James Gunn

The "yellow" threat     At the University of Kansas we find James Gunn, professor of English, specializing in the teaching of fiction writing and science fiction, and director of the Center for the Study of Science Fiction.     To the question about his view of the conbnection between todays claimed abductions and SF he answers: ­ At the break of the 19th and 20th century many novels about the possibility of the western world would be invaded by oriental hordes, like Mongols, circulated. Leading was M.P. Shiels "The Yellow Danger" and Sax Rohmer's "Fu Manchu"-novels. Even writers as Jack London wrote a short novel where the "yellow threat" was warded off with early biological warfare. Invasion by orientals was also the topic of Buck Rogers first novel in 1928.     The menace is getting closer.     During the 30's, mostly in the Astounding Stories-magazine, the writers broadens the hypothesis of how humankind would react when we finally meet/invades by aliens.     To get answers to my thoughts I turned to another expert on the subject - Andy Sawyer at the Science Fiction Foundation Collection, Sydney Jones Library, at the universitetet in Liverpool, England.     He says there are distinct paralells between the Pulp Fiction-novels/illustrations of the 30's and todays abduction-claims. As an example he brings up the June issue of Astounding Stories of 1937, where a very small alien with big head and big extroverted eyes illustrates Oliver Saaris novel "Two Sane Men", which is about how mankind will develop in the future. Another good example is Charles Fort's novels about "mysterious disappearences" with the rhetorical question: Are we proparty? The same ideas were later used by writers as Eric Frank Russel and became astyle of its own. Again, clear and distinct paralells with the abduction-phenomena. Was Fort and Saari also a repressed abductees? ­ It seems clear to me that many images of aliens claimed by "abductees" in the past few decades are very similar to pictures of aliens drawn by pulp magazines artists in the 30s or before. I would guess that, in turn, the reason for these images comes partly from folklore: eg, the commonly-imagined pictures of goblins and fairies (who often "abduct" people) and partly from early descriptions of aliens such as that in stories like H.G. Wells's "The First Men In the Moon", says Andy Sawyer.     Quote from H.G. Wells "The First Men in the Moon" (1901), chapter 12, entitled "The selenite's face": "It seemed as though it wasn't a face, as though it must needs be a mask, a horror a deformity, that would presently be disavowed or explained. There was no nose, and the thing had dull bulging eyes at the side - in the silhouette I had supposed they were ears . . . I have tried to draw one of these heads but I cannot. There was a mouth, downwardly curved, like a human mouth in a face that stares ferociously."

Aldous Huxleys book "Brave New World" from 1932.

John W. Campbell Jr. and Robert A. Heinlein     The number of good SF-novels from the 30's with the subject of life in the universe and our part in the communion is big. Like in Olaf Stapledon's triology "Last and First Men" (1930), "Last Men in London" (1932) and "The Star Maker" (1937), where he lays a picture of the universe and its whole history, along with the powerful creature that has spread life throughout the universe, and the intelligent lifeforms that lives around the suns of the universe. Stapledons description of the utter being ,"the Starmaker", is shaped as a huge ball of fire which are the being that are the origin to the never ending creation of lifeforms in time and space. Other classics are Aldous Huxleys "Brave New World" and C.S. Lewis triology "Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra" and "That Hideous Strength" between 1938-1945.

Arthur C. Clark's book "Childhood's End" from 1953.

But while SF in the early and mid-30's was about the infinite time and space all that changed around 1937 as John W Campbell Jr. took the seat as editor of Astounding Stories, which had grown to be the biggest and most popular SF-magazine at the time. Campbell who himself was a writer (remember his alias Don A. Stuart) exchanged the old group of writers to a younger group that was easier to influence as he himself often layed out the guidelines of the stories.      During the next 10 years Campbell brought forward the founders of todays SF-writers: Isaac Asimov, A.E. Vogt, Eric Frank Russell, Fritz Lieber etc.     Of this group Robert A Heinlein stood out as one of the most talented and his way of writing about the near future was new to the field. Heinlein didn't describe his inventions and adventures in a vacuum, as previous writers, but placed them in a social relation that seemed probable and still do. His utopia of a future dictatureship by religious fanatics in the US in "If This Goes On" (1940) and how it would come to is a good example. Heinlein described futuristic, probable structures of sociaties in "Beyond This Horizon" (1942) and closed communities aboard spaceships travelling through space with generations living and dying in "Universe" and "Common Sense" (1942). This more "earthly" approach got the rest of the SF-field to change course. One of the writers that kept to this approach is the nowdays famous TV-star in the paranormal field - Arthur C. Clark.    Another interesting story is about the SF-writer A.E. Vogt that "moved" into the Scientology world around 1950 and joined another SF-writer - Ron L. Hubbard, founder of the "church"of Scientology.     Richard S. Shaver aka. Raymond A. Palmer     Up till 1945 the fans of SF had been standing still, when it comes to numbers of readers. But in 1945 the editor-seat of the Amazing-magazine was taken over by Raymond A. Palmer, a writer himself which wrote using the alias Richard S. Shaver.     What was it then that made the edition run skyhigh? Well, Palmer (aka Shaver) claimed that the stories about travels to Atlantis and Lemuria was true!!!     How did Palmer present his alias, Shaver, then? Richard S. Shaver: "A welder from Pennsylvania who claimed to have met a race of underground creatures called Deroe's (in Swedish). According to Shavers stories were the Deroe's survivals of the lost continent of Lemuria and used beams to influence the movements above ground. And according to Shaver it is also the Deroe's that layes behind all catostrophies that has come down on mankind throughout history."

But as the edition of Amazing Stories sold out fast, because of the revelation of the Deroe's, Palmer got a great number of letters from readers that also claimed to have met the Deroe's underground. One "fan" warned Palmer "not to play with fire" and described how he one time had to fight his way out of a cave with the help of machineguns and that he still had scars from the underground-creatures vicious attack...     The atombomb rule politics and during all of this turbulence a man named Kenneth Arnold steps forward on June 24th of 1947 and describes how nine saucers has bounced on the air above Mount Rainier of the state of Washington, US. Now, isn't that something to think about?!                  Don't miss the Science Fiction-gallery!