Humanity's place in the OSS

by Dylan
(Illinois, Wisconsin )

Zendexor has stated that Earth is the king planet. But are we, children of Earth, also kings?

In the (disappointingly) real Solar System, I'd say yes, simply for a lack of contenders to the throne. While this might be a good thing from an ethical standpoint (no aliens for us to play mighty-whitey in a pith helmet with), it does leave something to be desired.

So what then of our status in the OSS? That is the subject of many stories, either directly or indirectly.

Many science fiction writers like to point out that we are not the masters of the universe we think we are. H.G. Wells comes to mind, with The First Men in the Moon questioning our power on other planets, and The War of the Worlds questioning our right to even our own. Wells makes a compelling argument that the solar system is not our domain.

But other authors take the opposite view. Edgar Rice Burroughs dreams up heroes who, finding themselves on other worlds, quickly adapt and thrive in their new environments. They even come to rule the natives they find, marrying princesses or overthrowing rulers. John Carter finds his Earthly muscles make his strength seem stupendous, and Carson gains supernatural abilities. Wherever Earth men go, they quickly rise to the top of the food chain.

Then there are some who walk a path between the two. Leigh Brackett, a favorite author of mine, shows us a Solar System where Earth men do indeed hold the planets in their hands, but their grip is tenuous. Native uprisings and resistance frequently thwart them and leave pompous Earthers bleeding on the ground. Even though humans are dominant, this is not necessarily seen as a good thing, and Brackett's main protagonist, Eric John Stark, always sides with aboriginal people over colonists.

Another author, Rex Gordon, holds a similar though slightly different view. In his book No Man Friday, our hero (spoilers) encounters Martians who are utterly indifferent to any of the things he thinks are important. They also possess powers of a seemingly supernatural nature, able to keep the hero's rescuers from exploring the planet. To these Martians, we are neither kings nor enemies, we are simply nuisances to be ignored and contained.

I am sure that other authors have other things to say. What are your thoughts?

Dylan

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Aug 30, 2016
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Oops!
by: Dylan

I misspelled "believe", there. That's what I get for rushing to get my response out!

{Z: but the haste is a sign of commendable zeal.}

Aug 30, 2016
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I Agree
by: Dylan

I love Burroughs, and I love Brackett, they both give me a beautiful vision of Mars. However, I find I get a certain pleasure from narratives where humanity is put in its place. We tend to be pretty sure of our mastery over all, and who doesn't love it when an arrogant sod is brought down a few notches?

In regards to humans being seeded on other planets by aliens, I can think of a couple OSS stories that feature something like your idea. The first is "The Lord's of Creation" series by S.M. Stirling, which has been discussed elsewhere on this site. The second is the short story "Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan" by Ian McDonald. Venus in the story is partly populated by "the Thekh", humans abducted from central Asia who now beleive themselves to be the original humans, and Terrans the offshoots.
(The story can be found in "Old Venus", wonderful collection I think I will read again.)

Aug 27, 2016
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more to the point...
by: John Michael Greer

With regard to the broader question, though, my opinions here are pretty definite -- I don't think much of the notion of Man the Conqueror of Nature, whether or not that's projected onto the solar system or just onto our own long-suffering planet. Burroughs is great fun, but I prefer a solar system where human beings are at most temporary top dogs, with ancient beings who roll their eyes at our upstart pretensions, and rising young species who might just elbow us out of the way one of these centuries. It just seems a lot more colorful and interesting.

But that's just me, and others will have their own tastes.

{note from Zendexor: I suppose it depends on who is writing the story. Reading Burroughs, one expects and wants what one gets; reading HPL, one would be very disappointed if aliens weren't really alien. The digestive system, as it were, of our imaginations, insist that the flavours of the story have got to match.}

Aug 27, 2016
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A wrinkle to the COMOLD
by: John Michael Greer

It occurs to me that if there has been space travel at various ages of the more or less distant past, might it not happen that human populations were brought by then-dominant alien civilizations to those worlds where they could survive -- perhaps as pets! -- and that breeding populations might have survived on at least a few such worlds? Thus you still have thoroughly alien beings who did, or still do, dominate the other planets of the OSS, but you also have human or quasi-human beings here and there. I don't happen to know of anyone who's done this, but it's an interesting alternative: what would happen to an originally human population on Mars, say, after ten thousand years or so of genetic drift, and cultural influence from Martian societies?

Of course this also raises the question of whether there might still be relict populations of Martians et al. here on Earth, tucked away in various places, recalled vaguely in local folklore like the fungi from Yuggoth in Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness."

Just spinning ideas, starting with the assumption of a long history of spaceflight in the solar system...

{Note from Zendexor: In Edgar Pangborn's novel "A Mirror for Observers" we get a few Martians on Earth, surviving in secret, after the extinction of life on their own planet.

Humans as pets - that's a cute idea. Reminds me of HPL's "At the Mountains of Madness" in which it's suggested that the Old Ones kept some humans as "amusing buffoons".}

Aug 26, 2016
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Brackett's "humans"
by: Dylan

In this case, I am counting humans as people who came from Earth recently, as I don't really like Brackett's idea that the "Humans" of her Solar System started out on some other planet - it implies more than I think she intended it to, and contradicts other things she says. Mostly, the fossil record gets in the way, for me: we definitely started out here on Earth. What's more, the Martians of Brackett's Mars were up and civilized more than a million years ago (see the Sword of Rhiannon), and Earthmen first appeared only 200,000 years ago. So there's no way that her Martians are in fact human, no matter how she may hint. All due respect to the wonderful Brackett, of course.

I'm also not necessarily going by "superiority", merely equality. Humans often feel superior in Solar Systems such as Brackett's, because of their advanced technology, which allows them to establish colonial rule on other planets. But philosophically and ethically, we show ourselves to be no better than any other sentient being - sometimes, we're even ethically inferior.

That said, you are correct that technologically advanced pockets remain on Mars which far exceed what Earth is capable of producing. So humans aren't even the top dogs in that sense.

{note from Zendexor: it's also good to emphasize our fossil record as a rebuttal of my bugbear, COMOLD - though I daresay our present knowledge of palaeoanthropology is vastly greater than that of Leigh Brackett's day}

Aug 24, 2016
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Humano-centrism
by: Dylan

Not bad form at all, sir, I was happy to see activity on this particular page!

The ancient OSS is indeed a potent setting, as Zendexor and I almost discussing on the "CRIM and the Cluster" page. I own a graphic novel called "Scarlet Traces", which, in part 2, briefly hints at an acient solar system teeming with life. It's a tantalizing image, if only there were more.

I beleive there is a story in "New Venus" which is set in CL Moore's solar system, although I can't recall what it is. I shall have to search it out in the morning (more fun than googling it.)

It strikes me that the three trains of thought I identified in the above essay might be narrowed into two by dividing them by how humano-centric they are. Wells, Brackett, and Gordon reject the idea that Earth humans are the top of the food chain, taking a more cynical view. Burroughs, on the other hand, holds to the very 19th century idea that man will conquer all.

Real-world history removed, I cannot say which makes for better storytelling. I tend to prefer the first approach, but I can certainly see that the second is often more fun.

{Comment from Zendexor: Brackett's System to me seems rather over-run by humans, but I suppose you mean that there are islands of alien superiority here and there, e.g. in People of the Talisman and The Last Days of Shandakor? But even there, the superiority is not widely effective. However, I am not confident in this judgement - I may be missing something...}

Aug 23, 2016
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The temporary nature of human predominance?
by: John Michael Greer

(Hoping it won't be a faux pas to comment on an old debate...)

I'm thinking here of the comment at the beginning of C.L. Moore's "Shambleau" to the effect that space travel has been discovered many times, going back to the distant past. That would seem to suggest that humanity might be temporarily at the top of the OSS pyramid, but were minor players in the past and will doubtless be minor players in the far (or not so far) future. Can anyone recommend a work of OSS or NOSS fiction that's explored this in more detail than Moore? Many thanks.

{Comment from Zendexor: A hugely promising topic, this. Authors have hardly scratched the surface, or offered tantalising hints such as those of HPL in "The Shadow Out of Time". You and I want something more substantial.

Well, I can suggest James P Hogan's series, but though I liked "Inherit the Stars" I didn't get on with the second volume, "The Gentle Giants of Ganymede", and I haven't seen the other three books. Then there's the tale on this site, Robert Gibson's "The Archives of the Moon", which is actually the most popular ever item on this site so far, and does go into a lot more detail than C L Moore, but even so, greedy people like me are not satisfied. I'd like to know plenty more about the Lunarian Empire that Gibson describes.}

Feb 16, 2016
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The Empire of Mars
by: Anonymous

They could genetically engineer themselves to take the giant planets, and I know you love a good solid-surface gas giant, Zendexor.

Another option for those late-to-the-party humans could be the lesser Asteroids. By hollowing then out, giving them spin and and filling them with heat and air, those desperate Earthers could engineer for themselves a menagerie of small worlds. If Luna is the domain of Marsfolk, Earth Trojan Asteroids could take its place, and the Asteroid Belt could become a human divider in the Martian kingdom. That would increase the number of human/Martian confrontations.

Feb 13, 2016
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Consequence of Martian low gravity
by: Zendexor

Following from the last paragraph of the previous comment, here's an interesting possible scenario: that of a Solar System in which the Martians have achieved space travel, and have occupied all the low-gravity worlds, leaving Terrestrials with the Earth and Venus. This might in turn spur Earthmen to breed versions of themselves to colonize the only other option, namely the giant planets...

Feb 12, 2016
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Are we or they the lords of the world?
by: Anonymous

An interesting trope, and one which I think can be inferred in other stories, even if it is never stated deliberately.

For example, if the Martians have comparatively simple technology, one could infer that the harsh nature of their planet has kept them from making many strides towards space travel. Martians of this variety appear in Alan M. Steele's "Martian Blood" and Phillip K. Dick's "Martian Time Slip."

Another story where an explanation is never given but can be asily deduced is S.M. Stirling's "Courts of the Crimson Kings". Stirling's Mars is said to lack fossil fuels or radioactive material, and its inhabitants were forced to develop biological technology (there's more to it than that, but I won't spoil anything). While their genetic and eugenic abilities are far in advance of Earth's, the Martians' living tools would not be well suited to space travel, thus grounding the Martians.

There is another way to explain the lack of advanced Martians on Earth, which to my knowledge has never been used. That is, fairly simply, the gravity problem. The frail form of lifeforms evolved on another world might very well forbid them from ours, where the pull of gravity is several times greater. H.G. WellS came close to this with the War of the Worlds, where the gravity did not inhibit the Martian conquest, but did greatly inconvenience the Martians.

Feb 09, 2016
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Martians giving up space travel
by: Zendexor

This theme of Martians giving up space travel is a fascinating example of the growth of a tradition in OSS writing. It has arisen, one assumes independently, in at least 3 great works: the stories about Tweel by Weinbaum (as Dylan has pointed out), plus the Martians portrayed by Heinlein in Red Planet, plus the renunciation of the space-travel option by C S Lewis' Archon of Mars in the remote past.

Of course the story has logic behind it. If you want to portray Mars as an old world, where the inhabitants have had millions of years to get wiser and wiser, the question arises: if they're that clever why haven't they dominated the solar system? Why aren't their colonies all over the place? And the answer comes naturally: they don't do space travel. They lack the resources (as in Weinbaum) or they are no longer interested (as in Heinlein) or they are philosophically opposed (as in Lewis).

And that leaves the space-lanes clear for upstart Earthmen...

Feb 05, 2016
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Good 'ol Tweel
by: Dylan

I'm glad you mentioned Weinbaum, because his "Martian Odessey" and "Valley of Dreams" are some of my favorite short stories!

The Martians in these stories actually resemble Heinlein's Martians in one respect. As we find out in Valley of Dreams, the Martians (spoilers) apparently possessed space travel once, and even came to Earth. Presumably, they gave it up to pursue other, alien goals. (It is also possible that their world has deteriorated to the point where space travel is no longer feasible, but I'm going to ignore that for the sake of a point.)

Speaking of Tweel, he has got to be one of the best aliens I've ever read. To quote Campbell, he is an alien who "Who thinks as well or better than a man, but not LIKE a man." Weinbaum seems to be have been good at this, and according to Isaac Asimov, his work had explosive effects on the field until his unfortunate death.

It may not always be possible to include really alien aliens in a story, because it might not serve the tale one is trying to tell. But Weinbaum definitely injected the genre with a little bit of spice, so that those aliens might be more common.

Feb 05, 2016
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Doc Smith, Weinbaum and Heinlein on this issue
by: Zendexor

Preliminary thoughts on the issue Dylan has raised:
Doc Smith in "Spacehounds of IPC" has control of the Solar System shared out between various humanoid races with Earthmen slightly in front as regards space travel, but greatly threatened by the powerful hexan Jovians.
Weinbaum has Earthmen dominant but thinly spread.
Heinlein has Earthmen with a monopoly of space travel but not in real control "on the ground" - especially on Mars where they know they are allowed to remain merely on sufferance. "Red Planet" narrates how men come within an ace of being thrown off Mars. The Martians in that book are not interested in space travel; they gave it up ages ago - but that doesn't mean they are technologically inferior; far from it.
I suppose that any near-future series of stories with Earthmen flying among the worlds of the Solar System is unlikely to portray space travel as originating at the same time on other OSS worlds, because it would be too unlikely a coincidence to have space travel invented at the same time on different worlds. But it is also reasonable to imagine that other worlds might be so old and wise as to have become introspective and to have "outgrown" space travel, as Heinlein's Martians have done. The result is a human dominance of the space-lanes without implying any genuine human superiority.

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