DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 7, Summer 1945

Transcribe
Translate

Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 7, Summer 1945

Page 135

FANTASY COMMENTATOR    135
The Day After Tomorrow
by
Thyril L. Ladd

Introduction

    I suppose that every intelligent human being has, at some time or other, pondered upon the thought "I wonder what the world will be like a hundred---or five hundred---years from now." Authors have wondered in this fashion, too, and have produced many interesting books which tell of the days yet to come. It is the purpose of this article to mention a few of these fascinating fictional conceptions, and perhaps to introduce some readers to tales which may not previously have come to their attention.
    Several novels having a future locale will not be included because in some instances the writer has had to place his story years ahead in order to use machinery and weapons not inconsistent with today's inventions. Rather, we are more interested in such stories as tend to emphasize, as their general theme, changes between coming times and our own. Therefore a book such as Ray Cummings' Sea Girl (1930)---which in reality is simply an account of undersea adventure---will be omitted, since the future time is here merely incidental to the story.
    When we come to consider tales of the future, they appear to fall into two loose categories; those whose locales are laid in the future, and the second group (personally more appealing to this writer) wherein a person sleeps or lies in a trace to awaken in wonderment many years ahead. (In this second assortment there is also an interesting subdivision; the sleeper is actually waked in a future time---but that future is our own day, the sleeping one having been rendered unconscious in some period of the dim past.)
    I can of course describe only those books which I own or have read---doubtless there are others that I have never seen. Then too, as this article will make apparent, I am more interested in the story than its literary quality. So now, in what may be considered a somewhat rambling manner, I shall describe briefly some novels of this type...

    One of the older examples of the world's future destiny is Omega: the Last Days of the World (1894), written by Camille Flammarion. This tale is painted upon a broad canvas, and carries forward into future years through hundreds of centuries until, through lack of water, life upon this planet becomes extinct. The book is very interesting, and gives much data of various times in the planet's history when the end of the world was foretold; it gives also an account of humanity's desperate attempts to thwart its inevitable doom by building glass-enclosed cities and by probing deep within earth's crust for water. Not the least fascinating feature in the volume is its illustrations (of which thero over eights) drawn by over a dozen artists.
    Much more recently an excellent and profound picture of the world's coming history and final end has appeared. This book, Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men (1930), is perhaps the most awesomely fantastic concept in fictional First Men (1930), is perhaps the most awesomely fantastic concept in fictional print. Not only does the author trace the course of this planet to its end, but he goes even further, outlining the history of the human race through its many alterations in evolutionary form and its migrations to other worlds to its final annihilation, two billion years ahead, on the planet Neptune. Even the most competent synopsis can barely hint at the magnificence of the picture of humanity's destiny that this talented British writer has painted.
    The year 1906 saw the appearance of at least two of these tales. One of

Saving...

FANTASY COMMENTATOR 135 The Day After Tomorrow by Thyril L. Ladd Introduction I suppose that every intelligent human being has, at some time or other, pondered upon the thought "I wonder what the world will be like a hundred---or five hundred---years from now." Authors have wondered in this fashion, too, and have produced many interesting books which tell of the days yet to come. It is the purpose of this article to mention a few of these fascinating fictional conceptions, and perhaps to introduce some readers to tales which may not previously have come to their attention. Several novels having a future locale will not be included because in some instances the writer has had to place his story years ahead in order to use machinery and weapons not inconsistent with today's inventions. Rather, we are more interested in such stories as tend to emphasize, as their general theme, changes between coming times and our own. Therefore a book such as Ray Cummings' Sea Girl (1930)---which in reality is simply an account of undersea adventure---will be omitted, since the future time is here merely incidental to the story. When we come to consider tales of the future, they appear to fall into two loose categories; those whose locales are laid in the future, and the second group (personally more appealing to this writer) wherein a person sleeps or lies in a trace to awaken in wonderment many years ahead. (In this second assortment there is also an interesting subdivision; the sleeper is actually waked in a future time---but that future is our own day, the sleeping one having been rendered unconscious in some period of the dim past.) I can of course describe only those books which I own or have read---doubtless there are others that I have never seen. Then too, as this article will make apparent, I am more interested in the story than its literary quality. So now, in what may be considered a somewhat rambling manner, I shall describe briefly some novels of this type... One of the older examples of the world's future destiny is Omega: the Last Days of the World (1894), written by Camille Flammarion. This tale is painted upon a broad canvas, and carries forward into future years through hundreds of centuries until, through lack of water, life upon this planet becomes extinct. The book is very interesting, and gives much data of various times in the planet's history when the end of the world was foretold; it gives also an account of humanity's desperate attempts to thwart its inevitable doom by building glass-enclosed cities and by probing deep within earth's crust for water. Not the least fascinating feature in the volume is its illustrations (of which thero over eights) drawn by over a dozen artists. Much more recently an excellent and profound picture of the world's coming history and final end has appeared. This book, Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men (1930), is perhaps the most awesomely fantastic concept in fictional First Men (1930), is perhaps the most awesomely fantastic concept in fictional print. Not only does the author trace the course of this planet to its end, but he goes even further, outlining the history of the human race through its many alterations in evolutionary form and its migrations to other worlds to its final annihilation, two billion years ahead, on the planet Neptune. Even the most competent synopsis can barely hint at the magnificence of the picture of humanity's destiny that this talented British writer has painted. The year 1906 saw the appearance of at least two of these tales. One of