Book Review

The first written record we have of the word αὐτόματον is in Homer’s Iliad. As we enter the workshop of Hephaestus, the Greek god of invention and craftsmanship, we see a flock of golden maidens moving around, especially built to assist him. They all have the knowledge and abilities of …

The use of the in media res literary device is as old as narrative. There are obvious practical and ontological bases for this. Unless we are talking about the big-bang or the theoretical beginning of things, we are mostly constrained to place a story somewhere with a narrative frame. Art has, of …