We went to see Hugo today (in 2D, despite the 3D hoo-ha), Martin Scorsese's movie about the French pioneer filmmaker George Méliès , which is based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznik. It was lovely. This movie is a long love letter to movies, books, imagination, storytelling, passion, magicians, artists of all shapes and sizes, cogs, clocks, appreciating history, following dreams, fixing stuff, and finding your place in the world. It thoroughly warmed the cockles of my writerly heart.
The funny thing was that every time the automaton appeared on the screen, I'd momentarily think about my own automaton short story, which is sitting and maturing and waiting for a good edit. Later, while looking for links for this post, I read that Brian Selznik added the automaton storyline to his novel after reading Edison's Eve, a chapter in Gaby Wood's book Living Dolls: A Magical History of the Quest for Mechanical Life, which is the same fabulous book that inspired my own humble automaton tale, and which I mentioned in this post . And, although I hasten to add that I have no real proof whatsoever to support my theory, I suspect the first chapter of Gaby's book The Blood of an Android might also have inspired Peter Carey's latest novel The Chemistry of Tears, which draws on Jacques de Vaucanson's artificial duck, built in 1739, that waddled and ate food and possibly (the clockwork-people's jury is still out on this one) excreted. I know I was dying to write a story about Vaucanson's creations and what happened to them after reading Gaby's remarkable book. There are, it would seem, many writers, and now movie makers as well, who owe Gaby Wood a debt of gratitude for all her research, and the inspiring way that she presented her fascinating material.
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