Wiki Fiction: Golden Age Collaboration

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...