The Great Automatic Grammatizator : Themes
“The Great Automatic Grammatizator” is a short story by Roald Dahl that explores the themes of – Dehumanising and Manipulative Power of Technology, Corrupting nature of Human Greed for Money and Power and Commercialisation Vs. Creativity etc.
1. Dehumanising and Manipulative Power of Technology :
  “The Great Automatic Grammatizator” by Roald Dahl mainly explores the theme of Dehumanising and Manipulative power of technology. The story woven around an imaginary computing and calculating machine which can produce stories, forms a comment on the process of creative writing and its ethics.
In this moral tale, Dahl tells the story of an ingenious engineer, who has “no heart” in his work but all his life he “wanted to be a writer”. He has written hundreds of stories in his “spare time” over the last ten years. But not a single publisher or magazine has bought any of his stories instead he is frustrated to see the “sloppy boring stuff” of other writers published in the magazines.
Dejected and anguished Knipe has a realisation and starts coming up with a strategy to exact revenge on his worst enemies. Knipe decides to build a computer, who works according to the “rules of grammar” and is capable to produce story or article of any kind, any style, any length and in any number by simply pressing certain required buttons. Moreover, Knipe successfully made the device that can generate stories that can be published and bring in money and notoriety.
The story explores how the pursuit of efficiency and profit can lead to the degradation of art and human creativity. Literature is a combination of human emotions, experiences, originality and human creativity. Knipe’s invention ultimately reduces literature to a formulaic soulless process, devoid of the individuality and passion that make writing unique. As the machine’s power increases, Knipe gains more strength and become more ambitious and wealthy. Later his greed leads him to build a contract, to pay off other writers in the country in exchange for their vow to completely quit writing.
Knipe uses his machine to dominate the literary world, dehumanising literature by manipulating other writers to sign over their creative rights. The story ends with Mr. Bohlen and Knipe enjoying success in the literary world, the machine made them wealthy and also given them recognition as successful author. The narrator, unlike the other character in this story, maintain hope that they will not sign the contract, even though they have nine children to feed.
The story is a cautionary tale about the potential dangers of dehumanising and manipulating power of technology in art and creativity. It reminds us of the irreplaceable value of genuine human expression in literature and importance of preserving it against the encroachment of soulless automation.
2. Corrupting Nature of Human Greed for Money and Power:
The story also explores an important theme of Corrupting Nature of Human Greed for Money and Power.
Knipe being an engineer and an aspirant writer, creates a machine that is able to generate a story that will be successful at each of the magazines based on exact formulas and inputs, gaining more money as he does so.
Knipe presents the machine as a profitable business, a way to generate publishable stories in order to gain money and acclaim. As the power of the machine continues to grow, Knipe also gains more power. Knipe’s greed leads him to create a contract, to pay off other writers in the country, in exchange for their vow to completely quit writing or work only for their literary agency. This way Knipe is able to buy more and more writers, as his business turn into a push for monopoly power.
The progression of Knipe and Bohlen’s relationship also serves as an interesting critique of power. Initially, Bohlen begins as Knipe’s boss, funding the original machine, as Knipe gains more money and more acclaim, he overtakes Bohlen, naming the literary agency after himself and ensuring that he is better regarded as writer in literary circles.
Eventually, when Knipe expands his business endeavour to include contracts with writers, Bohlen finally sees Knipe’s goals as being unduly ambitions. He comments –
“Careful now, Knipe. Be careful.”
In this moment, Bohlen fully cedes power to Knipe, who continues to grow his influence and monetary control. In this story, money is power, and the more ambitious and wealthy Knipe gets, the more powerful he becomes.
3. Commercialisation Vs. Creativity :
“The Great Automatic Grammatizator” by Roald Dahl also explores the theme of commercialisation versus creativity. By means of a computer, which can automatically generate any type of story or article in large scale, Dahl presents a clash between commercialisation and creativity.
Literature is a creative process which is a combination of human emotions, experiences, individuality and originality. Commercialisation and automation of literature makes it to be compromised.
Initially Knipe’s reason behind creating such machine is to “revenge himself” in “the most devilish manner” upon his “greatest enemies”. But with success of the machine the reason becomes purely commercial and profit efficient.
Knipe says the hand – made article hasn’t hope. They can not compete with the “mass – production” by the machine. He further confesses “The quality may be inferior” but that doesn’t matter. It’s the “cost of production that counts”. He intends to commodify his stories by selling them “wholesale” and “corner the market”.
Thus the machine is a symbol of commercialisation in literature. The machine is designed to produce stories automatically in bulk and with mechanical precision. This way the machine reduces the human creativity, individuality and innovation from the literature.
Knipe’s machine generates books at unprecedented rate, and filled the market with mediocre quality content with lack of originality which overshadows the creative work of other writers.
At the peak of his greed, Knipe decides to just “absorb all the other writers”. He produces a contract to simply “buy” them out and if they “won’t sell squeeze’em out” and diminishes the role of the writers and transform their creation or article into a mere product.
The story can be studied as a comment on the literary circumstances of the times when people start giving more importance to quantity over quality in literature. Mechanically produced literature just to earn profit has been criticised and rejected in this story.