golem

golem, originally uploaded by dumbeast.

http://www.archive.org/details/Golem_vs_Dumbeast 

A blast from the Past.  Still holds up
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Golem, Dumbeast's little pal, his adversary and foe, is an old character from Jewish folklore. He was allegedly created by Rabbi Löwe of Prague back in the 17th century. Apparently, Rabbi Löwe was quite the little Kabbalist in his time, and when the Jews of Prague were threatened with mass eviction or extinction, he decided to use his arcane skills to make an artificial strong man to protect his flock.

The Golem was made from clay in the form of a huge man. Lots of ritual and purification of the soul transpired. When everything was set, an Aleph, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet was placed between the Golem's lips, and he became activated.

Frankenstein's grandfather. The first programmable robot in the history of literature. A paramilitary automaton. Without a soul.

Well, you can just imagine how that's likely to play out. You got your hubris, you got your unleashing of uncontrollable forces, you got your people in the community who figure, okay, this shtarker has saved our homes and our lives, I wonder how he'd do at, like, removing that stump. And re-shingling my roof. And pounding the living crap out of that kid on the next block who made fun of my hat.

So after a little running amok, the Golem gets himself deactivated, and his inert clay body remains to this day in the upper storey of some synagogue in Prague.

The Golem story has been repeated in many forms over the years. In Germany, in 1920, Paul Wegener made the world's first horror movie about the dolomitic antihero. Isaac B Singer covered this material better than I ever could in a children's book. Terry Pratchett's world has golems in it, and in 1996, he wrote an excellent book particularly about one. Currently, there's an insipid comic book series about a modern-day Golem.

Stories about calling up something that you can't put down never seem to have a happy ending.

What might happen if the Golem met Dumbeast? Luckily, I was there with a camera when it all went down.