The World Beyond the Hill: Science Fiction and the Quest for Transcendence

by Alexei Panshin

  27 “The event: Percy Bysshe Shelley (?), “Preface,” in Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 5.

  28 “the most: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein, p. 189.

  29 “It was: Fitz-James O’Brien, “The Diamond Lens,” in H. Bruce Franklin, ed., Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the Nineteenth Century, Rev. Ed. (New York: Oxford, 1978), p. 346.

  30 “They say: Ibid, p. 351.

  31 “density is: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall,” in The Complete Edgar Allan Poe Tales (New York: Avenel Books, 1981), p. 26.

  32 “In ‘Hans: Ibid, p. 55.

  33 “ ‘a strange: Jules Verne, From the Earth to the Moon in Walter James Miller, ed., The Annotated Jules Verne: From the Earth to the Moon (New York: Crowell, 1978), p. 13.

  34 “ ‘Hurray for: Ibid.

  35 “the incomprehensible: Edgar Allan Poe, op. cit., p. 50.

  36 “those dark: Ibid.

  37 “manufactured entirely: Ibid, p. 22.

  38 “tasteless, but: Ibid, p. 26.

  39 “instantaneously fatal: Ibid.

  40 “Many unusual: Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, in The Complete Edgar Allan Poe Tales, p. 700.

  41 “And now: Ibid, p. 702.

  42 “sudden and: Ibid, p. 703.

  CHAPTER 4: INTO THE UNKNOWN

  43 “From now: Jules Verne, quoted in Russell Freedman, Jules Verne: Portrait of a Prophet (New York?: Holiday House, 1965), p. 25.

  44 “The only: Ibid, p. 52.

  45 “Science-Fiction”: William Wilson, quoted from A Little Earnest Book Upon a Great Old Subject (1851), in Brian M. Stableford, “William Wilson’s Prospectus for Science Fiction: 1851,” in Foundation, No. 10, June 1976, p. 6.

  46 “the revealed: Ibid, pp. 9-10.

  47 “prophetic vision”: Hugo Gernsback, “A New Sort of Magazine,” Amazing Stories, April 1926, p. 3.

  48 “the amazing: Hugo Gernsback, “Editorially Speaking,” Amazing Stories, September 1926, p. 483.

  49 “lingering on: Jules Verne, quoted in Freedman, op. cit., p. 61.

  50 “a pale: Ibid, p. 57.

  51 “ ‘I have: Ibid.

  52 “ ‘We shall: Ibid, p. 60.

  53 “Formerly, to: Ibid, p. 100.

  54 “discoveries are: Ibid, p. 104.

  55 “I am: quoted in Peter Costello, Jules Verne: Inventor of Science Fiction (New York: Scribners, 1978), p. 72.

  56 “The most: Jules Verne, “The Bizarre Genius of Edgar Poe,” in Peter Haining, ed., The Jules Verne Companion (New York: Baronet, 1979), p. 28.

  57 “I try: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein (New York: Collier, n.d.), p. 13.

  58 “whose dusky: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall,” in The Complete Edgar Allan Poe Tales (New York: Avenel Books, 1981), p. 44.

  59 “In recent: Jules Verne, quoted in Costello, op. cit., p. 82.

  60 “Descend into: Jules Verne, Journey to the Centre of the Earth (New York: Penguin, 1965), p. 32.

  61 “It was: Ibid, pp. 163-164.

  62 “I gazed: Ibid, p. 165.

  63 “prehistoric daydream”: Ibid, p. 179.

  64 “The whole: Ibid.

  65 “brief hallucination”: Ibid.

  66 “That’s wonderful!”: Ibid, p. 170.

  67 “No, it’s: Ibid.

  68 “So that: Ibid, p. 218.

  69 “who for: Ibid.

  70 “Now that: Ibid, p. 219.

  71 “Instead of: Jules Verne, Around the Moon in The Omnibus Jules Verne (Philadelphia and New York: Lippincott, n.d.), p. 768.

  72 “Take the: Hugo Gernsback, “A New Sort of Magazine,” Amazing Stories, April 1926, p. 3.

  73 “The Italians: Jules Verne, quoted in “Jules Verne Re-Visited” by Robert H. Sherard, in Haining, op. cit., p. 60.

  74 “Take for: Jules Verne, quoted in Costello, op. cit., pp. 186-187.

  75 “Before going: Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (New York: Bantam, 1962), p. 82.

  76 “There was: Ibid, p. 86.

  77 “ ‘Captain,’ I: Ibid, p. 84.

  78 “It seemed: Ibid, p. 365.

  79 “Navel of: Ibid, p. 369.

  80 “Thus ended: Ibid, p. 370.

  CHAPTER 5: THE HIGHER POWERS OF SCIENCE

  81 “looking like: Edward S. Ellis, The Huge Hunter, or The Steam Man of the Prairies, in E.F. Bleiler, ed., Eight Dime Novels (New York: Dover, 1974), p. 108.

  82 “ ‘the ould: Ibid.

  83 “No wonder: Ibid.

  84 “. . . their previous: Ibid, p. 115.

  85 “It required: Ibid, p. 109.

  86 “a mere: Jules Verne, quoted in Peter Costello, Jules Verne: Inventor of Science Fiction (New York: Scribners, 1978), p. 187.

  87 It has been estimated that 75% were the work of one man: our information about Luis Philip Senarens is derived from Sam Moskowitz, “Ghost of Prophecies Past, or, Frank Reade, Jr., and ‘Forgotten Chapters in American History,’ ” in Moskowitz, Explorers of the Infinite (Cleveland and New York: World, 1963).

  88 “The Case of Summerfield”: our information about this story and its author is derived from Sam Moskowitz, Science Fiction in Old San Francisco, Vol. I: History of the Movement (West Kingston, R.I.: Grant, 1980), pp. 43-45.

  89 “held at: entry under Charles Cornwallis Chesney, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911), Vol. 6, p. 93.

  90 “Science fiction: Hugo Gernsback, “The Prophets of Doom” (unpublished address dated October 25, 1963), p. 1.

  91 “But what: Sir Thomas More, The “Utopia” and the History of Edward V (London: Walter Scott, n.d.), pp. 81-82. Scyllas, Celenos, and Loestrygonians are all references to monsters found in The Odyssey and The Aeniad.

  92 Memoirs of the Year 2440: our information about this story and contemporary reactions to it is derived from I.F. Clarke, The Pattern of Expectation (London: Cape, 1979), pp. 26-28.

  93 “What Happened After the Battle of Dorking”: our information about this story is derived from an unpublished book-length manuscript by Brian M. Stableford on the literature of the scientific imagination.

  94 “to exhibit: entry under Edward George Earle Lytton, Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911), Vol. 17, p. 186.

  95 “So important: The Right Hon. Lord Lytton, The Coming Race (Quakertown, Pa.: Beverly Hall, 1973), p. 40.

  96 “I should: Ibid, pp. 31-32.

  97 “In another: Ibid, p. 84.

  98 “on the Darwinian: Bulwer-Lytton, quoted in I.F. Clarke, op. cit., p. 143.

  99 “And now: Lytton, op. cit., pp. 10-11

  100 “God’s Will,” etc.: Emerson M. Clymer, “Foreword,” in Lytton, op. cit., p. v.

  101 like the Sacred Locomotive: the work referred to is William R. Bradshaw, The Goddess of Atvatabar (1892).

  CHAPTER 6: A UNIVERSE GROWN ALIEN

  102 “No one: H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, in H.G. Wells, Seven Famous Novels (New York: Knopf, 1934), p. 265.

  103 “beyond all: H.G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography (New York: Macmillan, 1934), p. 161.

  104 “an artificial: Edward Page Mitchell, “The Ablest Man in the World,” in Edward Page Mitchell, The Crystal Man: Landmark Science Fiction, ed. by Sam Moskowitz (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1973), pp. 37-38.

  105 “Social progress: Thomas Huxley, “Evolution and Ethics,” abridged, in Eugen Weber, ed., The Western Tradition: From the Enlightenment to the Atomic Age (Boston: Heath, 1959), p. 646.

  106 “Let us: Ibid, p. 647.

  107 “luminiferous ether”: The concept of the ether was the product of Newton’s contemporary, Christiaan Huygens (1629-95).

  108 “The movement: Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward (New York: Magnum/Lancer, 1968), p. 60.

  109 “ ‘. . . To speak: Ibid, p. 68.

  110 “a Cockney:
William Morris, quoted in I.F. Clarke, The Pattern of Expectation (London: Cape, 1979), p. 166.

  111 “Somehow, every: Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (New York: Bantam, 1981), p. 240.

  112 “I started: H. Rider Haggard, She, in Works of H. Rider Haggard (New York: Black, 1928), p. 256.

  113 “Science is: H.G. Wells, “The Rediscovery of the Unique,” quoted in Norman and Jeanne MacKenzie, H.G. Wells (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1973), p. 56.

  114 “The Education: H.G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography, p. 426.

  115 “New books: Ibid, p. 427.

  116 “I was: Ibid, p. 428.

  117 “There grows: H.G. Wells, “The Man of the Year Million,” in Peter Haining, ed., The H.G. Wells Scrapbook (New York: Potter, 1978), p. 30.

  118 “We think: H.G. Wells, “The Extinction of Man,” quoted in James Gunn, Alternate Worlds: The Illustrated History of Science Fiction (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975), p. 92.

  119 “I touched: Lewis Hind, Authors and I, quoted in MacKenzie, op. cit., p. 105.

  120 “The Time: H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, in Wells, Seven Famous Novels, p. 3.

  121 “ ‘There are: Ibid, p. 4.

  122 “a glittering: Ibid, p. 6.

  123 “Parts were: Ibid, p. 9.

  124 “I do: Jules Verne, quoted in “Jules Verne Re-Visited” by Robert H. Sherard, in Peter Haining, ed., The Jules Verne Companion (New York: Baronet, 1979), pp. 59-60.

  125 “There is: Jules Verne, quoted in Peter Costello, Jules Verne: Inventor of Science Fiction (New York: Scribners, 1978), p. 186.

  126 “I have: Ibid, pp. 186-187.

  127 “great and: H.G. Wells, The Time Machine, p. 15.

  128 “a profoundly: Ibid, p. 19.

  129 “What might: Ibid, p. 16.

  130 “The air: Ibid, p. 23.

  131 “Face this: Ibid, p. 29.

  132 “Gradually, the: Ibid, p. 34.

  133 “So, in: Ibid, p. 36.

  134 “frail creatures: Ibid, p. 45.

  135 “the white: Ibid.

  136 “Did he: Ibid, p. 66.

  137 “a beautiful: Edward Page Mitchell, “The Balloon Tree,” in Mitchell, The Crystal Man, p. 21.

  138 “Migratory Tree”: Ibid, p. 18.

  139 “that men: J.-H. Rosny aîné, “The Shapes” (“Les Xipéhuz”), in Damon Knight, ed., One Hundred Years of Science Fiction (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968), p. 103.

  140 “Those who: H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, in Wells, Seven Famous Novels, p. 276.

  141 “octopuses”: Ibid, p. 288.

  142 “huge, round: Ibid, p. 348.

  143 “hands”: Ibid.

  144 “eliminated them: Ibid, p. 351.

  145 “slain by: Ibid, p. 380.

  146 “Dim and: Ibid, p. 387.

  CHAPTER 7: THE RELATIVITY OF MAN

  147 “opaque to: H.G. Wells, The First Men in the Moon, in H.G. Wells, Seven Famous Novels (New York: Knopf, 1934), p. 399.

  148 “It’s this: Ibid, p. 447.

  149 “insurmountable”: Ibid, p. 448.

  150 “In brief: H.G. Wells, Experiment in Autobiography (New York: Macmillan, 1934), pp. 182-183.

  151 “Would it: Bertrand Russell, “A Free Man’s Worship,” in Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday Anchor, 1957), p. 44.

  152 “the cruel: Ibid.

  153 “And God: Ibid, p. 45.

  154 “Such, in: Ibid, pp. 45-46.

  155 “Brief and: Bertrand Russell, op. cit., p. 54.

  156 “It must: H.G. Wells, The Island of Dr. Moreau, in Wells, Seven Famous Novels, p. 156.

  157 “the little: Lord Dunsany, quoted by Lin Carter, ed., in his Introduction to his selected anthology of Dunsany stories, At the Edge of the World (New York: Ballantine, 1970), p. viii.

  158 “the Third: Lord Dunsany, as in his collection, Tales of the Third Hemisphere (Boston: Luce, 1919).

  159 “ ‘Once I: Lord Dunsany, “The Hashish Man,” in Dunsany, At the Edge of the World, p. 121.

  160 “Let me live out my years: Jack London, Martin Eden (New York: Review of Reviews, 1912), opposite copyright page. This is an unacknowledged quotation from the poem “Let Me Live Out My Years” by John G. Neihardt.

  161 “soft and: Jack London, “The Scarlet Plague,” in Groff Conklin, ed., Omnibus of Science Fiction (New York: Crown, 1952), p. 515.

  162 “The gunpowder: Ibid, p. 523.

  163 who was heavily influenced by London: our information about the influence of London on Burroughs is derived from Irwin Porges, Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan (New York: Ballantine, 1976), pp. 316, 437-438. Within a month of London’s death, Burroughs proposed to write a biography of London.

  164 the pseudonym Normal Bean: Edgar Rice Burroughs, discussed in Porges, pp. 29, 32.

  165 “Uncle Jack”: Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars (New York: Ballantine, 1973), p. v.

  166 “I am: Ibid, p. 11.

  167 “a typical: Ibid, p. v .

  168 “I could: Ibid, p. 77.

  169 “As I: Ibid, p. 20.

  170 “I was: Ibid.

  171 “During the: Ibid, p. 62.

  172 “She was: Ibid, p. 46.

  173 “As he: Ibid, p. 29.

  174 “ ‘You are: Ibid, p. 90.

  175 “. . . In all: Ibid, p. 14.

  CHAPTER 8: THE DEATH OF THE SOUL

  176 “a great: entry under Wells, The Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition (New York: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911), Vol. 28, p. 514.

  177 “ ‘Hello,’ said: Perley Poore Sheehan, The Abyss of Wonders (Reading, Pa.: Polaris Press, 1953), p. 188.

  178 the most significant and influential was A. Merritt: our account of Merritt’s life is primarily based on materials contained in Sam Moskowitz, ed., A. Merritt: Reflections in the Moon Pool (Philadelphia: Oswald Train, 1985).

  179 “our world: A. Merritt, The Moon Pool (New York: Collier, 1966), p. 204.

  180 “In this: A. Merritt, The Metal Monster (New York: Avon, 1966), p. 9.

  181 “gained a: A. Merritt, “A. Merritt—His Life and Times,” by A. Merritt and Jack Chapman Miske, in Moskowitz, ed., A. Merritt: Reflections in the Moon Pool, p. 344.

  182 “garden of: Ibid, p. 345.

  183 “which was: A. Merritt, letter to Wallace Palmer, dated January 14, 1929, in Moskowitz, ed., op. cit.

  184 “ ‘I think: A. Merritt, The Moon Pool, p. 188.

  185 “ ‘The Englishman: Ibid.

  186 “Consciousness itself: A. Merritt, The Metal Monster, p. 116.

  187 “For in: Ibid, p. 238.

  188 “ ‘Fact! sanity!: James Branch Cabell, Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice (New York: McBride, 1922), p. 138.

  189 “Serpentine proceeded: H.G. Wells, Men Like Gods, in 28 Science Fiction Stories of H.G. Wells (New York: Dover, 1952), pp. 39-40.

  190 “And yet: Ibid, p. 263.

  191 “center for: Eugene Zamiatin, We (New York: Dutton, n.d.) p. 86.

  192 “I am: Ibid, p. 217.

  193 “ ‘sole purpose: Karel Capek, R.U.R., in Bennett A. Cerf and Van H. Cartmell, eds., Sixteen Famous European Plays (New York: Modern Library, 1943), p. 741.

  194 “ ‘a gasoline: Ibid, 742.

  195 “ ‘Oh! Perhaps: Ibid.

  196 “ ‘No. The: Ibid.

  197 “From a wild: Edgar Allan Poe, “Dreamland,” in Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe (New York: Washington Square/Pocket Books, 1940), p. 405.

  198 “What do: H.P. Lovecraft, “From Beyond,” in H.P. Lovecraft, The Doom That Came to Sarnoth (New York: Ballantine, 1971), p. 87.

  199 “The most: H.P. Lovecraft, “The Call of Cthulhu,” in H.P. Lovecraft, The Colour Out of Space and others (New York: Lancer, 1964), p. 45.

  CHAPTER 9: EVOLUTION OR EXTINCTION

  200 “new sort: Hugo Gernsback, “A New Sort of Magazine,” Amazing Stories, April 1926, p. 3.

  201 “extremely easy: Charles A
gnew MacLean, editor of Popular Magazine, quoted in Irwin Porges, Edgar Rice Burroughs: The Man Who Created Tarzan (New York: Ballantine, 1976), p. 637.

  202 “too bizarre: Ibid.

  203 “If we: Hugo Gernsback, “Fiction Versus Facts,” Amazing Stories, July 1926, p. 291.

  204 “Not only: Hugo Gernsback, “A New Sort of Magazine,” p. 3.

  205 “The plain: Hugo Gernsback, “Editorially Speaking,” Amazing Stories, September 1926, p. 483.

  206 “We knew: Ibid.

  207 “The man: Hugo Gernsback, “Science Wonder Stories,” Science Wonder Stories, June 1929, p. 5.

  208 “Extravagant Fiction: slogan printed on the editorial page of each issue of Amazing Stories beginning with April 1926, p. 3.

  209 coined the word television: This is stated by Sam Moskowitz in his essay, “Hugo Gernsback: ‘Father of Science Fiction,’ ” in Moskowitz, Explorers of the Infinite (Cleveland and New York: World, 1963), p. 232. The article by Gernsback, published in Modern Electrics, was entitled “Television and the Telphot.”

  210 “F.R.S.”: Amazing Stories, April 1926, p. 3. That Gernsback was a Fellow of the Royal Society was denied in a letter to Alexei Panshin from A.J. Clark, Deputy Librarian of the Royal Society, dated 8 October 1985.

  211 invent the word scientifiction: Stated by Hugo Gernsback in his editorial, “$300.00 Prize Contest,” Amazing Stories, April 1928, p. 5.

  212 “excellent science: introduction to Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Master Mind of Mars, in Amazing Stories Annual, 1927, p. 7.

  213 “Hugo the: H.P. Lovecraft, quoted in L. Sprague de Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography (Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1975), p. 282.

  214 In February 1929, his printer: this account of the bankruptcy of Hugo Gernsback’s Experimenter Publishing Co. is largely based on Tom Perry, “An Amazing Story: Experimenter in Bankruptcy,” in Amazing Science Fiction, May 1978, p. 101.

  215 “science fiction”: this phrase was used in Science Wonder Stories from the first issue in June 1929. See Sam Moskowitz, “How Science Fiction Got Its Name,” in Moskowitz, op. cit., p. 322.

  216 “Prophetic Fiction: slogan printed on the editorial page of each issue of Science Wonder Stories beginning with June 1929, p. 5.

  217 “The Future: slogan printed on the editorial page of each issue of Air Wonder Stories beginning with July 1929, p. 5.