Pete Teaches Science Fiction -Reading assigments for Class #5 A

Greetings, I hope to polish this up and add color and explanation later.

Here's what I hope we will read for class #5


Buck Rogers in print.

Buck Rogers is one of the classic science fiction heroes. This is his first appearance and dates from 1928.

https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_08-1928_Buck_Rogers_Armageddon_2419_AD_




HP Lovecraft is normally classified as a weird horror writer but I think a good argument could be made that often he could be classified as a science fiction writer. I think this story is one example. It's a bit long but it is a classic. It dates from 1931.

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/At_the_Mountains_of_Madness

More has been written about him in a later post.

(As an aside, I mentioned that I wrote my MA Thesis on the search for Peking Man, a colloquial term for some specimens of Homo Erecti found in China in 1927. Let me suggest, it's never a bad idea to check and verify when people make claims of lofty education, etc. Although I strongly believe most people are honest and good --if you lose your wallet it usually gets returned-- it only takes one dishonest or predatory person to complicate and change your life, so in that spirit:
https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/8399

This is my MA Thesis. There is no obligation whatsoever to read any of it. Really.



Damon Runyon

Since we are discussing pulp and magazine fiction of the 1930s and 1940s, I'd like to introduce you to Damon Runyon. Damon Runyon is not a science fiction writer and has absolutely no business being mentioned in this class. On the other hand, he's great. He's very, very funny and often considered one of the masters of the craft of short story writing.

So check him out. I have found his story "A Piece of Pie" and if you look at it, I think you will enjoy it.

http://www.unz.org/Pub/Colliers-1937aug21-00009

Here's a radio series from the time based on his stories. A Piece of Pie is story number 21.  

https://archive.org/details/DamonRunyonTheater

Here's a youtube presentation of the radio play. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mWjydUg2wA

Pete Teaches Science Fiction --Class #3

The Early Magazines  --

"The Pulps" 

This site provides an excellent introduction to the "pulp" magazines that were such an important part of early science fiction: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/15f12ccdc5ad3bc9

While there, do not hesitate to browse and explore the archives. Many of the early pulp magazines are on the web in different places.


This is the first issue of Astounding Stories (now called Analog), an important magazine in the history of science fiction.

You can find the full text of the magazine at Project Gutenberg:  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/41481

We will also continue our discussion of pulp stories and early magazine stories with Leslie F Stones "Conquest of Gola" --this is in the book but if you wish to see the actual magazine it came in (with editorials and other stories, as well as fascinating ads, you may look here: 

http://www.pulpmags.org/collections/pdf/won19310400.pdf

In fact, a collection of on-line copies of all of the issues of "Wonder Stories" magazine from 1931 are here: http://www.pulpmags.org/content/view/issues/wonder-stories.html 

If you'd like to know more about Leslie Stone, http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/stone_leslie_f

Finally, I'd be curious to get your take on the issue of Edgar Rice Burroughs and sexism or lack thereof. 

There are ten and a half books in ERB's "Barsoom" (Mars) series, easily his most popular series after Tarzan and his most popular SF series.

This is the fourth one and dates from 1916. In the first three books, John Carter, a master swordsman and civil war veteran comes to Mars (Barsoom) through mysterious means where he discovers that due to the low gravity he has super strength. Skipping ahead, he makes friends with the savage four armed green martians who soon capture him and then rescues Dejah Thoris, a proud Barsoomian princess from a nation called Helium. They get married and have a son named Carthoris (should you wonder, Tarzan and Jane got married and had a son name Korak). 

In this book, Carthoris, now an adult, meets Thuvia, a proud Martian princess who has the power to control the Martian lions called "Banths" and well  . . . problems happen and he sets out to rescue her.  

Just read as much as you want but please try to read at least the first scene of the book. (It starts much faster than the first three. I think in the first one, it takes a couple chapters before John Carter gets to Mars, chapters in which ERB carefully explains how he met John Carter and acquired the manuscript and in which John Carter explains how he wound up on Mars after going to Arizona where he was chased by Apaches into some mysterious ruins that transported him to the red planet.

Description of book with 1916 cover

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuvia,_Maid_of_Mars

A more modern depiction of Thuvia painted by Brian Justo.

Images of Thuvia

https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&biw=1366&bih=662&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=thuvia+maid+of+mars&oq=thuvia+ma&gs_l=psy-ab.1.0.0j0i24k1l2.1271501.1273034.0.1275554.9.9.0.0.0.0.277.1865.0j5j4.9.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.9.1861...0i67k1.0.-y-Twq7ZE-8

The full text of the book is available online. 

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72

Pete Teaches Science Fiction --Class #2

Early writers

Science Fiction Writers!	Science Fiction Writers?
Jules Verne 1828-1905  "Voyage Extroadinaire" / Extraordinary Voyages French adventure writer who enjoyed writing stories that include a technological wonder	Homer?? Odyssey? Illiad? Could Homer have believed cyclopses really existed? See L. Sprague De Camp's interesting non-fiction book, "Lands Beyond."
H.G. Wells 1866-1946 Socialist with pacifist leanings  Wrote science fiction which said something about society.  War of the Worlds imagery	Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels?? Political satire??
Edgar Rice Burroughs 1875-1950 American, the escapist, heroic branch of science fiction Art based on Edgar Rice Burroughs fiction