R.U.R. | Page 2

Glory?
Helena: I've come here...
Domin:... to see our factory for making people for yourself. All our visitors want to see the factory. And of course you're very welcome.
Helena: I thought it wasn't allowed to...
Domin:... enter the factory? Well, of course it's not, but everyone who comes here has a recommendation from somebody, Miss Glory.
Helena: And do you let everyone see it... ?
Domin: Not all of it. Making artificial people is an industrial secret.
Helena: Why will you never let me finish what I say?
Domin: Oh, I'm sorry. Is that not what you were going to say?
Helena: I was going to ask...
Domin:... whether I might show you something in our factory that the others aren't allowed to see. Well, I'm sure that'll be OK, Miss Glory.
Helena: What makes you think that's what I was going to ask?
Domin: Everyone asks for the same thing. (standing) ?I can personally show you more than the others are allowed to see.
Helena: Thank you.
Domin: All I ask is that you don't say anything at all to anyone else.
Helena: (stands and offers her hand) Word of honour.
Domin: Thank you. Would you not like to take off your veil?
Helena: Oh, of course, you'll be wanting to see my face. Do excuse me.
Domin: That's alright.
Helena: And, if you would just let go of my hand...
Domin: (releases hand) I'm sorry, I forgot.
Helena: (removes veil) Do you want to make sure I'm not a spy. You seem very careful.
Domin: (looks at her, enchanted) Hm -- oh, yes, -- well -- that's just how we are.
Helena: Don't you trust me?
Domin: Exceptionally. Miss, er, do excuse me Miss Glory. This really is an exceptional pleasure. Did you have a good crossing?
Helena: Yes. Why?
Domin: Because -- well, that is -- because you are very young.
Helena: Are we going into the factory now?
Domin: Yes. I suppose about twenty-two?
Helena: Twenty-two what?
Domin: Years.
Helena: Twenty-one. Why do you want to know that?
Domin: Because... sort of... (with enthusiasm) You will be staying here for some time, won't you.
Helena: That depends on how much you choose to show me.
Domin: Ah, the damned factory! But of course, Miss Glory, you can see everything. Do please sit down. Would you be interested in hearing the history of our invention?
Helena: Yes, I would. (sits)
Domin: Well this is what happened. (sits at desk, seems captivated by Helena and speaks quickly) It was in 1920 when old Rossum, still a young man then but a great scientist, came to live on this isolated island in order to study marine biology. Stop. Alongside his studies, he made several attempts to synthesise the chemical structure of living tissues, known as protoplasm, and he eventually discovered a material that behaved just the same as living tissue despite being, chemically, quite different. That was in 1932, exactly four hundred and forty years after the discovery of America.?
Helena: Do you know all this by heart?
Domin: I do. Physiology really isn't my subject. Shall I carry on?
Helena: If you like.
Domin: (triumphant) And then, Miss Glory, this is what he wrote down in his chemical notes: Nature has found only one way of organising living matter. There is however another way which is simpler, easier to mould, and quicker to produce than Nature ever stumbled across. This other path along which life might have developed is what I have just discovered."?? Just think: he wrote these words about a blob of some kind of coloidal jelly that not even a dog would eat. Imagine him sitting with a test tube and thinking about how it could grow out into an entire tree of life made of all the animals starting with a tiny coil of life and ending with... ending with man himself. Man made of different material than we are. Miss Glory, this was one of the great moments of history.?
Helena: What happened next?
Domin: Next? Next he had to get this life out of the test tube and speed up its development so that it would create some of organs needed such as bone and nerves and all sorts of things and find materials such as catalysts and enzymes and hormones and so on and in short... are you understanding all of this?
Helena: I... I'm not sure. Perhaps not all of it.?
Domin: I don't understand any of it. It's just that using this slime he could make whatever he wanted. He could have made a Medusa with the brain of Socrates or a worm fifty meters long. But old Rossum didn't have a trace of humour about him, so he got it into his head to make a normal vertebrate, such as human being. And so that's what he started doing.?
Helena: What exactly was it he tried to do?
Domin: Imitating Nature. First he tried to make an artificial dog. It took him years and years, and the result was something like a malformed