cover art for "The World Is Mine" |
The Wonders of Time Travel. Here in this blog post, I'll describe "The Barrier", a time travel story by Anthony Boucher which provides its own answer to the question: if time travel becomes common in the future, then why don't we have swarms of visitors from the future?
Boucher Festival. However, before traveling to the year 2473 in order to witness Boucher's imagined time barrier, I want to call-out one more story from the June 1943 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction, "Pelagic Spark" also by Boucher. Yes, this blog post is going to relentlessly turn into an Anthony Boucher festival.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
Gullibility. On October 30, 1938 the CBS Radio Network broadcast "The War of the Worlds", a dramatized alien invasion. Some people believed that an actual alien invasion had taken place. Going into the 1940s, people were nervous about the war in Europe and some revived discussion of Nostradamus as a source of prophetic insight into future events.
interior art for "On a Limb" |
in the Ekcolir Reality |
In his introductory essay, Campbell presented the clever suggestion that 1) Nostradamus knew details about the future, but was "forced" to encode what he knew in confusing language for publication during his own lifetime. Of course, the other alternative, is that 2) Nostradamus knew nothing about the future, but his confused writings can be creatively interpreted as predictions of a few future events, after they have already occurred.
Batting 0.000. As a magazine editor, Campbell was in the entertainment business, and option #1 (above) is much more provocative. Between Boucher's October 1941 "On a Limb" and his June 1942 "Broken Limbs" was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the entry of the United States into the raging world war. Boucher "explains away" the failure of Nostradamus and his followers to predict such major events as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as being due to the fact that Nostradamus was mostly interested in France and so "little things" like the Pearl Harbor attack were not his concern. Boucher reviewed a half dozen attempts by various contemporary authors to use the writings of Nostradamus to predict the course of world war II, and none of them predicted the Pearl Harbor attack, even though it got the U.S into the war and eventually led to the liberation of France.
2 syllogisms of a circular fantasy |
Figure 1 |
more internal art for "On a limb" |
Figure 2. L. Sprague de Camp's limerick |
the ending of "Pelagic Spark" |
De Camp vs Boucher. In "Pelagic Spark", de Camp publishes the silly limerick shown in Figure 2. Then a strange chain of events is set in motion and future events come to align with that example of nonsense poetry. Boucher's imaginary chain of events includes the actions of Hitler in 1951 and the Aryan World State that is established at the end of world war II. Eventually, mere existence of the "pelagic spark" limerick leads to the collapse of the Aryan World State.
****************THE BARRIER**************************************
Figure 3. Boucher's 25th century. |
interior art for "The Barrier" |
I'm rather amazed that Boucher had the audacity to write an anti-time travel story set within a totally anti-progress society where "there was nothing more to achieve". Actually, there are two temporal barriers in the future. One barrier blocks travel into the future and the other blocks travel into the past.
We All Have Capes. John Brent uses a time machine to depart from the year 1942 and he crashes into the time barrier at the year 2473. Then he tries to return to the 20th century and he crashes into the other time barrier in 2423. Now his time machine is trapped between 2423 and 2473.
the man from Venus |
I suppose Boucher should be praised (as was done in this fanzine) for 1) having the needed will power to invent a future version of English that is spoken in the 25th century and 2) forcing the characters in "The Barrier" to use that ugly language through almost the entire story. I found it annoying. 😡
Related Reading. Boucher's "Elsewhen" is another time travel story (light on the science and really a mystery tale) which I previously mentioned in Feb. 2022. Back in 2019 I imagined that William White played a role in the inspiration for Isaac Asimov's time travel novel The End of Eternity. Anthony Boucher's "Transfer point" (1950) shows how a time loop can be changed, an idea that Asimov incorporated into The End of Eternity.
cover by Robert Stanley |
Apparently Boucher was a member of the Mañana Literary Society (at Wikipedia). It was rather shocking to see Boucher include L. Sprague de Camp and his wife as characters in "Pelagic Spark". However, I suppose that was simply a warm-up exercise for his novel Rocket to the Morgue which includes many characters based on members of the Mañana Literary Society and other folks in the Sci Fi publishing business. There was a review of Rocket to the Morgue by Campbell in the January 1943 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction. You can download the book from this website.
Figure 4. Cover by "Shayn". |
Warning. Sci Fi fans, beware: In the first chapter of Rocket to the Morgue Boucher takes readers through 1) a recap of his previous mystery novel, 2) a diaper change and 3) a recipe for cooking rabbit . Yawn.
That Sonofabitch Hilary. That's Hilary Foulkes, the money-grubbing son of a famous writer. Nobody likes Hilary and his endless efforts to maximize profits from his father's literary legacy. Spoiler: the story distracts readers by asking who would want to kill Hilary [answer = everyone] when you should be asking who Hilary wants to murder.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
5D Breasts. Chapter 3 continues the methodical process of introducing another writer who has reason to dislike Hilary. Readers also get to hear about a game that Boucher and other writers played, trying to sneak bits of sexual content past science fiction editors who did not want sex in their pulp magazines.
I'm not a reader of mystery stories, but I get the feeling that in writing Rocket to the Morgue, Boucher was trying to move beyond the usual conventions of mystery genre stories by tossing in some science fiction. If you are a science fiction fan, I suggest that you read this, which decodes the characters in Rocket to the Morgue who were based on real people working in the science fiction genre.
cover by Steele Savage |
Took the Words Out of My Mouth. Martin explained: "I chose this book because Boucher based several characters on SF luminaries of the early Astounding era. While the characters are in there, they are flat. Like many characters in puzzle mysteries, they are cutouts. All that's important is where they are when, and their motives as described by observers. They aren't written as people, but as pieces in a game."
image source |
Early Ending. I made it to page 55 of Rocket to the Morgue, but by then I'd had enough. I could not get something that Isaac Asimov once wrote out of my head... "...they insisted that I at least read it and give it a chance. So I did. I tried to read it and the gears locked up long before I finished. It seemed to me so unsuccessful a book..."
cover by Len Goldberg |
What about the idea that Rocket to the Morgue might have enticed murder mystery fans to "cross over" and start reading science fiction? I can't imagine that Boucher's twisted depiction of science fiction and science fiction writers would have attracted anyone to the Sci Fi genre.
And the Reverse? But then, what about the other way around? Might some Sci Fi fans be goaded into reading Rocket to the Morgue and then decide to read additional murder mysteries? I can't imagine that happening either. My advice to Sci Fi fans, don't be suckered into reading this novel for "insights" into the golden age of science fiction. There are no such "insights" in the story.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
Change Your Life. In 1971, time travel (chronokinesis) becomes possible and two men begin living backwards when they are ripped out of the normal flow of time. "The Chronokinesis of Jonathan Hull" becomes a murder mystery for detective Fergus O'Breen when he awakens to find one of those reverse-living men (Mr. Hull) dead in his bedroom.
interior art for Chronokinesis |
According to Boucher, what does it mean to "live backwards"? Does Mr. Hull grow younger as he moves back through time towards the 1940s? No, he grows old and ends up with long gray hair. Hull does speak backwards and so as not to attract attention, he must walk around town backwards (which looks like walking forwards to everyone else).
Readers are told that objects held by Hull magically join his backwards movement through time (this allows him to eat food), so what happens when Hull fires a gun and the bullet is no longer in contact with his body?
see these two covers: 1, 2 |
"The Chronokinesis of Jonathan Hull" makes no sense from a scientific perspective and isn't much of a detective story. I place it in the same category of science fiction as stories in which the author imagines a technological breakthrough that allows a person to shrink to microscopic size or accelerate their movements.
in the Ekcolir Reality |
5th of 5. The last of the Fergus O'Breen Series of stories was "Gandolphus", published in the June 1952 issue of Other Worlds Science Stories. Sadly, there is no science in this alien invasion story. "Gandolphus" reminds me of Hal Clement's 1949 story "Needle". Both stories involve aliens who arrive on Earth and the aliens take up residence inside human hosts.
Clement made an effort to provide a science-based explanation for how an alien organism might reside inside a human body and interact with the host nervous system. For "Gandolphus", Boucher made no such effort and the story reads more like magical fantasy than science fiction. Detective Fergus O'Breen is in New York and meets Charles Harrington who soon drops dead, but he left behind a written account of his alien contact. The story reads rather like a mystery as Harrington comes to slowly realize that the alien being, Gandolphus, is inside his body and sometimes takes control.
cover art by Melanie Korte |
The lead story in the June 1952 issue of Other Worlds Science Stories was "Robot---Unwanted" by Daniel Keyes. Back in the 1970, I read his story "Flowers for Algernon" as published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. "Robot---Unwanted" reminds me of the movie Bicentennial Man. Both stories concern a robot who becomes the first robot to ever become free... not the property of some human. In writing "Robot---Unwanted" it seems that Keyes was influenced by Asimov's positronic robot stories and I have to wonder if Asimov was also influenced by "Robot---Unwanted". The novelette "The Bicentennial Man" was published in 1976.
interior art for "Robot---Unwanted" by Robert Fuqua |
the ending of "Robot---Unwanted" |
Next: some old stories about robots.
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