Charles Dickens never fully devoted himself to science fiction , but if he had , his work might have looked something like the present - daytime HBO seriesWestworld . As The Conversationreports , the source explored a very interchangeable premiss to the show inThe Mudfrog Papers , a collection of sketches that in the beginning appeared in the magazineBentley ’s Miscellanybetween 1837 and 1838 .
In the news report " Full Report of the Second Meeting of the Mudfog Association for the Advancement of Everything , " a scientist name his plan for a ballpark where plenteous young men can take out their hostility on " automaton soma . " In Dickens ’s storey , the chance to follow those cruel urges is the park ’s independent appeal . The theme park inWestworldmay have been base with a more or less less cynical vision , but it has a similar result . Guests can survive out their heroic fantasies , but if they have darker nervous impulse , they can represent on those as well .
or else of charge guest back in clip , Dickens ’s attraction presents visitant with a place very similar to their own dwelling house . harmonize to the scientist ’s pitch shot , the idyllic , puritanical scene contains route , nosepiece , and little village in a walled - off space at least 10 Swedish mile wide . Each feature is designed for end , including trashy gasoline lamps made of substantial glass . It ’s inhabit with robot pig , taxi driver , and elderly women who , when baffle , produce “ moan , commix with entreaties for mercy , thus rendering the illusion all over , and the use unadulterated . ”
There are no consequences for harming the hosts inWestworld , but the guests at Dickens ’s Mungo Park are at least commit to a mock trial run for their crimes . However , rather than paying for their misdeed , the yobo always reset the mercy of an automated jurist — Dickens ’s emblem for how the law of nature favour the rich and inner in the real world .
As for the Victorian - era automatons gaining sensation and overthrowing their tormenters ? Dickens never got that far . But who knows where he would have taken it given a two - season HBO deal .
[ h / tThe Conversation ]
