Science Fiction: the Evolutionary Mythology of the Future: Volume Three: Superman to Star Maker

By Thomas Lombardo

An in-depth history of science, primarily covering the 1930s, from Superman to Olaf Stapledon’s Star Maker. The book examines science fiction literature, art, cinema, and comics, and the impact of culture, philosophy, science, technology, and futures studies on the development of science fiction. Further, the book describes the influence of science fiction on human society and the evolution of future consciousness. Other key figures discussed include apek, Hamilton, “Doc” Smith, Campbell, Lovecraft, C. A. Smith, and Williamson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781665533720

Thomas Lombardo

THOMAS LOMBARDO, PH.D. is the Director of the Center for Future Consciousness, Editor of Future Consciousness Insights, Professor Emeritus and Retired Faculty Chair of Psychology, Philosophy, and the Future at Rio Salado College, and former Director of The Wisdom Page. A world-recognized futurist, he is the author of ten books and an Awarded Fellow and Executive Board member of the World Futures Studies Federation.

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© 2021 Thomas Lombardo. All rights reserved.

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Cover Art Design copyright © 2021 by Design Deluxe

Published by AuthorHouse 08/19/2021

ISBN: 978-1-6655-3373-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6655-3372-0 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

PRAISE FOR SCIENCE FICTION: THE

EVOLUTIONARY MYTHOLOGY OF THE

FUTURE - VOLUMES ONE AND TWO

Lombardo’s encyclopedic knowledge of science fiction is phenomenal... An extensive and sweeping reference series for readers of this exciting and thought-provoking field.

Richard Yonck, Association of Professional Futurists and Author of Heart of the Machine and Future Minds

The amazingly broad and accurate knowledge Tom displays along with his diachronic brilliant analysis has already made of this first volume a must-read" and a now necessary reference book in the study both of science fiction and of the future.

Fabienne Goux-Baudiment, Founding member of the French Society for Foresight and Former President of the World Futures Studies Federation

A rich and enthusiastic account of science fiction’s power to help us imagine the future. Tom Lombardo’s book is a celebration and inspiration.

Dr. Bryan Alexander, Futurist, Speaker, Writer. Teacher, Consultant, Homesteader, Author of Gearing Up for Learning Beyond K-12 and The New Digital Storytelling

"Tom Lombardo knows science fiction—really knows it. I’ve heard him speak, and the passion and love he brings to the topic is electrifying.

Brenda Cooper, Science Fiction Author of Wilders, Edge of Dark, and Spear of Light

I cannot think of anyone better equipped to write on science fiction than Tom Lombardo. He is an excellent researcher and writer. He is also the only person I know who can explain how the dominant themes in science fiction have evolved over time, showing how breakthroughs or crises in science, technology, society, and the human psyche, are reflected in the science fiction of the day.

Dr. Linda Groff, Emeritus Professor, Political Science & Futures Studies, California State University

Once again, Dr. Lombardo has taken a subject previously visited by many other writers and brought a new eye and a broader vision in his analysis of the cultural history of science fiction... It is this sort of rich discussion that has consistently rewarded me as a reader of his work over the years.

Timothy C. Mack, Esq., Former President World Future Society and Founder of AAI Foresight

ADVANCED PRAISE FOR SCIENCE FICTION:

THE EVOLUTIONARY MYTHOLOGY OF

THE FUTURE - VOLUME THREE

"In volume three (Superman to Star Maker) of his already legendary series on the history of science fiction, Lombardo is just simply brilliant. It’s so rich with everything from personal anecdotes and fabulous presentations of science fiction texts and movies to deep and thoughtful reflections on how the selected pieces contribute to ongoing discussions within futures studies, that you feel overwhelmed. Every futures-oriented and interested person will here find a treasure of perspectives and ideas, not only about our possible long term futures, but also those that can be used to orient yourself in our contemporary society. With this book Lombardo definitely takes the step towards becoming the Superman of science fiction history writers. Enjoy!"

Dr. Erik F. Øverland, President of the World Futures Studies Federation

"Professor Lombardo has given us a fine history of science fiction, sketched out and filled in with detail. Included in the bargain is a history that places the entire panorama in a rich cultural context. As a scholar of consciousness, I am also delighted by his extensive treatment of author Olaf Stapleton, who wrote Star Maker with a deep understanding of consciousness itself and its possible futures. Lombardo is an excellent writer and a pleasure to read. Enjoy this fine review of an entire dimension of culture and literature often unseen and unsuspected."

Allan Leslie Combs, Ph.D. Professor of Consciousness Studies, CIIS and Past President of The Society of Consciousness Studies, Author of Consciousness Explained Better and Mind in Time

Thomas Lombardo continues his excellent explication of science fiction and its reciprocal relationship with consciousness and culture in this third volume of his Evolutionary Mythology of the Future series. In this volume he covers the 1930s and the emergence of science fiction comics and cinema. We journey with him through space operas, alien worlds, and diverse dystopian visions and catastrophes, delving into the minds of the many authors, seeking to understand what moved and inspired them to create the works they did, without ever losing the thread of their movement into future.

It is the evolution of the human mind and human intelligence that consistently concerns us in reading Lombardo’s books. ‘Science fiction,’ he writes, ‘is about the future of everything and not simply science and technology. . .in fact, [it] goes beyond the future into alternative (or alternate) realities and universes, further enlarging and informing the possibility space of the human mind’.

Hank Kune, EDUCORE and the World Futures Studies Federation

"An inspiring reading about a pivotal period of science fiction! When you look at the science fiction of the 1930s and 1940s through the eyes of evolution, as Tom Lombardo does, fascinating speculations about the long term biological, technical, and even psychological future of mankind come into view. Ample space is given the paradigmatic works of Olaf Stapledon, after H. G. Wells the most influential science fiction writer. But the book is highly knowledgeable also about near forgotten authors like Nat Schachner. In sum, volume three of the series is not only a joyful and informative reading; for persons who want to understand the central thread in the evolution of science fiction the volume is absolutely indispensable."

Dr. Karlheinz Steinmüller, Science Fiction Author and Futurist, Winner of the Kurd Lasswitz Award

CONTENTS

Dedication

Introduction

Chapter 1 Super-Heroes and the Multi-Media Experience

The Evolution of Super-Heroes

The Cinema: Adventures in Horror, Sight, and Sound

Chapter 2 Prelude to the Golden Age

Women with Wings

Adventures in Time and Space

Stanley Weinbaum: A Martian Odyssey

Chapter 3 Astounding Early Writers of the Pulps I

Murray Leinster: Other Dimensions and Other Times

Edmond Hamilton: Evolution and the Interstellar Patrol

John Taine: Experiments in Evolution and Time

Chapter 4 Astounding Early Writers of the Pulps II

Jack Williamson: Pathways of Imagination and Time

Nat Schachner: Mind, Society, Technology, and Existence

John Campbell: Who Goes There?

Chapter 5 Experiments in Reality and Consciousness

The Cosmic and Horrific: H.P. Lovecraft

The Poetical and Fantastical: Clark Ashton Smith

Chapter 6 Plays, Epochs, Disasters, and the Radio

Karel Čapek - Robots, God, and The War with the Newts

When Worlds Collide and The Man Who Awoke

Science Fiction Invades the World

Chapter 7 Blasting into the Universe: Doc" Smith and the Space Opera

The Skylark Saga

Chronicles of the Lensmen

Chapter 8 Stapledon and Cosmic Evolution

Last and First Men and Last Men in London

Odd John and Sirius

Star Maker

Chapter 9 Through the Eyes of Evolution

Mental Evolution in the Universe

Ethics, Mythos, and God in Science Fiction

Optimism and Defeatism in the Mythology of Science Fiction

Wells and Stapledon - The Time Machine and Star Maker

Non-Fiction Bibliography

DEDICATION

To my fellow cosmic travelers: Debbie Aliya, Pouyan Bizeh, Debashis Chowdhury, Alan Chudnow, Leslie Combs, Howard Ehlers, Hank Kune, Cedar Leverett, Jeanne Lombardo, Tim Mack, Jean Paul Pinto, Alan Ross, Tery Spataro, and Rick Trowbridge

INTRODUCTION

Back in the 1950s, my family would all get together at my Aunt Julie and Uncle Louie’s house and celebrate New Year’s Eve. The adults drank whiskey sours, hi-balls, and screwdrivers, and given it was a special occasion, my young cousins and I were allowed to drink as many bottles of soda as we desired. At midnight, as the illuminated ball descended at Times Square in New York City, we would all watch Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians orchestra bring in the New Year.

But right after all the balloons were popped, the horns were blown, the noise-makers were spun, and everyone—all fifty or sixty uncles, aunts, and cousins—kissed and hugged in celebration, the living room would quickly become darkened and silent. My parents and most of my aunts and uncles would go into the kitchen, where the alcohol and food were located, to smoke cigarettes and cigars and drink toasts and reminisce about bygone years. All the kids and teenagers, though, including myself and my sister, would closely gather around the black and white TV in the living room and become hypnotically drawn into the terror, accompanied with ominous music, that emerged on the screen.

Every New Year’s, soon after midnight, a TV station in Connecticut would broadcast Howard Hawk’s classic science fiction horror movie The Thing from Another World (1951). And every New Year’s, as a special treat, my young cousins, my sister, and I would be allowed to stay up until roughly 1:30 am and watch this ultra-spooky, send-frigid-shivers-through-your-bones tale about a small group of people trapped with a dangerous and powerful alien in a snowstorm-bound scientific outpost near the North Pole.

Although the action in the movie starts off slowly, soon there is mystery, awe, and wonder when a flying saucer, having been tracked on radar as it descended and crashed into the earth, is located just below the polar surface of ice a short plane flight from the outpost. But when a reconnaissance party arrives at the crash site and attempts to melt the surrounding ice with chemical bombs, the saucer is accidentally blown up. From this point forward in the movie the tension and terror quickly build. A short distance away from where the saucer was located, the scientific team observe a dark humanoid shape frozen below the surface of the ice. A hideous looking creature, presumably an occupant of the saucer, is chopped out of the ice, and encased in a block of ice, the thing is brought back to the outpost.

The giant humanoid-shaped alien, with its frightening and eerie gaze now revealed through the melting, clearing ice, is accidentally thawed out from the frozen ice block—the person responsible for watching the alien stupidly covers the ice block with an electric blanket—and now able to move about, the alien escapes into the surrounding blizzard night. The alien fights off several Husky dogs, killing a couple of them and draining them of blood, but the dogs bite off one of the alien’s hands. In one of the movie’s eerie scenes, when the hand is recovered by the scientists and given animal blood the detached hand seems to come alive, moving its fingers.

The scientists soon discover that the alien is some kind of super-intelligent plant, with fingernails resembling thorns. Underneath its fingertips the scientists discover spores. They plant the spores in soil, and supplying the spores with blood, small shoots quickly sprout, and as the plants grow, increasingly more pronounced heartbeats are detected within the bulbous pods that emerge on the upper ends of the plants. Yet while the enthralled and rather foolish scientists are studying these creepy growing life-forms, admiring the creatures’ unique biological capacities, the alien is terrorizing the outpost and a number of people, including some of the scientists, are killed before the alien is finally destroyed, being burned to a shriveling cinder by electrocuting it.

As a central point of tension in the movie, right after the frozen alien is first brought into the outpost, a philosophical conflict emerges between the scientists, who in their quest for knowledge want to understand and communicate with the alien, and the rest of the outpost’s occupants, including military men, who are focused on survival and want to destroy the creature before it kills all of them. Although highly advanced, both biologically and technologically, which is the focus of interest of the scientists, the alien is also powerful, ruthless, and indifferent to human life, which is the riveting, life and death concern for the rest of the outpost’s occupants. Although more evolved than us, the alien is horrific and deadly. Do we dive into the cosmic transcendent, perhaps annihilating ourselves in the process, or do we fight for our lives, tooth and claw, against the powerful demon who has crash-landed on our primitive world?

A key dramatic strength of the movie is its bone-chilling atmosphere. The overall ambience of the cinematic experience is cold and dark. At one point when the frigid temperatures outside are plummeting and gale winds are shaking the walls, the alien turns off the heating system within the outpost in order to freeze the humans to death. The scenes, especially when the alien is present, are often obscure or shadowy, adding to the mystery and tremulous uncertainty. We never really see the alien clearly. With the frosty breaths and trembling hands of the human characters, turbulent and wintry sounds of the intense blizzard engulfing the outpost, gusts of snow and wind blowing into the outpost whenever outside doors are momentarily opened, and eerie alien music accompanying the whole drama, watching The Thing from Another World sends shivers through the body. The movie is a visceral-sensory experience of icy terror and fear.

No matter how many times we watched this movie—until the TV station finally took it off the air as their regular New Year’s showing—my cousins and I never grew bored with The Thing from Another World—at least I didn’t—with all its memorable, spellbinding scenes and its philosophical dialogues and arguments on evolution, intelligence, and the value of human survival. Only many years later did I read John Campbell’s Who Goes There? (1938), the novella that served as the inspiration for this movie. Although the written story is much more psychologically complex than its loosely based cinematic adaptation—Campbell’s original version creates a deep sense of absolute paranoia and envisions a much more imaginative alien life form—over sixty years later after first watching the movie, on re-watching it still holds up very well, and the alien (played by James Arness of later Gunsmoke fame) is still frightening.

As far back as Hoffman’s The Sandman (1816) and Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818), science fiction has been strongly connected with terror and horror (Lombardo, 2018). Equally so, when aliens—especially advanced aliens—entered into science fiction literature, famously so in Wells’ The War of the Worlds (1898), highly evolved beings from other worlds were often depicted as hideous, frightening, and dangerous. The Thing from Another World was just one of many popular 1950s movies in which aliens were both terrifying and deadly, and perhaps proportionately so depending on how more advanced they were than us. Such movies of the 1950s, for example, Invasion from Mars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and Earth versus the Flying Saucers, though were just a further evolution on the first wave of science fiction-horror talkies produced in the 1930s, beginning with Frankenstein (1931), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931), and Island of Lost Souls (1932). In the 1950s there were now many more aliens—as the primary source of terror—up on the screen, but science fiction cinema, beginning in the 1930s, has been intimately linked with horror and with terrifying, repulsive creatures, both alien and otherwise, which are going to disembowel, possess, or consume, body and soul, the human characters in the stories.

As we continue in this third volume tracing the history of science fiction, with the focus now on the 1930s, three key spheres of imaginative speculation, among others, that are highlighted are: The incredible proliferation of aliens primarily in written form (as noted above, cinematic aliens only blossom forth in great diversity in the 1950s); the dramatic themes of horror, fear, and the macabre; and visions of advanced psycho-bio-techno evolution both in future humans and aliens.

Often these three visionary spheres connect together. As perhaps the most phantasmagoric and extreme example of blending evolution, horror, and alien life forms, H. P. Lovecraft wrote in the 1920s and 1930s an amazing number of intricately painted, consciousness-expanding tales of bizarre and horrific beings and enigmatic forces, often alien in origin, lurking in dark and terrifying places, and frequently far more advanced than twentieth century humans. In Lovecraft’s The Color Out of Space we encounter an infectious phosphorescence brought to earth within a meteor that contaminates and decomposes both animal and plant life; in The Shadow Out of Time colossal beings from far distances in space and time invade our minds and gain control of our bodies; and in At the Mountains of Madness biologically engineered, totally crazed servants of aliens haunt the underground caverns of the earth. But Doc Smith and Edmond Hamilton, as writers of great space operas, in the 1920s and 1930s also envisioned a revolting and bizarre assortment of highly dangerous, super-advanced aliens that humans must do battle with in outer space in order to survive.

But aliens, or any type of more evolved beings (human or otherwise), need not be associated with horror, terror, and danger. Why we frequently see aliens and super-evolved beings as threatening is a provocative psychological question. Perhaps it’s the transcendence of ourselves that we deeply fear? This is perhaps why many of us also fear robots. In Doc Smith’s great space operas of the 1930s—the Skylark of Space and Lensman series—a number of advanced alien species encountered by humans are both powerful and yet beneficent, and the Lensmen, as purposefully evolved cyborgs of both human and alien types, are forces for the good. Superman, examined at the beginning of this volume, possesses great powers and is an archetypal character of the good, yet although human in form he is an alien. Perhaps as the best example along these lines, both Stapledon’s highly advanced humans (in Last and First Men) and his diverse super-intelligent galactic species of the far future (in Star Maker) are beings of great wisdom and high moral character. What is more advanced may not be evil or a source of horror or threat. Evolution may be a bright inspiring light, rather than a threatening mortal danger spelling the end of humanity and all that is true and good.

All in all, on both the positive and negative sides, this third volume highlights the explosive proliferation of imagined aliens in the 1930s, often more advanced than humans, and manifesting different blends of beneficent, malevolent, and enigmatic moral qualities. Aside from the novels and stories of Stapledon, Smith, Lovecraft, and Hamilton covered in this volume, Gallun’s Old Faithful, Weinbaum’s A Martian Odyssey, Williamson’s The Moon Era, and Clark Ashton Smith’s The Monster of the Prophecy and City of the Singing Flame are some outstanding additional tales of the 1930s described in this volume that delve into the wondrous and complex world of aliens.

Volume three also continues to chronicle science fiction stories dealing with the future evolution of humans, such as those envisioned by Smith and Stapledon, but also including provocative visions by Leslie Francis Stone, Sophie Ellis, Philip Wylie, Murray Leinster, Edmond Hamilton, Nat Schachner, and Lawrence Manning in his great future history saga The Man Who Awoke. As a major theme highlighted in the previous volume, the future evolution of humans has been a long-standing area of fascination and speculation within the history of science fiction. Wells was very concerned with this issue, but so were Beresford, Bulwer-Lytton, C. Fowler Wright, and many other early writers. In the 1930s science fiction continues to explore this deeply important topic. How will we evolve? Will we evolve, or will we devolve? Perhaps reaching its apex of creative, mind-expanding conjecture in Stapledon’s Last and First Men, other provocative stories of the 1930s on this theme discussed in this volume are Stapledon’s Odd John, Schachner’s Ecco Homo, Stone’s Men with Wings and Women with Wings, Ellis’ Creatures of the Light, and Hamilton’s The Man Who Evolved.

As a connected theme examined in this volume, with many new envisioned aliens and alien encounters, stories describing outer space battles and deep space adventures grew in frequency and popularity in the 1930s. Involving outer space settings and often alien encounters, the space opera was one influential narrative form that blossomed forth in prominence in the 1930s. The space opera, defined as grand super-science...colorful action-adventure stories of interplanetary or interstellar conflict...[often with] a romantic element, was principally created and developed in Doc Smith’s Skylark and Chronicles of the Lensmen series; Edmund Hamilton’s Interstellar Patrol stories; John Campbell’s Space Trilogy and The Mightiest Machine; and Jack Williamson’s The Legion of Space (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). All these stories include big, if not gargantuan spaceships, colossal outer space battles, and aliens galore, fighting with us or against us.

Other important themes and dimensions of science fiction in the 1930s that are highlighted in volume three, include:

• The artistic, literary, and lyrical qualities of science fiction flourish and further evolve in the writings of Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Stapledon, among others.

• New cataclysmic worldwide catastrophes are envisioned, such as in Wylie and Balmer’s When Worlds Collide and Čapek’s darkly hilarious The War with the Newts and The Absolute at Large.

• Dystopias and utopias continue to be written, such as The Man Who Awoke and Schachner’s The Revolt of the Scientists and Sterile Planet.

• More robot tales are authored, by John Campbell, Edmond Hamilton, and others.

• New women science fiction writers come on the scene in the 1930s, such as Leslie Francis Stone and Sophie Ellis.

• Following the The Man from the Atom and The Girl in the Golden Atom in the 1920s, further stories appear of humans growing and shrinking in size, such as the fantastical cosmic adventures He Who Shrank and Colossus.

• Great new time travel stories are created, such as Williamson’s The Legion of Time, Taine’s The Time Stream, and Campbell’s Twilight and Night.

• A number of stupendous flights of imagination are produced, transcending all simple categorial boundaries, such as Stapledon’s Star Maker, Schachner’s The Living Equation, and Lovecraft’s The Shadow Out of Time and At the Mountains of Madness.

A dimension of the science fiction experience in the 1930s, especially worth emphasizing, is the ongoing further evolution of imagery and visualization and multi-media effects in the genre. The last volume concluded with a review of the cinematic spectacle of Metropolis and other famous science fiction silent movies, such as Aelita and Woman in the Moon. In the 1930s sound is added to the movie experience, and numerous science fiction, fantasy, and horror movies, such as Frankenstein, King Kong, Dracula, The Bride of Frankenstein, and The Invisible Man emerge as big box-office hits. Such movies, using a variety of special effects and atmospheric Gothic settings, frequently highlighted terrifying and dark mysterious scenes and characters, and powerfully brought science fiction and fantastical scenarios into pop culture and mass consciousness. The radio contributed into this sensory-perceptual intensification of science fiction awareness with the production of Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds. With its terrifying monster, chilling settings, and eerie sounds and music, The Thing from Another World can be seen as a direct evolution of the original horror spectacle movies of the 1930s.

Moreover, as another expression of visual imagery and multi-media creations within science fiction, comics and radio adaptations of its characters would increase in popularity in the late 1930s and especially the 1940s. Aside from science fiction art and science fiction movies in the 1920s, the other important pathway of science fiction visualization described at the end of volume two was science fiction comics, in particular Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon—two important early anticipations of the science fiction super-hero. In beginning volume three, comics and the super-hero are the focus, for in 1938 Superman would appear, the greatest comic super-hero, and one of the most influential creations of science fiction. Superman would evolve into an immensely popular multi-media experience in the decades ahead and is the archetype for all super-heroes to follow in the comics and the movies up through the present time. The character is an idealization of physical power and moral uprightness, perhaps the extreme oppositional reflective image of the dark and evil devil-monster of science fiction and horror. Superman, indeed, connects with many themes in science fiction, including visions of highly evolved, advanced aliens or humans, since Superman is in many ways, both in body and mind, an ideal human (yet alien) figure. Superman would become an immensely popular icon, presented in multi-media form, of the ideal highly advanced and powerful individual—one in particular that males have identified with throughout the decades of the twentieth century.

One of the most popular science fiction writers of the 1920s and 1930s, Edmond Hamilton is primarily remembered for his numerous action-packed, super-science space operas, often involving the destruction of planets, moons, suns, and other giant astronomic bodies. Hamilton though was also fascinated with the theme of evolution and in the same period that he was creating space operas he wrote a number of stories speculating on the process and potential future consequences of evolution, such as Evolution Island, The Man Who Evolved, and Devolution.

The general concept of evolution has been applied to all spheres of existence, from life and mind to society and technology, as well as the cosmos as a whole (Lombardo, 2002, 2017). Evolution is a central theme and a key theoretical idea for understanding science fiction and what informs and inspires it (Lombardo, 2018). Science fiction is evolutionary mythology. In volume two, the theory of evolution provided a basic framework for understanding the thinking and writings H. G. Wells, the great architect of modern science fiction. As examined in volume three, Doc Smith and John Campbell both deeply delve into the future evolution of technology (including robots) and the theme of purposeful evolution.

All in all, within the developmental history of science fiction, evolution has provided a fundamental mindset that encompasses and integrates the future of humans and human society; the diverse possibilities of alien life forms and civilizations; the developmental journey of consciousness, mind, and intelligence; the potential wonders of science and technology; space adventures and exploration; and the awe-inspiring and magnificent saga of the universe, past and future. In this regard, all the thematic streams of narrative speculation covered throughout this series on science fiction could be seen through the eyes of evolution.

The final chapters in this volume focus on how Olaf Stapledon, applying an evolutionary theory of reality and ethics, creates a vision of the future of humanity in Odd John and Last and First Men, and in Star Maker constructs a cosmic vision of alien minds and civilizations, technology and galactic engineering, and the fate of the universe and beyond. In the concluding summary at the end of the book, the whole period of science fiction from Wells to Stapledon is interpreted through the eyes of evolution.

The scientists in The Thing from Another World are willing to sacrifice their lives to the alien. Some of them, especially the lead scientist, admire the alien, since they view it as more evolved and superior to humans. As the lead scientist states, the alien—a super-intelligent animate plant that has created a spaceship capable of traveling among the stars—does not suffer from the perturbations of human emotion and reproduces without the topsy-turvy turbulence of sexual passion. It is coldly rational and efficient, the result of an evolutionary pathway transcending humankind. Yet the staff and the military on the base outfox the alien in a deadly contest of survival of the fittest, luring him into an electrified grid. Who then is the more intelligent and cunning, the humans or the alien? At the end of the movie, a newsman, who had been visiting the outpost and witnessed the whole terrifying encounter with the alien, warns on the radio microphone—now finally working since the blizzard has passed—to Watch the skies! Who knows who or what will come down upon us out of the heavens above, intent to conquer and destroy us. Although reviews of the movie frequently stated that The Thing from Another World was an symbolic expression of the heightened fear of a Communist attack on the USA during the 1950s, this ending sounds very similar to the final words in Wells’ The War of the Worlds, published in 1898 (Lombardo, 2018). Indeed, as voiced in this warning in the movie, it is paranoia over the unknown and transcendent, rather than awe and wonder that rules human consciousness, which is also the key psychological dimension of the human mind explored in John Campbell’s original novella published in 1938.

*     *     *

A note on my title Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future:

In volume one (Lombardo, 2018) I explained my central thesis that science fiction is mythic in form and purpose, and presents contemporary myths about the future for the future. Moreover, science fiction is evolutionary in several respects: It builds upon an ever-growing heritage of ideas and themes; it is inspired and informed by the scientific theory of cosmic evolution; and it facilitates and guides the ongoing evolution of humanity and in particular the human mind and our consciousness of the future (what I refer to as future consciousness).

Although informed by contemporary science, technology, and philosophical thought, science fiction emerged from ancient mythology with its fantastic narratives of extraordinary journeys, wondrous and bedazzling sights, and exploits of deities and supernatural beings. It shares with ancient myth a whole set of similar qualities, including: a big picture framework for understanding human life within the universe; a narrative and personally engaging literary form; amazing and astounding stories that provoke awe and wonder; rituals and social-ethical norms regarding how to live and experience reality; and visions and icons of the astonishing, fantastical, and transcendent. See Lombardo, 2018, Chapter 2 for a more detailed and comprehensive comparison of science fiction and myth.

In this present volume I continue to develop these central themes, providing many more illustrations and further thoughts on the evolutionary mythology of science fiction. As with ancient myth, science fiction both reflects and influences human society and human thought, and in this volume I repeatedly examine the connections between the evolution of science fiction and the evolution of human consciousness and human reality. Science fiction provides an ever-growing possibility space in which to mentally explore the ramifications of potential future developments in human existence and guide and inspire us along pathways of promise and hope and warn us of pathways of decline and destruction. Science fiction is about the future of everything and not simply science and technology, and in this regard it has imaginative and practical relevance to all spheres of human life and the future—even if the story deals with aliens. Science fiction, in fact, goes beyond the future into alternative (or alternate) realities and universes, further enlarging and informing the possibility space of the human mind.

*     *     *

A note on the Reference Bibliography:

I have included full citations in the bibliography for non-fictional sources cited in the text, as well as citations for anthologies referenced in this volume. I have not included citations for individual science fiction stories or novels, since there are usually numerous publishers for such works. Most novels can be ordered in local bookstores or online book sellars, and many shorter works cited can be found in short story collections for respective authors. The reader should consult the continually updated online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction for the various publication sources for novels and short stories. The Encyclopedia is one of the best sources of information on science fiction. I do though include lists in the text of important fictional and non-fictional works with publication dates for each author covered in the text in any depth. The reader can also find an extended Science Fiction Resource Bibliography in volume one (Lombardo, 2018), which identifies a broad sampling of text-based and web-based writings and resources about science fiction.

CHAPTER 1

Super-Heroes and the

Multi-Media Experience

The Evolution of Super-Heroes

"Faster than a speeding bullet. More

powerful than a locomotive.

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman!

Yes, it’s superman, strange visitor from another planet

who came to earth with powers and abilities far beyond

those of mortal men. Superman, who can change the

course of mighty rivers, bend steel in his bare hands. And

who, disguised as Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter

for a great metropolitan newspaper, fights a never ending

battle for truth, justice and the American way."

The Adventures of Superman

Following on the heals of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, in the 1930s numerous new fictional heroic characters would emerge in the comics, as well as on the radio and in the movies. These characters would contribute into the creative evolution of the science fiction comic super-hero. Three of the most popular of such 1930s characters were the Shadow, the Phantom, and Doc Savage.

The Shadow debuted on the radio in 1930 on the Detective Story Hour. This mysterious crime fighter, who masks the bottom half of his face to hide his true identity, seems to possess certain psychic powers, both influencing and reading the minds of others. Through all the various media in which the Shadow appeared, there was always a dark and spooky quality to the stories, bringing an eire and anxiety producing atmosphere to the tales, as well as the character himself. Although not quite horror or supernatural stories, the tales played on similar emotions and apprehensions; there is evil and danger out there in the night. As the famous opening lines go, Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows! The Shadow magazine ran from 1931 to 1949; The Shadow radio show began in 1937. Movies about the Shadow first came on the cinematic scene in 1937, and a movie serial was produced in 1940. The Shadow moved into the comic strip and comic books arenas in 1940 and 1949 respectively. Various qualities associated with the Shadow served as an inspiration for Batman.

A second character, who also possessed a mysterious nature and was a crime fighter against evil in the world, the immensely popular The Phantom first appeared as a comic strip hero in 1936. Peter Falk was inspired by various mythic figures in his creation of the Phantom, who was the first heroic modern comic figure to wear full body tights (influenced by the popularized image of Robin Hood and becoming a common garb in later comic super-heroes). With his black eye-mask and purple and black outfit, the Phantom looks very similar in appearance to Batman. Although not possessing super-human powers, the Phantom was amazingly strong and agile, and once again, a character of great courage, with a tenacious determination to fight evil and crime in the world.

Doc Savage, the man of bronze, the third of popular heroic characters in the 1930s, first debuted in pulp magazines in 1933, and ran through 1949. After his initial appearance in pulp magazines, he would appear on the radio and on TV, and in comic books and the cinema. A huge number of adventure novels were also written over the decades with him as the central character. Again, although not possessing super-powers, he epitomized a host of human ideals, and was described as a perfect human, both mentally and physically. He was raised and educated to achieve the pinnacle of excellence along various lines, such as physical strength, intelligence, photographic memory, moral goodness, and martial arts fighting abilities. A master of scientific knowledge, he was also an inventor, associated with a variety of technological gadgets that did not (and still do not) presently exist, among them being a number of new weapons and types of bullets.

With Doc Savage, and the Shadow and the Phantom, we find male figures who seem to reach the highest possible human levels of strength, agility, and fighting abilities combined with equally perfected levels of moral character and intelligence. All these characters are dedicated to defeating evil criminal forces across the globe. In the archetypal war of good versus evil, the latter may be ruthless and cunning, but the good emerges as more powerful and worthy of our highest admiration and esteem. In all of these personal qualities and strengths we are approximating to the idealistic image of Superman, and Doc Savage has been identified as one of the several possible inspirations for the creation of Superman in the 1930s.

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"What would you do if you were the strongest man in the world,

the strongest thing in the world, mightier than the machine?"

Philip Wylie

As an interlude before describing the further evolution of comics in the 1930s, and in particular Superman, one significant and relevant science fiction novel of that decade should be described. This novel, Gladiator (1930) by Philip Wylie, has been frequently identified as influencing the creation of Superman (Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). The central character of the novel, Hugo Danner, a person of scientifically-enhanced superhuman strength and speed, presumably served as a key model for the character of Superman. There is some dispute over whether Superman actually was inspired by Gladiator (Feeley, G. 2005), but here’s the story, both the fictional novel—an engaging and memorable tale in its own right—and some of the historical facts and considerations regarding the possible connection between Gladiator and Superman.

Gladiator begins in a comical fashion, describing a mild-mannered and reclusive biology professor who is married to a stern, uptight, and religiously conservative woman. As a basic routine in his life, the professor habitually hides away in his laboratory conducting secret experiments, and the wife worries and repeatedly warns her husband that he is engaging in the devil’s work in his scientific research. Indeed, the professor in his clandestine experiments has created a chemical substance which tremendously enhances the strength, speed, and agility of animals, and he has tested out the potion on a tadpole and a kitten, the latter who he named Samson, having attacked and killed a full size cow. Informed that his wife is with child, he surreptitiously drugs her and injects her with the chemical. She gives birth to a rather big baby boy, who is notably very firm and muscularly solid for a newborn infant. It soon becomes apparent to the wife that baby Hugo is abnormally strong, and she realizes that while she was pregnant her husband injected her with his super-drug. She is somewhat forgiving though of her husband, and commits herself to being a responsible and caring mother in raising Hugo in spite of his unusual physical abilities. Early on, Hugo is kept in a steel cage and hidden away from nosey inquisitive neighbors.

In Hugo’s childhood he is taught morals, ethical character, and principles of good conduct, especially regarding restraining himself from hurting others. Both Hugo and his parents attempt to hide or deny Hugo’s immense strength in the face of neighbors, but Hugo is not entirely successful in this regard and the townsfolk and local children come to believe that Hugo is dangerous and unnatural. Ironically, whenever Hugo exhibits his incredible physical strength, even if it is to do something helpful or constructive, there are often negative consequences. People feel threatened by him and fear him. As a result, Hugo in his early childhood is socially ostracized for his abnormal strength and inexplicable physical abilities. As a narrative theme frequently included in science fiction, that which is more advanced, even if in a positive way, is seen as a dangerous threat by normal human beings.

Hugo does not discover how truly amazingly strong he is until as an older child he decides to test himself, pushing his physical abilities to the limit out in the forest with no one around watching him. In a great epiphany, he realizes that he is a man made out of iron and probably the strongest and fastest human in the world. Talking to his father about his great powers, his father explains how Hugo came to be the way he is and assures him that he will find in his life a special purpose in which his great talents will be utilized to the fullest. As a teenager Hugo does well in school; he is bright as well as strong. Further, he is eventually accepted by his school mates. He matures into a very good looking, muscular young man, and discovers that he possesses a very powerful libido to go along with his great physical energy and prowess, having his first of many intense, although always short-lived, sexual affairs. (Contrary to the prudish image of Superman, Hugo is hyper-sexed.)

Sadly, the story of Hugo’s adult life is a series of frustrations. He doggedly keeps searching for that special grand purpose to match his incredible powers and repeatedly fails at finding this elusive and unique meaning for his life. And he also continues to have repeated experiences of his powers generating bad effects, due to either his own mistakes, or due to the failings and flaws of other humans. He becomes a great football star in college, but then in a moment of thoughtlessness overpowers and kills an opponent player and runs away, leaving college in shame. In a rather degrading use of his immense strength, he earns money as a strongman on Coney Island and has numerous sexual encounters there. He develops into a highly skilled lover. (The Avon book cover of the novel published in 1949 shows a bare chested Hugo surrounded by young women with the provocative and misleading caption the lusty life of an uninhibited superman.) He works as a fisherman, saving people’s lives, at times by wrestling with and killing attacking sharks; he breaks their jaws with his bare hands. He amasses a financial fortune, diving for pearls; his capacity to hold his breath underwater is mind-boggling. When World War I breaks out, he joins the French Foreign Legion, believing that he will find his unique purpose by becoming a great, invincible warrior. He does, in fact, become legionary, fighting for both the French and the Americans. In this gory and violent part of the book dealing with Hugo’s time in the war, he seems to kill hundreds, if not thousands of Germans. He discovers that bullets do not penetrate his skin and at one point, in a state of frenzied madness, charges a machine gun that is firing straight at him but to no effect, killing all the German soldiers operating the gun. Ruminating on the war and his impotence in putting an end to the great carnage, he decides that he is going to single-handedly infiltrate the German line and slaughter the entire German high command, hopefully bringing an end to the war, but the day he is ready to set out on his one-man assault the Armistice is signed.

After the war, he receives a million dollars from investments made on the money he earned pearl diving, but he sends the entire fortune to his parents. He works in a steel mill, but is fired because he is too efficient and productive. He works in a bank, but he is imprisoned because he breaks into a safe to save a trapped man’s life and won’t tell the bank president how he opened the safe, lest he reveal his unique abilities. He works on a farm, has a sexual affair with the farmer’s wife, kills a charging bull by punching it in the head to protect him and the wife, and consequently spooks and frightens the wife with his incredible power. Hugo leaves the farm, once again alone in search of his life’s meaning.

He journeys back home to see his father on his death bed, and lies to his father, telling him that he has found his life purpose—explaining that he was instrumental in ending the war—and his father bequeathes to him his money and his scientific notebooks containing the chemical formula for making more humans like Hugo. Feeling ashamed again and unfulfilled, Hugo journeys to Washington, DC to effect positive change in the country through strong-armed political measures, but fails again.

Desiring to achieve, to excel, to offer to humanity some special gift, Hugo recurrently expresses a sense of carrying the pain of the world (Weltschmerz) within his heart and psyche. With no close friends, he loathes the world and finds that he has been unable to change it for the better with his great powers, so he retreats again, leaving the world and journeying to the Central American jungle, a volunteer member of a scientific expedition. The lead scientist of the expedition befriends him and Hugo tells the scientist his life story. The scientist tells Hugo that his purpose—what he should do—is to create more of his kind, using his father’s formula. Hugo should start a new race of humans, a superior race that eventually will take the place of present humanity in dominion over the world. Inspired and determined, during a thunderous jungle storm Hugo climbs to a mountain top carrying his father’s scientific notebooks and calls out to God, in a sense challenging the heavens. Hugo exclaims his intent to create a race of super-humans, and at that moment lightning strikes from above, incinerating the notebooks and killing Hugo. A novel that begins in a light comedic air ends in cosmic tragedy and death.

Is it humanity that has failed, unable to appreciate its own transcendent evolution through the personhood of Hugo? Is it Hugo who has failed, always running away from defeat and frustration? But what is the point of God (or the Heavens, Fate, or Destiny) destroying Hugo as he expresses his will to power? Does God feel threatened by Hugo? Is Hugo punished for attempting to play God, or challenge God? Hugo is a likable, realistic, and admirable character. He is indeed moral and heroic in many ways and he engenders sympathy and support from the reader in his ongoing efforts to realize his potential. Is it that life isn’t fair and just? Is that the message of the story?

In the final analysis, I find both Hugo as a character, and Gladiator as a novel, inspiring, provoking a hope that the saga of humanity’s transcendence to a higher level of evolution, with all its moments of faltering, failing, and backsliding, is ongoing and this is just beginning. Gladiator is a lesson in evolution and transcendence, of the superior being attempting to create a new evolutionary pathway and find purpose and meaning in an unfair world that reacts in fear and insecurity to Hugo’s powers. But this is to be expected and one should not give up hope.

Although the story lines are clearly different and the two characters embody at least some different values, there are notable points of similarity between Hugo and Superman. Both are secretively raised by protective parents who teach to their respective sons moral principles, courage, and constraint and control over their super powers. Both characters, in fact, have similar super powers (although Superman was given more and more powers as the comic character evolved over the years): strength, speed, jumping abilities, and a body impervious to bullets. Both characters are told that they have a special purpose in life commensurate with their unique powers. Hugo is a man of iron, whereas Superman is a man of steel. To a great degree both use their powers to help others and to save lives. Feeley (2005) though contends that the two characters have very different motives behind their actions: Superman fighting for truth, justice, and the American way, whereas Hugo is striving, at least to a significant degree, for self-actualization. But contrary to Feeley, both characters are motivated by the good, ready to help others and fight against evil, and Superman isn’t entirely selfless without personal ambition. For Hugo, the aggressive, militant Germans and corrupt American politicians are both evil, and Superman was a moral and cultural response against Nazi Germany. As pointed out in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Jerome Siegel, co-creator of Superman, reviewed Gladiator in the second issue of his fanzine Science Fiction in 1932—the issue immediately preceding the first appearance of Superman in Siegel’s Science Fiction. So Gladiator was fresh on Siegel’s mind when he began to evolve the character of Superman, and Siegel, in fact, acknowledged the influence of Gladiator as he developed Superman (Superman - Wikipedia). The characters and story lines are most clearly different in that Superman is generally a victorious hero in his campaign against evil—although he has setbacks—whereas Hugo is a tragic individual, never able to realize success, at least in his own eyes, and he is struck down by transcendent (or random natural) forces at the end of the story.

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"...leap 1/8 of a mile, hurdle a twenty-story building,

raise tremendous weights, [and] run faster than an

express train...nothing less than a bursting shell could

penetrate his skin...And so begins the adventures of

the most sensational strip character of all time."

Superman, Action Comics No. 1, 1938

The first true comic super-hero, possessing powers that unquestionably transcend human abilities, and probably the greatest of all super-heroes, Superman, in his popular recognizable form—with his blue body tights, red cape, and big bold S printed across his chest—first appeared as a character in comic books in 1938. Due to the great reader response, in 1939 Superman was given his own comic book series, the first comic book character to have his own series.

Superman was the lead cover story of the first issue of Action Comics (published by Detective Comics) in June, 1938, and the first issue of Superman comics (also published by DC) appeared in June, 1939, with the cover line The Complete Story of the Daring Exploits of the One and Only Superman. The story of Superman’s origin and his youth and his alter ego Clark Kent were included in the opening tales of this first issue of Superman comics. By the summer of 1939 he was hailed as the World’s Greatest Adventure Strip Character, and by the early 1940s his comic book series was selling over a million copies a month. Superman would spawn many imitators and descendants, such as Captain Marvel, Superboy, and Supergirl, and with his appearance in the late 1930s, he ushered in the Golden Age of Comics which ran up through the early 1950s (Superman - Wikipedia; Cowsill, Irvine, Manning, McAvennie, and Wallace, 2015).

Superman is one of the most significant and influential creations of the science fiction world. He was imagined and first brought into reality by two devoted science fiction fans, Jerome Siegel (1914-1996), who was a science fiction writer and editor, and cartoonist-artist Joe Shuster (1914-1992).

Superman evolved as a character through a series of stages in the 1930s. He first appeared in story form in 1933 (The Reign of the Super-Man) as a telepathic villain, in the fanzine, Science Fiction #3, edited and published by Siegel. After this first story Siegel decided to re-conceptualize the character as a good guy, modeled in part on the popular movie star Douglas Fairbanks, and Siegel also added at this early stage in development the alter-ego character of Clark Kent. As the vision continued to take shape, Siegel, who was fascinated by mythic characters, infused Superman with extraordinary physical powers associated with mythic figures such as Samson and Hercules. As a force for the good, Superman would fight for social justice and against social tyranny. As noted above, Doc Savage may have also been an inspirational source in the creative process, as well as Gladiator. Siegel also acknowledged the influence of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ character, John Carter, who in the Barsoom novels possessed great leaping powers, and so did Superman from his earliest comic appearances. Hugo from Gladiator had great leaping powers as well. From the years 1933 to 1938, Siegel struggled to find a comics company that would publish Superman, receiving multiple rejections, and consequently there was roughly a five year period during which Superman’s character, history, and his envisioned powers were evolving in the minds of Siegel and Shuster as they searched for a publisher.

The distinctive costume of Superman developed over this time period as well, based in part on science fiction characters such as Flash Gordon and his colorful outfits. At least on some comic covers and in some illustrations Flash Gordon wears a cape, just as Superman would. In part based on circus strong men who wear full body tights, Superman wore tights. The name of the fictitious city in which Clark Kent lives and works, Metropolis, was taken from the