Protector (novel)

Protector is a 1973 science fiction novel by Larry Niven, set in his Known Space universe. It was nominated for the Hugo in 1974, and placed fourth in the annual Locus poll for that year.

The work fleshes out a species called the Pak, originally introduced in a 1967 story called The Adults, which forms the first half of the novel (there titled Phssthpok); the second half is titled Vandervecken. The Pak also appear in several of Niven's later works, notably the later volumes of the Ringworld series and the novel Destroyer of Worlds which serves as a semi-sequel to Protector.

Plot summary

The novel comprises two phases in the same space that are separated by 220 years of time. Its central conceit is that Humans evolved from the juvenile stage of the Pak, a species with a distinct adult form ("protectors") that have immense strength and intelligence and care only about younger Pak of their bloodline. A key plot point is that transition to the protector stage is mediated by consumption of the root of a particular plant called Tree-of-Life, which cannot be effectively cultivated on Earth.

Protector (2009 film)

Protector (Czech: Protektor) is a 2009 Czech film directed by Marek Najbrt. It is a story of Hana and Emil Vrbata, a couple living in German-occupied Czechoslovakia, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, during World War II. The general reception by the Czech press and the audience was extremely positive. It was selected as the Czech Republic's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards.

Plot

It is 1938 and the Nazis are just one step away from invading and occupying Czechoslovakia. Hana is a young Czech film actress who also happens to be Jewish. She has just appeared in her first feature with her leading man, an older Jewish actor, who warns her that her career is over and that their picture will never see the light of day since the Nazis will never allow its release. He hands her a forged passport and papers to get out of the country but she throws them in the trash, not believing what he says about the imminent German invasion one bit.

Protector (role variant)

The Protector Guardian is one of the 16 role variants of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves. David Keirsey originally described the Protector role variant; however, a brief summary of the personality types described by Isabel Myers contributed to its development. Protectors correlate with the ISFJ Myers-Briggs type.

Overview

Protectors are observant, cooperative, informative, and attentive. They are greatly concerned with the security of others and they often find assisting the downtrodden or people with disabilities to be satisfying. Protectors also find personal fulfillment in ensuring the safety of others and may be attracted to jobs that enable them to do this as medical practitioners or insurance agents. Protectors are also quite skilled at executing routines and this enables them to be skillful in jobs that require conservation skills such as curators or police officers. Protectors are thorough, frugal and they abhor the squandering of material resources.

Golem

In Jewish folklore, a golem (/ˈɡoʊləm/ GOH-ləm; Hebrew: גולם‎) is an animated anthropomorphic being, magically created entirely from inanimate matter. The word was used to mean an amorphous, unformed material (usually out of stone and clay) in Psalms and medieval writing.

The most famous golem narrative involves Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the late-16th-century rabbi of Prague. There are many tales differing on how the golem was brought to life and afterwards controlled.

History

Etymology

The word golem occurs once in the Bible in Psalm 139:16, which uses the word גלמי (galmi; my golem), meaning "my unshaped form", "raw" material, connoting the unfinished human being before God's eyes. The Mishnah uses the term for an uncultivated person: "Seven characteristics are in an uncultivated person, and seven in a learned one," (שבעה דברים בגולם) (Pirkei Avot 5:6 in the Hebrew text; English translations vary). In Modern Hebrew, golem is used to mean "dumb" or "helpless". Similarly, it is often used today as a metaphor for a brainless lunk or entity who serves man under controlled conditions but is hostile to him under others. "Golem" passed into Yiddish as goylem to mean someone who is clumsy or slow.

Golem (David Wisniewski book)

Golem is a 1996 picture book written and illustrated by David Wisniewski. With illustrations made of cut-paper collages, it is Wisniewski's retelling of the Jewish folktale of the Golem, with real people, real places, and a one-page background at the end.

The story is set in year 1580 in Prague, and the Jews are being persecuted. Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the town rabbi, can think of nothing more than creating a being out of mud and bringing it to life, using the holy name of God, to protect them. Once the Golem stops the persecution, Rabbi Loew erases the letters on the Golem's head, making the Golem "sleep the dreamless sleep of clay". The ending is ambiguous, ending with the words: "But many say he could awaken. Perhaps when the desperate need for justice is united with holy purpose, Golem will come to life once more."

This retelling is one of the few retellings in which the Golem has a name—it is Joseph.

The book won the Caldecott Medal in 1997.

References

Golem (Dungeons & Dragons)

The golem is a fictional class of monster created for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game based upon the Golem of Jewish mythology. The golem first appeared in the original Greyhawk supplement (1975) written by Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz and has since then became one of the most well-known creatures of the Dungeons & Dragons game.

Golems are magical constructs made of inert matter animated by high-level spellcasters through the use of powerful spells during magical rituals. The main aspect differentiating one type of golem from another is the material from which it is built. There are four standard types of golems, from weakest to strongest: flesh golems, clay golems, stone golems and iron golems. The flesh golem is created from human remains, and the others are created from earthen components: clay, stone and iron respectively. Virtually any material can be used to create a golem, and hundreds of different types of such creatures have been described for one edition or another of the game.