Auto-Da-Fé

Zelazny, Roger. "Auto-Da-Fé." Dangerous Visions. Harlan Ellison, ed. New York: Doubleday, 1967. Coll. Last Defender of Camelot; for full citation to Camelot and complete bibliographic information on "Auto-da-Fé," see on the Internet Speculative Fiction Database the reference as of December 2024, here.[1]

On a planet covered in metal, in the Plaza de Autos, to the cries of "Viva! El mechador!" Monolo Stillete Dos Muertos takes monkey wrench and long-handled screw driver in his hands and faces death from powerful cars opposing him in the ring. Think Ernest Hemingway and add in Tom Lehrer; cf. and contrast auto works listed under Stephen King. The cars in "Auto-Da-Fé" are described as sentient and what we'd call "autonomous" and suspect control by dedicated artificial intelligence (AI). Note biomechanical images with the cars getting killed in the ring, decorous for the automobile/bull analogy. And see for literalization of story formula, "Man vs. Machine."

The brief Wikipedia article includes an explanation of the puns in the title.[2]

RDE, 20/07/01; finishing 14Dec24