The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4Poe, Edgar Allan
General
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 4
Poe, Edgar Allan
American fiction -- 19th century; Fantasy fiction; Horror tales, American; Short stories
6. The external appearance, and, especially, the deportment of
the Turk, are, when we consider them as imitations of _life, _but
very indifferent imitations. The countenance evinces no
ingenuity, and is surpassed, in its resemblance to the human
face, by the very commonest of wax-works. The eyes roll
unnaturally in the head, without any corresponding motions of the
lids or brows. The arm, particularly, performs its operations in
an exceedingly stiff, awkward, jerking, and rectangular manner.
Now, all this is the result either of inability in Maelzel to do
better, or of intentional neglect—accidental neglect being out of
the question, when we consider that the whole time of the
ingenious proprietor is occupied in the improvement of his
machines. Most assuredly we must not refer the unlife-like
appearances to inability—for all the rest of Maelzel’s automata
are evidence of his full ability to copy the motions and
peculiarities of life with the most wonderful exactitude. The
rope-dancers, for example, are inimitable. When the clown laughs,
his lips, his eyes, his eye-brows, and eyelids—indeed, all the
features of his countenance—are imbued with their appropriate
expressions. In both him and his companion, every gesture is so
entirely easy, and free from the semblance of artificiality,
that, were it not for the diminutiveness of their size, and the
fact of their being passed from one spectator to another previous
to their exhibition on the rope, it would be difficult to
convince any assemblage of persons that these wooden automata
were not living creatures. We cannot, therefore, doubt Mr.
Maelzel’s ability, and we must necessarily suppose that he
intentionally suffered his Chess Player to remain the same
artificial and unnatural figure which Baron Kempelen (no doubt
also through design) originally made it. What this design was it
is not difficult to conceive. Were the Automaton life-like in its
motions, the spectator would be more apt to attribute its
operations to their true cause, (that is, to human agency within)
than he is now, when the awkward and rectangular manœuvres convey
the idea of pure and unaided mechanism.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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