Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Word on Golems in Science Fiction and other Fiction

I'm fascinated by the way the Jewish legend of the Golem has been adopted in modern literature, and in connection with Karel Capek's birthday today, I've put together a list of some of the works where golems of various sorts have appeared:
  • Anthony, Piers: Golem in the Gears
  • Borges, Jorge Luis: Dreamtigers
  • Brin, David: Kiln People
  • Chabon, Michael: Kavalier and Clay
  • Davidson, Avram: “The Golem”
  • Dick, Phillip: The Cosmic Puppets
  • Hamill, Pete: Snow in August
  • Handler, Daniel: Watch Your Mouth
  • Isler, Alan: The Bacon Fancier
  • Lem, Stanislav: The Golem
  • Mieville, China: Iron Council
  • Mulisch, Harry: The Procedure
  • Piercy, Marge: He, She, and It
  • Pratchett, Terry: Feet of Clay
  • Rosenbaum, Thane: The Golems of Gotham
  • Stroud, Jonathan: The Golem’s Eye
  • Sturm, James: The Golem’s Mighty Swing
Other, more obscure books with "Golem" in the title appear in a keyword search at ABE books, and other places. I have read some of these, and plan to read more, out of curiosity about how this legend has fit so well into a modern genre, and in fact how it fictionally prefigured a whole area of modern technology.

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