h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What about the Stepford wives? Weren't they created as the 'perfect' women? I haven't actually seen/ read where this is from but have heard a few references to it... anyone know what I'm on about? (cos i sure don't)

pj

In Egyptian mythology Khnum the ram headed god made the bodies of men from clay on his potters wheel. Though it fell to another god to give us GPP's.

'Stepford Wives' was a book by Ira Levin and later a movie.

In the story, the women are replaced by perfect robotic replicas of themselves, whose only interests are to keep house perfectly and to please their husbands.

'Boys from Brazil' - which Mund mentioned earlier - was also by Ira Levin and was about children who were cloned from Hitler.

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GPPs? (When I wake up properly, I'll probably work out what you mean).

Ok, so according to Mund, men manufacture men to do the work, and women to drool over. Seems likely to me.

... if women were doing the manufacturing would it be the other way round?

Talking of which, has anyone mentioned Rocky in the Eponymous Horror Show? And while we are on the subject of rock musicals, we have Ariel in 'Return to the Forbidden Planet' which brings me on to R2D2 and C3PO in 'Star Wars'. And I assume someone has mentioned the legend of 'Pygmalion' the statue that came to life. And there are the Igors (or Igorth) in Discworld who are self-manufactured. When an Igor says of another Igor 'he hath hith grandfather'th handth' he means it literally.

I'll be interested to see the entry when it - ahem - springs to life.

a drooler called Ben

Do we also have to take myths into accounts now, not just myths about people being created? That makes a whole lot more.

Anyways, if women are also okay then there´s the female robot from Metropolis. I don´t know if she was created to drool over though.

Then there´s all the different Frankenstein spin-offs. But they´re too numerous to mention. I had a book once(now in a hostel somewhere in Ireland.) about stories that were inspired by Frankenstein, would probably give you a lot.

What about Da Vinci, didn´t he also try and make mechanical men?

I think he was just into the mechanics of how humas actually work. Hence the fourlegged man picture

I guess GPP is Genuine People Personalities...

sounds ghastly

It is.

Did anyone mention Voodoo dolls?

Voodoo dolls aren't manufactured people but representations of people for a particular control purpose.

Zombies equally are not manufactured people, or are they? And what about vampires passing on their condition? I think not.

Good point Mund - but it occurs to me that perhaps all the Manufactured people are representations for particular control purposes. Including god.

Just a passing thought that I haven't thought through completely.

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Maybe we have yet another classification - the occult, which would include humunculii, voodoo dolls, zombies and vampires.

***B

Well, if vampires are included I think werewolfs should too.

No I don't think either vampires or werewolves should be. I thought it was about creating people from scratch , not from bite.

Scratch - bite - good point, and you get another laugh. I will omit the vampire and werewolf for now because they don't seem to be people made by other people (or gods) for an instrumental purpose (though I know vampires could be seen to be producing other vampires to pass on their condition to their own benefit).

I don't expect to cover the whole canvas, but I think we've had enough examples to work from, so I'm going to work on the guide entry over the next week or two (including a family holiday on silent, inspirational farm land).

A new example came up this morning on the radio - the men of bronze who worked for King Minos of Crete. Relationship to the Colossus of Rhodes? Another android army?

don't remember much about the men of bronze.

Looking forward to reading you entry.

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I'm sorry I haven't read the backlog, being totally exhausted from catching up on other threads. The terracotta army in Xian?