…or simply fine tune the sensitivity on your shiny new, 7th Generation Mechanical Hound and send it after those radicals in that pesky underground book club.
I’ll tell ya’ll right up front that I’m more of a cat person, however, as I was rereading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury earlier this month, I got the strangest picture in my head of what the Mechanical Hound must look like: made of “brass, copper, and steel,” “flickering lights and sensors,” “capillary hairs in the nylon brushed nostrils,” with “four-inch hollow steel needles [plunging] down from the muzzle.”
So of course, I decided to make one for a library display. J No worries, right? I just hopped on over to Google and started searching for “mechanical hound” thinking that some concept artist or creature creator had a vision or an idea that I could build upon with my mad-crafty skills. Not so much. Which surprised me, since the book’s been out and about for 50 years. So I looked for base images like wolves, dogs, and robots.
Bradbury goes on to describe an eight-legged beasty that would keep even the bravest of folks on edge, were they the reading kind of person. Now, I couldn’t really figure out how to make a creature with eight legs that didn’t look like a spider, so I had to be a little creative in my interpretation.
Once I got a vague idea of where I was headed, I started experimenting and trying out different things. My apartment looked like an episode of Junkyard Wars for a couple of weeks. J Most of my supplies were recycled bits of cardboard or tube rolls, dowel rods, coffee stirrers, etc. In fact, I purchased less than $10 worth of supplies, and it turned out that I didn’t need most of what I did buy (more for the next craft challenge, I guess.).
So here he is, my mighty hound named…Fluffy. Yup, that’s right: tough, mean-looking robot attack dog…itty-bitty, happy-bouncy name. He’s secure in his, um, robot-hood. If pressed to describe him, I’d say he has the fierce legacy of the Doberman breed…with all the tenacity of a Roomba.
Isn’t that right, Fluffy? Such a good puppy…Hey, retract that needle! Down boy…sit! SLEEP MODE! SLEEP MODE!!!
Ahem, so if you read Fahrenheit 451 during our Big Read celebration, or if you read it now to see what the heck else Bradbury wrote about besides canine attack-robots, let me know what you think of my version of the hound. If anybody wants to draw one and send a scanned image to ccplteens@cumberland.lib.nc.us, I’ll post it here on the blog. I’m curious to know if anyone can make the eight-legged thing work.
Check out the detailed pictures and descriptions of my Mechanical Hound on our teen Flickr page.
©Lang Anti-Literacy Entertainment Corp. [Formerly “Lang Publishing”]
Serving the Greater Good Since 1984!
Always,
Missy
