The biggest and best book of my career is finally out in public where people can see it, read it, and even buy it. Robots in American Popular Culture (by someone named Steve Carper) is the first comprehensive history of robots in media. Despite the academic title (fought 'em for six months and lost) and the academic publisher, McFarland, I guarantee that it contains no academic speak and should be loads of fun to read. (But the name got me in to deliver a paper on robots at the Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association conference in November, so it has its uses.)
I believe that robots as we know 'em first entered popular culture on January 8, 1868, when a young inventor unveiled a seven-foot-tall steam man, designed to replace the horse. (Yes, it was a con, just like almost every other supposed robot unveiled over the next century.) There’s a huge amount of lost history predating modern science fiction: I don’t get to Isaac Asimov until midway through Chapter 9. (He was beaten to the three laws of robotics, too.) Then I breeze through robot history right down to Stormy Daniels as a sexbot in 2016. Every entry is backed by massive documentation: 750 footnotes, a thousand-item bibliography (sorted by media type), and a 1500-entry index. If you want to use this as a textbook you’ll find information available nowhere else.
The only thing missing are the images, and robots are wonderfully visual. That’s why I created a companion website, RobotsInAmericanPopularCulture.com, which has over 350 images keyed by text page so you can follow along and see what I’m talking about.
I’m not boasting when I call the book “awesome.” I’m quoting John Martellaro, host of The Mac Observer’s Background Mode podcast, who also said that as a robot nerd he thinks it’s the best robot book ever. The podcast hasn’t been formally scheduled, but it should run next week or the week after. I’ll post the date when I know it.
This post has been approved by the mods, who also ruled that I can’t tell you where to buy it in CS. So please hop over to Marketplace, where info is posted.
The North American Science Fiction Convention was being held there. (It’s a suburb of Salt Lake City.) It was a good place to do my song and dance and introduce the book to the sf community. And it was the 50th anniversary of my first Worldcon.
But I’m in upstate New York. It’s unlikely I’ll be doing anything outside easy driving distance for a while. (Unless you have suspiciously deep pockets or a nerdy tech billionaire to bankroll you. I wish more tech billionaires were into robots instead of rockets.)
Fuck me; I had no idea that was where NASFiC was being held! I’ve been out of the con loop for quite some time now. I hope your talk was well-received; I’m sorry I missed it and a chance to meet you IRL.
Thanks for the info, looks great! A couple questions?
Do you consider Kindle versions to deliver less-than-ideal experiences? I love the convenience but figures and the like sometimes get mangled. How do you think yours looks compared to print?
How the hell does someone have a Used version to sell?
Have you ever mentioned this book before on the SDMB? I feel like I’ve heard of this book before and when I did I thought “that sounds like something I’ll be interested in getting!” Your book is giving me deja vu!
Anyway, congratulations on your publication! I’ve put it in my wishlist! And very cool adding a website with images to “follow along”.
Congratulations, Exapno! And I love the author photo on the Amazon page…I never suspected that in addition to being a Robot History Genius, you’re also a pompatus of love!
I offered numerous two-word titles to make it easier to reference. My problem was that I never could find hit the aha! sweet spot that demanded to be used.
I haven’t checked out the Kindle version yet, but the book is pure text with nothing that would trip up formatting. No idea on what the used book sellers are pulling, but I wouldn’t go there.
I mentioned that I had a robot column on BlackGate.com a while back and that I was working on the book.
The lack of images was frustrating. Both the evolution of robot designs and the variation of looks within a time period are fascinating topics in themselves, besides the fact that seeing an image is easier than reading a description of one. I don’t know of others who have done a companion to a text, but I knew it was a good idea. (If I had realized how much work it would be, though…)
No. And that wasn’t even a typo I ever had to correct. One of the few.
I prefer to think of myself as a professional Grumpy Cat impersonator.
And a collective thank you to all who offered congratulations. I needed that. It’s been a long three years.
