Sinister Fantasy

The Eastern USA and Western Europe
are all that remain of the white man's empire.
The rest of the world is under the
control of the evil Vitons.

I love stories that blur the distinction between reality and fiction. However, story tellers who set their tales in the future face the problem of quickly finding their fiction made obsolete and unbelievable by unexpected technological advances. In 1939, Eric Russell published one such story called "Sinister Barrier". The story was published in the first issue of Unknown where it was proclaimed by the editor of the magazine to be a disquieting blend of fact and fiction that would make readers doubt if it was fiction.

Science Fantasy
Russell took readers into the future: the events of "Sinister Barrier" are set in the year 2015. In the story, the burning New York city (depicted on the magazine's cover by Harold Scott, image shown to the right) has been subjected to long-range artillery bombardment. Russell's imagined future war is essentially a hypertrophied World War I battle featuring a Yellow Horde of invaders from Asia. What makes me want to categorize "Sinister Barrier" as a science fantasy story is that the war is started by aliens, "energy beings" that Russell called Vitons. The idea of living beings that are made of energy seems more like fantasy than science.

Download the issue of Unknown that contains "Sinister Barrier" from this website.

That's no moon!

Sadly, while Russell's imagined 2015 has typical Sci Fi elements such as flying cars and video phones, he could not imagine technological advances such as digital computers and orbital communications satellites. When the presence of hidden aliens must be announced to the people of Earth in Russell's version of 2015, we are told that the news is recorded on "metalic tape", flown to distant cities around the globe and then delivered to the people of the world by newspaper printing presses and local radio stations.

Here in the age of the internet (2019 as I write this), it is not easy to "buy into" Russell's imagined world of 2015. However, "Sinister Barrier" is of interest to me because my own writing obsession, the Exode Saga, deals with the same problem: how to reveal to Earthlings that aliens have long been visiting our world. You can download the March 1939 issue of Unknown from this website.

Chased by evil Vitons!

cover art by Ralph McQuarrie

The interior art for "Sinister Barrier" that was created by Edward Cartier is not very interesting. We get a few scenes with the floating, glowing, globular Vitons lurking close to people or chasing people and some depictions of assorted early 20th century military hardware. Sadly, hooded capes did not make a big fashion splash in our version of the year 2015. 😥

I read the original magazine version of "Sinister Barrier", but there is apparently a longer version that was published in book format. I have no patience for military science fiction, so the original shorter version of the story already seems far too long to me.

"Sinister Barrier" is full of scientists and medical doctors, almost all of whom are men. In my view, the one part of the story that could have been expanded involves doctor Harmony Curtis. There is more than one woman in the story, but most of them don't get to do much. Since this was 1939 magazine publishing, when Harmony is about to get smooched by the hero of the story, everything fades to black. The End.

in the Ekcolir Reality

I like to imagine that in the Ekcolir Reality, Dr. Curtis was a more central character in "Sinister Barrier" or possibly the heroine of a sequel novel.

Telpathy
The titular sinister barrier is created by our limited human senses. However, by making use of a magic potion (called Bjornson's Formula, consisting of iodine, mescal and methylene blue), humans can suddenly see into the long wavelength end of the spectrum and see the evil Vitons who have long fed off of human emotions. I despise the Sci Fi plot of "energy beings" who feed on human emotions (which I was first exposed to by way of Star Trek). The Vitons have telepathic powers and can control the minds of humans or, by "pushing" harder with their evil minds, they can even kill humans.

more telepathy from Russell (1950s)

However, the hero of "Sinister Barrier" has some telepathic ability himself, so he can fight back against the Vitons. He can sense when the Vitons are nearby, and by thinking harmless thoughts (such as thinking about the charming Miss Harmony) he avoids being killed by the Viton police who eliminate anyone on Earth who discovers the existence of the aliens. Eventually a ray gun is produced and deployed that explodes the Vitons and so the people of Earth can be liberated from their evil influence.

I've been reading old stories about telepathy in order to help me decide how to deal with this delicate plot element in the Exode Saga. Sadly, Russell did not provide readers with much information about human telepathy in "Sinister Barrier".

source

However, Russell did indicate that the Vitons had long been performing experiments on humans, trying to make us into a better source of "emotional food". During the long course of human history, those experiments had often resulted in humans with super-human abilities.

In the past, the Viton "thought police" had always quickly detected any rogue humans who started to revolt against their plight of living as "cattle". Under the control of Vitons, the people of Earth have been kept in a constant state of conflict by the Vitons in order to generate their "emotional food". By the end of "Sinister Barrier", the Vitons have been defeated and the people of Earth are liberated, all thanks to the telepathic abilities of the story's hero.
Next: telepathy and time travel in 1950

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