More Martians And Invasions

The previous post traced a conceptual thread through Wells, Lewis and Anderson. We can also do this with Lewis, Bradbury and Heinlein. All three show immortal beings on Mars. In Lewis' Out Of The Silent Planet, Earthman travel to Mars with evil intent. In Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and Heinlein's Red Planet, human beings colonize Mars.

In Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land, a man raised by Martians founds a Terrestrial religion whereas Lewis' Elwin Ransom returns from Mars and Venus to become the Pendragon of Logres and the spearhead of extraterrestrial intervention.

In Heinlein's The Puppet Masters, as in Nigel Kneale's Quatermass II, alien invasion involves mental control whereas, in Jack Finney's Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, it involves body duplication and, in Larry Niven's and Jerry Pournelle's Footfall, it involves asteroid stikes.

In Olaf Stapledon's Last And First Men, Martians invade Earth and Terrestrials invade Venus and Neptune. In Sleeping Planet by William Burkett, extrasolars invade Earth but are soon defeated whereas, in the Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher, extrasolar invaders have ruled Earth for generations but are eventually overthrown.

And I think that Clifford Simak has some alien invasions?

Through Space With HG Wells And His Successors

In The War Of The Worlds by HG Wells, Martians invade Earth and Venus.

In Star-Begotten by Wells, Planetarium Club members discuss cosmic rays and Martians before one of their number summarizes and criticizes The War Of The Worlds, mistakenly attributing it to "'...Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, one of those fellows...'" (New York, 1975, p. 48), then proposes instead Martianization of human beings by cosmic rays.

In the Ransom Trilogy by CS Lewis, a scientist visits Mars and Venus, in the latter case as the spearhead of a planned demonic invasion. Lewis parenthetically comments that "...Mr Wells' Martians [are] very unlike the real Malacandrians..." (Voyage to Venus, London, 1978, p. 7).

In The War Of Two Worlds by Poul Anderson, Martians militarily conquer Earth but are being covertly manipulated by extrasolars.

In "Soldier From The Stars" by Anderson, humanoid extrasolars conquer Earth economically by selling their superior military services to the highest bidder among Terrestrial governments.

Later, I will add a few more alien invasions but I think that this is a neat progression through Wells, Lewis and Anderson. See here.

Nuclear Warfare In Science Fiction

 Novels involving nuclear warfare:

The World Set Free by HG Wells;
On The Beach by Nevil Shute;
Ape And Essence by Aldous Huxley;
Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury;
Twilight World by Poul Anderson (see here).

In CS Lewis' The Hideous Strength, first published in 1945, World Wars I and II "'...were simply the first two of the sixteen major wars which are scheduled to take place in this century.'"
-Lewis, That Hideous Strength (London, 1955), p. 157.

Robert Heinlein predicted "Mutual Assured Destruction" in "Solution Unsatisfactory" and described free men continuing to fight after a nuclear war in "Free Men."

In Isaac Asimov's future history, a far future radioactive Earth probably resulted from a near future nuclear war - although Asimov revised the history later.

In James Blish's A Case Of Conscience, populations wind up living underground in permanent city-sized nuclear air raid "Shelters," even though nuclear war is avoided.

In Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium future history, the Great Patriotic Wars of 2103 end the CoDominium and are followed by the Exodus of the Fleet so they sound like a delayed World War III.

In SM Stirling's Draka timeline, the three major wars of the twentieth century are not numbered but named - the Great War, the Eurasian War and the Final War.

Harry Turtledove describes Anson MacDonald (Robert Heinlein) fighting on after Stirling's Final War.

In Alan Moore's V For Vendetta, "England prevails" under fascist rule after opting out of a nuclear exchange whereas, in the same author's Watchmen, a faked inter-dimensional invasion prevents a nuclear war.

Invasions Of Earth

British Invasions

Martians in tripods invaded Britain in The War Of The Worlds.

Earth was invaded and occupied by:

the Mekon's forces from Venus in Dan Dare: Reign of the Robots;
Daleks from the extrasolar planet, Skaro, in Doctor Who;
extrasolar aliens in tripods in John Christopher's Tripods Trilogy.

Daleks, highly evolved beings moving around in protective machines, resemble Wellsian Martians and ruled Earth through roboticised men, "robomen," as the Mekon ruled it through "electrobots."

A novel, a comic strip, a TV series and a trilogy.

American Invasions

The Moon Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Puppet Masters by Robert Heinlein
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers by Jack Finney
VOR by James Blish
The War Of Two Worlds by Poul Anderson (Martians and extrasolars)
Sleeping Planet by William R Burkett
Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

Six novels and also a short story:

Poul Anderson cleverly projected how militarily superior humanoid aliens might conquer Earth economically in "The Soldier from the Stars." But it was another of Anderson's works, "Hunters of the Sky Cave," that prompted this line of thought about planetary invasions and occupations. See here.

"Great Books"

Britannica published a Great Books of the Western World series, two volumes of summary and discussion followed by fifty eight volumes covering three thousand years of epics, drama, history, philosophy, logic, mathematics, science, theology, psychology, economics, political theory and novels, from Homer to Beckett.

If the series had been able to include one single work of science fiction (sf), then I suggest that it should have been HG Wells' The Time Machine, an admirably brief speculation about the nature of time and the future of mankind with vivid imaginative descriptions of "time traveling." If an expanded edition of the series were to include a volume of sf, then I suggest that the contents should be:

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus;
The Time Machine;
Last And First Men;
the first page of Superman from Action Comics no 1, June 1938.

Frankenstein, the first sf novel, addressing the issue of the legitimacy or otherwise of scientific inquiry, is listed as "Additional Reading" on "Science," one of the 102 "great ideas of Western thought," from "Angels" to "World," identified by the Great Books editors. The Time Machine is listed for "Progress" and "Time."

I think that Superman should be included among the works of fiction because:

it can be represented by a single page;

whereas the Great Books includes Nietzsche among the philosophers, the comic book Superman was created by an American Jewish writer-artist team during the period when the Nazis were in power in Germany;

this Superman not only represents a transition of media from prose fiction to sequential art but also initiated the transition of genres from sf to superheroes, just as Frankenstein had initiated the earlier transition of genres from Gothic fiction to sf;

it should be recognized that narrative, drama and sequential art are the three story-telling media;

superheroes, also known as mystery men, are a major modern multi-media mythology mainly in magazines and movies;

the "Additional Reading" for Superman would include the seminal sf novel, Gladiator by Philip Wylie, a possible source for Superman, and Alan Moore's major work, Marvelman/Miracleman, which not only expresses but also reflects on ancient and modern mythology.

Comics And Science Fiction

Stories can be narrated, enacted or depicted. Adding extra speakers and actions transformed narrative into drama. Sequential art story telling, like the Bayeux Tapestry, the Stations of the Cross, the willow pattern, scrimshaw bracelets and comic strips, developed from static representational art. All religions have canonical texts – scriptures - but one, Manichaeanism, also had canonical pictures, in the “Book of Images."

Comic strips, like opera, are a composite art form. The former combine pictures with words as the latter combines drama with music. Comics are no longer only comical as novels are no longer new. Comic strips can address any age group and can mediate any genre although they are most closely associated with the one genre that originated in this medium, superheroes. Superman is the transitional character between science fiction (sf) and superheroes as Frankenstein is transitional between Gothic fiction and sf.

Superheroes is a hybrid genre, combining elements of sf, fantasy and action-adventure. Thus, superheroes, powered either scientifically or supernaturally, can meet non-super powered masked avengers or costumed adventurers. Special effects now enable films to present superheroes adequately. Superhero prose fiction has to emphasize characterization rather than fantastic feats.

Mr Hyde and the Invisible Man were pre-comics super-villains. The latter forced a tramp called Thomas Marvel into the non-super-powered sidekick role. Later, Marvel, as the landlord of an inn called "The Invisible Man," secretly possesses but cannot understand the title character's notebooks containing "...the subtle secret of invisibility and a dozen other strange secrets..." ¹

Ironically, much later, superheroes included Captain Marvel and Invisible Girl, the latter published by Marvel Comics. No doubt, Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, already incorporating Griffin (the Invisible Man), Cavor, the Time Traveller, Dr Moreau, Wellsian and other Martians, Hyde, Dupin, Holmes, Captain Nemo, Allan Quatermain, John Carter etc, would be able to link Wells' Marvel to the later Marvels. Are the "...dozen other strange secrets..." other super powers? Griffin says that his formula involves four dimensions (as, in other Wells stories, do the Time Machine, Davidson's eyes and Plattner's reversal) and that:

"In the books - the books that Tramp has hidden - there are marvels, miracles!" ²

After Marvel's death, when someone else can read and interpret the notebooks, a new superhero team, atoning for Griffin's crimes, might meet in the cellar of "the Invisible Man."

Gladiator (1930) by Philip Wylie was a possible source for Superman (1938). Like the earliest published version of Superman, Wylie's Hugo Danner was strong, fast and invulnerable but could neither fly nor see through walls. Like Danner, Superman intimidated a corrupt lobbyist. ^{3, 4} Danner imagines becoming either a powerful bank robber and murderer or a super-detective dispensing summary justice. ⁵ His confidante suggests a super-powered group called "The New Titans." ⁶

Both Gladiator and the first Superman episode refer to weight-lifting ants and high-jumping grasshoppers. Danner's father says of ants:

"Strength a hundred times our own." ⁷

Siegel writes:

"The lowly ant can support weights a hundred times its own." ⁸

Siegel seems to have read Wylie. Superman, definitely descended from the Hebrew Judge, Samson, the Greek Hero, Hercules, and the philosophical concept, the Superman, may also be descended from the hero of an American novel, Hugo Danner. The progression from Superman, via Captain Marvel and Mick Anglo's Marvelman to Alan Moore's Marvelman, re-named Miracleman, is a Samsonian-Herculean apotheosis. Moore's Michael Moran (Marvel/Miracleman) neither despairs like Danner nor conforms like Superman but rules like the Messiah, with weapons destroyed, money abolished, the environment saved, energy abundant, necessities free, politicians redundant, super powers shared, Fundamentalists in hiding, civilization interstellar, physical resurrections and Moran worshiped. Thus, Moore's graphic but superheroes-transcending work restores Biblical, mythical themes but in futuristic, technological settings.

James Blish’s earliest sf, published in the same period as the original Superman stories, contains the kind of fantastic elements that came to be refined into a separate genre. Thus, a secret society uses mental powers against extra-solar invaders in “Citadel of Thought."⁹ Poul Anderson’s first future history contains the Un-Men and “The Sensitive Man^."10 Julian May and Larry Niven incorporate superhero motifs into sf novels.^{11, 12}

 

Thus, the link between prose sf and comic strip superheroes may be closer than those who read only prose fiction realize. Also, several works by Alan Moore, including the pre-comics characters crossover and the superheros climax mentioned here, are culminating moments of the comics medium.

1. H. G. Wells, The Invisible Man (London: Penguin Classics, 2005), 150.
2. ibid, p. 89.
3. Philip Wylie, Gladiator (New York: Lancer Books, 1965), pp. 169-170.
4. Jerome Siegel & Joe Schuster, Superman in Action Comics (New York: DC Comics, 1938, 1988), pp. 12-13.
5. Wylie, op. cit., p. 129.
6. ibid, p. 188.
7. Wylie, op., cit., p. 6.
8. Siegel and Schuster, op., cit., p. 1.
9. James Blish, “Citadel of Thought” in Stirring Science Stories (Albing Publications, February 1940), reprinted in Blish, The Best Of James Blish (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979.
10. Poul Anderson, The Psychotechnic League (New York: TOR, 1981), pp. 31-198.
11. Julian May, Diamond Mask (London: Pan Books, 1995).
12. Larry Niven, Protector (London: Futura Publications Ltd, 1974).

SF Themes

Eleven Themes

HG Wells pioneered time travel, space travel, alien invasion, future history and invisibility.
Other writers address telepathy, teleportation and immortality.
Isaac Asimov appropriated robots and the idea of an applicable science of society.
(His future history incorporates time travel and "psychohistory," the science of society, and presents an immortal space-traveling telepathic robot.)
Robert Heinlein's future history introduced the "generation ship" (multi-generation interstellar spaceship) idea.

Robots

Interviewed on British radio, Asimov described robots as "mobile computers." However, brains are conscious of their environments and linguistic brains are additionally conscious of meanings whereas computers merely manipulate symbols according to rules and thus are conscious neither of an environment nor of the meanings of the symbols. Asimov's robots have artificial linguistic brains, therefore are not computers.

Asimov formulated Laws of Robotics, then subverted them for story purposes. Pre-Asimov robots were Menace or Pathos. Asimov's were Engineering. But he returned to Menace in "That Thou Art Mindful Of Him", to Pathos in "The Bicentennial Man" and to both in "Robot Dreams" where the robot who dreams suddenly becomes both threat and victim. He says, "I was that man," and is destroyed. (1) I discuss human-robot interactions and interpretations of the Laws in two articles here and here.

I have never seen Otto Binder's earlier I, Robot although I have been told that it is a series that does not develop. Asimov's I, Robot begins with a household servant, continues with several experimental robots and culminates when a humanoid robot (possibly) holds elected office and also when giant robot Brains control the global economy for the good of humanity in accordance with First Law. "Robots as Menace" returns in a later collection when the Brains, regarding self-determination as the greatest human good, have phased themselves out but have been succeeded by the Georges who, programmed to prioritize obedience to the ablest, most intelligent human beings, come to disregard the difference between flesh and metal and therefore to regard themselves as the human beings who should be obeyed in accordance with the Second Law of Robotics, now Humanics. 

 

If, like most, though not all, of Asimov's robot stories, "That Thou Art Mindful Of Him" is incorporated into his future history, then we know that the later history contains not a robotic dictatorship but secret guidance of historical processes by the benign humanoid Robot Daneel Olivaw who, concealing his robotic nature because human beings would reject help from an artifact, plans to transform humanity into a telepathic collective whose "good" will be single, concrete and easier to achieve. Because men programmed robots to value human beings, Daneel now persuades humanity to value itself. Asimov simplified history but was a master of dialectics, the interpenetration of opposites. We have come a long way from Robby the faithful servant to Daneel the benevolent manipulator and Asimov would probably have taken us further if he had lived longer.

Immortality etc

Several future histories incorporate immortality. Robert Heinlein's Future History introduced the generation ship idea and revealed that an immortal man had lived right through the History - and, before that, through the twentieth century in which we lived while reading the series. Poul Anderson's first future history, modeled on Heinlein's, addressed Heinleinian themes (a generation ship and an immortality that becomes pointless because it requires total isolation) and Asimovian themes (an unemployed robot and an applied social science that prevents mutiny in the generation ship but fails to prevent revolution on Earth).

 

In James Blish's Okies history, antiagathics make generation ships unnecessary and preserve some interstellar nomads until the end of the universe. In Anderson's The Boat Of A Million Years, a few immortal mutants live through recorded history into an indefinite future but I prefer Anderson's treatment of artificial immortality in World Without Stars. In Larry Niven's A World Out Of Time, chemicals associated with aging are teleported out of the body. Thus, immortality meets teleportation and the instant elsewhere is the young forever.

My point here is that sf resembles an extended seminar with authors presenting innovative deductions from shared premises. I briefly discuss immortality in fantasy and sf in "Immortality" here.

Teleportation

In Superman versus Aliens, an alien is teleported from inside Superman's body. One X Man is a teleport. In Kenneth Bulmer's Behold The Stars, aliens at war with Earth sabotage interstellar matter transmitters so that Earthmen arrive without the will to fight. In Anderson's The Enemy Stars, fuel is teleported to interstellar spaceships and crews teleport between Earth and the ships. One of Heinlein's Scribner Juveniles, Tunnel In The Sky, features interstellar teleportation instead of the usual faster than light spacecraft. In Star Trek, "transporters" make scenes with shuttle craft unnecessary. Alfred Bester's Tiger! Tiger! presents a society in which most people can teleport.

Invisibility

Wells' Invisible Man was, like Mr Hyde, a pre-comics super-villain. Invisibility has become a comic book super power (see "Comics and Science Fiction" here) and occurs in CS Lewis' juvenile fantasy, The Chronicles of Narnia.

Telepathy

Anderson's character Dominic Flandry learns how to lie to a telepath. Blish presents four different scientific rationales for telepathy. In Heinlein's Scribner Juvenile, Time For The Stars, the confirmed instantaneity of telepathy between twins on Earth and in an interstellar spaceship facilitates the development of instantaneous spacecraft. Bester's The Demolished Man describes a telepathic society. Telepathy is big in Olaf Stapledon's works, discussed below. In CS Lewis' "The Shoddy Lands," Lewis as character enters another character's consciousness. I have heard of but not read other major works on telepathy. Readers of this article will fill the gaps.

Future Histories

A British future history is a fictitious historical text book whereas an American future history is a series of stories and novels set in successive periods. Olaf Stapledon recounts Martian invasions and Neptunian colonization but as a historian, not as a novelist, whereas Robert Heinlein's Future History includes a story about financing the first Moon landing and a novel about the Second American Revolution. American future histories can be constructed either "inclusively" or "exclusively." See "American Future Histories" here and "CS Lewis and James Blish" here.

Future histories develop. Wells covers a single period and historical turning point whereas Stapledon covers the entire future. In A Short History of the Future, the little known RC Churchill combines narratives from Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, Vonnegut etc. Anderson's Psychotechnic History imitated Heinlein's Future History  but Anderson later constructed his Technic History by linking two existing series. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are later successors of Heinlein. In Anderson's Tales of the Flying Mountains, extra-solar colonists discuss how to teach their earlier history among the asteroids to their children. Anderson's Harvest of Stars future history covers human-AI interaction. His Genesis covers post-human, aiming to become post-cosmic, AI. In Galaxies like Grains of Sand, Brian Aldiss synthesizes the British and American approaches by linking short stories with historical passages. In Genesis, Anderson synthesizes the two approaches by alternating chapters of action and dialogue with chapters narrated on Stapledonian timescales.

 

Four Wellsian Themes

In "CS Lewis and James Blish," (see here) I argue that:

(i) Wells' The Time Machine, The First Men in the Moon, The War of the Worlds and The Shape of Things to Come pioneered time travel, space travel, alien invasion and future history, respectively;

(ii) following Wells, Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men incorporates these themes and opens a tetralogy also covering past history (Last Men in London), cosmic history (Star Maker) and a contemporary evolutionary advance (Odd John);

 
(iii) replying to Wells and Stapledon, Lewis' Ransom Trilogy covers an interplanetary journey, a demonic invasion of a sinless planet and demonic manipulation of a Wellsian plan for the future of humanity;

(iv) like The Time Machine, Lewis' unfinished Ransom novel, "The Dark Tower," begins with a group discussion of the possibility or otherwise of time travel;

(v) thus, four works by Lewis parallel four by Wells;

(vi) following Wells and referencing Lewis, James Blish's theological trilogy, After Such Knowledge (ASK), addresses past and future science and present demons;

(vii) like Ransom, Blish's character Adolph Haertel travels to Mars in the juvenile novel, Welcome to Mars;

(viii) also like Ransom, Haertel's successors travel to a sinless planet in ASK Volume III, A Case of Conscience;

(ix) like Ransom's adversaries, other Blish characters invoke and converse with demons in ASK Volume IIa, Black Easter;

(x) thus, three Blish works, including one and a half volumes of ASK, parallel Ransom;

(xi) however, Blish's Mars is scientifically accurate, his sinless planet is Godless and his demons are victorious;

(xii) thus, his informal post-Lewis trilogy is also an antithesis;

(xiii) Blish disagreed with Lewis' beliefs but respected his insights and admired his novels whereas the later writer, Philip Pullman, is not post- but anti-Lewis;

(xiv) however, Pullman's juvenile trilogy, His Dark Materials, is fantasy, not sf, and replies to Narnia, not to Ransom.

Thus, sixteen works by Wells, Stapledon, Lewis and Blish, though not by Pullman, form a conceptual sequence addressing philosophical and moral issues through sf themes. (Two related works are the earlier, unfinished version of The Time Machine, "The Chronic Argonauts," which introduces the circular causality paradox, and the earlier, unfinished version of Star Maker, Nebula Maker, which covers pre-stellar nebular history.) Wells and Stapledon present an anthropocentric alternative to Biblical-Dantean-Miltonic metaphysics. Lewis re-affirms the latter. Blish defends science, though without advocating a Wellsian scientific restructuring of society. He writes ambiguously about the supernatural in ASK Volume I, Doctor Mirabilis, and Volume III, A Case of Conscience, but imagines it as real in Volume II, Black Easter/The Day After Judgement.

These four writers reflect on man's cosmic role by showing men interacting with extraterrestrial races. Lewis alone presents such races as "unFallen" although Blish addresses this issue ambiguously in ASK III. Wellsian and Stapledonian Martians invade Earth. Stapledonian Terrestrials invade Venus and Neptune. A Lewisian demon infests Venus by possessing a space traveling scientist. Thus, Lewis subverts the alien invasion idea for theological purposes. His Ransom Volume II, Perelandra, also, though less obviously, replies to Star Maker because Ransom's Christian vision of creation contrasts with Stapledon's revelation of an aesthetically motivated but morally indifferent creator.

Although Blish's alien invasion novel, VOR, is not part of this conceptual sequence, his A Case of Conscience definitely parallels Perelandra by describing Earthmen arguing on a sinless planet. Despite this summary, the differences between Lewis' and Blish's novels are greater than their similarities. Lewis' humanly habitable sinless planet is Venus whereas Blish's is extra-solar. Lewis' Venerians are green but humanoid and immortal because unFallen whereas Blish's Lithians are reptilian and, of course, mortal. Lewis' Christian character, like Lewis an Anglican layman, fantastically confronts unequivocal evil whereas Blish's Christian character, unlike Blish a Jesuit priest, more plausibly contends with colleagues who have different points of view.

The Time Machine, The Shape of Things to Come, Last and First Men and Ransom Volume III, That Hideous Strength, all address the human future. Will humanity devolve, degenerate or remake itself? Does it need a supernatural salvation? To this second question, the Biblical tradition answers yes, Wells and Stapledon answered no, Lewis answered yes and Blish was agnostic. The other sf futures mentioned above, anthropocentric, robotic or AI-dominated, would also be unacceptable to Lewis who would find demons concealed in the technology of any society that was not theocentric.

That Hideous Strength, although not a future history, is about the future and is specifically a reply to The Shape of Things to Come and to Last and First Men. Lewis mentions Stapledon in the Preface and parodies Wells (as "Jules") in the text. Written during the war, published at the end of the war and set after the war, the novel dramatizes two alternative futures for Britain and the world. Wells and Stapledon had thought that mankind would be able to remake itself with science. Lewis replied that any supposed remaking would in fact be a technological dictatorship destroying humanity and even allowing demonic control (!) His invocation of an Arthurian past is not irrelevant but is part of his response to a Wellsian future. Black Easter, although not a reflection on the future, does end with apparent demonic control and is in memoriam CS Lewis.

 

In Julian May's Pliocene Exile/Intervention/Galactic Milieu sequence (one tetralogy and one trilogy with one intermediate volume):

 

many people become telepathic;
a few also become immortal;
one character reads Odd John;
a benign extraterrestrial intervention changes society;
a few terrestrials flee to the Pliocene only to meet malign alien invaders then;
the trilogy covers a short period of future history;
a Pliocene exile surviving until the Galactic Milieu influences the events that led to his exile;
Catholic and extraterrestrial characters present a post-Lewisian cosmic theology.

May's sequence addresses Wellsian and other sf themes and Christian theology, refers to Odd John and echoes Blish with the term "Okies" although used in a different sense. Thus, May's eight volumes can be added to the sixteen earlier volumes of this conceptual sequence which now has three British authors and two American of whom the first, Blish, moved to Britain (which may not prove much but is an interesting observation).

The four Wellsian themes also provide a template for comparing other authors' works. Most sf is post-Wellsian but not also post-Lewisian, including Blish's time travel story, "The City That Was The World," his interplanetary novel, Welcome to Mars, his alien invasion novel, VOR, and his future history, Cities in Flight. Welcome to Mars fits into the above mentioned sequence first because, as a journey to Mars story, it parallels Ransom Volume I, Out of the Silent Planet, secondly because, as hard sf, it is antithetical to Lewis' theological/mythological approach and thirdly because, although not part of ASK, it is a prequel to ASK III.

Heinlein wrote three first man on the Moon stories: his Future History version, his Scribner Juvenile version and a film version. He also wrote an alien invasion novel, The Puppet Masters, three classic statements of the time travel circular causality paradox, the original American Future History and, arguably also, a Juvenile Future History because five early Scribner Juveniles share background references with each other and with the "Green Hills of Earth" period of the (adult) Future History.

Larry Niven combined first man on the Moon with time travel in "Wrong Way Street." Logically, a future lunar explorer who finds an alien time machine and travels into the past while remaining on the Moon thus becomes the first man on the Moon. Niven addressed alien invasion with Jerry Pournelle in Footfall and is still writing a major future history. Poul Anderson wrote eight future histories, six volumes on time travel covering both circular causality and causality violation, including the sacred texts of the Time Patrol, a novel in which a time dilated spaceship outlasts the universe and a short story in which militarily superior humanoid aliens sell their services to the highest bidding terrestrial government, thus conquering Earth economically. Again, the premises are familiar but not always the conclusions.

Time Travel 

 

Because time time travel distorts the order of events, it is difficult to write about. An astronaut who will travel to Mars has not yet arrived on Mars whereas a chrononaut who will travel to the eleventh century arrived in the eleventh century a thousand years ago. A ten year round trip to Mars equals a ten year absence from Earth whereas, if a chrononaut who has spent ten years in the eleventh century returns to his departure point, then he loses no time in his home era. If history books do not record a chrononaut's activities in 1918, then they will not start to record such activities after he has departed to 1918. These points may seem simple but conversation about them is not.

A fellow sf fan once argued that, since we do not know how time travel would work, it is pointless to argue about how sf writers present it. However, we do know whether a conclusion follows from a premise. If the Enterprise crew have traveled from the twenty second to the twentieth century without loss of memory, then it cannot be assumed later in the same script that, if a man is returned to an earlier time, then he automatically forgets everything that he has experienced since that time. Writers reasoning consistently from stated premises would improve the quality of time travel fiction. See "The Logic of Time Travel" here.

Conclusion

Listing themes helps us to classify and compare sf works. Such classifications and comparisons can be extremely comprehensive but never complete.

(Added Feb 2012: In There Will Be Time, Poul Anderson linked time travel to the generation ship idea in a way that I had thought of but was not able to write a book about: if time travelers enter a generation ship before it leaves Earth, travel future-wards within the ship, visit its destination, then return past-wards within the ship, then they can report the outcome of the mission before its departure.

(In his Martian Trilogy, Michael Moorcock linked time travel to interplanetary adventure. Edgar Rice Burrough's character John Carter had astrally traveled to a humanly inhabited Mars. Moorcock, pastiching Burroughs but also knowing that Mars is not humanly inhabited, made his character Michael Kane time travel to Mars at a time when it was inhabited, before humanity had migrated from Mars to Earth.) 

1. Asimov, Isaac. Robot Dreams, Ace Books, 1986. 

An Unexpected Future History

Back to Methuselah by George Bernard Shaw is a series of plays set in successive future periods. Therefore, this work is a British future history like The Shape of Things to Come by HG Wells, Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon, A Short History of the Future by RC Churchill and Galaxies like Grains of Sand by Brian Aldiss. Like the novel, Methuselah’s Children, in Robert Heinlein’s (American) Future History, Back to Methuselah addresses the issue of the prolongation of human life. Like Last and First Men, it ends in a far future with an ultimate evolutionary stage of humanity.

Back to Methuselah is not classified as a science fiction (sf) future history partly, of course, because Shaw is not classified as an sf writer but mainly because of its different medium: stage drama, not prose fiction. However, screen drama makes original contributions to sf and Karel Capek’s stage play, R.U.R., contributed the term “robot." Star Trek, whose complete canon comprises both TV and cinema screen drama plus both prose and graphic fiction, approaches future history status and includes the TV episode, “Requiem for Methuselah,” about the Biblical Methuselah surviving into the interstellar period. Thus, there is a curious “Methuselan” conceptual trilogy of Shaw, Heinlein and Star Trek. The titles form a sequence.

Immortality, whether mutational or medical, is a major sf theme covered, for example, in One Million Tomorrows by another Shaw (Bob), This Immortal by Roger Zelazny and “Now That Man Has Gone” by James Blish. For a brief account of immortality in future histories by Heinlein, Blish, Poul Anderson and Larry Niven, see Immortality.

American Future Histories

Future Histories

A British future history is a fictitious historical text book. The model, H. G. Wells’ The Shape Of Things To Come, covers a period of future history. Olaf Stapledon’s Last And First Men covers the entire future of mankind. R. C. Churchill’s A Short History Of The Future incorporates futuristic fictions by Bradbury, Orwell, Huxley and others into a single chronology. Brian Aldiss’ collection Galaxies Like Grains Of Sand contains short stories linked by fictitious historical passages with a Stapledonian time scale. Thus, this work is a British synthesis of the British and American future history models.

An American future history is a series of stories and novels set in successive periods of a fictitious time chart. The model is Robert Heinlein’s Future History. John W. Campbell edited Robert Heinlein’s, Isaac Asimov’s and James Blish’s future histories. Heinlein’s direct successors as American future historians are Poul Anderson, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Anderson’s novel Genesis contains chapters with characters and conversations but others with Stapledonian time scales. Thus, this work is an American synthesis of the British and American future history models.

The Composition of American Future Histories

Heinlein’s Future History links an early period of technological progress to a later period of political conflicts. Pournelle’s CoDominium future history links an early period of military conflicts to a later period of alien contact. When Niven set two novels in the “Smoke Ring,” a breathable atmosphere stretching around a planetary orbit, he linked them to three stories, collected as one novel, about time dilation, thus generating a second future history. Thus, each of these future histories is composed of what had potentially been two independent series. Asimov linked his Robots history to his Galactic Empire history (including the Foundation Series), thus generating a longer future history. Anderson linked a series set in a period of capitalist expansion to another set in a period of imperial decline, thus generating a future history about social change. Niven linked a series set in the solar system to another set in the galaxy, thus generating a future history set in an expanding volume of space. Thus, each of these future histories is composed of what had been two independent series.

(Incidentally, of the British future historians:

(Aldiss, following Heinlein, linked his future history to a (more complicated) account of a “generation ship” (multi-generation interstellar spaceship);
Stapledon linked his future history to a future account of past history, then to his cosmic history, thus generating something unique;
R. C. Churchill linked already existing fictions.

(In Churchill’s Short History, oppressive societies described by Bradbury, Vonnegut and Orwell coexist on Earth while Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles occurs on Mars. Then, Bradbury’s nuclear war leads to Huxley’s Ape And Essence and to works by other authors. Apparent inconsistencies are explained humorously so that implausibilities do not really matter.)

Thus, the linking together of otherwise unrelated works is a major feature of future histories. Exceptionally, Blish generated not one future history from two series but three future histories from one nucleus. In Blish’s works:

the science of pantropy adapts human beings to extrasolar planets;
“Okie” flying cities trade between extrasolar colonies;
Dirac transmissions are instantaneous even over interstellar distances.

Thus, Blish could have written a single pantropy-Okies-Dirac future history. Instead, he developed these ideas in different directions. Okies, despite their antiagathic drugs, die in a cosmic collision two millennia hence whereas Adapted Men spread through the galaxy over many millennia.

Although both pantropists and Okies use the ultraphone as a faster than light communicator and Okies additionally use the Dirac transmitter as an instantaneous communicator, a further Dirac application, reception of messages from the future, establishes an intergalactic civilization differing from those of either pantropists or Okies. Foreseeable disasters are prevented whereas pantropists and Okies continue to cope with the unforeseen. Otherwise independent stories are linked when a Dirac message received in one work is transmitted, later, in another.

Frank Herbert generated a future history simply by extending his Dune series beyond the life spans of its original protagonists.

Constructing an American Future History

There are two ways to construct an American future history.

(i) The inclusive criterion: all works by the author are included unless they explicitly contradict each other.

(ii) The exclusive criterion: only those works are included that explicitly refer to each other.

Heinlein’s Future History was constructed inclusively. Notionally, all Heinlein stories were in the History although it has since become only a small part of his complete works. Incompatible stories were published under pen names. Thus, his first short story, about an inventor in 1955, introduces the period of technological progress whereas his first novel, about the Second American Revolution in 2070, introduces the period of political conflicts, although there is no direct connection between these two works.

The second novel, a direct sequel to the first, makes connections. Its hero, Lazarus Long, a member of an oppressed group, turns out to have lived for a very long time and to have consulted Pinero, the hero of the first short story. When Lazarus wants to persuade his fellow exiles to return to Earth, he plays the music from the title song of “The Green Hills Of Earth,” set in 2005.

The stories generate a sense of real history by providing background material for works set later in the time chart. Later stories refer back to the Antipodes rocket, Harriman (title character of “The Man Who Sold The Moon”), Luna City, Martians and Venerians. Encountering extrasolar aliens, Lazarus remembers human-Venerian interactions. Earlier stories support their successors as a pyramid’s base supports its apex.

Heinlein’s ideas could not be confined to a single timeline. Future History references and even entire species recur in otherwise incompatible works. There is a later, entirely inadequate, attempt to present these divergent timelines as coexisting in a single multiverse. However, of the authors mentioned here, the master of alternative and multiversal histories is not Heinlein but his successor, Anderson.

Blish also used earlier written stories to provide background material for later works. In one such sequence:

Adolph Haertel meets a Martian dune-cat (Welcome To Mars);
the dune-cats’ Mars is colonized (“No Jokes On Mars”);
Garrard test flies Haertel’s interstellar drive (“Common Time”);
Garrard’s successors experience telepathy (“Nor Iron Bars”);
their successors encounter a telepathic empire (“This Earth Of Hours”).

“How Beautiful With Banners” was to have referred to dune-cats although the reference did not survive into the published text.¹ However, the story, thematically linked to “Common Time,” could occur between Martian colonization and interstellar exploration.² Spatially, it comes between Mars and Proxima Centauri because it is set on Titan.

The very young Marine Private Oberholzer who asks a stupid question in “And Some Were Savages” cannot be the same person as the Marine Sergeant Oberholzer who is contemptuous of a stupid question immediately before encountering the telepathic empire because their backgrounds are incompatible.^3,4 The younger Oberholzer, written later, is merely an auctorial joke at a character’s expense. On the other hand, the Private could be a remote ancestor of the Sergeant… However, what matters is that these stories are individually worth reading. Interconnections, if any, are secondary. Each of the Oberholzer stories describes a different, and interesting, human-alien interaction. “And Some Were Savages” adds the fascinating detail that the Sun seen from far away belongs to a constellation called the Parrot.

Moving forward not from Haertel to the (telepathic) Central Empire but from Haertel to Thor Wald, inventor of the Dirac transmitter, takes us into a divergent timeline and an alternative future history. Other Haertel timelines take us to energy beings and sinless aliens. Again, Blish developed ideas in different directions. Blish scholars have devised complicated diagrams depicting divergent timelines but this can detract from the appreciation of individual works.

In my opinion, the major American future historians after Heinlein are:

Blish, for his divergent future histories;
Anderson, for his eight future histories;
Niven, mainly for the Ringworld Tetralogy that concludes his Known Space future history.

The concluding novels of Pournelle’s future history are co-written by Niven. Asimov is, I argue here, neither as ingenious nor as imaginative as Blish, Anderson or Niven.

1. David Ketterer, Imprisoned In A Tesseract: the life and work of James Blish (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1987), pp. 146-147.
2. James Blish, “How Beautiful With Banners” in Blish, Anywhen (New York: Doubleday & Co, Inc, 1970), p. 155.
3. James Blish, “And Some Were Savages” in Anywhen, pp. 75-103.
4. James Blish, “This Earth Of Hours” in Blish, The Best Of James Blish (New York: Ballantine Books, 1979), pp. 257-280.