HG Wells' The Shape Of Things To Come, although it was added in the film, Things To Come;
the first four stories of Robert Heinlein's Future History;
the three stories that originally comprised Poul Anderson's Maurai History;
earlier prophetic literature - although the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven in Revelation, anticipating James Blish's Cities In Flight.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
It's no surprise we don't see space travel in the three original Maurai stories! The civilizations which arose after the War of Judgement didn't have thew resources needed for such an effort for a long, long time.
And I've seen suggestions, including, I think, one from PA himself, that the very strange inaugural vision seen by Ezekiel at the beginning of the book of that name was an attempt at describing aliens and their space ship.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Anderson said that in THE INFINITE VOYAGE.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I was right, then! I'll be looking up that bit from THE INFINITE VOYAGE.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
I finally looked up the text we were talking about from THE INFINITE VOYAGE, and this is what I read at the beginning of Chapter 1: "A few accounts are oddly suggestive. For example, there is the Sumerian legend of the demigod Oannes, who did not look like a human being, but who taught men the arts of civilization. One of the visions of the prophet Ezekiel, as related in the Bible, reads as if it might be an attempt to describe a spaceship and its alien crew. Of course, this is sheer speculation, and in all likelihood is wrong. Imagination alone can easily have brought forth these tales."
Ad astra! Sean
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