I, Robot (literature)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Fair for Its Day: Asimov wrote his stories with Susan Calvin at a time when nearly all women were captured by the villain, or love interests. Still, he stuck mostly 50's gender roles in most of his stories. The short story "Liar!", which shows more of Calvin's personality, was rewritten a couple of times after Asimov realized his first version was terrible.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: In "Evidence", Stephen Byerley, a liberal public prosecutor who really is doing things to stop crime and redeem criminals, is a candidate for mayor of NYC who is accused of being a robot, which would disqualify him from the election. Quinn, the political boss who propagates the rumor, is a conservative Sleazy Politician who admittedly couldn’t care less for the civil rights of his people, and so his subordinates. The premise seems kind of silly and it's hard to believe that so many people would believe that Byerley is a robot based on such flimsy evidence. Fast forward to 2008, when people are arguing that President Barack Obama wasn't born in the United States (and the principal promotor of that idea was Donald Trump), and it seems much more plausible.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Yes, "Aw, Hell no." DID appear in one of Asimov's robot stories.
  • The Woobie:
    • Gloria in "Robbie".
    • Susan Calvin in "Liar!".

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