June 04, 2009 -- You wish to purchase my father's chess player
It sure didn't take long for Karl to redecorate his father's study. He seems to have a thing for Neoclassicism. As dedicated a court politician as Wolf was, he probably wouldn't have owned much artwork that sympathized so heavily with the French Revolution, but by 1806, Napoleon had defeated the Austrians at Ulm and occupied Vienna, and the Holy Roman Empire was only three months away from dissolution, so Karl's choice of decor reflects more than just the changes of his home life.
One bit of trivia in regards to the house itself -- the von Kempelens actually had at least two other residences in addition to the house in Pressburg. They rented a set of apartments in Vienna, which is where Wolf actually died; they also inherited a farm in Gomba-Hubice from Wolf's family, where Wolf spent most of his retirement. Rather than depict all three residences and ask readers to keep them straight, I squashed them all together and used the Pressburg house, with Wolf's primary workshop and study, to represent them all.
I'm also kind of squashing history -- Maelzel didn't actually become Court Mechanician until 1808 or 1809, but the effect's the same. Again, all for the storytelling.
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The thing I want to know is - Does Maelzel know it's just a trick, not a true chess player?
And who will operate it for him?
We know by inference that Karl was the boy who operated the chess player during the years it was on tour - which means that he is the player who actually *defeated* so many of the best chess players across Europe.
But, without acknowledging how it worked, Karl's part of the show could never be revealed. I wonder how Karl feels about that? Will we find out?
Some of it you'll find out by inference next week, on the final page. The rest will have to be told in the second half of the book. If I can pull it out of the fire. Sorry to be so cryptic, but it *is* a story about a well-kept secret, after all.
I probably oughtn't spoil any of it for you, but I can pretty much guarantee you that Karl was never the one inside the machine (he hadn't even been born when the automaton made its first appearance, and was only eleven when it went on tour the second time). Neither was Theresa, for that matter, as far as anyone can tell.
I've seen several published games by the Automaton with tentative identifications of the operator. Mostly these date from the period of Maelzel's ownership.
We've got remarkably good data on who ran the machine while Maelzel owned it (again, don't want to tip my hand here) but literally none from Kempelen's era. For a guy who was so heavily involved in politics, he really knew how to keep a secret, and more importantly, knew how to pick people who would do the same. That's the primary reason why there's nothing more than speculation about the operator(s) at this point in the story -- Kempelen kept his mouth shut, and so have I.
Karl looks very much like his father to me. Is the family resemblance historical or artistic? Maezel just looks so earnest; I hope he knows it's a trick or it's going to be like telling a kid about the Easter bunny.
Karl's looks are entirely extrapolation on my part, the result of swapping features from both parents. The only main character for which I have reference is Wolf; I have his one self-portrait, and that's all. I couldn't find any surviving images of Maelzel, only a few brief words of description from two separate authors, so I just had to go on the limited data I have.
As for Maelzel -- let's just say that he's quite good at getting what he wants, even if it means playing the naif.