 The Great Automatic Grammatizator : ISC Long Answers Part 3Â
Question 7 : How was the machine adapted to the writing of novels ?
Answer: With the success of the automatic grammatizator to produce short stories and articles, Knipe began to “make name for himself in literary circles” as a “prolific and successful writer”. But Mr. Bohlen was suspicious about Knipe as he has been trying to “make a monkey out of him” and keeping all the best stories for himself. Bohlen was “thirsting” for “greater honours in the literary world” and insisted on writing a high class intelligent book. He expressed his desire to produce a novel and Adolph Knipe assured him that he would manipulate the machine to write the book he wanted. He made certain adjustments to adapt the machine for novel writing.
The “genius” of Adolph Knipe allowed him to adapt the machine for novel writing within another couple of months. He constructed a new control system which enabled the author to pre – select the plot and style of writing they desired. He adds so many levers and dials to the machine that it looked like the “instrument panel of some enormous aeroplane”.
By pressing one of the series of master buttons, the writer made his primary decision : historical, satirical, philosophical, political, romantic, erotic, humourous or any other type. Then from the basic buttons of second row he chose his theme : army life, racial problem, civil war, world war, childhood memories etc. The third row of buttons gave the choice of literary style like classical, racy, Hemingway, Faulkner, Joyce, feminine etc. The fourth row was for characters and the fifth for wordage and so on.
Apart from these changes that Knipe had introduced in the machine to adapt it for novel writing, he fixed a control panel for the actual process of writing. It took about fifteen minutes to write a complete novel using this method. During the process of writing the author had to sit in the driver’s seat and manipulate different switches. They were used to control the qualities like surprise, tension humour, pathos and mystery. By making these adjustments, changes and alterations, Knipe adapted the machine so that it could produce a coherent and well written novel that would be acceptable to publishers and readers. He spent many long hours working on the machine, making adjustments and testing it until he was satisfied that it was ready to products novels.
Question 8 : Bring out the elements of amusement on the story.
Answer: Roald Dahl is often known for his sly, funny and ingenuous stories and “The Great Automatic Grammatizator” is also one of them. The story is filled with the elements of amusement which are brought out in the story from the absurdity of the situation and the characters’ reactions to it. Some examples are as follows –
Bohlen’s surprised reaction when Knipe reveals that all his life he “wanted to become a writer” and even he has written hundreds of stories in last ten years in his spare time, is quite amusing. When Knipe tells his stories were rejected by the publishers and it’s “very depressing”, Bohlen’s feeling relaxed also brings out a comic relief.
The constant scepticism of Mr. Bohlen, who repeatedly asserts that the machine will never works, only to be proven wrong each time, adds a touch of humour to the story.
When Knipe tells Bohlen about the trick that “nearly every writer uses” of inserting at least one “long, obscure word into each story” so that the reader think that the man is very wise and clever, it reveals Roald Dahl’s sense of humour. As he , himself was famous for his ingenuous vocabulary in his stories.
The machine’s initial failures, such as producing a story with all the words joined together, provide comic relief. Mr. Bohlen’s panic reaction while Knipe’s calm reassurance further enhance the humour.
The ides itself of a machine producing stories that are accepted by publishers and even becoming popular under various pseudonyms is amusing. While the fact that the story attached with Mr. Bohlen’s name as writer gets rejected adds an ironic twist.
While convincing Mr. Bohlen, when Knipe offers him to put “his name” on some of the better stories as a writer, Bohlen’s reactioin for a moment “a dreamy, faraway look came into Mr. Bohlen’s eyes and he smiled” is quite amusing. The idea of becoming a respected writer, despite having no writing skills is particularly amusing.
The characters’ ambition and their plans to exploit the machine for profit, including using famous writer’s names for advertising are presented in humourous light.