Visions of the Future: The 1840s- With Eyes Wide Open

(Samuel Morse's telegraph)
As in the 1820s and 30s, revolution spread rapidly across the globe. However, these revolutions were not only political, they were also philosophical, social, and technological. As the consequences of new ideas began to infiltrate everyday life, both science and fiction served as a sort of mirror, showing people the darker sides of human nature.

History:

Around 1848, violent revolutions in Europe caused mass migrations into America. Immigrants sought opportunity to advance their standing in life under the banner of freedom and democracy. Meanwhile, back in the old world, radical ideas were causing great unrest and violence. In 1849, a group of radical Russian intellectuals, including author Fyodor Dostoevsky, were arrested and sentenced to death for treason. They were brought before a firing squad, but at the last minute, their sentence was changed, and they were exiled to Siberia.

Science:

(Louis Agassiz)

In 1840, acclaimed natural scientist Louis Agassiz was the first to propose an ice age in earth’s past. 1944 saw the first usage of Morse’s telegraph. This was when he sent his famous Biblical message, “What hath God wrought”, (which comes from Numbers 23:23). In 1847, photography was first used in war, giving civilians a grisly look into the horrors of the Mexican-American war.

Stories:

Edgar Allan Poe was still a very influential romanticist author in the 1840s, and wrote several proto-science fiction/horror stories. One of these is the grisly tale “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar”. This tells the story of a hypnotist who puts someone into a hypnotic trance just before he dies. It seems to be a precursor to many cryogenic suspension stories, and explores themes of life, death, and the attempted perpetuation of life.

James Fenimore Cooper, the American romanticist of The Last of The Mohicans fame, delved into the newborn science fiction genre with his novel The Crater, in which shipwrecked sailors discover a civilization in a crater on an island previously unknown to the outside.

Yet another romanticist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, wrote a short mad-scientist story, which explored man’s obsession with physical appearance.

Worldview:

If you couldn’t tell, most of the sci-fi of the 1840s came from the worldview of Romanticism. However, during this decade, a new philosophy was devised that would completely change the landscape of society in the middle of the 20th century.

In 1848, the German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels created the Communist Manifesto, which outlined their ideas of a perfect society, based on a completely equal society, and a complete rejection of any religion but atheism.

Science was changing. Philosophy was changing. The world was changing. In this time of upheaval and chaos, science fiction writers were still asking questions basic to humanity: how can we prevent death? What happens when we tamper with the human body? What is out there beyond the world that we know?

Keep on glowing in the dark,
Elora

Top-5 Valentine's Day- Things Early Sci-fi Got Wrong

I hope you see this list of sci-fi concepts from the 19th century that were wrong as a symbol of my deep and lasting affection for all of you readers. Thanks for reading, and feel loved.

Sci-fi is a genre of speculation, not certainty. Looking back at sci-fi from even thirty years ago, like Back to the Future II, we can point and laugh at things that didn't end up happening. Of course, there are also a lot of very fascinating things that science fiction does get right.

Today, however, we are going to point and laugh (in an analytical sort of way) at the things that nineteenth century didn’t get right. To clarify, the names listed beside each concept are not necessarily the inventors of the concepts. Rather, they are the creators who popularized them in science fiction.

Let it begin!

5. The Rocket Cannon (Jules Verne)-

In his 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon (also known as something I can’t spell or pronounce in French), Jules Verne tells the story of a gun club whose members decide to launch a vessel out of a giant cannon into space. Interestingly, his calculations for the rocket cannon are almost plausible, but aren’t quite practical for manned space travel.

4. The Moon’s Atmosphere (George Tucker)-

The moon’s atmosphere appears in far more works than just Tucker’s 1827 space satire, but since we talked about it in a previous post, I thought I would use it for this example. For all the people of the time knew, the moon could have had a perfectly breathable atmosphere, but further study has shown that what little atmosphere the moon has is only comparable to the outer fringes of the earth’s atmosphere, and is not at all sufficient to sustain caricatures of earth civilizations.

3. Martian Canals (H.G. Wells)-

The Martian canals were actually a subject of scientific study from the end of the 19th century until the beginning of the 20th century. However, increased astronomical study and technology have proved these presumed remnants of Martian civilization to be little more than optical illusions. Still, they made for a pretty believable origin story for angry extraterrestrials who want to conquer earth.

2. American Socialist Utopia in the Year 2000 (Edward Bellamy)-

The late nineteenth century was the time when socialist ideals were really beginning to make an influence on culture. In Looking Backward, socialist Edward Bellamy foresaw the United States of America in the year 2000. While it can be argued that American government is increasingly socialist, fifteen years after Bellamy’s proposed society was set to exist, I think we can safely say that The United States is either completely socialist, or all that utopian.

1. The Reanimation of a Dead Human Brain (Mary Shelley)-

Life and death have been one of the central issues of human philosophy since we were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Therefore, it makes sense for us to postulate about bringing life back into dead tissue by scientific means, as Victor Frankenstein did in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. However, the human brain is so complex, that the amount of damage caused by prolonged, well, death, would render it unusable. There’s your happy tip for the day.

On the next top five list, we’ll talk about things 19th century sci-fi actually got right. In the meantime, there will be a post about 1840s sci-fi! Yay! Also,you can tune in to my radio show, SpaceTime on Moody Campus Radio at 7 PM central time on Tuesdays. This Tuesday, February 17th, I’ll be talking about the 50s, 60s, and 70s in sci-fi history (I’m moving through sci-fi history much faster on the show than on the blog), as well as Back to the Future III! Thanks for reading. As always, please leave comments.

Keep on glowing in the dark,

Elora

Visions of the Future: The 1830s- Lighting and Fire

The world was in flux. Science turned up new wonders and terrors everyday. Revolution spread like a wildfire. The future was uncertain. Readers turned to the fledgling genre of science fiction for diversion, but also for any sort of idea of what the future might hold.

History:

The 1830s was another decade rife with revolutions and change. In the year 1830, Mormon church was established, and challenged societal and religious norms. The Belgian Revolution took place that same year.

In 1831, an American slave named Nat Turner instigated a rebellion with several other slaves which ended in violence, bloodshed, and hatred. The same year, young ministry student and natural science hobbyist Charles Darwin set sail on his legendary voyage on the HMS Beagle. Also, Greece became an independent nation.

1833 saw the founding of the city of Chicago; and the first presidential assassination attempt in America in 1835 when Richard Lawrence misfired twice in an attempt to shoot president Andrew Jackson. Finally, in 1839, the First Opium war was waged between England and China.

Science:

(NGC 3603)

Both proteins and enzymes were first discovered in the 1830s. The discovery of the first enzyme in 1833 marked the beginning of the science of biochemistry. The first recognized protein was discovered in 1838.

Astronomy also advanced during this era, with new sightings and techniques. In 1834 John Herschel sighted what is now known as open cluster NGC 3603. Then, in 1839 Thomas Henderson calculated the first parallax measurement to Alpha Centauri. The first photograph of the moon was taken in 1839.

Some notable inventions of the 1830s are Morse’s telegraph (1837), and the Colt revolver (1838).

Stories:

(This is a picture of Edgar Allan Poe in a birthday hat that my brother left on my phone. I thought I would share it.)

Edgar Allan Poe became the chief figure of science fiction during the 1830s. Though most people usually think of Poe as a horror writer, he often delved into ideas of science and technology. Usually, Poe’s stories concluded grimly, as the technology so many people praised ended up being the downfall of the main characters. A few examples of Poe’s stories are the apocalyptic “Conversation of Eiros and Charmion”, and the satirical “Unparalleled Adventures of One Hans Pfaal”, which chronicled a voyage in a hot air balloon.

James Fenimore Cooper, of The Last of the Mohicans fame, broke into the genre with The Monikins, a tale of a civilization of intelligent apes published in 1835.

Also published in 1835, a fascinating Russian novel called The Year 4338: The Petersburg Letters, describes a future utopia on the eve of the apocalypse. China and Russia are the main world powers in Vladmir Odoevsky’s speculated future.

Worldview:

(Kierkegaard)

One of the early proponents of existentialism, Soren Kierkegaard, rose to prominence during the 1830s. He was a theologian who often criticized organized religion, and made a distinction between the “objective”-the material world- and the “subjective”-the moral/ethical/spiritual realm.

Around the same time, philosopher Auguste Comte pioneered the science of sociology, calling his views the “religion of humanity”.

Writers and poets of the time were still heavily influenced by Romanticism.  

What would scientists come up with next? Who could know what the next day would hold, much less the next four-thousand years? Would it be apocalypse, or utopia. The only place these questions were answered was in the minds of science fiction pioneers.

Keep on glowing in the dark,

Elora