The History of Robots in the Victorian Era

If you feel a bit cheated since you'll be viewing the site with knowledge of the 'real' story of Boilerplate, take heart - Guinan's intricate weaving of fiction with legitimate history serves to maintain an air of uncertainty about all of the 'archival' content on his site. For example, are the other robots depicted in the History more examples of the webmaster's artistic talents, harvested illustrations from real 19th and 20th century publications which were 'repurposed' to add credibility to the Boilerplate saga, or simply appreciations of previous artists' fictional robotic creations?

As an example, Victorian Robots makes frequent reference to the inventor, Frank Reade Jr., and displays many of his inventions. A Google search of the name reveals, among other things, an Arizona State University lecture and a US Centennial of Flight essay that make reference to 19th century dime novels featuring the fictional Reade's adventures - so Reade would appear to be a previously created fictional character, akin to Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger.

And yet both of these scholarly references list Guinan's pages as their only Reade source. Did these sites fall for Guinan's fictional creation of a fictional creation? Was Reade a real (fictional) character recruited to lend credibility to Guinan's stories? Is Reade actually the mastermind behind all these creations, trying to divert attention away from himself due to a debilitating introversion stemming from a traumatic third grade show-and-tell experience? The truth is out there - if it doesn't drive you crazy first.

On the design front, The History has a basic construction (read; fast loader) with only two idiosyncrasies - both, I expect, due to the site's age. First is a left-justified layout that may seem off balance to most, but will be a welcome sight for those still using 640x480 pixel monitors. Second is the navigation which, not surprisingly for a site which has been expanding piecemeal for more than three years, offers no simple linear routes for exploring the site. Fortunately, the History's online host has a site mapin case you're worried about missing any content. Or clues.

In a November 2000 interview, Guinan estimated that roughly a third of his visitors were accepting The History as fact. Of course, after reading this, you know better - but that's not to say you have to warn anybody else, if you suggest that they take a tour.

The History of Robots in the Victorian Era can be found at http://www.bigredhair.com/robots/.

Page: 1 | 2