray" |