From Wolf Pascheles
You suggest that the most significant thing about the golem of legend is that he is a big lummox (2 September, p 46). But the major theme of the legend is hubris – humanity going where it should not.
And it is important that in the best-known version, the Golem of Prague, the monster was conceived as a defensive weapon but caused mayhem. Though golems are, generally, held to be incapable of harming their creators directly, in many stories they are smart enough to work out that they can seek revenge by harming others.
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a golem story, and her monster in its despair kills Elizabeth, the beloved of the doctor who created him. It should be forbidden to practise science or technology before deep contemplation of Shelley’s book.
London, UK
