{"id":886,"date":"2021-03-31T12:03:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T12:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=886"},"modified":"2021-04-23T17:55:52","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T17:55:52","slug":"the-golem-by-avram-davidson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/?p=886","title":{"rendered":"The Golem by Avram Davidson"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Golem<\/em><\/strong> by Avram Davidson (F&SF<\/em>, March 1955) opens with an android arriving at the porch of an elderly Jewish couple and sitting down on one of their chairs. As he tries to deliver his apocalyptic warnings the pair variously kvetch, interrupt and ignore him:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stranger spoke. His voice was harsh and monotonous.
\u201cWhen you learn who\u2014or, rather, what\u2014I am, the flesh will melt from your bones in terror.\u201d He bared porcelain teeth.
\u201cNever mind about my bones!\u201d the old woman cried. \u201cYou\u2019ve got a lot of nerve talking about my bones!\u201d
\u201cYou will quake with fear,\u201d said the stranger. Old Mrs. Gumbeiner said that she hoped he would live so long. She turned to her husband once again.
\u201cGumbeiner, when are you going to mow the lawn?\u201d
\u201cAll mankind\u2014\u201d the stranger began.
\u201cShah! I\u2019m talking to my husband. . . . He talks eppis<\/em> kind of funny, Gumbeiner, no?\u201d
\u201cProbably a foreigner,\u201d Mr. Gumbeiner said, complacently.
\u201cYou think so?\u201d Mrs. Gumbeiner glanced fleetingly at the stranger. \u201cHe\u2019s got a very bad color in his face, nebbich<\/em>, I suppose he came to California for his health.\u201d
\u201cDisease, pain, sorrow, love, grief\u2014all are nought to\u2014\u201d
Mr. Gumbeiner cut in on the stranger\u2019s statement.
\u201cGall bladder,\u201d the old man said. \u201cGuinzburg down at the shule looked exactly the same before his operation. Two professors they had in for him, and a private nurse day and night.\u201d
\u201cI am not a human being!\u201d the stranger said loudly.
\u201cThree thousand seven hundred fifty dollars it cost his son, Guinzburg told me. \u2018For you, Poppa, nothing is too expensive\u2014only get well,\u2019 the son told him.\u201d
\u201cI am not a human being!\u201d
<\/em>\u201cAi, is that a son for you!\u201d the old woman said, rocking her head. \u201cA heart of gold, pure gold.\u201d She looked at the stranger. \u201cAll right, all right, I heard you the first time. \u00a0pp. 113-114 (The Dark Mind<\/em>, edited by Damon Knight, 1965)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Later the android says something rude to the wife and the man slaps it across the face and breaks it. Then the couple talk about golems, and the man sorts the internal wiring exposed when he hit the creature. The golem is more submissive when it is repaired, and the man tells it to mow the grass.
This is quite amusing to start with but it tails off at the end.
*** (Good). 1,800 words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Golem by Avram Davidson (F&SF, March 1955) opens with an android arriving at the porch of an elderly Jewish couple and sitting down on one of their chairs. As he tries to deliver his apocalyptic warnings the pair variously kvetch, interrupt and ignore him: The stranger spoke. His voice was harsh and monotonous.\u201cWhen you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[174],"tags":[257,24,175,25,12],"class_list":["post-886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avram-davidson","tag-257","tag-3-2","tag-avram-davidson","tag-fsf","tag-short-story"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=886"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":949,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886\/revisions\/949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sfshortstories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}