Saturday, September 26, 2020

H.G. Wells' "The First Men In The Moon" (1901)

Three years after The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells published another "space alien-oriented" science fiction novel titled The First Men In the Moon (initially published as a serial in The Strand from December 1900 to August 1901). The First Men In the Moon has several very interesting aspects which differentiate it from Wells' previous science fiction explorations. For one thing, the narrator, Mr. Bedford, is a somewhat unprincipled entrepreneur, whose primary drive for financial gain makes for an interesting contrast with Mr. Cavor's interest in pure scientific advancement. Although The Invisible Man also featured an anti-hero as its main protagonist, that novel was not told from a first person perspective. The aliens which Bedford and Cavor encounter have a fascinating insectoid nature, which was fairly novel at that time. He also suggests the concept of living (organic) computer brains when describing the specially-bred Selenites who function as cultural encyclopedias.

From a practical standpoint, Wells book cleverly describes how an anti-gravity element could be used to navigate through space (through the use of shutters which allow gravity to re-exert its hold in certain desired directions). Various other well thought-out considerations for space travel and for a "first contact" scenario are also explored.

Many of Wells' novels (such as The Time Machine) contain a sociopolitical subtext, and this novel is no exception. The latter half of the novel clearly takes an anti-war/anti-imperialism stance, and criticizes mankind's tendency towards racial conquest.

From a literary viewpoint, it both looks backwards and points the way forwards. Because most of the action takes place miles below the lunar surface, it can be see as a fusion of three separate Jules Verne books: Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), and Around the Moon (1870) (Wells even mentions Verne's work in the novel itself). The Selenites are bred from birth for specific societal functions, a concept which would be further explored in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932). The decidedly un-romantic idea of leveraging travel to the moon for monetary gain would later see one of it's most thorough treatments in Robert A. Heinlein's The Man Who Sold the Moon, half a century later.

Synopsis

Mr. Bedford Meets Mr. Cavor at Lympne: The narrator, Mr. Bedford, moves to the small village of Lympne in order to work on a play with which he hopes to sell and satisfy some outstanding debts. By accident, he runs into a strangely-attired inventor named Cavor, who has been working on a substance (“Cavorite”) which will negate the effects of gravity. When Cavorite is properly treated, its “opacity” to gravitational waves will allow it to become weightless. Bedford convinces Cavor that they must go into business together to market this scientific breakthrough.
The First Making of Cavorite: One day, a “cyclone” erupts over Cavor’s house, causing damage for miles around. It turns out that, due to a boiler accident, Cavor had successfully created a Cavorite shield, which had then forced all of the air above the surface of the shield to funnel out into space. This event could have theoretically drained the entire atmosphere of Earth if allowed to continue indefinitely, but fortunately the shield had also been sucked up in the chaos.
The Building of the Sphere: Cavor comes up with the idea of covering a sphere in Cavorite panels so that they can use it to journey into space and visit the moon. By opening “window blinds” of Cavorite panels, they can use the restored gravitational pull of bodies in space to pull the sphere where they want to go. Bedford is at first skeptical, but then the idea of an interplanetary travel franchise restores his enthusiasm.
Inside the Sphere: After grabbing some last-minute reading material for the journey, Bedford and Cavor seal themselves in the sphere. The Cavorite is “activated” in a final heating stage and the sphere takes off into space. A sense of weightlessness affects everything inside the capsule.
The Journey to the Moon: During the journey, Cavor discusses the possibility of insectoid life on the moon. After a while they fall asleep.
The Landing on the Moon: Cavor uses the shutters to slow the capsule’s descent (using the attraction of the sun), and the sphere eventually lands in the shadow of a crater wall. Inside the sphere, Bedford and Cavor wait for the sun to rise so that it will be warm enough to go outside.
Sunrise on the Moon: As sunlight spreads over the landscape, the material on which the capsule sits (frozen air) begins to evaporate, which sends the sphere tumbling once more. Fortunately, the travelers are only slightly injured due to the lower gravity of the moon.
A Lunar Morning: As the sun continues to rise, Bedford and Cavor marvel as the lunar landscape come to life: seed beds burst and grow at amazing speed, instantly producing a colorful flower bed.
Prospecting Begins: The two men carefully test the atmosphere outside the sphere and discover that breathable air exists on the moon. After a period of leaping amongst the vegetation (with the aid of the low gravity), they realize they have lost sight of the sphere.
Lost Men in the Moon: While searching for the sphere, the men hear a rhythmic booming sound coming from below. They decide to hide from whatever may emerge from below the surface. They soon hear the “bellowing of great beasts”.
The Mooncalf Pastures: Gigantic “mooncalfs” (pale, flabby cattle-like creatures) come into view, herded by armored, insectoid “Selenites”. Terrified, Bedford and Cavor desperately search for the sphere. Eventually succumbing to hunger, they begin eating some lunar mushrooms, which causes them to become intoxicated. Emboldened by the food’s effects, Cavor charges the Selenites but falls unconscious. The two men are captured and brought below.
The Selenite’s Face: The two men awake bound in a chamber and realize that they are a mile underground. Bedford gets a close look at a Selenite.
Mr. Cavor Makes Some Suggestions: The two men begin blaming each other for their situation. The Selenites eventually give them some slices of mooncalf, which they greedily eat.
Experiments in Intercourse: The two men are led out of their small chamber into a much larger cavern which is dominated by a gargantuan engine of some sort. In order to demonstrate to the Selenites that the two men are not brainless cattle, Cavor tries to communicate interest in the engine. The Selenites prick the two outraged men with a goad rod.
The Giddy Bridge: When the men are motioned to cross over a plank bridge into a dark abyss, they resist due to its flimsy, dangerous nature. When one of the Selenites pricks Bedford with its goad again, Bedford explodes in pent up anger and smashes a few of the fragile Selenites. The two men escape into a tunnel which leads towards a glowing light.
Points of View: Taking a rest in a phosphorescent cavity, the two men debate their next course of action. Cavor believes that the Selenites they have met so far are probably of a “rustic” nature, and that the more advanced members are deeper down inside the moon and may be more sympathetic to communication. Bedford however, has noticed the existence of gold on the moon, and can only think of escaping back to Earth and returning with an armed party in order to plunder it. When sounds of Selenites approach, they ascend further.
The Fight in the Cave of the Moon Butchers: The men emerge into a cavern where groups of Selenites use axes to harvest meat off of dead moon calves for processing. Soon more Selenites begin to emerge from behind the men, armed with crossbow-like weapons. Meanwhile, the moon butchers begin throwing their hatchets at them. Surrounded, Bedford finds an iron bar and goes on a maddened, murderous rampage. Due to the low gravity, Bedford’s strength is enhanced and he drives off the Selenites.
In the Sunlight: After Bedford and Cavor finally reach the surface, the two men continue to argue about how this discovery will affect both the moon and Earth. Cavor fears that his scientific breakthrough will result in a great war between men and the Selenites. Nonetheless, the men split up in order to more efficiently search for the sphere.
Mr. Bedford Alone: Bedford eventually finds the sphere, but when he goes back to inform Cavor, he finds a bloody note, indicating that Cavor has been recaptured by some of the more “civilized” Selenites. With the lunar night coming (and the Selenite cavern entrance now sealed), Bedford barely makes it back to the sphere before he freezes to death.
Mr. Bedford in Infinite Space: During the ensuing weeks-long journey through space, Bedford begins to lose his sense of self-identity, and struggles to maintain his sanity.
Mr. Bedford at Littlestone: Bedford lands in the sea near the English shore town of Littlestone. When he finally drifts onto the beach, he goes inside a hotel and orders some food. When news gets around that Bedford has two bars of gold with him (stolen from the Selenites), a curious boy named Tommy Simmons sneaks into the sphere and takes off with it into the sky, never to be heard from again. With his plans of riches (and attempted rescue of Cavor) now shattered, Bedford changes his name to Blake and publishes an account of his travels.
The Astonishing Communication of Mr. Julius Wendigee: Two years later, an astronomer searching for signals from space begins receiving transmissions from the moon, apparently from Cavor, who has managed to survive amongst the Selenites. Bedford works with Wendigee to decipher and organize the transmissions.
An Abstract of the Six Messages First Received from Mr. Cavor: To Bedford’s chagrin, Cavor first describes his former traveling partner as being a hot-headed fool. He then continues to describe the interior of the moon as being a kind of hollowed-out sponge, with a great sea at its core. The Selenites breed mooncalves on the surface and harvest bizarre lunar fish from the central sea. They travel back and forth between the surface and the sea (a distance of 200 miles) by balloon.
The Natural History of the Selenites: Cavor describes Selenite culture: Each member of Selenite society is bred to handle a specific task (such as farming, carrying, thinking, remembering, etc.), and when workers are not needed, they are drugged into complacency. The Selenites have no books, since individual Selenites are bred with gigantic brains which function as living storage devices (organic computers). Selenite young are borne by queens who then distribute the newly-born to celibate nursemaids.
The Grand Lunar: Cavor is brought before the leader of the Selenites, the Grand Lunar, who is essentially a gigantic brain with eyes supported by a small torso. Cavor is asked to describe how Earth society works, as well as the wars that are fought upon the surface of the planet. The Selenites generally find the ways of man to be inefficient or insanely dangerous. At this point a jamming signal begins to “censor” Cavor’s messages to Earth.
The Last Message Cavor Sent to the Earth: Cavor reveals to the Selenites that he is the only Earthman who has the secret of Cavorite (and thus, space travel). The Selenites apparently begin actively limiting his transmissions. In his last recorded message, he expresses regret for being so forthcoming to the Selenites and tries to pass on the secret of Cavorite, but this last message is cut off.

Friday, September 25, 2020

H.G. Wells' "The Invisible Man" (1897)

The Invisible Man was H.G. Wells' fifth novel. Initially serialized in Pearson's Weekly magazine, it was published as a novel by Pearson in 1897. Wells' first novel, The Time Machine, was essentially a fantasy adventure with a sociopolitical subtext. His second, The Wonderful Visit, was a satire, while his third, The Island of Doctor Moreau was a survival-horror tale. After the lighter-toned bicycle adventure The Wheels of Chance, Wells' wrote The Invisible Man as a mystery-farce, although it has some thriller elements in its final act. Wells followed up his portrait of the morally-starved Mr. Griffin with the grim alien invasion epic War of the Worlds, probably his most famous creation.

One of the most enjoyable things about this novel (apart from the invisibility itself) is that the main character, the "Invisible Man", is essentially a power-hungry madman, and all other characters in the book act as supporting characters to this true "anti-hero".

Synopsis

THE STRANGE MAN’S ARRIVAL: One winter, a man with his head completely bandaged up and wearing large goggles arrives at the Coach and Horses inn in Iping. This strange “experimental researcher” gives off a brusque manner, and the innkeeper, Mrs. Hall, becomes slightly offended by his reticence.
MR. TEDDY HENFREY’S FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Mrs. Hall asks Henfrey, a clock repairman, to look at the clock in the stranger’s room. When Henley is abruptly dismissed by the stranger, he complains to Mr. Hall, who begins to suspect his guest of being trouble.
THE THOUSAND AND ONE BOTTLES: The next day, the stranger’s luggage arrives, which is comprised of six trunks filled with bottles, tubing and other glassware. While unloading his belongings, a dog bites him. When he goes upstairs to address his torn glove, Mr. Hall later catches a glimpse of a floating glove, but dismisses the strange vision as an illusion.
MR. CUSS INTERVIEWS THE STRANGER: A curious doctor named Cuss visits the stranger, trying to pry out of him his true nature. During this visit, the stranger is suddenly forced to grab at a piece of scrap paper caught in a breeze. When Cuss declares that the man’s cuff has no hand within it, the stranger approaches him and an unseen force pinches Cuss’ nose. Cuss flees in a panic as the man laughs.
THE BURGLARY AT THE VICARAGE: In the hours just before dawn one night, Iping’s vicar, Mr. Bunting, and his wife are woken by sounds of a burglar in their study. An unseen (but audibly sneezing) force escapes with their gold savings.
THE FURNITURE THAT WENT MAD: That same morning, when Mr. and Mrs. Hall snoop around their lodger’s empty room, they find the stranger’s clothes and bandages on the bed. Suddenly the stranger’s hat flies into Mrs. Hall’s face and the furniture rises into the air and drives them out of the room. When the Halls ask Wadgers the blacksmith to come over and help investigate this “witchcraft”, the bandaged stranger emerges and points out a nearby bottle of sarsaparilla.
THE UNVEILING OF THE STRANGER: Mrs. Hall finally confronts the stranger for non-payment of the rent. The man becomes angry and unwraps the bandages around his head, revealing an empty space underneath. A panic ensues as everyone in the house flees. The Halls then ask Jaffers, the constable, to investigate the man. They enter and accuse the headless figure of robbing Bunting’s vicarage. The Invisible Man takes off all of his clothes and invisibly fights his way out to the street and escapes. Constable Jaffers is knocked unconscious in the scuffle.
IN TRANSIT: Down the street, a neighbor hears sneezing and cursing from an invisible figure as it passes by his house.
MR. THOMAS MARVEL: Outside Iping, a slightly confused tramp with a battered top hat named Mr. Marvel is accosted by the Invisible Man. After he finally convinces Marvel of his existence, the Invisible Man forces Marvel to help him get some clothes and retrieve his belongings from Mrs. Hall’s Coach and Horses inn.
MR. MARVEL’S VISIT TO IPING: In Iping, a man named Huxter sees Mr. Marvel arrive in town and act strangely “undecided” in front of the Mrs. Hall’s Coach and Horses inn. Eventually he goes inside and then emerges with a sack of clothing and some books. Huxter tries to pursue this apparent thief, but is tripped by an unseen force.
IN THE “COACH AND HORSES”: When Mr. Marvel enters the “Coach and Horses”, he helps the Invisible Man re-enter his old room. There he finds Cuss and Bunting (the doctor and vicar) peeking at his encrypted diary. He attacks them and threatens them into submission.
THE INVISIBLE MAN LOSES HIS TEMPER: The Invisible Man forces Cuss and Bunting to give him their clothes as well as his diary. He hands off the goods to Marvel who leaves the inn and escapes down the street, while the Invisible Man attacks their pursuers. Eventually, the Invisible Man becomes angered from one of his chasers’ lucky blow and goes on a rampage about the entire town, before finally departing.
MR. MARVEL DISCUSSES HIS RESIGNATION: Marvel and the Invisible Man head towards Bramblehurst. Along the way, Marvel tries to convince the Invisible Man that he is not fit for the Man’s needs. The Invisible Man threatens him with violence if he tries to escape.
AT PORT STOWE: In Port Stowe, while Marvel sits in front of an inn, the Invisible Man robs the nearby stores and puts the money into Marvel’s pocket for safekeeping until they make their departure. A mariner engages Marvel in conversation about news of the Invisible Man from Iping. Marvel starts to confide something, but then suddenly acts strangely and jerkily walks away.
THE MAN WHO WAS RUNNING: In Burdock, a scientist named Kemp sees Marvel running down his street in a strange, leaden manner and dismisses him as a fool. Later, the street erupts into a panic as a warning goes out: ““The Invisible Man is coming!”.
IN THE “JOLLY CRICKETERS”: Marvel enters a bar (the “Jolly Cricketers”) and locks the door. He asks a policeman, a cab man and the bartender to protect him from the Invisible Man. Despite their best precautions, the Invisible Man manages to break in and attacks Marvel. The three men somehow manage to land a few blows on the Invisible Man and drive him outside. Five shots ring out.
DR. KEMP’S VISITOR: Later, Kemp is surprised to find the Invisible Man in his house. The Man tells Kemp that he is Griffin, an albino friend from their old school days of a dozen years ago. Griffin is evasive about his wrist wound (from the gun shot) and about how he has obtained money, but asks Kemp for help.
THE INVISIBLE MAN SLEEPS: Kemp allows Griffin to sleep in his room, although Griffin threatens him with harm if he is betrayed. While Griffin sleeps, Kemp catches up on the news and learns of Griffin’s recent exploits in Iping, Bramblehurst, Port Stowe and at the “Jolly Cricketers”.
CERTAIN FIRST PRINCIPLES: The next day Griffin explains that he had become invisible through a secret method of turning his body transparent through irradiated pigments. Griffin admits that he had soon run out of funds for his research in London and had to steal from his father, after which his father had then shot himself.
AT THE HOUSE IN GREAT PORTLAND STREET: Griffin describes how he first used his methodology to turn a cat invisible while lodging in a rented house. Drawn by the cat’s meowing, his landlady had then become suspicious of illegal vivisection occurring in her abode. Griffin had then quickly undergone the (painful) invisibility procedure himself and then escaped the house (after setting it on fire).
IN OXFORD STREET: Griffin’s brief exultation at becoming invisible had then soon turned into dismay as he began colliding with various people and vehicles on the street. It had been January and his naked foray onto the street had also given him a cold. With his naked feet trailing mud and cut by road detritus, two boys had then tried to follow his ghostly tracks down the street until he had managed to clean the soles of his feet.
IN THE EMPORIUM: Griffin finds refuge for the night in the Emporium (a department store) and finds some clothing. However, the next morning he is discovered by employees who chase him around the store until he again doffs his clothing. After things die down, he escapes the Emporium.
IN DRURY LANE: After breaking into a costume shop and knocking out its hunchbacked owner, Griffin had then completed his traveling disguise and then gone off to Iping to work on a cure for himself. He expresses to Kemp his exasperation at all of the morons who have gotten in his way and tells Kemp that his crimes were unavoidable.
THE PLAN THAT FAILED: Griffin decides that he plans to instigate a “Reign of Terror” over Kemp’s little town of Burdock, killing anyone who dares question his authority. Kemp keeps him talking while Constable Adye (whom Kemp had written a message to earlier) and his men arrive and try to organize a trap. Griffin hears the noises of the new arrivals and batters Kemp aside in another escape.
THE HUNTING OF THE INVISIBLE MAN: Kemp tells Adye that they must capture Griffin and recommends all of the village doors to be locked and dogs to be used to hunt him down. He also suggests putting powdered glass on the roads to injure/expose him.
THE WICKSTEED MURDER: Later that day, a man named Wisksteed sees an iron rod floating in the air. He chases the floating rod into a briar patch, after which Griffin beats his head in from anger and frustration (his first murder).
THE SIEGE OF KEMP’S HOUSE: Griffin sends Kemp a note indicating that he will now start his Terror and begin it by killing Kemp himself for his betrayal. In the afternoon, Griffin arrives and begins smashing in Kemp’s windows. Adye arrives and they decide that Adye should go send for dogs. When Adye goes back outside Griffin manages to disarm him and shoots him. Some more policemen arrive and they manage to drive Griffin back outside. Kemp escapes the house with the housemaid during the struggle.
THE HUNTER HUNTED: Kemp tries to find refuge in his neighbor Mr. Heelas’ house, but Heelas sees the signs of an invisible creature coming after Kemp and turns him away. Kemp eventually makes it down to the tram station where he attracts the attention of nearby workers. Griffin attacks Kemp, but a crowd of concerned citizens piles on top of the two and Griffin is eventually pummeled to death by the mob. Upon his death, color returns to his body, revealing an albino, white-haired corpse.

Epilogue: Mr. Marvel uses the stolen money he had obtained for Griffin in Port Stowe to open an inn named “The Invisible Man”. At night he studies Griffin’s diary and dreams of learning the secrets of invisibility for himself.

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

H.G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau" (1896)

H.G. Wells' first novel was The Time Machine, published in 1895. That book was immediately followed by the more directly satirical The Wonderful Visit, in which an angel out of "art history" (that is, not from the Bible) accidentally lands in late 19th century England and is eventually driven off by skeptical townspeople who accuse the angel of promoting "socialism".

Wells' third novel (published in 1896) was The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which a shipwreck survivor named Prendick finds himself stuck on an island ruled over by a scientist who has surgically and chemically altered animals so that they somewhat look and act like humans. One part of this book originated from Wells' article in the Saturday Review (January 1895) titled "The Limits of Individual Plasticity" (https://archive.org/details/saturdayreview7918unse/page/88/mode/2up), in which he argues Doctor Moreau's point in more editorial terms.

In 1924, Wells wrote some introductory notes to the book's inclusion in a 28-volume collection of his entire bibliography:

"The Island of Doctor Moreau was written in 1895, and it was begun while The Wonderful Visit was still in hand. It is a theological grotesque, and the influence of Swift is very apparent in it. There was a scandalous trial about that time, the graceless and pitiful downfall of a man of genius, and this story was the response of an imaginative mind to the reminder that humanity is but animal rough-hewn to a reasonable shape and in perpetual internal conflict between instinct and injunction. This Story embodies this ideal, but apart from this embodiment it has no allegorical quality. It is written just to give the utmost possible vividness to that conception of men as hewn and confused and tormented beasts. When the reader comes to read the writings upon history in this collection, he will find the same idea of man as a reshaped animal no longer in flaming caricature, but as a weighed and settled conviction." (The Works of H.G. Wells, 1924)

Synopsis

Introduction: The narrator’s nephew attests that his uncle did indeed go missing at sea for 11 months, but a subsequent investigation of Noble’s Isle found no traces of habitation.

IN THE DINGEY OF THE “LADY VAIN.”: When the ship the Lady Vain collides with a derelict, three men escape in a dingy. Two of them fall overboard while fighting. The last man, Edward Prendick, is finally picked up by a mysterious schooner (the Ipecacuanha).
THE MAN WHO WAS GOING NOWHERE.: Prendick hears growling noises outside his cabin. A hard-drinking man named Montgomery tells him that the ship is heading for an unnamed island (his home), after which it will make for Hawaii.
THE STRANGE FACE.: On the upper deck (strewn with animal cages), Prendick sees a brutish, black-faced man, who is abused by the Ipecacuanha’s captain and crew. Montgomery warns the captain to stop abusing his friend and a fight almost breaks out.
AT THE SCHOONER’S RAIL.: Prendick learns that Montgomery had once studied medicine in London, but due to some kind of unfortunate indiscretion 11 years ago had ruined his chances at pursuing such a life.
THE MAN WHO HAD NOWHERE TO GO.: When the Ipecacuanha reaches Montgomery’s island, he, his strange attendant (later named as M’ling) and their animal cargo are unloaded. The captain also wants Prendick off his ship, but Prendick is not permitted on the island by the white-haired man (Doctor Moreau) who has come to pick up the cargo. The captain abandons Prendick to float aimlessly on his half-flooded dingy in the open sea.
THE EVIL-LOOKING BOATMEN.: Eventually a decision is made on the part of the islanders to allow Prendick to stay on the island and he is towed back to shore with them. On the way, Prendick notices that some of the men from the island are swathed in white cloth from head to toe, and move about in a strange, inhuman gait. Others wear a blue uniform. Moreau is intrigued to learn that Prendick has a background in biology.
THE LOCKED DOOR.: Prendick is given a small room but warned not to leave it. He then hears someone name his benefactor “Moreau”, and recalls an incident from 11 years ago: a scientist named Moreau had been engaged in vivisection-based research, and when his exploits had been discovered and exposed by the press, he had been forced into exile.
THE CRYING OF THE PUMA.: In the afternoon a drunken Montgomery visits. Prendick remarks on M’ling’s hairy, pointy ears, but Montgomery feigns disinterest. At the same time, the cries of a nearby puma being vivisected cause Prendick a great deal of stress.
THE THING IN THE FOREST.: Seeking relief from the puma’s cries of pain by taking a walk deeper into the inland jungle, Prendick catches a glimpse of three “hog-like” savages performing a strange ritual. He is then stalked through the forest by a mysterious leopard-man creature. He eventually knocks it unconscious with a rock and escapes back to the compound in a panic.
THE CRYING OF THE MAN.: Back at his room, he finds Montgomery and tells him of the creature stalking him. Montgomery dismisses it as a “bogle” (phantom). The next day Prendick hears the sounds of a human being moaning in pain. He bursts into the inner chamber and sees Moreau working over a bound and bloody figure. Moreau angrily throws him out.
THE HUNTING OF THE MAN.: Prendick believes that Moreau is turning human captives into “beast men” through blood transfusion and vivisection. He flees the compound and hides on the beach from a pursuing dog pack. Eventually, he meets an Ape-man (of very limited verbal ability) who takes him to a rocky hideout in a ravine.
THE SAYERS OF THE LAW.: Prendick is forced to participate in a bizarre chant with a small assemblage of grotesque Beast Folk. A “Law” chant (led by a silver-haired “Sayer of the Law”) forbids them to walk on all fours, attack men, and other natural animal instincts. It also declares fear and awe before Moreau. When Moreau and Montgomery enter the ravine in search of him, Prendick makes a desperate escape and eventually finds himself near a boiling hot spring.
A PARLEY.: When Prendick is cornered near the sea, he tries to convince the Beast Folk to turn on Moreau and Montgomery. Moreau and Montgomery offer him their guns as a peace gesture to make him calm down. Moreau claims that he is not vivisecting men into animals, but rather the other way around. Prendick cautiously follows them back to Moreau’s compound.
DOCTOR MOREAU EXPLAINS.: Moreau explains that he has been surgically, hypnotically and chemically altering animals so that they might have the characteristics of human beings. However, the newly-created men inevitably begin to revert back to their bestial natures, even when they at first seem very rational. These “failed” Beast Men are then released, after which they congregate in their ravine huts and live strange half-human lives. Montgomery has befriended a few of the Beast Folk and made them into servants (such as the bear-man M’ling).
CONCERNING THE BEAST FOLK.: Prendick notes that there are about 60 Beast Folk on the island and that in the following days he becomes used to their strange appearance. He begins to feel that he might even recognize in them the same kind of features found in the colorful citizens of London. The Beast Folk can even procreate, although their offspring amount to little more than irrational rabbit-like creatures.
HOW THE BEAST FOLK TASTE BLOOD.: In the forest, Montgomery and Prendick discover that one of the Beast Folk has killed and eaten a live animal, thus breaking one of the Laws under which they must exist in order to retain their “humanity”. Moreau is angry and summonses the Beast Folk to an audience with a loud horn. When Prendick indicates that it was probably the Leopard-man who had done this crime, the Leopard-man panics and flees. As Moreau and his menagerie close in on the pathetic creature, Prendick kills it, intending to spare it from more visits to Moreau’s “House of Pain”.
A CATASTROPHE.: One day the puma which Moreau had been operating on since Prendick’s arrival manages to escape into the forest, with Moreau in hasty pursuit. Prendick’s arm is broken in the scuffle. Montgomery and M’ling chase after Moreau and discover the Beast-Folk’s ravine sanctuary to be deserted. They are then attacked by two Swine-men with blood on their lips. The creatures are shot, but Montgomery is perturbed – this kind of rebellion has never happened before.
THE FINDING OF MOREAU.: Prendick, Montgomery and M’ling head back into the jungle and encounter some Beast Folk who report that Moreau and the puma-creature are dead. With Moreau dead, the Beast Folk begin to question the validity of the Law. Prendick quickly declares that Moreau is not dead, but only temporarily watching them from the heavens. When one of the beast men attack Montgomery, Prendick shoots it with his pistol in order to restore order. They soon find Moreau’s torn up body and bring it back to the compound. All of the Beast Folk (including M’ling) depart, leaving Montgomery and Prendick alone in the compound. They begin to destroy still living specimens in Moreau’s lab.
MONTGOMERY’S “BANK HOLIDAY.”: Afterwards, Montgomery becomes drunkenly hostile towards Prendick. He decides to seek out M’ling to have a drinking party with his old friend. Prendick then decides to fit out one of the boats with supplies and then sail off in the morning. When shots ring out on the beach, he runs out to see that Montgomery and M’ling have been killed by some of the hostile Beast Folk. Worse yet, Montgomery has destroyed Moreau’s boats in a bonfire. Even worse, Prendick sees that, in the chaos of rushing to Montgomery’s aid, he had accidentally tipped a lantern, thus setting fire to Moreau’s compound.
ALONE WITH THE BEAST FOLK.: Prendick uses his whip to reestablish control over a Dog-man and two other Beast Folk, and has them dump the dead bodies into the sea. The most hostile of the Beast-Folk, a Hyena-swine, begins to question Prendick’s authority, but is scared off with a gunshot. With no other options for survival, he then travels to the Beast Folk’s ravine huts and asks them for food. Pointed towards a hut, he enters it and barricades himself inside.
THE REVERSION OF THE BEAST FOLK.: After convincing the remaining Beast Folk of his continuing Mastery over them (with the aid of the faithful Dog-man), in the next few months Prendick tries (and fails) to build a raft to escape the island. The Beast Folk gradually revert back into bestiality, losing their ability to walk on twos, speak English, or live with any sense of civilization. One day, Prendick’s faithful Dog-man is slain by the Hyena-swine. Prendick kills it with a pistol shot when it then attacks him. Sometime later, a small boat holding two corpses drifts onto the beach. With the beasts becoming more and more hostile, Prendick prepares the boat for his escape.
THE MAN ALONE.: After three days on the open sea in his little boat, Prendick is rescued by a passing ship, although his story is not believed by his rescuers. When he returns to London, he manically sees himself surrounded by humans who seem liable to revert into beast-people. He eventually begins to develop a total aversion to any kind of human (or beast) company and decides to live a secluded life studying chemistry and astronomy, hoping to find peace in the heavens.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" (1895)

The Time Machine was H.G. Wells’ first book, published in 1895 (with some parts appearing earlier in the National Observer and the New Review (Jan-May)). In it, the main character (addressed only as the “Time Traveler”) uses a homemade metal/crystal machine to travel about a million years into the future. There, he discovers that mankind has devolved into a pre-industrial, non-technological tribal civilization. He soon encounters two interdependent social groups: the predatory Morlocks and the innocently ignorant Eloi.

(1st Edition)

Other stories of the 18th and early 19th centuries had also explored visions of the future ("Mellonta Tauta" (Edgar Allan Poe, 1849), "Looking Backward, 2000-1887" (Edward Bellamy, 1888), "With the Night Mail" (Rudyard Kipling, 1905)), but Wells’ book has pulp adventure and social allegory present in equal measure. In fact, his depiction of Earth’s fate in the Time Traveler’s second flight into the future is exceedingly bleak, and it’s imagery precedes the dystopic projections of much later authors such as Olaf Stapledon (First and Last Men) and H.P. Lovecraft ("The Shadow Out of Time").

For some reason, the book has appeared at various times as being divided into 12 (Heinemann edition), 14 (Holt edition) or 16 chapters. The below synopsis is based on the “official” 12 chapter version.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine

Synopsis

(illustrations by Jason Alexander from W.T. Robinson's 2013 abridged version)

One night during a weekly dinner engagement with scholarly associates, a man referred to as the “Time Traveler” describes the nature of time as the 4th dimension (beyond the 3 dimensions describing length, width and height). He presents a small ivory-crystal mechanism with a twinkling lever and describes it as a small time-traveling machine. After pushing a quartz lever, it disappears, supposedly into the future. He then shows them a large-scale version under construction with which he plans to travel through time.
The following week the Time Traveler arrives later to the gathering than usual, in tattered clothes and limping. After cleaning himself up a bit and satisfying a desperately voracious appetite, he begins telling a fantastic story which had begun earlier the same day, but had lasted a full eight days for the Time Traveler. The tale follows.
On the morning in question, the Traveler activates his machine and travels through a kaleidoscopic landscape of fast-changing scenery. When he stops the vehicle (now in the far future of 802,701), he finds himself on a hill on front of a marble, winged sphinx mounted on a room-sized pedestal. A group of small (somewhat elfin) men in tunics approach him from a nearby structure.
The Traveler befriends these small, virtually sexless future humans (the Eloi) and visits their large hall. He notices that there are no individual houses, only large, dilapidated structures sheltering groups of the Eloi. It seems to him that technological progress has driven out the need for man to struggle against nature, and therefore made him weak both physically and mentally.
The Traveler is horrified to learn that his Time Machine has disappeared, apparently stolen by an unknown agency and sequestered inside the pedestal of the sphinx. One day he saves an Eloi girl named Weena from drowning and becomes her friend. Around the same time, he catches glimpses of a member of a white-skinned, red-eyed, underground race named the Morlocks. The traveler theorizes that the Morlocks are descended from the industrial working classes of his own time, accustomed to living underground.
The Traveler decides that in order to regain his time machine he must investigate the underworld of the Morlocks. He descends a well leading to their realm. At first frightened, the Morlocks soon become more aggressive and try to capture him. He notices some half-eaten meat on their table, which is later revealed to be the remains of an Eloi. The horrified and weaponless Traveler barely escapes back up the well to the surface.
The Traveler realizes that the Eloi are essentially cattle for the Morlocks, bred in their large temple-like stables for food. The Eloi fear that with a moonless night approaching, the Morlocks will soon come for them. The Traveler notices a “Palace of Green Porcelain” several miles away and decides to make it into his refuge from the Morlocks. He brings Weena along with him for the journey.
The Green Palace turns out to be a ruined museum. Although there are signs of Morlocks dwelling in some of the lower parts of the museum, the Traveler finds a box of matches and makes himself an iron crowbar with which he plans to break open the base of the Sphinx (where he believes his time machine to be stored).
As Weena and the Traveler head through the forest back towards the Sphinx, the Morlocks attack en masse. In order to temporarily scare them off, the Traveler starts a forest fire. Nonetheless, the Morlock mob eventually sneaks up on him. Although the Traveler is briefly buried under a mountain of Morlocks, the rampant forest fire forces everyone to flee, until finally in the morning the Morlocks can only wander about blindly. Unfortunately Weena is nowhere to be seen, apparently a victim of the forest fire.
When the Traveler reaches the Sphinx, he sees that the door to its interior chamber is wide open and that his time machine is inside. As soon as he enters however, he realizes that he has fallen into a trap. The doors swing shut and Morlocks begin attacking him. In a final desperate scramble in the dark, he activates his time machine and escapes them, going farther into the future.
Going forward thousands and then millions of years, the Traveler sees the sun become a red giant which no longer moves across the sky. He halts the time machine’s progress and finds himself on a twilight beach facing a dead sea. When giant table-sized crabs begin to try and grab him, he barely escapes by again fast forwarding into the future. Several millennia later, the crabs are gone, only to be replaced by a tentacled, football-sized (or possibly bigger) blob.
The Traveler eventually returns back to his own time, and reunites with his dinner guests (who have been waiting for his entrance). The other men are mostly skeptical of the Traveler’s tale, even when he produces a flower from the future (which Weena had earlier slipped into his coat). The next day, one of the less skeptical of his friends (the narrator of the framing story) returns to find out more about the Traveler’s tale. The Traveler tells him that he is departing on another time trip, and that he will soon return with photographic proof of his travels. The narrator waits for the Traveler’s promised return (supposedly in half an hour), but now, three years later he has so far not reappeared.

Epilogue: The narrator is unsure of where the Traveler may have ended up, and is not sure if the bleak future he described will come to pass or not. However, he takes comfort in that he still has the flowers Weena had given the Traveler, proof that some element of gratitude and tenderness may still persist in the future (this sentimental passage is not present in all versions of the book).

Tuesday, September 15, 2020

Isaac Asimov's "The Foundation Trilogy" (1942-1951)

1966 Art: Don Punchatz

One of the most famous science fiction epics of all time (especially from the "Golden Years" of science fiction) is the "Foundation Trilogy", Isaac Asimov's four-centuries-long tale of the rise and fall (and rise...) of no less than three galactic political forces in flux. Although Asimov went on to write additional sequels and prequels, the main trilogy was initially written as eight short stories and serials in Astounding Science Fiction magazine from 1942 to 1950, with a new opening section added for their first appearance as three book-length "fix-ups" (after-the-fact novels created from anthologizing related short stories) published from 1951 to 1953.

The Foundation Trilogy In Short:

Foundation: This first volume describes the origins of the thousand year Seldon Plan at the heart of the Galactic Empire, as well as the first struggles of the Foundation to establish themselves as an independent interstellar entity through balance-of-power diplomacy, the dissemination of religious dogma and craftily-wrought economic trade.
Foundation and Empire: The second novel describes the Foundation’s defiance of the dying Galactic Empire as well as the rise of the Mule, a mutant warlord whose unexpected existence derails the carefully-designed Seldon Plan and throws the destiny of the Foundation into question.
Second Foundation: The third novel first chronicles the downfall of the Mule due to the machinations of the secretive, semi-mythical Second Foundation. It then describes a final conflict in which the Second Foundation successfully course-corrects the deviations wrought by the Mule, yet leaves the original Foundation ignorant of its existence.

Below are detailed chapter summaries of the stories making up the original Foundation Trilogy. These might be useful for those wishing to revisit the plots and concepts contained in these stories for analysis purposes. Included are covers of the original magazines these stories first appeared in.

Foundation

Gnome Press 1951 (David Kyle)

The Psychohistorians

This opening episode was the last to be conceived, as it was written especially for the Foundation stories' first appearance in book form in 1951 (Foundation).

A young mathematician named Gaal Dornick travels to the center of the Galactic Empire on Trantor in order to study with the famous psychologist/mathematician Hari Seldon on his mysterious “Seldon Project”.
Gaal takes a taxi to his hotel but is disappointed that the journey is entirely indoors and doesn’t permit him a chance to see the sky of Trantor.
Gaal visits an observation deck to enjoy a view of the city-world of Trantor. He meets a man named Jerril who characterizes Seldon as a “Raven”, a predictor of doom. When he returns to his hotel, Gaal finds Hari Seldon waiting for him there.
Seldon explains to Gaal that based on his “psychohistory” calculations (historical projections based on social and economic factors) that Trantor will be destroyed within 500 years due to its increasingly unstable political structure. Hari identifies the man named Jerril as an agent of the Empire’s Commission of Public Safety, a group which criticizes Seldon’s predictions for their bad reflections on the fate of the current Empire.
The next morning Gaal is arrested by the CPS. He is informed that Seldon is also under arrest, but Hari’s agent informs him that all of these events are part of Seldon’s plan.
In a trial, Seldon explains that, based on his calculations, the 12-thousand-year-old Galactic Empire will fall into a 30-thousand-year-long Dark Ages before a new Empire rises. The purpose of his Seldon Project is to build a Galactic Encyclopedia which will preserve the knowledge of man, and hopefully reduce the 30-thousand-year long interregnum to just 1000 years. This project will be carried out by an encyclopedia “Foundation”.
Seldon is told that he must either face immediate execution for his heresy or relocate his entire project to the remote planet of Terminus. Seldon chooses exile.
Back at his University, Seldon reveals to Gaal that he had been planning for the project’s relocation to Terminus for over two years, and that everything is going according to his plan. He also states that a second Foundation group will be stationed at Star’s End, located at the other end of the galaxy. He also mentions that he will be dead in a year and a half.

The Encyclopedists

This story was the first published Foundation story, and appeared as “Foundation” in Astounding Science Fiction May, 1942).

Prologue (from magazine publication only): On the occasion of the last meeting of the 50 original architects of the Seldon Plan, Hari Seldon congratulates the assembly. He also notes that the two “scientific refuges” have now been successfully established at Terminus and at Star’s End, and that in 50 years revolts will be instigated in the Anacreon and Loris systems in order to put into motion the 1,000-year Seldon Plan leading to the rise of the Second Galactic Empire.

50 years have passed since work on the Encyclopedia has begun on remote Terminus under the Foundation (but subsidized by the Empire). Salvor Hardin, the civilian mayor of Terminus City, informs Pirenne, the scientific leader of the Foundation, that the planet of Anacreon has rebelled against the Empire. This is worrisome, as Terminus depends on Anacreon for its metals. Pirenne dismisses the political situation as a minor annoyance.
An envoy from Anacreon arrives on Terminus and announces Anacreon's plans to annex land on Terminus (which outrages Pirenne). However, Hardin manages to buy some time by hinting that Terminus still has atomic weaponry (which Anacreon and the other outer rim Periphery planets no longer have).
The leaders of the Foundation debate the crisis at hand. When one member brings up the fact that Hari Seldon’s Vault will soon be opened (locked since its closing 50 years ago), Hardin begins to wonder if Seldon may have foreseen such an emergency.
A representative of the Galactic Empire named Lord Dorwin arrives on Terminus to reassure Pirenne and the others of their Imperial protection from Anacreon. During his discussion with Hardin, he inadvertently reveals that the Empire is slowly losing its ability to maintain its atomic technology, and planets on the Periphery (such as Anacreon) have already fallen into a deteriorated pre-atomic technological state.
When Pirenne uses Dorwin’s visit to buttress his defiance of the Anacreons, the Anacreonians reply with an ultimatum, giving Terminus one week to comply with their annexation demands. The Foundation Board are stunned to realize that Dorwin’s reassurances from the Empire were meaningless. When they then decide to pin their salvation on the soon-to-be-seen message from Seldon’s Vault, Hardin accuses them all of over-reliance on the past and that they have allowed themselves to become as stagnant as the rest of the Empire.
Hardin believes the danger to Terminus is too great to take chances with, and plans a coup against the Foundation’s scientific Board.
Seldon’s Vault is opened and a holographic recording reveals that the idea of a galactic encyclopedia to preserve knowledge has been a red herring all along. His plans have always been to merely have a group of colonists survive through the fall of the Galactic Empire on remote Terminus and become the core for the Second Empire. By his calculations, only this series of events will lead to a shortened interregnum between Empires. Hardin realizes what he must do.

The Mayors

This story was originally published in the following month as “Bridle and Saddle” in Astounding Science Fiction, June 1942.

Thirty years have passed since Mayor Hardin’s takeover of Terminus’ affairs from the Foundation’s scientific Board. In order to prevent the Anacreonians from taking over Terminus, Hardin had formed diplomatic agreements with the three other nearby planetary systems, and since then has played the four Kingdoms off of each other, as well as providing each of them with technological aid. Hardin is visited by a young politician named Sermak and his followers, who desire a more militaristic stance against their neighbors, but he ignores them.
Hardin is visited by Verisof, Terminus’ ambassador to Anacreon. He warns Hardin that Anacreon will soon have regained enough confidence to mount another military attack on Terminus. He is also worried about Sermak’s political party, who wishes to militarize Terminus. Hardin insists on letting events continue on their course, trusting that Seldon had planned for these eventualities. He is only worried that his cognizance of the Plan itself may compromise its integrity in some way.
Anacreon King Lepold meets with his “hawkish” uncle Weinis. Weinis convinces Lepold that the Foundation is a threat and must be destroyed.
Sermak and his “Actionist” dissidents discuss Hardin’s influence on Anacreon through religious control (Terminus provides Anacreon atomic technology under the guise of faith-based “miracles”). They are afraid that Anacreon will soon attack Terminus anyways.
Hardin heads off on a trip to Anacreon. He tells his friend Leo to hold off Sermak’s dissidents by promising them a new message from Hari Seldon in a short time.
On Anacreon, Weinis arrests Hardin and tells him that an Anacreon invasion fleet is already on its way to Terminus. Hardin tells Weinis that he had prepared for this eventuality, and that he has had the Foundation priests on Anacreon turn off all power. Lepold’s coronation (in progress during their conversation) crashes to a halt. Nonetheless, Weinis believes that when news arrives of Anacreon’s invasion of Terminus, Hardin’s priests will surrender.
On the flagship of the Anacreonian flagship, the Foundation priest Aporat reveals to the crew that the Admiral (Weinis’ son Lefkin) intends to attack the sacred Foundation. Then, through a remote hyperwave trigger from Anacreon, all power to the ship is nullified. The terrified crewmen fall under Aporat’s control and capture Lefkin.
Aporat forces Lefkin to broadcast a public announcement to the fleet and to the people of Anacreon, declaring that Anacreon must never make war upon the holy Foundation ever again, and that Weinis is to be imprisoned. When Weinis hears the message, he tries to kill Hardin with a pistol, but Hardin is protected by a personal force field. Weinis then takes his own life in frustration.
On Terminus, Seldon’s hologram congratulates the Foundation for overcoming the earlier crisis through a “Balance of Power”, and for overcoming this recent crisis with the use of Spiritual Power over Temporal (nobility-based) Power. However, he warns the Foundation from trying to conquer their neighboring kingdoms, because they would fail against a rising tide of future nationalism.

The Traders

This story was originally published as “The Wedge” in Astounding Science Fiction, Oct 1944.

The influence of Terminus spreads through their sector through the free enterprise of Traders, who barter for natural resources with the technological gadgets of the Foundation. A trader captain named Ponyets receives a message indicating that a fellow trader named Gorov is being held captive on Askone. As a former priest of the Foundation, Ponyets’ mission is to go to Gorov’s aid, since Gorov is secretly a Foundation agent.
Ponyets arrives on Askone and learns from the Askonian Grand Master that Gorov’s unauthorized intrusion on the Askonian home planet is punishable by death.
Ponyets visits Gorov in his cell and learns that Gorov’s crime was trying to sell atomic technology to the Askonians, who have deemed atomic technology sacrilegious (due to its negative associations with the old Galactic Empire). Ponyets resolves to open up trade with the Askonians himself, as he is carrying a surplus of goods on his ship anyways.
Ponyets uses a device to apparently transform an iron buckle into gold. He offers it to the Askonians in exchange for Gorov’s release. They are skeptical of its “unholy” origins, but accept it for inspection.
Ponyets meets with Pherl, one of the younger Askonian tribal leaders, and offers to give him the metal transmutation device in return for a cubic foot of gold. Although such a device is against Askonian religious beliefs, Pherl is willing to use it in secret in order to gain personal power.
While Pherl uses the transmutation device (later revealed to be of only limited use due to its enormous power needs) Ponyets surreptitiously records his “sacrilegious” actions on video. Ponyets then blackmails Pherl into buying Ponyets and Gorov’s forbidden cargo. Ponyets believes that Pherl will use the gold to become Grand Master of Askone, and that once he has become accustomed to the luxury of technology he will then eventually open up trade with the Foundation in order to obtain more of it.

The Merchant Princes

Although published earlier than the previous epsode, this story (published as “The Big and the Little” in Astounding Science Fiction, Aug 1944) is chronologically set afterwards, and always appears so in collections.

75 years after the previous Seldon Crisis with Anacreon, Jorane Sutt, a representative of the Foundation’s mayor, asks master trader Hober Mallow to investigate the disappearance of three ships in the Korellian system. He suspects that the Korellians may have developed atomic weapons, which would be a grave threat to the Foundation’s dominance (and possibly result in a 3rd Seldon Crisis).
Later, Sutt meets with Publis Manlio, the religious leader of the Foundation. He worries that the traders are becoming too powerful for comfort, and hatches a plan with Manlio to curb this growth.
A political Trader activist named Twer tries to recruit Mallow into his cause, but instead Mallow asks him to join his crew to Korell.
On Korell, Mallow futilely waits for an audience with the Korellian leaders for a week. One day, a Foundation missionary named Parma appears and asks for sanctuary from the native “heathens”. After Parma is taken aboard, an hostile Korellian mob suddenly appears outside the ship and demands the return of the Foundation missionary. Despite his crew’s objections, Mallow releases the missionary to the Korellians. Later, Mallow tells Twer that Parma was probably a “test”. Mallow soon gets an invitation from the Korellians.
Mallow meets with the Korellian leader Asper and fascinates him with demonstrations of Foundation technology. Asper is interested in trade only if the Foundation priests are kept off Korell. Mallow agrees to the condition.
Asper’s wife berates Asper, but a cosmetic gift from Mallow (and the Foundation) quiets her complaints.
Mallow tells Twer that he is concerned about the absence of any signs of atomic technology on Korell. His investigations have turned up empty so far.
During a technology demonstration at a foundry, Mallow finally finds what he has been looking for: the guards’ guns are atomic powered and are inscribed with the spaceship-and-sun stamp of the Galactic Empire, implying that the Empire still exists and supports the Korellians.
Two days out from Korell, Mallow orders his ship the Far Star to report to the Foundation if he does not return in two months. He then departs alone in a shuttle.
Mallow uses an ancient map to find the planet Siwenna, which is still politically aligned with the Empire. On the surface, he finds an old man named Onum Barr (a disgraced, former Galactic Senator) who tells Mallow that Siwenna still has atomic power, but that it is guarded by Imperial forces. Mallow also learns that the daughter of an Imperial noble has been married off to the king of an outworld planet (Korell) in order to form an alliance with the planet. The embittered Barr gives Mallow his passport so that he can get near the atomic plants without being exposed as an outworlder.
Mallow approaches a “tech-man” and bribes him with a Foundation-made personal force-shield in order to gain access to the planet’s atomic generators.
Mallow learns that if Siwenna’s generators are damaged, there are no technicians still knowledgeable enough to repair them. He returns to his ship the Far Star and then heads for Terminus.
Back on Terminus, Sutt berates Mallow for establishing a profitable trade deal with Korell without the express authorization of the religious leaders of the Foundation. Mallow counters that the religious methodology the Foundation has been depending on for its survival is no longer effective. Sutt vows to have Mallow put on trial for allowing a Foundation missionary to be executed on Korell.
During his trial, Mallow replays a holo-recording of the Foundation missionary on Korell, which exposes the man as a member of the Korellian Secret Police. Mallow’s exoneration makes him a hero to the people. He also implies that this was a trap partly set by Sutt and Manlio as a way to diminish the power of the traders.
Mallow tells his friend Jael that he intends to become mayor of Terminus, as he is the only one who can handle the coming war with Korell. He tells Jael that Korell’s atomic weapons have been coming from the Galactic Empire.
The Imperial-bred wife of Korell’s Commodore Asper urges him to declare war with the Foundation, now that they have acquired enough battleships from the Empire.
An Imperial battlecruiser heads towards Foundation space as part of Korell’s invasion force.
After the initial Korellian attack on Terminus, Mallow (now having been mayor for two years) decides his only act of retribution will be to cut off all trade from the Korellian system. Sutt arrives and insists that they take more militaristic action. Mallow reasons that this will result in unwanted attention from the Empire. He believes that by withholding trade (technology) from Korell, their shrinking economy will eventually force them to sue for peace. When Sutt counters that the Empire will then come to Korell’s aid, Mallow explains that the Empire’s technology is only suited towards war and not domestic needs. When Sutt still refuses to stand down, Mallow has him arrested. Jael worries that this may cause a rebellion amongst Sutt’s supporters, but Mallow states that he will control them through his control of local economic forces, just as he will soon control Korell by the same method on a larger scale.

Gnome Press 1952 (Edd Cartier)

Foundation and Empire

The General

This story was originally published as “Dead Hand” in Astounding Science Fiction, Apr 1945.

Search for Magicians: An ambitious General of the Galactic Empire named Bel Riose seeks new lands to conquer. On Siwenna, he tracks down Ducem Barr (son of Onum Barr, the man who had once helped Hober Mallow) and learns all he can about the Foundation “magicians”. He vows to eliminate them for his own glory.
The Magicians: Bel Riose visits Terminus under false pretenses but is noticed by the rulers of the Foundation, who surreptitiously learn his true identity and his intentions against the Foundation. They decide to find Riose’s weak points through “independent traders”.
The Dead Hand: Bel Riose consults with Barr again and asks for his help to destroy the Foundation. Barr tells Riose that Hari Seldon’s prediction is inevitable and the Galactic Empire will fail. Nonetheless, Riose believes that a living will can defeat Seldon’s “dead hand”.
The Emperor: Galactic Emperor Cleon II is informed by his Secretary Brodrig that Riose has requested reinforcements in order to mount an attack on the outworld planets of the Foundation. Cleon turns him down, but sends Brodrig to monitor his progress, just in case something deeper is underfoot.
The War Begins: Riose captures a trader named Lathan Devers and interrogates him, but obtains no information of real use. Devers is given over to Barr in the hopes that a civilian like Barr will make better progress. Devers recognizes Barr as the son of Onum Barr and asks him why he is helping an Empire which had destroyed his own father. Barr’s loyalty is torn.
The Favorite: On the planet Wanda, General Riose and Secretary Brodrig discuss the War. Brodrig asks to interrogate Devers himself.
Bribery: For a large amount of money, Devers tells Brodrig that the Foundation has the secret to matter transmutation and that Riose plans to use the technology to take over the Empire for himself (this is a fabrication intended to turn Brodrig against Riose). Later, Riose visits and tells Devers that Brodrig has made himself 2nd in command of Riose’s forces and brought over Imperial reinforcements. With Riose about to use a psychic probe on both Devers and Barr, Barr knocks out the General and they escape the Imperial Fleet in Devers’ impounded trade vessel. Devers realizes that Brodrig has decided to ally himself with Riose rather than betray him to the Emperor.
To Trantor: On board Devers’ ship, Barr reveals that he is a member of a resistance group on Siwenna which is hoping for the Foundation’s defeat of the Empire. The two men open a message capsule taken from Riose’s desk during the escape. The message hints at Riose and Brodrig’s alliance against the Emperor. Devers decides to convey the message to the Emperor on Trantor as leverage against the Riose and Brodrig.
On Trantor: The two men spend two weeks in an attempt to bribe their way to an audience with the Emperor. However, one official turns out to be a Police Investigator and attempts to arrest them. Devers uses advanced Foundation weaponry to allow their escape. Back in free space, Devers begins to despair of ever making headway against Riose’s invasion, but an Imperial Newspaper announces that Riose and Brodrig have just been arrested and condemned.
The War Ends: The Emperor had arrested Riose and Brodrig due to Riose’s increasing success on the border, since it was making Riose much too popular for the Emperor’s comfort. With the two generals executed, the war between the Foundation and the Galactic Empire is effectively over, and the remaining Imperial forces in the Periphery are captured by Siwenna rebels. On Siwenna, Devers and Barr meet with Forrell, one of the Foundation’s leaders, who reveals that the Foundation had planted Devers amongst Riose’s forces as an undercover agent in order to deflect the Empire’s aims. Although Devers’ efforts to bribe Brodrig or expose Riose to the Emperor had ultimately failed, this was irrelevant, since Seldon’s predictions were based on great sociopolitical forces at work, not the actions of individuals. The Emperor will soon die of natural causes, leading to a civil war, which will finish off the Galactic Empire once and for all. This prediction is all part of Seldon’s inevitable Plan. However, Barr still warns Forrell of the rumors of the Second Foundation, and Devers infers that a rebellion from within the Foundation’s working class may yet arise to threaten the Foundation’s destiny in a civil war.

The Mule

This story was originally published as “The Mule” in two issues of Astounding Science Fiction from Nov-Dec 1945.

Bride and Groom: At this point, three centuries have passed since the initial establishment of the Foundation. A class struggle has developed between the rulers on Terminus and the Traders who occupy its outer systems (Lathan Devers had died 80 years in the past as a mine slave). The Galactic Empire is no longer a threat, but the Foundation itself has become as conservative and oppressive as its old enemy. A secret group of resistance “democrats” exists on Terminus, and plots to overthrow the Mayor. A Trader’s son, Toran, and his newly-wed Foundation-born bride Bayta (a member of the democratic resistance), meet with Toran’s father on the Trader planet Haven. They are tasked with finding the Mule, a warlord conqueror who has recently led successful attacks against the Foundation. They hope that his success will help weaken the Foundation and empower the Traders.
Captain and Mayor: Captain Han Pritcher is ordered to go to Haven to deal with the rebellious Traders. He visits Indbur (Mayor of the Foundation) to mount an objection, as he believes it is more important that he seek out the mysterious warlord the Mule, who has just conquered the planet Kalgan. Although Indbur dismisses the threat of the Mule, Pritcher disobeys orders and heads towards Kalgan after the meeting.
Lieutenant and Clown: Toran and Bayta spend several weeks on Kalgan as tourists, unsuccessfully searching for news of the warlord ruler known as Mule. One day, they run across a clown being chased by a patrolman. When Toran learns that the fugitive is the Mule’s personal court jester, he uses his authority as a citizen of the Foundation to take the clown into his own custody. A Kalgan lieutenant arrives and allows Toran to take the clown away, as per secret orders from above.
The Mutant: Toran and Bayta bring the clown, Magnifico Gigantico, back to their ship, The Bayta. Captain Pritcher arrives and tells Toran and Bayta that the Mule is a “mutant”, and therefore his unexpected manifestation may be a great danger to the Seldon Plan (and the Foundation’s future). He then interrogates Magnifico who describes the Mule as a giant. The three of them decide to put aside their political differences for the sake of the danger the Mule presents to the Foundation as a whole. They leave Kalgan with Magnifico in The Bayta, strangely without resistance from the Mule’s forces.
The Psychologist: The famed (and idiosyncratic) psychologist Mis Ebling visits Mayor Indbur and tells him that based on his work reconstructing the psychohistoric science of Hari Seldon, a Seldon Crisis and a new message from Seldon will arrive in four months. Indbar’s secretary then announces that Pritcher and his accomplices have arrived on Terminus and been arrested (for disobeying orders in Pritcher’s case). He also announces that Kalgan has started making military overtures, apparently in response to Magnifico’s capture.
Conference: The 27 Trader planets send representatives to the planet Radole to discuss their future. At first many suspect the Mule’s sudden success (and great resources) to be due to secret support from the Traders themselves. However, Randu, Toran’s uncle, suspects that the Mule may soon become a threat to both the Foundation and themselves. Then, new reports indicate that the Mule has attacked Mnemon, a Trader planet. Even worse, the Mule’s forces have a new weapon which can nullify the nuclear weapons of the Foundation and the Traders.
The Visi-Sonar: On Terminus, Mis brings Magnifico and Bayta to his home and allows Magnifico to play an antique visi-sonar, the clown’s favorite audio-visual instrument. Comforted, Magnifico allows Mis to give him a very mild brain scan but nothing new is discovered concerning the Mule. Meanwhile, the Traders have allied themselves with the Foundation against the Mule’s forces.
Fall of the Foundation: Randu is concerned that the Foundation will betray the Traders once the current crisis is over, and fails to get a reassuring answer out of Indbur. Hari Seldon’s Time Vault opens and Seldon’s hologram speaks of the end of a civil war between the Traders and the Foundation. Everyone is horrified, realizing that Seldon is talking about something which has not actually occurred, and that the Mule, an unforeseen factor, has now made the Seldon Plan irrelevant. The Mule’s forces arrive and deactivate all atomic power on Terminus. The next day the Mule’s generals conquer the planet.
Start of the Search (cont'd from previous issue): With the Seldon Plan no longer a certainty, despair seizes both the Foundation and the Trader worlds. The Mule’s forces take over planet after planet, although Haven continues to hold out. From there, Randu sends Mis, Gigantico, Bayta and Toran on a mission to Trantor to try to find a way to beat the Mule, possibly by seeking out help from Seldon’s promised Second Foundation.
Conspirator: Captain Pritcher tries to mount a suicide attack on the Mule’s palace (formerly Indbur’s Mayoral palace). When he gets to the throne room, he finds only the Mule’s viceroy, who tells him that his suicide bomb has been deactivated and that his plan had been allowed to progress this far only to facilitate Pritcher’s capture. The viceroy tells Pritcher that he will soon join the Mule’s cause, just as everyone else has, including himself (the former the warlord ruler of Kalgan).
Interlude In Space: Toran and his friends learn of Haven’s fall to the Mule. They wonder why it is that Terminus and Haven fell so easily to the Mule’s atomic suppression technology, but other Trader worlds have held out longer (and thus sustained more physical devastation). Still en route towards Trantor, their ship is intercepted by a Foundation ship. Toran and Magnifico are interrogated, but the ship is allowed to continue on its way. Magnifico believes that the captain of the Foundation ship, Pritcher, may have been on his own resistance mission.
Death On Neotrantor: The Bayta arrives on Neotrantor, the last refuge of the ruling class of the declining Galactic Empire. After gaining permission to visit the University Library on Trantor from the doddering Emperor, they are captured by his lascivious Prince. However, Gigantico plays his visi-sonar in such a way that its hallucinatory effects kill the Prince, allowing their escape.
The Ruins of Trantor: The crew of the Bayta land on Trantor (now a cracked metallic sphere run through with green land) and meet with a farming community still thriving there. They are able to obtain guidance to the University Library.
Convert: Ebling Mis spends his days researching the files of the University Library, searching for clues to the Second Foundation’s whereabouts. Pritcher arrives, and reveals that he has been “converted” to the Mule’s cause. The Mule’s mutant ability is such that he can alter people’s emotional states into abject loyalty. This is why Terminus and Haven had fallen so easily – a wave of despair inflicted on the populace by the Mule. Pritcher states that his own mission is not related to their search for the Second Foundation, and only warns them that their actions are futile against the Mule.
Death of a Psychologist: As the weeks pass, Mis’ health deteriorates due to apparent overwork. He stresses that the Mule must be beaten for, if the Mule wins, then mankind will be doomed as an enslaved race under the Mule’s mutant mind control. Additionally, if the Mule has no descendants, his death would lead to the galactic chaos Hari Seldon had been trying to avoid with the creation of the Foundation. Finally, just as Mis is about to divulge the whereabouts of the Second Foundation to Bayta and Magnifico, Bayta kills him with a blaster shot for no apparent reason.
End of the Search: Bayta reveals that for some time now she has known that Magnifico is actually the Mule, and killed Mis so that the Mule would not find out the whereabouts of the Second Foundation. Magnifico admits to his real identity, and explains that he has been manipulating things from their very first meeting on Kalgan. However, because Bayta had shown genuine affection to him (without forced mind control), he had never tried to probe or alter her mind – that had been his only mistake, otherwise he would have successfully gotten Mis to reveal the location of his true enemy. Out of respect for their former friendship, the Mule allows Bayta and Toran to live, and departs to continue his search for the Second Foundation on his own.

Gnome Press 1953 (Ric Binkley)

Second Foundation

Search By the Mule

This story was originally published as “Now You See It...” in Astounding Science Fiction, Jan 1948.

Two Men and the Mule: Five years into his rule over the Foundation, the Mule becomes convinced that some of his top men have been psychically “tampered” with, so that their ingenuity and initiative have been extinguished. Suspecting the Second Foundation, the Mule assigns Pritcher and an un-Mule-converted (but ambitious) Kalgan man named Bail Channis to search out the Second Foundation. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Second Foundation decide on a risky plan to lure the Mule into a trap.
Two Men Without the Mule: Pritcher and Channis head out into space towards the Tazenda system. Channis reasons that “Tazenda” sounds like “Star's End”, an old reference to the whereabouts of the Second Foundation from the myths. En route, Channis discovers a tracking device ("hypertracer") hidden on the ship.
Two Men and A Peasant: Pritcher and Channis land on the planet Rossem, an outer planet of the Tazenda system, in the hopes of finding an isolated and vulnerable agent of the Second Foundation amidst the planet’s leading council.
Two Men and the Elders: After introducing themselves to the local Elders, Pritcher and Channis are surprised to learn that they their arrival has been expected. Later, they gain an audience with Rossem’s Governor by posing as agents of a minor system interested in opening trade relations. After the meeting is over, Pritcher is worried of the possibility that, if the Governor was indeed a member of the Second Foundation, he might have secretly already “adjusted” Pritcher’s mind using their rumored psychic powers.
One Man and the Mule: Back in their room, Pritcher suddenly accuses Channis of being an agent of the Second Foundation. Channis counters by claiming that Pritcher has been compromised by the Second Foundation’s psychic powers. Suddenly the Mule appears at the door, as he had followed them to Rossem using the hypertracer on their ship. In fact, the Mule has always suspected Channis of being a Second Foundationer. In a stand-off, Channis breaks the Mule’s mental hold on Pritcher, but then also mentally holds Pritcher back from immediately killing the Mule out of vengeance. He reasons that if the Mule shoots Channis, then Pritcher will instantly be freed to kill the Mule. When the Mule relents and drops his blaster, Channis allows Pritcher to fall asleep.
One Man, the Mule - and Another: The Mule tells Channis that he believes that Tazenda is the home of the Second Foundation and that his fleet has already destroyed that planet. However, suspicious of Channis’ ensuing lack of despair, he then uses his superior mental powers to force a confession - the Second Foundation is actually on Rossem. The First Speaker of the Second Foundation then enters and confronts the Mule. When the Mule threatens to destroy Rossem as well, the First Speaker explains that Channis had been brainwashed to believe that the Second Foundation was on Rossem. Channis’ unconscious purpose was only to lure the Mule out to Rossem so that agents of the Second Foundation (the Elders of Rossem) could in the meantime travel to Kalgan (the Mule’s seat of power) and restore the wills of his brainwashed victims, leaving the Mule outnumbered by his own forces. When the Mule realizes that he has been outwitted, he momentarily lets down his guard. The First Speaker mentally “converts” the Mule so that he no longer desires to seek out the Second Foundation and will ultimately live out the rest of his remaining years in peace. Back at the true location of the Second Foundation, Channis’ mind is restored to the state it was in before his secret mission to lure the Mule into a Second Foundation trap.

Search By the Foundation

This story was originally published in three parts as “...And Now You Don't” in Astounding Science Fiction, Nov-Dec 1949, Jan 1950.

Arcadia: Five years later, the Mule dies by natural causes (as part of his mutation). 40 years later the Foundation risen again and returned to an even more democratic form of rule than before. There is no longer any danger of a class-driven civil war, or from outlying warlords left over from the old Galactic Empire. While Arkadia “Arkady” Darrell (granddaughter of Bayta) works on a paper for her school class, a mysterious friend of her father named Pelleas Anthor arrives.
Seldon’s Plan: In the Second Foundation, the First Speaker and his apprentice discuss the true intention of the Seldon Plan. The Seldon Plan is designed to eventually make the Second Foundation (based on mental science) rulers over the First Foundation (based on the physical sciences). Knowing that the First Foundation would resist such a subservient role, the Second Foundation have tried to remain hidden. However, their more open actions leading to the fall of the Mule may have caused a problem in their calculations.
The Conspirators: At the Darell home, Dr. Darell, Anthor and several scholarly guests discuss a new problem: the Second Foundation has apparently been “tampering” with a few of the Foundation’s scholars – victims can be identified through Anthor’s encephalographs. They decide to have their reluctant associate Munn visit the Mule’s old palace on Kalgan in order to learn if the Mule had discovered anything of value about the Second Foundation before his demise.
Approaching Crisis: In the Second Foundation, the apprentice realizes that the Foundation has become lazy and over-confident, as they have come to subconsciously depend on the Second Foundation to save them if a crises arises. At the same time, a smaller group (Dr. Darell’s group) has decided to resist the Second Foundation through psychological methods (the encephalograms). The First Speaker assures the apprentice that a new alteration of the Plan is already underway to address this new problem and things will be resolved within the year.
Stowaway: On the way to Kalgan, Munn discovers a stowaway: Arkadia. In order to avoid arousing suspicion, he allows her accompany him on his research mission.
Lord (cont'd from previous issue): Lord Stettin, First Citizen of Kalgan, dreams of overthrowing the Foundation. Later, his concubine Lady Callia convinces Stettin to allow her to chaperone Arcadia when she and Munn arrive.
Lady: Arcadia falsely confides to Lady Callia that Munn’s real mission is to enter the Mule’s old palace and confirm rumors of Kalgan’s destiny as the true leader of the next Empire. Initially resistant to Munn’s request to search the Mule’s old palace, once Callia informs Stettin of this “confession”, he relents.
Anxiety: Stettin decides to keep Munn and Arcadia on Kalgan until Arcadia is old enough to become his queen, thereby cementing his destiny as ruler of both Kalgan and the Foundation. Lady Callia overhears this plan and sends Arcadia off to a spaceport, hoping to shield her from this fate. After seeing a strange gleam in Callia’s eye, Arcadia realizes that Callia is actually a Second Foundationer. Additionally, she figures out the true location of the Second Foundation.
Through the Grid: In a paranoid panic for fear of being discovered by Second Foundation agents, Arcadia buys tickets to her birth-planet, Trantor. She then meets the Palvers, a vacationing couple also returning to Trantor. Learning of Stettin’s amorous plans, they help Arcadia evade a spaceport security grid. Arcadia tentatively puts her trust in the Palvers and joins them on their ship to Trantor.
Beginning of War: A Kalgan cruiser destroys a Foundation ship as the opening shot of the Stettinian War. Dr. Darell and his young friend Anthor learn that Arcadia has gone to Trantor. They also realize that the Second Foundation has agents on Kalgan, and must know of Arcadia’s trip.
War: Lady Callia apparently uses her Second Foundation mental powers to encourage Stettin’s war against the Foundation. She has Munn reassure Stettin that the Second Foundation does not exist, and therefore will not come to the aid of the Foundation.
Ghost of a World (cont'd from previous issue): After two months of warfare, Stettin is gaining ground against the Foundation. On Trantor, Arcadia convinces her benefactor Preem Palver to visit Terminus and give her father a short but important message.
End of War: The Foundation Fleet lures Stettin’s forces into a position in which Foundation reserves can rush in at a critical moment from out of hyperspace. The Kalgan forces are defeated and Munn is sent back to Terminus as a Kalgan diplomatic representative. After Dr. Darell receives Arcadia’s message from Palver, he sends back a message requesting that she return home, now that the war is over.
“I Know…”: At Darell’s home, the original conspirators reconvene. Munn claims that the Second Foundation has never existed and was invented only as a propaganda device to help the Foundation win battles. Anthor reveals that Munn has been “tampered with” by the Second Foundation. He also claims that the Second Foundation must actually be on Kalgan, as Kalgan has been such a key planet to the events of the last century. Dr. Darell announces that he has invented a “Mental Static” device which can be used to nullify the mental powers of any Second Foundationers within its vicinity. He also announces that he knows the true location of the Second Foundation.
The Answer That Satisfied: Darell reveals that Arcadia had sent him a short message: “A circle has no end”, meaning that the Second Foundation exists on Terminus (the “other end” of a circular line starting from Terminus). Darell then produces a portable Mental Static device which can cause a form of “blinding” mental pain to Second Foundationers. Using the device, he reveals that Anthor is and has always been a Second Foundationer spy amongst their group. Anthor reveals that there are only fifty Second Foundationers and that they live mostly on Terminus. Their plan had been to buy time while their agent on Kalgan (Lady Callia) led Stettin into a fruitless war with the Foundation as a distraction. Later, Dr. Darell fears that his victory has come almost too easily, and suspects Arcadia’s breakthrough intuition (regarding the Second Foundation’s true location) to be the result of mental tampering by Lady Callia. Fortunately, an encephalogram test proves that this is not the case.
The Answer That Was True: The First Speaker praises the sacrifice of fifty of their members on Terminus in order to mislead Dr. Darell and the Foundation into believing that the Second Foundation has been found and destroyed. In this way, the Foundation can continue its natural growth according to Seldon’s Plan without the influence of the knowledge of a Second Foundation. The purpose of the Kalgan war was to restore the Foundation’s belief in their own powers, which had been weakened due to their earlier defeat by the Mule. When the Apprentice brings up the threat of Dr. Darell’s Mental Static device, the First Speaker states that with the Second Foundation “defeated”, the Mental Static device will eventually fade into obscurity as a useless device. He also reveals that Arcadia had indeed been tampered with, but starting from her birth on Trantor, therefore making detection by the First Foundation now impossible. Additionally, the encephalograph method used by Dr. Darell to identify Second Foundation victims is a false theory (it had been “discovered” by their own agent, Anthor). He reveals that the Second Foundation actually exists on Trantor, the center of a spiral galaxy (Terminus is on its outer arm, the “other end” of the spiral arm). Additionally, when Seldon had established his Plan, Terminus and Trantor were at opposite ends from a psycho-social standpoint. Once the Galactic Empire fell, the Second Foundation had then taken over Trantor, where they later arranged for Bayta Darell to stop the Mule’s plans half a century ago, and then began tampering with Arcadia’s mind from her birth. Finally, the First Speaker is revealed to be none other than Preem Palver.

In later years, Asimov was convinced by his pubishers to write additional Foundation books, including the sequels Foundation's Edge (1981) and Foundation and Earth (1986), and the prequels Prelude to Foundation (1988) and Forward the Foundation (1993). There are also several other non-Asimov-written Foundation-related books. However, it's probably safe to say that none of these have the same impact as the original 1940s trilogy.

Wikipedia Entry

Eight Miles Higher Analysis (Andrew Darlington)

1973 BBC Radio Dramatization Parts 1-6, Parts 7-8

Appreciation by Paul Krugman

The Insanely Complete Robot/Foundation Fiction List

Schmoop Guide to Foundation