Dr. Susan Calvin

Many thanks j.d.worthington for your response to my query as to which further books Daneel appears in. I'd better get going then on the Foundation series, which I've never yet read and which look seriously BIG!

ghost8772 said:
Daneel was a cool character, the penultimate holmes. was interesting to see his growth through the robot novels to the finished product at the end of Foundation and Earth.
Daneel was certainly cool OK - in all senses of the word (one of the things that turned me on, in the first place). Would be interested to know what a 'penultimate holmes' is.

Yes, I liked seeing Daneel's growth throughout the 4 Robot novels (he just kept getting cooler and smarter, eg that time when he tied up that bullying crewman Niss in knots [Robots and Empire] - wasn't hung up about hurting that human, not after he, Daneel, had programmed the Zeroth Law into himself. Good career move, I could say.

So I'm certainly looking forward to seeing 'the finished product' at the end of the Foundation novels.

It would be great to see any DVD that might come out of the Robot Novels (who might act Daneel I wonder?) I got fond of Elijah Baley too, as he got to loving Daneel like a friend, and I also got fond of Giskard too and was so sad when he 'expired' at the end of Robots and Empire.

They made a great threesome, Lije, Giskard and Daneel, and I wished they could've all gone on together for the next 20,000 years.
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Daneel was altered at towards being a detective, (offscreen before his initial meeting with Lije) originally he didn't have much info/experience/data on HOW to do it. he got better at it, as well as getting somewhat better at being human, nearly indistinguishable in fact, after 20,000 years. Sherlock Holmes was written as a detective who could put together clues to solve a mystery. Daneel being a robot meant that emotion was not a factor, complete and total recall again a benefit, if he learned how to stitch this stuff together from Lije, then he would have become the best detective EVER, downside of this is that according to the laws of the time robots were not allowed to give evidence in any court of law.

The idea of LKije, Giskard and Daneel running through 20,000 years is an intriguing one, unfortunately for the 0th law to have taken full effect on Daneel, both Lije, and Giskard had to fall away from the fabric of life.
 
Calvin was an exceptionally endearing character - I think because of her overpowering intellect is off-set (or augmented if you prefer) by her insecurity.
 
ghost8772 said:
Daneel was a cool character, the penultimate holmes. was interesting to see his growth through the robot novels to the finished product at the end of Foundation and Earth.

as far as Dr. Calvin goes, she seemed "married" to her work. with a few times where emotions were dangled before her eyes. "Liar" is an excellent example of showing she has something like emtions. there was another story I can't recall the name, where the robot was heard to call her "momma" can't remember the name of the story though. but it underlines her ultimate point in life. she's married to robots, and has a robot child handed to her.
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Yes, and that tied in well with a scene from another story. I can't recall the name. She mentions that she was lost as a child at a science exhibtion. She could not find her parents, and went up to this robot to ask directions.

When her parents found her, she was in the arms of the robot asleep
 
MG1962 said:
Yes, and that tied in well with a scene from another story. I can't recall the name. She mentions that she was lost as a child at a science exhibtion. She could not find her parents, and went up to this robot to ask directions.

When her parents found her, she was in the arms of the robot asleep
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That reference was found in "Robbie", the first story in I Robot. And the child was named Alice who was looking for Robbie at the time. Calvin was nearby taking notes about the first talking robot in the exhibition.
 
I absolutely love the character of Dr. Susan Calvin. And in the movie "I, Robot", they cast Bridget Moynahan as Dr. Calvin and that, in my opinion, was a totally wrong casting.

I personally think that Jody Foster can be a pretty good choice for the character of Dr. Calvin. what do you guys think?
 
MG1962 said:
Yes, and that tied in well with a scene from another story. I can't recall the name. She mentions that she was lost as a child at a science exhibtion. She could not find her parents, and went up to this robot to ask directions.

When her parents found her, she was in the arms of the robot asleep
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Actually it sounds as if you're conflating two different aspects of the same story. It wasn't Susan that was lost at the exhibition, but Gloria; the "robot" was in essence a massive computer, non-humaniform; she hadn't become lost, but was thinking (with perfectly childlike logic) that one robot would know how to find another, and was looking for her lost Robbie, etc. Susan Calvin was, however, at that time working on her doctorate and witnessed the event (at least, in the version as published in I, Robot; though I believe this was an insertion for the collection rather than something that existed in the original tale -- which was, incidentally, also originally published as "Strange Playfellow", a title which Asimov found "distasteful"....)
 
I love Susan Calvin. She doesn't compromise herself so that others can have a favourable opinion of her. I love that she's plain and brainy and doesn't care if people think she's a bitch. She's the expert and everyone else had better acknowledge that.

Even though I'm not pro-robot/anti-people as she is, I still identify with her reasons for being that way. I usually prefer the company of books, computers and animals to people.

She is a literary character I would love to meet in real life.
 
I personally believe "Liar!" was simply an attempt by Asimov to inject some sort of personality into Susan Calvin. The story highly disrupted her usual character, and she probably could have easily done without it. While I am a huge fan of his stories, I think this was one of his bigger blunders in science fiction.
 
swhite92 said:
I personally believe "Liar!" was simply an attempt by Asimov to inject some sort of personality into Susan Calvin. The story highly disrupted her usual character, and she probably could have easily done without it. While I am a huge fan of his stories, I think this was one of his bigger blunders in science fiction.
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Never saw it that way, myself. I've run into too many cases of such just behavior from people with that sort of personality. It is so out of character that it completely throws people when such happens, but from what I've seen, the story is spot on as far as far as psychology goes....

Besides, Susan always had character... it was a very unusual character (especially for a woman in sf at the time) but it was also a very strong and complex character. Apparently, Isaac felt the same, as he said on more than one occasion that he was more than a bit in love with Dr. Calvin... and I must admit to having something of that reaction myself....
 
Daisy-Boo said:
I love Susan Calvin. She doesn't compromise herself so that others can have a favourable opinion of her. I love that she's plain and brainy and doesn't care if people think she's a bitch. She's the expert and everyone else had better acknowledge that.

Even though I'm not pro-robot/anti-people as she is, I still identify with her reasons for being that way. I usually prefer the company of books, computers and animals to people.

She is a literary character I would love to meet in real life.
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I'd certainly like to be liked/respected by Susan. Whilst, sadly, I don't have her incredible brains (oh if only...) I certainly relate to her preferring her (adorable!) robots to most people - I too prefer my computer, books, writing - and cats - to people and can be a rather cool reserved and discerning character. If I was clever like Susan I'd definately love to be a Robopsychologist!
 
CatBar said:
I'd certainly like to be liked/respected by Susan. Whilst, sadly, I don't have her incredible brains (oh if only...) I certainly relate to her preferring her (adorable!) robots to most people - I too prefer my computer, books, writing - and cats - to people and can be a rather cool reserved and discerning character. If I was clever like Susan I'd definately love to be a Robopsychologist!
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Very well said.
 
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