After watching this week’s lecture on Pulp SF, Hugo Gernsback, E.E. “Doc” Smith, and C.L. Moore, and completing the assigned readings, write at least 250 words summarizing your notes. Focus on what stands out to you, what were some of the important points that I made, what were interesting elements in the readings, connections between the readings and other SF that you know, etc. Remember, the weekly writing assignment is graded on best effort. I would like to know what you find notable about each week’s class. As long as the posts relate to the class and you give me your best, you receive all the credit. Also, this serves as regular writing practice, which has been shown to improve your writing skills by simply doing this kind of work. It will help prepare you for the writing that you will do on your research essay and the final exam.
Also, don’t forget to upload your midterm notebooks. See the week 5 post below with instructions.
This week’s lecture as well as the readings focused on the development of SF through the early 20th century. A highlight and a surprise for me was H.P Lovecraft. Although I do read some and have heard about the weirdness Lovecraft’s works, I have always felt that his books are in a league of their own. I feel like I would not have the investment needed to really appreciate the universe in his works, particularly about all the Lovecraftian deities.
On the side of the readings, when reading “The Skylark of Space” I had this weird feeling that it would contain a lot of tropes we all know from a SF work, which I guess I somewhat got right from the confirmation that a lot of the short stories on the “Amazing Stories” magazine tend to have similar characteristics to them.
On the subject of “Shambleau,” I would say the story felt somewhat, refreshing. Though I would say I did not find it satisfying, I can appreciate it was different in a way by the fact that although the main character is introduced as this very capable, wanted across the galaxy, space cowboy, he ends up powerless against the villain and would have died if his friend had not found him in time. Without knowledge of how long the story was going to be, I was expecting the typical development where they are suddenly chased out of the planet by some unknown organization, and they go on a quest in which we slowly learn who the girl is. Instead, it turns out she is based on Medusa. There was a part that caught my attention, which is the idea that deities from Greek mythology were beings that came from outer space. I had heard about it from somewhere before and there was some explanation to it that I don’t remember. Although the theory is farfetched, I found it a very enjoyable read which I think is one of the most important aspects of fiction.
I found this week lecture very interesting. Professor Ellis walked us through the transaction of Science Fiction from the late 19th century to the early 20th century alongside other sciences, industrial evolution, art, literature and culture. Some of the characters that contributed to this modern transition on their respective fields during this time were Albert Einstein (known for the Theory of Relativity, Mass and Energy Equivalence and some other important studies on physics), Sigmund Freud (known for some psychology theories), Pablo Picasso (one of the greatest painters of modernism and abstract paintings), Franz Kafka, James Joyce, Scot Fitzgerald, Virginia Wolf etc. In the early 20s there was a continuation of SF known as Pulp SF. I also learned eight characteristics of Pulp SF such as: Exciting stories, it is stylistically crude, formulaic, aim to the lowest common denominator of the audience, often drawing on stereotypes, many recycled ideas, BEMs, specific SF themes were developed during that time. The innovator of Pulp SF was Hugo Gernsback.
I enjoyed watching Flash Gordon episode 1 and 2. The people of the earth were facing a strange phenomenon coming from the sky as a threat to destroy the earth. After jumping from the plane with a parachute, Flash Gordon and Dale Arden met Dr. Zarkov and all of them jumped in a rocket ship and found themselves in the planet of Peril. They became prisoners from the army of Emperor Ming, who imprisoned Dr. Zarkov into his laboratory. Emperor Ming wanted to marry Dale, but Flash and Dale both refused. For that reason, Ming ordered his soldiers to throw Flash in the arena and fight three scary creatures who looked more like zombies. Flash was so strong that he won this battle and Ming ordered his soldiers to kill him, but Ming’s daughter Aura saved his life because she liked Flash since the first time that she saw him and wanted to separate him from Dale and marry him. Aura hid Flash Gordon in the rocket ship. Then, Flash had to fight some other ships and he brought down their leader prince Thun, who also was an enemy of Ming. When Flash noticed that, they both decided to fight against Ming’s army. Emperor Ming hypnotized Dale and convinced her to marry him. Flash was determined to interrupt their marriage ceremony and he entered the palace through a secret tunnel with the help of prince Thun.
I loved reading C.L. Moore’s “Shambleau” and E.E. Doc Smith’s The Skylark of Space” and Greensback’s “A New sort of Magazine” because these types of SF stories are the types of entertainment I watch that is mostly incorporated with the occult and speculative fiction. Shambleau reminds me of the CW show called “Supernatural” because of the show’s plot following monster hunters who hunt mystical creatures that have been part of myths, folklore, and fables all through history. Shambleau’s existence being historical and part of the never-ending myths that have follows humans slaying Shambleaus really interested me. I want to also connect Shambleau with The Vampire Diaries. In TVD, vampirism came about through chants and spells but they transmit their vampirism through biology, where a human needs vampire blood in their system to heal from injuries, and if they died with the blood in their system, they transition into vampires after they awaken. The Shambleau similarly takes the form of human that those vampires in TVD do, and use their power to suck the force out of men, the same way our classic vampire character lures their victims in. I also found it fascinating how the “AMAZING MAGAZINE” covers the concept of scientifiction, which talks about the legacy of Poe, Verne, and Wells but there are other writers whose series originate from their fascination with those three SF writes and create different types of SF, such as Lovecraft’s “Weird Tales”. In “Skylark of Space” I got a deja vu moment about power puff girls and how they were created from a chemical reaction of sugar, spice and everything nice to Seaton’s solution to finding the atomic energy of copper “X” unknown metal. But I think that the popular television shows and movies that everyone raves about have originated from these SF writers whose stories get recycled and molded into other forms of writing that appeal to new audiences and keep the ideology of the SF themes alive. I always think about how the SF we have today influences the political and cultural atmosphere of our world and that it started with the movement encompassing the freedom of expression and the Scientific Revolution to influence the public at that specific time and help progress history. Another aspect of Shambleau that I’ve noticed is how Northeast Smith is in an Earth colony of Mars, which is something Elon Musk is trying to with the highly expert space exploration that we have today, to the point where an investor plans to colonize Mars. I loved how much the timeline in that time of these SF legends and their writing are continuing in reality today.
In the lecture of week 6, I found it very interesting by the history of pulp science fiction. One thing that really stands out to me the most was author H.P. Lovecraft, I used to read one of his stories Dagon from “Tales of Horror” and that story really give me some mind blowing and creative thoughts. So, this week’s learning a history of him and his idea of writing style is absolutely a pleasure for me. I recall from Dagon that story is actually not just horror, but it contains the element of dark, sinister, and mysterious. The element of this writing it kind of relate to the reading of “Shambleau” by C.L. Moore. In the story of Shambleau is set in Mars and is about a smuggler Northwest Smith encounters by a woman being chasing after by a mob, and Smith decides to protect her, but soon after Smith got attractive into her. Shambleau is not human, and she can bring dangerous among people. Later Smith’s friend Yarol shot and killed Shambleau. The character of Shambleau is based on the Greek mythology Medusa. After reading Shambleau it remains me of a Japanese comic I had read before, the name is Tomie written by Junji Ito. Tomie is a girl’s name, and she has an evil magic power to seduce any man into madness and drive them to murder as well, even though the victim is often Tomie herself. While one lover seeks to keep her for himself, another grows terrified of the immortal succubus. But soon they realize no matter how many times they kill Tomie she cannot die. The writing and illustrations of Tomie it has the elements of horror fictions, and I can see this can be relate it with cosmic horror by Lovecraft.
I accidentally wrote my Weekly Writing Assignment #6 last week. Which I will update. Here it is again:
Hugh Gersnback opens up a new possibility for fiction called “scientifiction”. He writes “Our entire mode of living has changed with the present progress, and it is little wonder, therefore, that many fantastic situations–impossible 100 years ago–are brought here today.” Gernsback continues to write that “they are also always instructive.” This introduction to issue one of “Amazing Fiction” brings forth the idea of New Age literature. He wants to highlight how this isn’t your everyday romance or comedy: it is something you can learn from and reflect upon. Science fiction is now coined and ready to turn into SF.
“The Skylark of Space” is a Scientifiction about a scientist named Dick Seaton who creates an unknown metal “X” that has a penchant to travel to the moon. After getting accused of taking psychoactive drugs by his chemist colleague, Seaton undergoes a Jimmy Neutron-like brain blast to finally realize exactly what happened: he releases the intra-atomic energy of copper. His villanous boss decides to murder or steal from Seaton so he can use the intra-atomic energy to either create a weapon or a power plant, just to make a few extra dollars. After a long-winded, neanderthal-brain argument between Brookings (Millionaire hitman?) and DeQuense (Seaton’s upper), they conclude with Brookings wanting a piece of X himself. With a Dr. Evil gadget, Dequense calls his henchmen Perkins to steal the substance before Brookings does.This escalates into a spaceship mission to rescue Dorothy, Seaton’s love. Aliens give Seaton a lot of jewels and its happily ever after.
Drawing on edisonian literature, scientificion was a new genre in the days of Amazing Fiction that eventually evolves into one of the largest genres and definitions.
Some things I have noticed is the mention of Modernism. All these renowned authors of Science Fiction have put their own spin onto the Sci-Fi genre. E. E. “doc” Smith was the father of Space Opera. That genre of Science Fiction was not possible without him. He combined the science fictional idea of space and the ideas of opera together into one. Other authors have also modernized the science fiction genre. The three mentioned were Edgar Allan Poe, Jules Verne, and H. G. Wells. Those three were the most influential in Science Fiction writing. Those science fiction stories opened up possibilities for new technologies. It also allowed people to see the negatives and positives of what the new technology can bring about. It raises ethical concerns as well. Like if it is really a good idea to create a time machine and what changing time can do to the present. Another big moral question that was brought up was in Frankenstein. Is trying to bring back the dead, morally right? The whole book demonstrated how that was not a good idea at all through Victor’s process of bringing back life. Skepticism of a new technology is also relevant. E. M. Forester has written a lot of stories that show skepticism of new inventions. In the lecture it was also mentioned that all these Science Fiction stories are always instructive. The reader can understand that the ending of the book is the result of whatever action the character has chosen and is left to deal with that consequence.
After reading this week’s assigned readings and watching lectures, a common theme that Professor Ellis mentions about Pulp SF is that most stories are formulaic (follow a similar plot). This is proven entirely true in this week’s reading assignments of E.E. “Doc” Smith and Lee Hawkings Garby’s “The Skylark of Space,” and C. L. Moore, “Shambleau”. In both stories, we are exposed to foreign planet settings like Mars and then are introduced to alien species. In Shambleau, we are introduced to a woman of an alien species not related to humankind who is being ousted by locals of a Martian town. Likewise, in “The Skylark of Space,” we are introduced to alien species when Dick Seaton arrives on the moon. The megatext of SF is constantly seen in both stories, whether it’s the aerospace technology that is present in the form of spaceships, alien communities or ray guns. While reading both stories, I was reminded of other SF related movies, such as the comedy “Attack From Mars”, where the viewer is exposed to bems ( the martian bug like eyed aliens), megatext like spaceships and ray guns, and themes of galactic empires. A point not related to the novels we read but mentioned in lecture is something I found interesting about the origin of the name Pulp SF. Pulp SF’s name actually comes from the way these novels were printed on cheap paper, from wood pulp. When doing my own research on Pulp SF, I noticed that many of the stories written all followed the theme of out of space travel, alien/ human interactions, and advanced technology. This is something important for us to make note of because these recycled thoughts, themes and ideas is what makes Pulp SF so unique and helps authors build on previous stories without having to explain the complex significance of the context and symbols they are using in the story constantly.
This week we have learned about The Pulp Science Fiction. This class started with information about the early 20th Century that there were many inventions such: in 1903, the Wright brothers achieved the powered flight for first time. Besides, in 1905 Albert Einstein published what must come to be known as “ Miracle Year.” Then, the pulp of S.F was from 1920’s to the 1930’s. Hugo Gernsbach innovated the pulp of S.F and he wrote the first fiction magazine in April 1926 titled “ Amazing Stories.” We also learned the word Scientifiction, which is defines as quote by scientifician Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story. By other side, E.E. Doc Smith is considered the father of space opera. The space opera is a subgenre of the S.F innovated in the pages of guerns back’s amazing stories.
The Episode 1 of Flash Gordon started with the discovery that the professor Gordon with other professor that is coming to the earth a planet that will destroy the earth. After this discovery professor Gordon receives a telegram of his son Flash Gordon who is going to visit him. While F.G was on the airplane start to rain rocks with fire and before the airplane explodes, he jump with a woman with a parachute. Then, they meet a professor that wants to save the earth and travel to the planet that is coming to the earth. F.G and the woman accompanies him. At that planet they meet their habitants and the emperor who has the power of the direction that his planet is taking, and he wants to destroy the earth. F.G fight with them and the emperor sent him to the arena. The emperor daughter got into the arena to protect the life of F.G and accidently they get into a tunnel.
In the second episode of Flash Gordon, the emperor daughter and F.G got out of the tunnel and she hide him in a Rocketship while she speaks with her father and begging him for F.G’s life. Then, F.G see many rocket ships coming to the planet and he defends it but not kill the prince of that other planet becoming both of them friends and going to rescue F.G friends from earth. They finds to the scientist but the earth girl is almost getting married with the emperor and while F.G tries to get to the place where is taking place the marriage he had to fight with many guardians and a big monster.
This week’s lecture was all about the 20th century and how science fiction started, and how it became what it is today. What particularly interested me was the talk about H.P Lovecraft and how he became the father of horror. Especially his works concerning the Cthulhu mythos and weird/cosmic horror in general. Lovecraft is an author that I will spend some time to learn more about as he is related to the topic that I chose for my Research paper.
As for the readings, I really enjoyed reading a magazine that is almost 100 years old. The Skylark of Space isn’t that special of a story but considering it was one of the first Space Travel stories to come out it becomes a lot more interesting to read. Some of the most popular space related movies/series of today were probably inspired by it. Some examples include Star Trek and Star Wars both of which are about adventures in space. Another example that shows how popular space travel is, is the game No Man’s Sky which was literally anticipated by the gamers on the whole world, simply because it promised freedom in space travelling. Shambleau is similar in the sense that the story also takes place in space but instead of focusing on adventures and travelling, it focuses more on action and monsters, and particularly the Shambleau. This weird creature apparently looks like an attractive woman but instead is a deadly creature that will suck the life out of you, if you get charmed by it, by using it’s worm like hair. The creature is eventually killed by a friend of the main character, using a mirror to shoot it. Shambleau was interesting to say the least. It is pretty obvious that this story was inspired by the Medusa from Greek mythology. I read all kinds of Greek Myths when I was a kid, and this is the first time I read a story that takes one of those Myths and adds a weird, futuristic, space twist into it.
This week’s lecture was about Pulp SF and some of the major things that happen in the 20th century like the Wright Brothers being the first to fly a motor-operated airplane. Albert Einstein published his miracle year papers. Writing about photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, mass and energy, and theory of relativity about the relationship of time and space. Professor talks about modernism. The biggest cultural development during the 20th century. Modernism is a movement encompassing art, literature, music, architecture and philosophy. Then in the lecture we learned about Pulp SF and the history of pulp science fiction. One thing I learned is that pulp SF is named pulp because it was written on pulp paper. And that pulp paper is coarse, very absorbent, acidic and thick. The pulp SF era was between 1920’s to 30’s. Hugo Gernsbach is credited as the innovator of pulp SF and giving science fiction as a label.
“The Skylark of Space” is about protagonist Dick Seaton, who discovers space travel by combining copper with element “X”. This novel is the first example of space opera. E. E. “Doc” Smith is known as the father of space opera. Another notable writer of space opera is Edmund Hamilton. In “Shambleau” a smuggler Northwest Smith, who finds a woman being chased by a mob. Smith decides to protect her and becomes attractive to her. Without noticing the name Shambleau, Smith then noticed that she is not human and felt responsible to her.
In the beginning of the lecture some things that stood out to me or the early 20th century developments that were happening in real life. The 20th century saw the invention of many things and the perfecting of those previously created. As always, modern science saw a multitude of developments since science is a field that is constantly evolving. For instance Albert Einstein published four papers in a scientific Journal that left a massive impact on the studied science at the time and anything that came after . In the psychological and sociological department Sigmund Freud published work that influenced the field for decades to come. There was also movement from an industrial standpoint such as the assembly line which would no doubt change the american workforce forever. This weeks lecture also focused primarily on what pulp SF is and who were some of the pioneers in this field. Pulp science fiction is a name designated for an era of literature where works of science fiction were printed in magazines dedicated to the genre between the 1920s and the 1930s. The name itself came from the the type of paper the stories were printed on, called pulp. The man credited with innovating pulp SF is Hugo Gernsback. His work was seen in this week’s reading “A New Kind of Magazine” from Amazing Stories which intends to persuade readers to buy that magazine over the others. It included a definition of scientifiction and how the content of Amazing Stories would not be found anywhere else. Some of the other writers included HG wells, Jules Verne and Edgar Allan Poe.
Scientifiction is defined in the article “A New Sort of Magazine” as “a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision”.
Reading The Skylark of Space makes me think about Elon Musk’s SpaceX program. In the end of Part 1, Seaton plans their first trip to Mars after they complete the space travel machine, and Elon Musk wants to send colonists to Mars. Both have noble ideas that will steer the future of humanity to a completely new path that has yet to be accomplished. I admire their aspiration and ambition.
“Shambleau” is a strange yet very intriguing story. It takes place in Mars, which gives me the impression of a futuristic SF story. Smith and his friend Yarol’s encounter with the strange being, Shambleau, reminds me of Medusa from Greek mythology. I actually thought that the story is more like a fantasy than a SF, but the Mars setting surely brings me into the realm of SF.
I learned eight characteristics of pulp SF in our class. They are (1) exciting story with full of actions, romance, heroism, personal success, exotic setting, fantastic adventures, and usually a happy ending; they are also (2) stylistically crude and (3) formulaic, which means that it follows a certain pattern; moreover, they are (4) written for less educated audience, and (5) they have little emphasis on character, and, disappointingly, they are often drawing on stereotypes; (6) many recycles ideas; (7) BEMS. (8) Specific SF themes were developed during this time.
This week’s lectures started off with the late 19th century to the early 20th century informing us about the start of many inventions, scientists, and the way science fiction evolved to what it is today. We began with the Wright brothers who achieved the powered flight for the first time in 1903. Albert Einstein published in the Scientific Journal Annals of Physics in 1905 his paper called “Miracle year” earning him Nobel prizes. He also published “The general theory of relativity” which unifies time and space into 4 dimensional. The establishment of quantum mechanics with Mac Planck’s quantum hypothesis. Which came about New Science which was coined by a group of physicists at the University of Gottingen. We also were informed about Sigmund Freud who was known for his psychology theories in the late 1880s, Pablo Picasso who was from Guemica and was the greatest painter during modernism which was one of the biggest cultural development and poet Ezra who was part of the era of modernism that brought the idea of new thinking and new social relationships. What was most interesting was how science fiction came to its own and Pulp SF Era came along during the 1920s to 1930s. The name came from the type of magazines and how these magazines were made. Pulp paper was course, very absorbent, acidic, thick, and cheap but its advantages were that it feature brightly covered covers that draw lots of audience attention. I also learned eight characteristics of Pulp SF which are 1: exciting stories filled with action, romance, and so much more. 2: it’s stylistically crude. 3: typically formula, which means there’s always a pattern within the stories. 4: written for a less educated audience. 5: Little emphasis on character and often drawing in stereotypes. 6: recycled ideas. 7: BEMS that stands for Bug-eyed monsters. Last 8: SF theses were developed during this time like galactic empires, heroes, sex, space opera, and optimism. This brings us to the inventor of pulp SF Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967). In this week’s reading, we read the beginning of his first SF magazine in 1926 called “Amazing Stories”. Volume 1 “ A New Kind of Magazine” defines what Sicentification is a word Gernsback created. It is defined as “charming romance intermingled with scientific facts and prophetic vision”. We also talked about our other readings “the skylark of space” by Edward Elmar Smith and Weird Tales called “Shanbleau” by C.L Moore and how they fall into the categories of science opera.
In the week 6 lecture we discuss 20th century SF writers and important terms such as Scientifiction. Scientifiction refers to prophetic vision of technology and charming romance. These types of stories could be associated with writings from well-known writers such as Jules Vern and Edgar Allan Poe. Scientifiction is 75% literature and 25% science. One sub-genre of SF is Pulp SF which consist of exciting stories of heroism and happy endings, recycled ideas and little emphasis on individual characters. This sub-genre paved the way for many SF themes still used today such as galactic empires and themes of a hero vs a Villan or good vs evil. Another sub genre we discussed in week 6 was Space opera. Space operas contain adventures set far away from earth in different solar systems or even galaxies (an example of this would be Star Wars.) Edwar Hamiliton was well known for his space operas such as “Thundering worlds.” In this writing people use rockets to move earth to search the galaxy for another star to orbit around before the sun is gone. Weird fiction is another sub-genre that contains fantasy and supernatural fiction. Weird fiction was Created by well-known H.P Lovecraft (1890-1937.) This is not to be confused with Cosmic Horror in which there are other dimensions parallel to ours. These also contain Invasion by aliens as everything outside of our solar system seeks to harm humanity.
This week’s lecture on pulp fiction and the authors of this time period from roughly the 1920’s -1930’s. Pulp science fiction have 8 characteristics which are exciting stories with a happy ending, stylistically crude, they follow a certain pattern, written for the less educated, playing on stereotype, reused ideas, specific things sex and bug eyed monsters. The name pulp science fiction came from the type of paper that the magazines would be printed on that were made from wood pulp. Hugo Gernsback from Luxenberg was the innovator of pulp science fiction. Gernsback moved to New York City where he launched a magazine called Modern Electronics and where he published his first novel in 1925 called Ralph 124C 41+, which was composed of a total of 12 parts of the modern electronics magazines written between 1911 and 1912. Hugo deemed science fiction as 75% literature and 25% scientific. The Scienceers was the first fan club of science fiction that had its first convection in 1937 in England and then its first world con in New York City in 1939. Catherine Lucille Moore was a science fiction and fantasy writer who wrote with her first husband Henry Kuttner, Quest of a Starstone. One of Moore’s famous writing was a short story titled “Shambleau” from the Northwest Smith story. Moore also wrote “Jirel of Joiry” a female warrior which was also one of the first female hero’s. Howard Phillip Lovecraft was known for weird or horror fiction who’s famous for his Cthulhu mythos stories. These stores were in other dimensions that involved danger or aliens and showing the universe as a dangerous place.