| Article: 347
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: REPOST: Belated Reviews #20: "Voyages to the Moon"
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: 31 Aug 93 11:39:45 GMT
Belated Reviews #20: "Voyages to the Moon"
For #20 I'm going to toss in a joker. "Voyages to the Moon" (****), by
Marjorie Hope Nicolson, is not a book that long-term readers are generally
familiar with and that newer readers typically slide their eyes over in
used bookstores. It's relatively hard to find. It's also not fiction.
It's definitely belated, though: This 1948 book is a history of space-travel
fiction (particularly, but not exclusively, travels to the moon) before the
nineteenth century. Strongly recommended for readers with an interest in
the subject.
There is a long but sparse history of fictional space travel stretching
back to classical times, and Nicolson does not ignore it. The publication
of Galileo's astronomical discoveries in 1610, however, seized the imagination
of Europe, and turned what had been a trickle of such stories into a flood.
People started thinking of the moon and planets as actual places that might
be visited, that might be inhabited.
"There are but three ways of going thither," said a Herald
in Ben Jonson's 'News from the New World'. "One is
Endymion's way, by rapture in sleep, or a dream. The other
Menippus's way, by wing, which the poet took. The third,
old Empedocles's way; who, when he leapt into Aetna, having
a dry sear body, and light, the smoke took him, and whift
him up into the moon." Jonson harked back to old legend and
tradition, but John Wilkins, who in 1638 published his
'Discovery of a New World in the Moon', looked forwared to
a scientific future much more than back to a literary past.
"There are," he declared, "four several ways whereby this flying
in the air hath been, or may be attempted. Two of them by the
stregth of other things, and two of them by our own strength.
1. By spirits, or angels. 2. By the help of fowls. 3. By wings
fastened immediately to the body. 4. By a flying chariot."
Insofar as serious writers attempt to be in agreement with the best
understanding of their day, it was hardly inconsistent to include spirits
and angels in the list. Indeed, one of the most significant lunar voyages
of this time was Kepler's "Somnium", published posthumously in 1634, in
which the astronomer combines a demon-powered trip to the moon with concerns
about gravity, the availability of air, and extremes of temperature.
Nicolson uses Wilkins's typology to structure her book thematically. After
discussing the supernaturally-powered voyages invented by Kepler and others,
she proceeds to cover the topic (too frequently neglected by writers of
modern science fiction :) of bird-powered space flight. Among the most
significant of these is Francis Godwin's "Man in the Moone: or A Discourse
of a Voyage Thither by Domingo Gonsales", published shortly after Somnium.
Domingo had no intention of visiting the moon when he trained his swans to
carry him. (Unlike many later fictional inventors who never seemed to allow
for the possibility of failure, Domingo was cautious enough to let a lamb
be the first passenger.) What he didn't realize was that swans fly to the
moon, come fall, to hibernate.
Scientific details play a smaller role in Godwin's tale than in Kepler's.
Like many of his successors, Godwin used the moon primarily as a convenient
place in which to set a Utopia, and much of the book deals with his
description of a society which -- but for certain physical quirks -- might
as well have been located in El Dorado.
Flight by the use of artificial wings attracted the most literary interest
before the nineteenth century, since it appeared at the time to offer the
most realistic prospect for human flight. Most of the tales Nicolson
discusses in this section, while possibly important to the literary tradition,
do not actually involve space flight. She has a great deal of fun describing
Restif de la Bretonne's 1781 "La Cecouverte australe Par un Homme-volant, ou
Le Dedale francais" (call it "The French Daedalus"). This is the tale of
Victorin, who determines to develop usable wings so that he can take his
Christine away from the society which forbids their love. Years -- and
about a third of the novel -- go by while he painstakingly studies birds
and insects, builds models, and finally develops working wings. He locates
an inaccessible mountain, stocks it with the basic necessities (plants,
animals, servants), and finally swoops down and carries Christine off. (He
seems to have neglected to tell her that he was planning to do this, but
fortunately she proves sympathetic. They are married by a priest that he
also had the foresight to fly off with.)
There are many kinds of chariots, or artificial conveyances one might use.
The best remembered of the seventeenth century are those of Cyrano de
Bergerac, whose 1656 "Histoire Comique des Estats et Empires de la Lune"
(published in translation in 1687 as "The Comical History of the States
and Empires of the Worlds of the Moon and Sun") is distinguished by the
author's insistence on travelling by as many different conveyances as
possible. His first attempt involved strapping vials of dew to his body.
Since the sun sucks up the dew in the morning, it stood to reason that
he might be carried with it. This approach actually proved *too* effective
(he broke too many vials in his efforts to keep from overshooting the
moon), and his second attempt involved the use of fireworks to propel the
first fictional rocket ship. His most ambitious vehicle was solar-powered
in a more modern sense, and used a giant magnifying glass to drive an air
stream strong enough to sustain space travel.
The last chapter is devoted to travels by means which Wilkins overlooked.
The most priceless of these is the 1666 "The Description of a New World,
called The Blazing World", by the Duchess of Newcastle. The heroine of
this story is kidnaped and taken to the North Pole where all aboard the
ship freeze to death, "the young Lady onely, by the light of her Beauty,
the heat of her youth, and Protection of the Gods, remaining alive." It
turns out that there is no Northwest passage: The North Pole provides
passage to another world, instead. Our intrepid heroine enters this
world, where she eventually becomes its philosopher-empress. (One gathers
from Nicolson's description that the book, however delightful its premises,
is painful to read beyond this point.)
The influence of the space romances of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries upon modern science fiction is indirect, but profound. Nicolson
shows how the writers whose works most directly affected modern space-travel
fiction -- writers such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells -- were in their turn
influenced by these earlier works. She deplores, however, the often-
ponderous technological orientation that these writers gave the genre.
(This is not to say that the older, non-technological literary traditions
of space flight ever died. We still get John Carter wishing himself to
Mars, Tycho Bass being blown off the planet, Dr. Dolittle riding to the
moon on a butterfly (one of my personal favorites), and no detectable
reduction in the incidence of out-of-body space-travel. And we still get
destination worlds which -- beyond serving as locations for whatever
society the author wishes to espouse -- are a lot more like Kansas than
like Oz.)
I never though much about the pre-industrial contribution to the genre.
I knew that Daedalus flew with wings, that Cyrano used dew, that Gulliver
travelled on a flying island, that Thor and Astolfo drove chariots. If
I'd though about it, which I didn't, I'd have assumed that these classics
had had some influence on science fiction, but wouldn't have realized that
these were the tip of the iceberg. "Voyages to the Moon" is a window upon
an extensive literature which served as a rich source of inspiration for
the authors we consider the "early" writers of science fiction.
%A Nicholson, Marjorie Hope
%T Voyages to the Moon
%I MacMillan
%C New York, NY
%D 1948
%P 297 pages
%O I believe there was a later paperback edition, as well
Standard introduction and disclaimer for Belated Reviews follows.
Belated Reviews cover science fiction and fantasy of earlier decades.
They're for newer readers who have wondered about the older titles on the
shelves, or who are interested in what sf/f was like in its younger days.
The emphasis is on helping interested readers identify books to try first,
not on discussing the books in depth.
A general caveat is in order: Most of the classics of yesteryear have not
aged well. If you didn't encounter them back when, or in your early teens,
they will probably not give you the unforced pleasure they gave their
original audiences. You may find yourself having to make allowances for
writing you consider shallow or politics you consider regressive. When I
name specific titles, I'll often rate them using the following scale:
**** Recommended.
*** An old favorite that hasn't aged well, and wouldn't get a good
reception if it were written today. Enjoyable on its own terms.
** A solid book, worth reading if you like the author's works.
* Nothing special.
Additional disclaimers: Authors are not chosen for review in any particular
order. The reviews don't attempt to be comprehensive. No distinction is
made between books which are still in print and books which are not.
-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com
If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down. It's going to be the
best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills
you! -- Dorothy Parker
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