in the Ekcolir Reality |
More Sci Fi Archeology; Jack Vance. I've also been comparing the short fiction of Jack Vance to his longer stories. Given my general preference for long-format stories, it will surprise nobody that I much prefer Vance's novels to his short stories. Vance transitioned gracefully from pulp-era short stories to novels, but I can't say the same for Asimov.
in Galaxy, Feb. 1961 |
The Search for Creamed Shorts. I've read far more short science fiction stories from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s and 1950s than I've read from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and this millennium. I'm fascinated by the older science fiction stories and not a fan of newer stuff that might get labeled as "new wave" or "cyber punk". However, before I knew that printed science fiction existed, I was first exposed to science fiction in films and Star Trek.
The Uranium Age. I've previously blogged about the 1959 novel Level 7. A short blurb about Level 7 is shown to the left on this page. In case you are wondering, PBX officer X127 and his chums did not survive very many years in their underground city. They had a nuclear reactor for power and it malfunctioned. Nothing goes right for poor X127. After making the surface of Earth uninhabitable (the nuclear war depicted in Level 7 involves not only city-flattening H-bombs but also "dirty bombs" designed to widely spread highly radioactive dust over the entire planet) X127 is ready to find a girlfriend, make babies and propagate the human species into a distant future when the surface of the planet is once again habitable.
bad taste: cream pie deleted scene from Dr. Strangelove |
I'm surprised that Level 7 was never made into a movie or a television program. Instead we got films like Dr. Strangelove (1964). One of the great puzzles for me as a child growing up in the 1960s was that some movies were in color while others were black and white. I've seen the claim that one reason for making this particular movie on black and white film was so that viewers would have the feeling that they were watching a news program or a documentary. You know... the kind with a pie fight.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
I have a lot of fun imagining how the science fiction genre might have developed differently in an alternate Reality where women dominated science fiction early in the 20th century. Could there have been better female characters in the Ekcolir Reality than in our Reality?
cover art by Don Punchatz |
I've always imagined that it might be Bayta Darell there in the artwork for the cover of Foundation and Empire (image to the right) by Don Punchatz. Bayta was the hero who defeated the telepathic Mule when he was only moments away from learning the location of the Second Foundation, which would have lead to the mutant Mule destroying all of Seldon's plans for the Second Galactic Empire. But what about female characters in short science fiction stories, fictional women who flowed from the pen of female authors?
cold cream in the Ekcolir Reality |
the girls from Capella - Interior art by Joe Wehrle |
First Contact. Back in the 1970s, I read a strange type of First Contact story that was set in a far future time after the collapse of a great Galactic Empire. In that old story, a lonely space explorer makes contact with a "lost" planet with human residents, a world that has long been isolated. The humans of that planet have adapted to their world and have evolved to be very tall, but the space explorer does not realize this while communicating with the planet by videophone.
excerpt from "The Mother Ship" |
"The Mother Ship" reminds me of John D. MacDonald's Sci Fi novel Wine of the Dreamers as originally published in the May 1950 issue of Startling Stories. I love stories about "ancient astronauts" who visited Earth long ago. In the case of "The Mother Ship", we are asked to believe that long ago, very tall female humanoids lived on an exoplanet of Capella and had a small problem: short mutant women who did not grow to be much taller than men. We are told that thousands of years ago, the Capellans exiled a bunch of their short women on Earth and that "explains" why CIA agent Tillie is the spitting image of the tall, sexy Capellans, as long as you ignore the fact that Tillie is only about half as tall as a typical Capellan woman.
Alice Sheldon's tutorial on rape. excerpt from "The Mother Ship" |
Sex Slaves. In "The Mother Ship", Alice Sheldon tells us that The Capellan women keep their short men as sex slaves. Further, they now intend to start abducting human males from Earth and selling them as slaves on the Capellan home world. Alice hints in the story that Capellan women have vaginas that are rather like vacuum cleaners; that anatomical innovation along with their large size allows them to aggressively rape any man for their pleasure.
"The Mother Ship" is very contrived and Tillie's story arc is that before the arrival of the Capellans, she survived being brutally raped and left for dead. In the story, she plays the victim's role in a CIA film about an invading space alien raping the Capellan women. In the end, Tillie can now live happily with the narrator of the story, a man who got raped by the girls from Capella.
Figure 1. Interior art for "Birth of a Salesman" by Kelly Freas. |
Got paint? Cover by Frank Kelly Freas |
On a brighter note, I'll now describe "Birth of a Salesman", Alice Sheldon's short story about selling cold cream to aliens. While reading "Birth of a Salesman" I could not help but think of "The Big Front Yard". Simak's story was irritating because it seemed to suggest that one man would control all trade with the aliens. Similarly, "Birth of a Salesman" is irritating because the over-worked and always short-on-time Mr. Benedict of Xeno-Cultural Gestalt Clearance is depicted as having to deal with every aspect of galactic trade shipments.
It is just another typical day in the department of Xeno-Cultural Gestalt Clearance (XCGC) when in walks Miss Krupp, a tall gazelle-like woman, who runs Joanna Lovebody, Inc., which produces the fragrant Joanna Lovebody Cremes. Miss Krupp wants to start shipping her product to planet Sirloin Twelve where the aliens use Joanna Lovebody Creme as cooking oil.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
Science Fact. The ISFDB lists the full name of John Campbell's Analog magazine as Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact. In the March 1968 issue was an editorial by Campbell in which he excitedly proclaimed that dowsing "works" and that there would for the first time now be serious research into the phenomenon.
What had Campbell so excited was that in the middle of the Vietnam war, a few Marines were experimenting with dowsing as a means of detecting hidden enemy tunnels. In Campbell's mind, this equated to legitimizing dowsing, which would open the flood gates for scientific investigation of the phenomenon.
A new industry for plant emotions! or, what will vegetarians eat now? |
Plant People. I'll also mention in passing that "Christopher Bird", like Alice Sheldon, was supposedly at one time associated with the CIA and also interested in fantasy. Along with an interest in dowsing, "Bird" helped write The Secret Life of Plants. I've previously commented on the strange popularity of science fiction stories about plant people (also see Asimov's "Each an Explorer"). Also, Jack Vance included dowsing in one of his stories: see "Parapsyche".
I wonder if it was painful for science fiction enthusiasts like Isaac Asimov to watch the proliferation of pseudoscience in American pop culture while subscriptions to Sci Fi magazines declined. Asimov liked to imagine that if enough people read science fiction then our society might be able to deal with changes arising from new technologies.
interior art for "The Fall of Mercury" by Leo Morey |
In the December 1935 issue of Amazing Stories was "The Fall of Mercury" by Leslie F. Stone. How does "The Fall of Mercury" compare to other old science fiction stories about life on Mercury?
"the Whirlpool was not stationary" |
dangers to shipping: whirlpools and monsters |
alien contact (see) |
Yes, dear reader, this is such a dangerous situation that Mort complains when his coffee spills due to Victory being buffeted by the Whirlpool. But then they are mysteriously extricated from the deadly Whirlpool and some external force carries them the rest of the way to Mercury. Fhew! 😥
the Venerian Water-flask |
in the Ekcolir Reality original cover art by Leo Morey |
The Raxgeu of Raxge. Soon the Victory is pulled inside an underground cavern my a force beam and put into storage along with a bunch of other spacecraft from various planets (and the asteroid Ceres, where the natives are only 3 feet tall). One of these is the pleasure yacht of Tica Burno, reported missing one month previously. Now we are treated to the scene on the cover of the December 1935 issue of Amazing Stories as Bruce and Mort are carried down deeper into the inner world of Mercury, which is called "Raxge" by the pale, four-armed Raxgau, each less than one foot tall, who live inside Mercury (Raxge). After Bruce and Mort are informed that they are now the property of the Raxgau, Bruce and Mort are thrown into a chamber with the other captives from various worlds of the Federation.
I can't help imagining how "The Fall of Mercury" might have been written in the Ekcolir Reality. Bruce and Mort don't have a fist fight with their Evil Alien™ captors and these explorers from Earth Tellus could have been written as female characters. But no 😔
Solar System 101 info dump |
A coal-black Raxtau (named Chen-Chak) from Saturn (which the Raxtau call "Raxta"), 15 feet tall and with four arms, arrives among the prisoners. In the dark, Chen-Chak glows with a strange blue light and soon it becomes apparent that he needs light to survive.
Lola-Lyly. image source |
Through the ages, the Raxtau re-configured their bodies, becoming artificial lifeforms that were able to obtain everything they need to survive from light. In the process of ridding themselves from a need for food, water or air to breath, they also adopted a very cold body temperature... now the Raxtau can survive in the cold of space.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
This all happened before humans evolved on Earth Tellus. The Raxgau moved underground and altered their bodies, shrinking themselves down to a height of less than one foot. But now, the interior of Mercury Raxge is full of Raxgau and they are ready to attack the Federation and take control of the Federation planets.
Super Hi Tek™ |
in the Ekcolir Reality |
The No Females Zone. Beyond the genocide in "The Fall of Mercury", we are left with this chilling warming news: when Mercury Raxge was dropped into the Sun by Chen-Chak, the rest of the Solar System was perturbed and Earth Tellus moved 14,000,000 miles closer to the Sun. Readers are told that this will have benefits for Earth, but we would now seem to be in need of a sequel to "The Fall of Mercury" in which Chen-Chak drops by Earth Tellus to help deal with the global warming problem.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
Related Reading: "The Watery Place". A short joke story by Isaac Asimov in which well-dressed aliens from Venus visit Earth (First Contact) and describe their world as "the watery place". An Earthling thinks the alien says "Venice", not "Venus" and hilarity ensues.
Also: "The Last Flight of Dr. Ain" by James Tiptree, Jr.
Next: time loop fiction
Anti-gravity book. AI-generated image. |
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