Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future: Prometheus to the Martians (1) - Hardcover

Lombardo, Thomas

9781785358531: Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future: Prometheus to the Martians (1)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1785358537 ISBN 13: 9781785358531

Verlag: Changemakers Books, 2018

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An evolutionary and transformative journey through the history of science fiction from the innermost passions and dreams of the human spirit to the farthest reaches of the universe, human imagination, and beyond.

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�ber die Autorinnen und Autoren

Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Future Consciousness and The Wisdom Page, the Managing Editor of the online journal Wisdom and the Future, and Professor Emeritus and retired Faculty Chair of Psychology, Philosophy, and the Future at Rio Salado College. He is a Fellow and Executive Board member of the World Futures Studies Federation, as well as a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, the Society of Consciousness Studies, and editorial board member of the Journal of Futures Studies. He has published seven books and over fifty articles and given an equal number of national and international presentations on the future, education and wisdom, human consciousness, and science fiction. He lives in Arizona, USA. Award Winner of World Futures Studies Federation Fellow in 2017.

Tom Lombardo, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Future Consciousness and The Wisdom Page, the Managing Editor of the online journal Wisdom and the Future, and Professor Emeritus and retired Faculty Chair of Psychology, Philosophy, and the Future at Rio Salado College. He is a Fellow and Executive Board member of the World Futures Studies Federation, as well as a member of the Association of Professional Futurists, the Society of Consciousness Studies, and editorial board member of the Journal of Futures Studies. He has published seven books and over fifty articles and given an equal number of national and international presentations on the future, education and wisdom, human consciousness, and science fiction. He lives in Arizona, USA. Award Winner of World Futures Studies Federation Fellow in 2017.

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Science Fiction: The Evolutionary Mythology of the Future

Volume One: Prometheus to the Martians

By Thomas Lombardo

John Hunt Publishing Ltd.

Chapter 1: Introduction to Science Fiction, 
Science Fiction as a Way of Life, 
Science Fiction as Futures Narrative, 
The Future of Everything, 
Cosmic Consciousness, 
The Evolutionary Adventure of Science Fiction, 
Resources on Science Fiction, 
Chapter 2: Mythology and Science Fiction, 
The Mythic, the Fantastic, the Scientific, and the Real, 
The Value of Myth, 
The Mythic Dimensions of Science Fiction, 
Science Fiction versus Myth and Fantasy, 
The Evolutionary Mythology of Science Fiction, 
Chapter 3: Ancient History through the Middle Ages, 
The Apollonian and the Dionysian and Ancient Greek Mythology, 
Greek Science, Technology, and Philosophy, 
Prometheus, Progress, and Self-Determination, 
Lucian's True History, 
The Fantastical and Futuristic, 
The Divine Comedy, 
Medieval Thought and The Garden of Earthly Delights, 
Chapter 4: The Rise of Modernity, 
The Age of Exploration, 
The Scientific Transformation of Nature and the Heavens, 
The Synthetic Genius of Kepler — Journeys to the Moon, 
Utopian Visions and Technological Dreams, 
Chapter 5: The Age of Enlightenment, 
Western Enlightenment and the Theory of Progress, 
Alien Visitations and Extraordinary Adventures, 
Utopian Visions and Futuristic Fiction, 
Chapter 6: Romanticism and the Gothic, 
Romanticism and Romantic Science, 
The Gothic: Horror, Mystery, Madness, and the Supernatural, 
Grainville's The Last Man and Shelley's Frankenstein, 
The Double-Edged Sword of Science Fiction — Hope and Fear, 
Chapter 7: The Mysteries and Romances of Science, 
Futuristic Fiction and The Mummy!, 
Horror, the Gothic, and Science Fiction: Edger Allan Poe, 
The Extraordinary Voyages of Jules Verne, 
Chapter 8: Evolution and Science Fiction, 
The Theory of Evolution, 
Entropy and the Heat Death of the Universe, 
Invasions and War — Evolution and Machines, 
Chapter 9: Utopias, Robots, and Cosmic Journeys, 
The Cosmic and Mystical: Camille Flammarion, 
Visions of Future Utopian Societies: Morris, Bellamy, and Robida, 
Steam Men, Robots, Fiends, and Thomas Edison, 
Chapter 10: Adventures into the Solar System and Encounters with the Martians, 
Across the Zodiac and the Canali of Mars, 
The Great Romance and A Journey in Other Worlds, 
Two Planets and Edison's Conquest of Mars, 
The War of the Worlds, 
Summary and Conclusion, 
Preview of Volume Two, 
Non-Fiction Bibliography,

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Science Fiction

Science Fiction as a Way of Life

Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. H. G. Wells

It is 1953. Six years old, my young mind completely enthralled, I am mesmerized, sitting with my parents and sister in the Alhambra Theater in Waterbury, Connecticut, watching the newly released movie The War of the Worlds. Up on the screen the drama unfolds ...

Fear, if not panic in her eyes, the young woman approaches the priest — her uncle — from behind. She puts her hand gently on his arm; but as they talk her grip becomes ever tighter as her anxiety mounts. She is trying to convince him to return to the safety of the army bunker. But the priest's eyes are fixed, gazing toward the mystery — perhaps the miracle — coming into view across the open field. "If they are more advanced than us, they must be closer to the Creator," he says. (Is this true? Do the potential wonders of science and the faith of religion meet in this insight?) The uncle persuades his frightened niece to go back into the bunker.

The priest walks forward across the charred and smoking field, chanting "Though I walk through the valley of the Shadow of Death ..." An eerie melody — spiritual and unearthly in tone — steadily rises in volume, setting a cosmic ambience to the scene. The priest holds up a small Bible with a bright golden image of the Cross on its cover — the image of his God.

Inside the bunker, the army personnel spot the priest walking across the field. The young woman rushes to the narrow lookout opening and seeing her uncle, screams in terror.

In front of the priest, coming into view are three saucer-shaped machines, each floating high above the ground, steadily moving closer. Presumably the machines are from Mars. Without much evidence to go on, that's what the scientists have said.

The machines are black, their two lateral tips and bulbous tops a glowing emerald green; long, curving necks, suggestive of sauropods or plesiosaurs, snake up out of their bodies. At the end of each is something like a head or an eye that pulses in light and sound. The machines seem like some kind of sentient animals. How very strange these things are.

The leader of the triad descends, lowering its great eye toward the priest, as the beating sound from its menacing presence grows louder. The priest thrusts the Bible with its holy image of the Cross upward. (This is the symbolic face-off between earthly religion and transcendent science and technology, a critical archetypal theme in science fiction. Are science and God one? Or are science and God at odds?) The sound from the Martian machine intensifies, reaching a vibratory climax, and out of the Martian eye blasts a stream of scintillating light rays, totally obliterating and vaporizing the priest.

The surrounding army artillery explodes in a tremendous assault of fire power directed at the Martian machines. Tanks, cannons, rockets, machine guns, bazookas all open fire. The sound is colossal. But the Martian machines are impervious, deflecting the army shells with some kind of protective and invisible force. The machines fire back, rays spewing out from their "heads" and pulses of green light-energy shooting outward from their lateral tips. Tanks, cannons, trucks — all forms of human gunnery vaporize in blinding green flashes, as do the humans, their skeletal outlines momentarily visible in the green ghostly glow.

We are powerless against this level of technology, the scientist in the bunker tells the colonel crouched next to him. We are like children against these things, primitive creatures confronting the unfathomable forces of the universe. The retreat begins — a man bursts into flame; a tank glows and disappears; the colonel is vaporized; everyone runs for the hills; the rout of humanity has begun.

Eventually after the Martians decimate most of human civilization, and even stand imperturbable to a direct hit from a hydrogen bomb, they are defeated by God and bacteria, an ending that, as a six year old, I initially found ingenious. (Although I also felt sad that all the Martians died and their wondrous machines collapsed.) As explained in the movie, bacteria on the earth were created by God; the invading Martians were not immune to our germs; and after a sufficient time, the Martians became infected, grew sick, and died. In the end our faith is vindicated, the priest's life is redeemed, and God in His divine benevolence and...

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