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Auto-da-Fé (short story)

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"Auto-da-Fé"
Short story by Roger Zelazny
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s)Science fiction
Publication
Published inDangerous Visions
Publication typeanthology
Publication dateDecember 1967

"Auto-da-Fé" is a short story by Roger Zelazny from Harlan Ellison's science fiction anthology Dangerous Visions. The plot concerns a contest analogous to a bullfight between humans and autonomous cars, with human "mechadors" who combat robotic Chevrolets or Pontiacs.[1] It has been reprinted at least 40 times, in at least 4 languages.

The title is a play on words involving the phrases auto-da-fé and automobile. James Machell has taken note of the mechador being resurrected, stating that "Zelazny was interested in reincarnation and Eastern religions, exploring them in novels like Lord of Light, and Auto-da-Fé is his grotesque inversion of them."[2]

References

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  1. ^ Theodore Krulik Roger Zelazny 1986 p.28 "This short piece is an initial experiment in the examination of the robot mind that is connected, on the one hand, to other stories about cars, such as "Devil Car" (1965) and "Auto-Da-Fe" (1967),"
  2. ^ "Top 10 Weirdest Jobs in Science Fiction". 17 August 2023.
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