Living Dolls: A magical history of the quest for mechanical life by
Gaby Wood, Faber & Faber, 拢12.99, ISBN 0571178790
AS SHE approaches the late 19th century, and the end of her history of
mechanical dolls, Gaby Wood observes with regret: 鈥淚t seemed the worlds of
science and amusement had taken resolutely forking paths.鈥�
A mechanical puppet models human behaviour, parodies it, calls its
specialness into question. Sometime in the 1830s Johann Maelzel, maestro of a
1769-vintage chess-playing automaton known as The Turk (surely that puppet,
dressed like a pasha before an outsize board, cannot really play chess鈥攃an
it?) meets circus impresario P. T. Barnum. Barnum鈥檚 big earner at this time is
an eightysomething circus performer called Joice Heth, who鈥檚 claiming to be 161
years old. After watching The Turk creak through its moves, Barnum decided to
put around the rumour that Joice, like The Turk, was a wood-and-rubber
automaton. Barnum knew a good thing when he saw one but, at the same time, he
had missed the point. The Turk鈥檚 uncanny appeal was not simply visual, it was
philosophical: 鈥淚f I can do this, what does that make you ?鈥�
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Only years later, in science fiction鈥攊n Blade Runner鈥檚
replicants and Asimov鈥檚 Bicentennial Man鈥攄o we find dolls whose
visual appeal clothes real philosophical substance. Wood鈥檚 is a solid historical
study, modishly expressed, as she traces the fault line between fairground
attraction and philosophical toy.