Telepathy on the Moon

in the Ekcolir Reality

In my previous blog post I discussed six stories by Russell Winterbotham that were published between 1952 and 1956. I was searching for evidence that he might have become a more sophisticated science fiction story teller in the later part of his career (1952 - 1958). 

In the earlier phase of his science fiction story publishing (1935 - 1943), Winterbotham published creative short stories. During the 1950s, there were more options for the publication of longer format stories and Winterbotham moved in that direction. 

In this blog post, I explore one more of Winterbotham's stories from the early 1940s and contrast it with three of his stories that were published in the late 1950s.

in the Ekcolir Reality

Winterbotham was a creature of his times and his female characters were not given much freedom to explore their human potential. It is tempting to imagine alternate versions of Winterbotham's stories that might have been made more interesting with the inclusion of more prominent and dynamic female characters. Maybe Winterbotham had a female analogue in the Ekcolir Reality and she was able to create female characters who were on equal footing with the male characters.

 Telepathy in 1957. "Extra Space Perception" was published by Winterbotham in the May 1957 issue of Science Fiction Stories. In "Extra Space Perception", Winterbotham took a serious look at the mystery of human telepathy. Winterbotham adopted an evolutionary approach, imagining that after living on the Moon for many generations, human colonists from Earth might evolve new abilities. 

interior art for "Extra Space Perception"

In particular, Winterbotham depicted human residents of the Moon as gaining the ability to survive for several minutes on the surface of the Moon without a spacesuit and also developing telepathic abilities.

 Big 300. The story is set 300 years into the Space Age. The three main characters in "Extra Space Perception" are Ace Crosbi, Diane Walace (that's the two of them, driving across the surface of the Moon, in the image to the right) and Judd Beecher. Ace owns a casino on the Moon and Diane runs Crap Table No. 3.

 Sciensy™. Winterbotham's theory of telepathy is built around "Teq"; Thought energy quanta. According to Winterbotham, Teq is a type of radiation produced by the Sun. Teq is absorbed by living creatures, but when they can hold no more, they release "old Teq" from their bodies which can carry thought impressions into the minds of nearby people (see Figure 1, below). Teq is in short supply on Earth, but more readily available on the Moon.

Figure 1. thought energy quanta

 Hypnosis, too. Humans on the Moon also have a chance to develop special hypnotic powers because the Moon has deposits of "Staghorn Crystals". Judd Beecher tries to hypnotize Ace by making use of a Staghorn Crystal, but he fails. Then poor Diane finds the Staghorn Crystal and soon she is like a zombie, exiting from the casino... completely under the control of Beecher.

magic moonbeams strike the Moon Pool

Winterbotham's story "Extra Space Perception" reminds me of "The Moon Pool", an old story first published in 1918. Winterbotham was born in 1904 and may have read "The Moon Pool" when he was in his early teens. For "The Moon Pool", Abraham Merritt imagined the existence of a special element on the Moon. When sunlight was reflected off of that element and off of the surface of the Moon, the resulting moonlight had magical powers.

Mathematics in 1958. In the October 1958 issue of Future Science Fiction was "The Variable Constant" by R. R. Winterbotham. At the ISFDB, "The Variable Constant" is listed as the last science fiction story ever published by Winterbotham in a magazine. I generally despise alien invasion stories, but as the title suggests, "The Variable Constant" concerns mathematics and the Evil™ invading aliens never kill anyone or destroy a single city of Earth.

Figure 2. Text excerpt from
"The Variable Constant".

 Big 600. The invading aliens (they are called the Beorhi) are able to use mathematics and computerized calculations to predict human behavior and control the people of Earth. The story begins 600 years after the arrival of the aliens on Earth when only a few humans have avoided the Beorhi effort to selectively breed humans for docility (see Figure 2). 

Readers are quickly informed by Winterbotham that Gerd Thane is the one human who the Beorhi fear. Gerd is special because he is the protagonist can think for himself and his behavior is not completely predictable. Now, see if you can guess who will liberate Earth from the Evil™ clutches of the Beorhi. You may not even need mathematics and a computer to successfully make your prediction.

Figure 3.

 Figure 3 shows the page one interior art that was published along with "The Variable Constant". That image has nothing to do with the story. 😡

Sadly, a major component of the story concerns the ability of the aliens to use hypnosis or conditioning to control the behavior of Earthlings. In particular, Gerd's lover, Miss Charis Ryna, has been conditioned since birth to play her part in the future for Earth that the Beorhi have carefully calculated and worked hard to achieve.

You might ask: if the mathematical calculations of the Beorhi show that Gerd Thane is a potential threat to their control of Earth, then why don't the Beorhi simply kill Gerd? 

Figure 4.

The answer is shown in Figure 4. There is only a small cadre of Beorhi overlords on Earth and they need a few special human helpers who can keep essential parts of Earth's infrastructure running. Gerd Thane is a trained expert in electronics and he keeps the factories running.

In the January 1939 issue of Amazing Stories was a short autobiographical blurb from Winterbotham in which he mentioned that when in school he had an interest in medicine and science. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

For another autobiographical essay in the January 1940 issue of Fantastic Adventures, Winterbotham stated that his introduction to science fiction magazines came by way of an issue of Amazing Stories that he discovered on a news-stand. However, he also recalled a Nick Carter story that involved going into a volcano, and it was that story that first got him interested in science fiction. It was not until 1934 that he had enough free time to begin seriously reading "everything in sight" and soon he began selling his fiction for publication in pulp magazines. He wrote stories in the science fiction genre and others (such as westerns and detective stories) as well. Winterbotham claimed that he got his story ideas from his "day job", which was writing non-fiction.

Poor Man's Time Travel. A full-blown Sci Fi time travel story has a time machine, but there is a way to reach the far future without a time machine. Just "sleep" your way to the future.

image source

 The Early Winterbotham. In that January 1940 issue of Fantastic Adventures that included an autobiographical essay by Winterbotham was his short story "Captives of the Void" which concerns two spacemen who "travel to the future" by means of suspended animation. In 1939, "The Black Flame" was published by Stanley G. Weinbaum in Startling Stories. Weinbaum's story featured a dead man who crawls out of his grave after 1000 years. Soon he is fit as a fiddle and having a grand adventure in the future. 

Alan Brown wrote: "The Black Flame" at its heart it is a love story." Similarly, Winterbotham usually managed to configure his science fiction stories so as to include a romantic love-interest for the male protagonist. I have no idea if Winterbotham was influenced by having read "The Black Flame", but it would not surprise me if he had been. And if other Sci Fi story tellers imagined a trip of 1000 years into the future (see also: "The Cosmic Engineers"), then why not go even further into the future?

Figure 5. interior art for "Captives of the Void"

 The Big Sleep. In "Captives of the Void", two spacemen (John Deno and Aaron Cleef) are held in a state of suspended animation for billions of years. Sadly, Winterbotham did not provide any details about the technology that was used to keep Deno and Cleef alive for billions of years. Winterbotham mentioned radium, which was enough of a sciensy hand-wave for his purposes. When they finally wake up it takes Deno and Cleef a few days to clear their heads, get the kinks out of their muscles and recover their memories. Having "slept" for so long, their clothing disintegrated, but the artist for the story magically provided them with pants (Figure 5).

Figure 6. In the Ekcolir Reality.

I'll leave the ending of "Captives of the Void" as a puzzle for the reader. Here is a hint, a line from near the end of the story: "The universe was beginning all over again." Winterbotham has sent Deno and Cleef off to a far future when no stars remain shining; there is nothing visible surrounding their spaceship, just an endless black void. Cleef is resentful and cracks under the strain, but Deno stays hopeful, searching for some indication that there is a future for them in this dark future. Winterbotham liked to wrap-up his stories with a happy ending and the protagonist winning the heart of a cute girl. How did Winterbotham provide John Deno, captive of the void, with a "they lived happily ever after" ending?

The ending provided by Winterbotham for "Captives of the Void" reminds me of Isaac Asimov's 1956 story "The Last Question". 

in the Ekcolir Reality

It is easy to view Asimov's story as science fiction because he centers the tale on the universe's ultimate super-computer. In contrast, Winterbotham's story feels more like magical fantasy with no attempt to rationally explain how John Deno gets out of the pickle he is in.... and he even gets the girl.

 Gerd and Charis. Now we can return to "The Variable Constant" and Winterbotham's problem of finding a way for the protagonist Gerd and the cute Charis to live happily ever after. First of all, don't worry about the Beorhi overlords. They are killed by a mysterious plague, and when reinforcements arrive from the alien home world, the newly arriving Beorhi spacecraft are blasted by a squadron of nuclear-bomb-equipped missiles that is conveniently on hand. However, a slave to her Beorhi conditioning, Charis has tried to kill Gerd (see Figure 7). 

Figure 7. The Last Question

 The thrilling conclusion.  When Charis dolefully asks Gerd,  "Would you marry a woman who tried to kill you?" you might imagine that this is the time for Gerd to reassure his lover and say he knows that she was forced into her attempted murder by her Beorhi conditioning and that misdeed can't diminish his never-ending love for her. However, we get the unusual passage shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8.

Sadly, the ending of "The Variable Constant" has the look and feel of either 1) Winterbotham became bored with his story and quickly wrapped it up, or 2) the magazine editor had just a limited amount of space in that issue and condensed the last 20 pages of Winterbotham's original story into a single page. Having defeated the Beorhi, Gerd quickly outlines the future that he will provide for Earth with a government founded on the principle that "all authority derives from the Creator" and that it is now time to convene constitutional conventions. Charis showers Gerd with fiery kisses and tells him, "I know you'll be elected president".

cover art by Ed Valigursky

I have to wonder if by 1958 Winterbotham's interests might have been shifting towards the writing of longer stories. His story "The Space Egg" in the March 1958 issue of Amazing Science Fiction was described as a "complete novel". The story begins in Kansas where a new super-sonic aircraft is being tested: the WD-40 XDW-49. 

Figure 9. Uncredited art for "The Space Egg".

There in Figure 9 is the interior artwork for "The Space Egg" showing the XDW-49.

  This is a Test

Janet in the Ekcolir Reality

The nimble and quick test pilot is Jack. He flies the XDW-49 above 200,000 feet and mysteriously runs into something that drills two neat holes in the plane's canopy (Figure 10). 

The story's first person narrator is Bob, who is tasked with managing the cameras that capture images from the XDW-49 while it is in flight. Since this is 1958ish, the film has to be taken off of the plane and sent by train to Kansas City to be developed. 

Winterbotham quickly introduces readers to Janet (a secretary, working for the test-flight team) who seems to be the number one interest of Bob. While Jack is landing the XDW-49, injured and bleeding, Bob is asking Janet out on a date. Bob starts providing hourly reports on the cute outfits that Janet is wearing.

Jack snaps.

 UFO. The plot thickens when a mysterious egg-shaped object is found inside the cockpit. The "egg" is about the size of the two holes in the canopy. Once on the ground, Jack behaves strangely and then one of the flight team's members is killed. A second egg-shaped object is found near the crew quarters. Houston, we have a mystery.

At this point, about 30 pages into "The Space Egg", I could not stop myself from thinking about Hal Clement's 1949 story "Needle" which was about aliens who arrive on Earth and take up residence inside the bodies of humans. 

Now Jack no longer blinks his eyes. What has gotten into Jack? He gets a gunshot wound, which then almost instantly heals. With a UFO mystery like this, we need the help of a physicist, Dr. Maynard, the brains behind the XDW-49 space-plane.

The Dr. Maynard theory of energy beings.

 Red-shirt Casting Call. Janet's friend Ruby (another secretary) has become the second pod person, apparently host for whatever was inside space egg #2. Jack and Ruby have guns 🔫 and the body count quickly starts to rise.

Ruby and Jack in the sun.

When Jack and Ruby are seen sunbathing on the roof, Dr. Maynard assumes that they are soaking up sunlight energy and getting ready to reproduce and turn more people into alien pod-people.

 The Dreaded Energy Beings. With two gunshot deaths and two people (Ruby and Jack) under the control of the alien energy creatures, Bob is undeterred from his mission and he invites Janet to lunch.

Figure 10. alien egg attack

Finally, the film from the XDW-49 space-plane flight returns from Kansas City (see Figure 11, below) and we get to see the alien "eggs" form when two mysterious energy creatures from outer space pass through the plexiglass canopy of the space-plane. One energy being quickly moves inside Jack's body as soon as it is within the cockpit of the XDW-49 (see Figure 10).

Winterbotham provided readers with a whole lot of hand-waving about how "life is energy" so we should not be surprised by the existence of alien energy beings. 

image source

 Regeneration. The "explanation" for why Jack and Ruby can now instantly repair any gunshot wounds they receive is that animals have always been able to regenerate tissues and the energy beings simply know how to activate that regeneration process.

 X-rays to the Rescue. So, how can the alien energy creatures be defeated? Dr. Maynard quickly decides to fight energy with energy and he builds an x-ray generator. Apparently, Winterbotham wrote for some comicbooks such as Chris Welkin-Planeteer and in fine comicbook fashion, laboratory glassware (on-hand at an airport) is quickly fashioned into an x-ray generating tube.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Bison Drama. Sadly, Winterbotham's "The Space Egg" feels like a comic strip struggling to become a science fiction novel. And with so many pages available to him, Winterbotham even included a riveting account of how in 1958 you could pay $450.00 to have the privilege of shooting a bison and having the meat flash frozen and shipped to your house. 

That passage about bison was how Winterbotham raised the issue of how the alien energy beings might take-over the world and exterminate Humanity. 

Planeteers of the Ekcolir Reality. (image sources)

interior art for "The Space Egg"

 Printer's Devil. Dr. Maynard pulls a story collection by Ambrose Bierce off of the shelf and asks Bob to read part of "Moxon's Master": "There is no such thing as dead, inert matter: it is all alive; all instinct with force, actual and potential; all sensitive to the same forces in its environment and susceptible to the contagion of higher and subtler ones residing in such superior organisms as it may be brought into relation with, as those of man when he is fashioning it into an instrument of his will." Maynard raises the question: which is the higher form of life, humans or the alien energy beings? Which will most successfully fashion the other into its instrument?

Who's Counting? Jack and Ruby defend their sunny position up on the roof. They each have a hand-gun and are ready to shoot anyone that gets in their way. In two "dramatic" scenes, they each try to shoot Bob, but each has used up all their bullets and so Bob survives. 

 Figure 11. Movie night; alien creature feature.

 No Bullets. You might think this would be the time to capture the two alien pod people, but no. Jack and Ruby also have super-human strength! 

Tit for Tat. Charged-up with sunlight, Ruby "reproduces" and infects another human with the mysterious alien "energy", creating a third pod-person. However, this new pod person is almost immediately blasted to bits by Maynard's x-ray generator. Is it a stand-off?

"Scratch One Alien"

 What Now? Clearly this is the time for another long sciency digression by Dr. Maynard. Unfortunately, the type-setter for Amazing Science Fiction does not help. Dr. Maynard theorizes about "mirror energy" and "mirror matter", but "positron" gets rendered as "position". Oh, well... this whole hand-wavium digression is Winterbotham's attempt to account for the mysterious "space eggs" as being a type of composite matter; a mixture of the plexiglass of the space-plane's canopy and "mirror energy"... whatever that is. 

Dark Energy. Bob thinks that some misty "mirror energy" was captured on film of the XDW-49 flying through the ionosphere, and it looked dark. Did Winterbotham anticipate the concept of dark energy?

The China Egg in the Ekcolir Reality

 And ESP, Too. When Dr. Maynard ends his lecture on composite matter, he is still unable to explain how the mirror energy that got trapped inside a "space egg" was able to recognize Jack as a suitable host. Dr. Maynard suggests that: "extrasensory perception will explain a lot of things like this".

Some of the typographical errors in "The Space Egg" are rather comical. Winterbotham depicted the local sheriff as chewing gum. When Jack and Ruby come down off of the roof for the big dramatic final shoot-out (even a light-weight Colt Cobra had been found for Janet) the text of the story says that the sheriff "spit out his gun". 

You'll have to read "The Space Egg" to find out how the energy beings from the ionosphere are defeated. The ending reminds me of the Star Trek episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before".

cover art by John Schoenherr

Don't worry that after Jack's flight of the XDW-49 more of these annoying energy beings will attack everyone who else who enters the ionosphere. Dr. Maynard suggests that the two mirror energy life-forms that entered Jack and Ruby were created by some kind of random, freak interaction between the XDW-49 space-plane and the ionosphere. Dr. Maynard suggests that new life is only created about once every billion years. He suggests that life as we know it on Earth began with a lightening bolt. Once it started, that "life force" gathered molecules and cells around it, resulting in life as we know it on Earth.

 Electrical Virus. I've never read the free-standing novel form of The Space Egg. The cover of the Monarch Books edition describes the space eggs as bringing an "electrical virus" to Earth. The cover shows a "space egg" outside of the XDW-49, which was not part of the story as I read it in Amazing Science Fiction. 

image source

Mention of a virus raises the question: might The Andromeda Strain have been inspired by "The Space Egg"?

Sinister Symbionts. In the November 1958 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Anthony Boucher provided a one-sentence synopsis of The Space Egg in which he labeled the story as being "lightweight". I suspect that we can interpret that "lightweight" descriptor as indicating that the imaginary science in The Space Egg is likely to remind readers of the slap-dash science deployed in comics where action or romance is of most concern to some author who has no scientific training. However, I give Winterbotham credit for trying to think outside the box and imagine a form of life that truly unlike life as we know it on Earth.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 In the September 1959 issue of Science Fiction Stories was a longer commentary on  The Space Egg by Robert Silverberg. It is not clear that Silverberg did more than quickly skim the story since he miss-states the origin of the titular space eggs. Also, Silverberg dismisses the whole "mirror matter" hypothesis that is devised by Dr. Maynard in the story. I'd like to ask Silverberg: if Maynard's idea is wrong, do you have a better theory that could account for the strange events taking place in the story? While reading "The Space Egg", I had fun imagining that some unknown form of sedronic matter might be able to enter into a person and alter their behavior, but then I'm confortable imagining that humans evolved as biological organisms containing a zeptite endosymbiont.

in the Ekcolir Reality

In the March 1959 issue of Astounding Science Fiction was commentary on The Space Egg provided by P. Schuyler Miller. Miller felt that the plot of The Space Egg was ready-made for Hollywood. "No roman candle, but no wet fuse, either." With so much effort being made by folks in Hollywood to parade an endless stream of comicbook-inspired stories across the big screen, I can understand Miller's comment. Lightweight comic-style adventure seems to be in the Hollywood sweet-spot.

I like to imagine that in an alternate Reality, women dominated the golden age of science fiction and wrote stories that gave more prominent roles to female characters. Winterbotham's character Ruby Cascade starts out as a sexy bimbo and then turns into a vengeful and jealous puppet of an alien life-force. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

Nobody is saddened when Ruby disappears in a flash of "mirror energy" radiation at the end of "The Space Egg". Maybe in the Ekcolir Reality Ruby could have been a scientist who devised a plausible theory to account for the alien-encounter of Janet, the pilot of the XDW-51 space plane.

Winterbotham suggested that life as we know it here on Earth originated from the same "primordial life-force" that shows up in "The Space Egg" and transforms Jack the test-pilot into a new kind of super-human entity. Sadly, Winterbotham made no attempt to account for Jack's sudden increase in strength. Winterbotham raised the specter of extrasensory perception in "The Space Egg" to account for the ability of the "primordial life-force" to select the two appropriate human bodies that the alien force takes control of. If we invite telepathy into the story, then why not add telekinesis?

bullet-proof man

in the Ekcolir Reality

 The Final Phase. I'm not sure if I'm ready to try reading one of Winterbotham's novels that went straight to book formal between 1962 and 1966. The ISFDB lists six of these including "The Men from Arcturus".

Related Reading: Philip Wylie's 1930 superman who like Jack and Ruby could not be killed by bullets. Also: "The Pompous Asteroid" by Winston Marks.

Next: more old Sci Fi stories published from 1930 to 1943.

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Golden Age Collaboration

Jocelyn in the Ekcolir Reality.

 In my previous blog post I commented on several old science fiction stories that were written by a very young Cyril Kornbluth, including two "Clair and Gaynor" tales, "Before the Universe" (July 1940) and "Nova Midplane" (November 1940). Apparently, those two stories were written in collaboration with Frederik Pohl, using the system described at this webpage. 

I'm intrigued whenever writers find it possible to collaborate on science fiction story telling. In this case, Kornbluth was only 17 years old and Pohl was "the old man", the 21-year-old editor of Super Science Stories. Although the ISFDB does not list "The Extrapolated Dimwit" as being one of the "Clair and Gaynor" stories, it clearly is. I could not resist finding out what happens next to Jocelyn and the alien Ionic Intersection, so I read "The Extrapolated Dimwit" (1942).

Jocelyn and Gaynor

I suppose the "The Extrapolated Dimwit" was edited by Robert Lowndes, the editor of Future Fantasy and Science Fiction. (I'll just call it "Future" magazine) However, "The Extrapolated Dimwit" reads like the undisciplined ramblings of a 17-year-old. Maybe Kornbluth was 18 when he wrote "The Extrapolated Dimwit"... who knows? 17 or 18, the story is a mess, so I'm left to wonder if Lowndes simply edited the story with a light hand or if he aggressively edited and managed to make the story far worse than either "Before the Universe" or "Nova Midplane". Possibly, "The Extrapolated Dimwit" was completely written by Lowndes after asking Kornbluth for permission to create another "Clair and Gaynor" for publication in Future magazine. 

in the Ekcolir Reality

A third alternative is that Lowndes wrote the first half of "The Extrapolated Dimwit" after Kornbluth had written the second half and submitted it for publication in Future. Lowndes may have felt that the story, as written by Kornbluth, needed an expanded introduction to Clair, Ionic, Jocelyn and Gaynor, provided just for readers of Future magazine who had not previously read the first two stories in the series.

Radium to the Rescue. In "The Extrapolated Dimwit", Clair heads off for another adventure in another universe and then Ionic, Jocelyn and Gaynor must follow along and try to find him. Tracking Clair into an alternate universe involves making use of radium. However, when Ionic, Jocelyn and Gaynor catch up with Clair, they have mysteriously been shrunken down to the size of mice. Poor Clair is even worse off, having even more mysteriously been turned into a mindless zombie (the titular "dimwit") by aliens known as "the bad guys". Yes, "the bad guys"... I can't make this stuff up.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Telepathy. The aliens have Very Cool Hats™ that allow for technology-assisted telepathy. Gaynor uses hypnosis to restore Clair to non-zombie status. After using an alien telepathy hat, Jocelyn seems unhappy to discover that Gaynor has sexually-charged thoughts about Ionic. Clair, Ionic, Jocelyn and Gaynor help some long suffering aliens defeat their Evil™ political leaders. Clair and Ionic seemingly feel that Earth is too stuffy and conservative for them, so they decide to stay in the alternate universe while Jocelyn and Gaynor return to Earth. Don't worry; the aliens have a supply of "mass-increasing stuff" which they use to grow Ionic, Jocelyn and Gaynor back to normal size.

In an attempt to discover the writing style of Lowndes, I read some of his early science fiction stories such as "A Matter of Philosophy" (1941) and "No Star Shall Fall" (1941).

interior art for "No Star Shall Fall"

 "A Matter of Philosophy" is very short and is not really science fiction. It takes place onboard a spaceship, but it feels like it is commentary on the politics of World War II. I'll call "A Matter of Philosophy" a political editorial by Lowndes disguised as a science fiction story.

"No Star Shall Fall" is of more interest to me. I love the idea that some people might be able to receive information from the future. Lowndes depicted a "vision" of the future in which the narrator meets the floating alien (shown in the image to the right). Through telepathy, the alien asks for help and then it is off to a mysterious "dark star" where the residents are in danger from a stray moon that will soon crash into them. The narrator averts the impending disaster. "No Star Shall Fall" is more of a fantasy than science fiction, but its written form is competent.

I've long wondered about the origin of Jack Vance's interest in "dark stars". It would be interesting to know if Vance ever read "No Star Shall Fall" and if it influenced his own story telling.

Having read examples of the writing of Lowndes, I can't bring myself to blame him for the bad writing on display in "The Extrapolated Dimwit".

image source

 My Theory. My best guess is that Pohl came up with the plot and then Kornbluth wrote "The Extrapolated Dimwit". Lowndes may have edited out some of the story to fit it into available space for publication, but otherwise he apparently left the bulk of the story as written by Kornbluth. Without a re-write by Pohl, "The Extrapolated Dimwit" is quite clunky and not as well written as the first two stories in the series ("Before the Universe" and "Nova Midplane"). 

There is a mysterious part of "The Extrapolated Dimwit" featuring Mr. Davy Canter who has the ability to think whole cities and his sexy "yellow-haired consort" into existence. I have to wonder if the quirky Mr. Canter was inspiration for Jack Vance when he wrote his story "The World-Thinker". Also, in the middle of the story, Jocelyn casually mentions that she knows a guy named Gottesman, but she does not want to tell her husband (Gaynor) too much about that mysterious relationship... maybe she fears he will become jealous.

 

Would "The Dead Martians" be a good name for a rock band?

Mars robot

 Kornbluth on Mars. I also read "Mars-Tube" as published in the September 1941 issue of Astonishing Stories. I'm a sucker for stories about archeological investigations on distant planets and this one even features robots (see the image to the right). The events of the story all take place after the end of a war between Earth and Mars. The telepathic Martians were all killed when the Earthlings deployed a weapon that could destroy the minds of the Martians, turning their own telepathic abilities against them. Much of the infrastructure of the Martian civilization remains intact and available for study by researchers from Earth; folks such as librarian Annamarie Hudgins and her partner, Ray Stanton, a "pacifistic young exploring archeologist".

You can tell that this is a HiTek future because Ray totes around his "voluminous black archeologists notebook" and a big raygun, a "five pound blaster". The dainty little Anna carries a "pearl-handeled pipsqueak of a mild paralyzer". Why you ask are they armed? Because the "Fiends from Below" are still lurking..... below.

Anna, Ogden and Ray.

Anna and Ray are investigating the underground subway system of the Martians (the titular Mars-tubes") so it is inevitable that they will run into the Fiends from Below. The Mars-tubes take Anna and Ray to interesting places such as Martian museums and libraries. Anna and Ray have been learning how to read the written Martian language.

Scintillating Dialog. The HiTek™ Martians recorded their written documents on "wire spools". Upon reaching the central library, Ray asks, "Where do you suppose we ought to start?"

Drawing on her vast experience as a librarian, Anna replies, "Anywhere at all."

Figure 1. Fiends from Below.

 In the Library. In order to advance the limping plot, the first Martian book that Ray picks up is called The Under-Eaters and it explains that the under-eaters are "a race under underground demons who feasted on the flesh of living Martians". Sometimes the visitors from Earth have to walk around on the surface of Mars, but there is never mention of the temperature or a need to provide air to breath. Readers are told that the dashing Ray wears a cape and our adventurers eat a hearty breakfast of "amino acids, fibrinogen, minerals and vitamins all in a sugar solution" and Anna smokes cigarettes. It turns out that the under-eaters are the fiends from below and they look a lot like humans (see Figure 1). This is supposed to explain why the war against the Martians began. The Martians mistook human visitors to Mars as being their ages-old nemesis: the under-eaters.

Anna, Ogden and Ray vs a Marsbot

 They Had Big Butts. Kornbluth never really describes the Martians who built the subway tubes. Readers are told that they had an "hour-glass figure" and when they sat down, their butts took up as much space on a bench seat of a subway car as three humans might use. Down inside the Mars-tubes, a second type of Martian robot is confronted (see the cover art to the left) as well as an old man, a survivor from the first spaceship that ever reached Mars: Marshall Ellenbogen. Ellenbogen has survived for decades in the underground caverns of Mars.

Heeto and Hal

 The Caverns of Mars..... At this point, Kornbluth either lost interest in his "plot" or Pohl reached the end of available space in that issue of Astonishing Stories. Ellenbogen drops dead. Anna, Ogden and Ray bury Ellenbogen under a heap of "Earth" and then return to their base-camp on the surface of Mars. Having survived their harrowing underground adventure together, Anna and Ray abandon their professional detachment and walk arm-in-arm out of the caverns of Mars. 💕

 .....and the Caves of Venus. That September 1941 issue of Astonishing Stories also had "Super-Neutron" by Isaac Asimov and "Invent or Die!" by R. R. Winterbotham. "Invent or Die!" takes place on Venus. The Venusians spend their uncomfortably hot days in caves, trying to stay cool. Hal Lawrence arrives from Earth, but his spaceship crashes. A Venusian named Heeto nurses the injured Hal back to good health, but admits that it will be his duty to kill Hal unless Hal can earn his keep.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Off With His Head. Hal salvages from the wreck of his spaceship an air-conditioner, but the chief of the Venusians is not favorably impressed. Hal is told to demonstrate a better invention or be executed. You'll have to read "Invent or Die!" for yourself. Nothing in the story makes sense to me. Before you read the story, see if you can guess Hal's next invention... one that not only saves his life but revolutionizes Venusian civilization.

 Astonishing. I really wonder what Asimov thought when he read stories like "Invent or Die!" In his writings about science fiction, I've seen Asimov mention the "minor science fiction magazines". Apparently, Asimov tried to get his stories published in Astounding, but if that failed then he could fall back on his young friend, Pohl, and alternatives like Astonishing. Was Pohl so desperate that he would publish just about anything that was submitted to journals like Astonishing Stories?

en editorial blurb about Winterbotham (source)

minus woman

It is easy to look upon the "minor magazines" as a training ground for writers like Asimov. After writing goofy stories about Martians and Venusians, Asimov eventually "grew up" and moved on to explore more interesting -and plausible- topics in his later stories. Did Winterbotham's science fiction stories get any better with time? In the July 1953 issue of Imagination was his story "The Minus Woman".

 57GM. Something is wrong with asteroid 57GM. It has been losing mass. Red Brewster and Jay Hayling are sent to investigate asteroid 57GM and they discover that people from another parallel universe have been trying to make a connection from their universe into ours. Red and Jay get to meet a woman who "crosses over" from the alternate universe (see the image to the right).

 "The Minus Woman" ends abruptly after poor Red experiences a reversal of the normal aging processes. The Minus Woman says, "I turned the young man inside out". Jay is deeply offended by the Minus Woman's meddling in our universe so he murders her.

Red and Jay

Jack Vance had used a similar plot element of alternate universes and turning a man inside out for his 1952 story "Seven Exits From Bocz". However, Vance's story was published in such an obscure medium that I doubt if Winterbotham would have seen it.

Ghost story. "The Minus Woman" was written like some kind of alien invasion story. Readers never know why or how the mysterious Minus Woman does the things she does. For most of the story she is invisible and haunts Red and Jay like a ghost.

scene from "The Alternative Factor"

Yes, I saw a few really bad Sci Fi movies on television in the 1960s, but my real introduction to science fiction came in the early 1970s watching Star Trek re-runs. "The Minus Woman" reminds me of a Star Trek episode called "The Alternative Factor". 

I wonder if Gene Roddenberry had read "The Minus Woman" and was inspired to imagine a similar story for Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry may have passed the plot idea on to Don Ingalls and asked him to create a script about people "crossing over" to a parallel universe. Since it was television, there had to be a dramatic danger that our universe might be destroyed by a "mad man" (Lazarus).

Back in my personal golden age of Sci Fi, "The Alternative Factor" was one of the aimless Star Trek episodes that I despised. The episode had no point or purpose and was larded up with seemingly endless fist fights between to two copies of Lazarus from the two alternative universes.

in the Ekcolir Reality

The first printed science fiction story that I ever read was Asimov's parallel universe novel, The Gods Themselves. Once again, in Asimov's story our universe is in danger, and in this case because of a misguided attempt to take advantage of differences between two universes for the purpose of generating cheap energy. At least Asimov had a reason for there to be contact between the two alternate universes.

Alternate Laws. For all three of these examples of alternate universe stories, the assumption is that the Laws of Physics are somewhat different in the two universes. The basic premise of "The Alternative Factor" is that the two copies of Lazarus can't both reside in the same universe at the same time. Is one an anti-matter copy of the other? No. Both of them can walk around in our universe. Really, the story makes no sense and was crafted as a mindless hour of bad television, not redeemed by a few long-legged women in minishirts.

Destiny's playmate in the Ekcolir Reality

 Robot Love. Winterbotham had a short story called "Lorelei of Chaos" in the November 1954 issue of Amazing Stories. This story by Winterbotham is almost like the Star Trek episode "Requiem for Methuselah". The daughter of Karin O'Hara (widely know as the Amilia Earhart of space) turns up on a distant exoplanet called Verden (because it is green). The daughter of Karin, also cleverly called Karin, was produced by parthenogenesis. The elder Karin, before her death, also created a robot named Destiny. 

Two adventurers arrive on Verden and meet the young girl Karin and both fall in love with her. She tells them that Destiny is just a machine and she is happy to finally meet two men. The only problem she can foresee is that two men have arrived, which is one too many.

interior art by Ernie Barth

 Poor Planning. The two men begin to fight over Karin, each insisting that the other depart in the spaceship. However, the robot watches the two men while they have a knock-down drag-out fist fight and then the robot bashes the two men on the head, puts them back into their spaceship and sends the two visitors rocketing off on their way into space. Why? The robot is in love with Karin and does not want any competition from humans for her attention. When Destiny was built, he was endowed with human emotions and "he" (just like any guy who sees her) can't help but fall in love with Karin. 💕

in the Ekcolir Reality
Lorelei the android scientist

 Who is Lorelei? I can't resist speculating that part of "Lorelei of Chaos" was chopped out when the story got published in Amazing. Maybe in the complete text of the story there was also a "girl" robot named Lorelei that could have kept Destiny company. In the Star Trek episode "What Are Little Girls Made Of?",  Dr. Roger Korby transfers his mind into the body of a robot. Winterbotham never satisfactorily accounted for the absence of the elder Karin (who readers are told, was the great woman scientist of Earth) from the story. Maybe the elder Karin transferred her mind into the body of a robot. In "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", Sherry Jackson played the role of a robot. Maybe in the Ekcolir Reality, she could have played the role a woman scientist. In the Star Trek episode, the sophisticated android technology and the secret of mind transfers from humans into robots were depicted as being alien technology discovered on a distant exoplanet. In Winterbotham's story, Karin's ability to make a robot with human emotions was included as a plot element with no explanation or backstory.

in the Ekcolir Reality

 Don't Woo Wooha. In the November 1952 issue of Future Science Fiction was another R. R. Winterbotham story called "The Winning of Wooha" set on the far planet Valeria where the natives speak a kind of mathematical language and "the mating problem" is solved by passionless calculation. Miss Wooha has a problem. Her calculations indicate that there are three possible mates for her. Two are natives of Valeria, but one is Colonel Phil Jerome, a visitor to Valeria from Earth. 

There is a serious language problem that prevents Phil and Wooha from communicating effectively, but despite him being human and her being an alien, Phil finds her to be beautiful. 💕 Here is a line from the story: "Wooha was not afraid for a Valerian scientist never lets emotion get the upper hand." 

the complications of sex with aliens

Winterbotham assures readers that Miss Woohan is "the fore-most woman-scientist" of Valerian. Phil calls her an iceberg when she fails to respond to his kisses. Phil gets a warning from Giulle, an official of Valeria who, after some biological testing, confirms for Wooha that Phil is an acceptable mate for her. Phil hears Giulle state that a male facing the prospect of mating on Valeria should be "frightened and try to escape". 

Phil does not understand the warning provided by Giulle, but it turns out that females on Valerian eat their mates. Phil is saved from being eaten when he fights for the right to become Wooha's mate and injures one of the other suitors. The injured man is quickly carted away while unconscious to serve as Wooha's mate and be eaten.

interior art for "A Matter of Ethics"

I previously mentioned a 1954 story called "A Matter of Ethics" by Clifton Dance. In 1955 Winterbotham published his own story by that same title in the April issue of Imagination. When the sexy Miss Qalith walks into the quiet life of mild-mannered chemistry teacher Homer, he is worried what his neighbors might think if they see him with a woman in his house. 

Qalith parked her spaceship on a nearby golf course. She has come to Earth on a mission to get information about Earthly customs for a museum on planet 10 on star 12 of the Pleiades star cluster.

Homer explains human ethics to Qalith.

 LiQalith. Yes, this is the 1950s, and Homer worries that his chance for a lucrative job in private industry will be ruined if he is caught with the slinky Miss Qalith. Qalith has learned English by telepathy, but she does not understand the details of Earthly customs. Homer tries to explain his ethical position (see the image to the right) and then Miss Qalith offers to take him off to her planet in the Pleiades where they can live happily ever after and he can provide the museum with information about human society. 

Mjly... the origin of animals

 Panspermia. "Lonesome Hearts" by R. R. Winterbotham was published July 1954 issue of If magazine. For this story, Winterbotham imagined that all animal life on Earth originated from the Moon. Back when the Moon was loosing its atmosphere, the last two creatures on the Moon travel to Earth. One of them (Mjly) is pregnant and needs food, and there are plants on Earth. She "crash lands" and shatters into cellular fragments that continue living and evolve into all the animal species of Earth. The other creature from the Moon (Yljm) lands more gently and continues living eternally inside a hole under the surface, eating plant roots. Many millions of years later, Yljm still misses his lover, Mjly.

A good laugh: "Science says this small moon can't support life!" (source)

in the Ekcolir Reality

 I wonder if Winterbotham ever wrote a sequel to "Lonesome Hearts" depicting Yljm's interactions with humans. 

In the May 1956 issue of Science Fiction Quarterly was "The Man Who Left Paradise" by R. R. Winterbotham. As I was reading "The Man Who Left Paradise" I thought that maybe this was a kind of sequel to "A Matter of Ethics". Winterbotham imagined an exoplanet (Jenon) that had a utopian society with no disease and no sinners. Isaac Asimov once wrote this about why writers are not likely to create a story about a utopia: "There can't be any drama in it...utopian stories are ... dreadfully dull." Winterbotham's story concerns a writer from Jenon named Honzo who had a creative imagination and one day he imagined sin and wickedness. 

Honzo of Jenon

The people of Jenon are impressed by Honzo's crazy idea so they send spaceships out into the galaxy to search for the existence of sin on other planets. When they find Earth, they recognize it as the great shining example of a world with sinners. 

Having confirmed that sin is not simply an idea from the imagination of Honzo, the scientists and engineers of Jenon build a robot that is programmed to be a criminal and a sinner and a ne'er-do-well. The robot is called Sinner No. 1 and it is something of a failure. Due to publicity, everyone knows Sinner No. 1 and they lock their doors when Sinner No. 1 shows up in their town. Eventually, Honzo goes to Earth intent on the idea of bringing a few criminals and sinners from Earth to Jenon.

Honzo in the Ekcolir Reality

I was hopeful that Honzo would bring some sinners from Earth to Jenon and they would be able to prevent life on Jenon from being "dreadfully dull", but the story never got that far. You'll have to read "The Man Who Left Paradise" to find out what happens to Honzo on Earth.

I'm glad I read some of Winterbotham's stories from the later part of his Sci Fi writing career. I love self-referential fiction and Winterbotham's depiction of the fate of writers on Jenon is amusing. Winterbotham imagined a utopia in which no writer ever has a story rejected (the editors are all too kindly to reject anything) and every writer (including Honzo) is viewed as the greatest writer on Jenon.

Confession. The stories of Winterbotham (particularly "The Winning of Wooha", above) inspired me to write a new story about sex with aquatic aliens...

"Teleculture"; inspired by R. R. Winterbotham. Part of a novella called Echo of Cynym.

Teleculture

Related Reading: "The Pompous Asteroid"

Also: an old story about aquatic aliens, "Ocean World"

Next: more old stories by Russ Winterbotham

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