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Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 9, Winter 1945-1946
Page 209
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 209 SPITZ, Jacques Sever the Earth London: John Lane---the Bodley Head, 1936. ix-167pp. 19 cm. 7/6. Further information: This is an authorized translation by Margaret Mitchiner of the author's L'Agonie du Globe, and is illustrated with a number of line drawings by Denis Tegetmeier. Synopsis: Sever the Earth is a piece of pseudo-historical writing dealing with a global catastrophe supposed to have taken place in the mid-1940's. Through an unexplained agency the earth splits in half in such a way as to make two separate hemispheres (one containing Europe, Asia and Africa, the other bearing Australia and the Americas). The story shows us first the strange climatic disturbances as the crevasse forms and widens, and then leads up through the events brought about by its discovery. At first the two halves of the globe are separated from each other by only about forty miles, and aerial communication between them can still be effected. This becomes impossible as the gap gradually widens, however, and eventually the two worlds become so far separated that they cannot communicate even by radio. The climax of the tale centers about the discovery that not only are the two halves receding still further from each other, but that the moon is being drawn into dangerous proximity with them. Astronomical calculations show that the old world (from whose viewpoint the book is written) should collide with the satellite at a certain date. The meeting is avoided by a hair's breadth, but five days later the moon and the new world are involved in a cosmic crash which destroys both. The story ends with the surviving half-planet occupying alone the approximate former orbit of Earth. Review: Whether it is a fault of translation or a difficulty inherent in all French science-fiction this writer does not presume to state, but Sever the Earth is severely marred by the same flippancy and shallowness and the same weakness of plot and characterization one notes in many of the works of Jules Verne. Moreover, it can be called a story only through courtesy; it lacks characters, personal conflicts and aspirations, and plot in the ordinary sense of those terms. The impression it gives is that of a detailed synopsis for a full-length novel. Were it not for this flippant handling and some extremely inept attempts at humor, Sever the Earth might perhaps be acceptable as a pseudo-historical treatise---a recognized if infrequently encountered classification of science-fiction---but in its present form the work leaves much to be desired. The profound implausibility of the phenomena described weakens the story still further. In the first place, no attempt is made to explain or to suggest an explanation for the earth's splitting. One could perhaps overlook this omission were it not extremely difficult to imagine such an occurance without an accompanying cataclysm that would utterly destroy all life. An abnormally heavy precipitation and a series of severe earthquakes seem mild corollaries indeed to the rending asunder of a planet. Moreover, at the time of moon's collision with the new world the two bodies are but 48,000 miles from the surviving half---and it seems improbable that such a crash could occur without destroying everything within a much greater radius. Subject to these flaws the story is mildly enjoyable, but this reviewer cannot conscientiously recommend it as an example of first-class science-fiction. ---Francis [illegible] Laney
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FANTASY COMMENTATOR 209 SPITZ, Jacques Sever the Earth London: John Lane---the Bodley Head, 1936. ix-167pp. 19 cm. 7/6. Further information: This is an authorized translation by Margaret Mitchiner of the author's L'Agonie du Globe, and is illustrated with a number of line drawings by Denis Tegetmeier. Synopsis: Sever the Earth is a piece of pseudo-historical writing dealing with a global catastrophe supposed to have taken place in the mid-1940's. Through an unexplained agency the earth splits in half in such a way as to make two separate hemispheres (one containing Europe, Asia and Africa, the other bearing Australia and the Americas). The story shows us first the strange climatic disturbances as the crevasse forms and widens, and then leads up through the events brought about by its discovery. At first the two halves of the globe are separated from each other by only about forty miles, and aerial communication between them can still be effected. This becomes impossible as the gap gradually widens, however, and eventually the two worlds become so far separated that they cannot communicate even by radio. The climax of the tale centers about the discovery that not only are the two halves receding still further from each other, but that the moon is being drawn into dangerous proximity with them. Astronomical calculations show that the old world (from whose viewpoint the book is written) should collide with the satellite at a certain date. The meeting is avoided by a hair's breadth, but five days later the moon and the new world are involved in a cosmic crash which destroys both. The story ends with the surviving half-planet occupying alone the approximate former orbit of Earth. Review: Whether it is a fault of translation or a difficulty inherent in all French science-fiction this writer does not presume to state, but Sever the Earth is severely marred by the same flippancy and shallowness and the same weakness of plot and characterization one notes in many of the works of Jules Verne. Moreover, it can be called a story only through courtesy; it lacks characters, personal conflicts and aspirations, and plot in the ordinary sense of those terms. The impression it gives is that of a detailed synopsis for a full-length novel. Were it not for this flippant handling and some extremely inept attempts at humor, Sever the Earth might perhaps be acceptable as a pseudo-historical treatise---a recognized if infrequently encountered classification of science-fiction---but in its present form the work leaves much to be desired. The profound implausibility of the phenomena described weakens the story still further. In the first place, no attempt is made to explain or to suggest an explanation for the earth's splitting. One could perhaps overlook this omission were it not extremely difficult to imagine such an occurance without an accompanying cataclysm that would utterly destroy all life. An abnormally heavy precipitation and a series of severe earthquakes seem mild corollaries indeed to the rending asunder of a planet. Moreover, at the time of moon's collision with the new world the two bodies are but 48,000 miles from the surviving half---and it seems improbable that such a crash could occur without destroying everything within a much greater radius. Subject to these flaws the story is mildly enjoyable, but this reviewer cannot conscientiously recommend it as an example of first-class science-fiction. ---Francis [illegible] Laney
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