Presentation Title
Pursuing the Intersections of Age, Immortality and Gender in US SF Pulp Magazines of the Gernback Era
Abstract
Since June 2014, I have been systematically going through the compilation of abstracts of stories published in the genre magazines Amazing, Astounding, Wonder and other from 1926 through 1936, as compiled by Everett F. Bleiler with the assistance of Richard J. Bleiler, in the 730 pages of Science-Fiction:The Gernsback Years , looking for glimpses of the intersection of gender and age in the early pulp years of American sf. As many know, this period of science fiction magazines in America under the leadership of the immigrant Gernsback was critical in the emergence of American science fiction, a time in which a sense of community developed, and hence a logical place to look for the origin of themes that might have grown into crescendos or taken on more grandiose resonances in later genre years.
Many questions came to mind while collecting and then writing up what I had found. One of the first that I began to ponder was, are these stories focusing on themes of immortality, prolonged life, perpetual youth and rejuvenation really about fear, or of aging? And is it aging we really fear, or dying –to which aging merely serves as a bridge?
Is it easier then, I began to wonder, and less anxiety-provoking, to express issues about the bridge, rather than about the other side to which we might be crossing? Or, to shift metaphors, is it easier to express concerns about the sturdiness or stability of the ladder, than about the surface to which we might be climbing?
In this paper, I will explore stories such as Lilith Lorraine’s “The Celestial Visitor” and Edmond Hamilton’s “The Comet Doom” and contrast the differential relationships to age and immortality in the pulps of the Golden Age, I will develop a timeline and show how issues reflected in the stories published in several magazines changed, resonating with world political events and patterns.
Pursuing the Intersections of Age, Immortality and Gender in US SF Pulp Magazines of the Gernback Era
Since June 2014, I have been systematically going through the compilation of abstracts of stories published in the genre magazines Amazing, Astounding, Wonder and other from 1926 through 1936, as compiled by Everett F. Bleiler with the assistance of Richard J. Bleiler, in the 730 pages of Science-Fiction:The Gernsback Years , looking for glimpses of the intersection of gender and age in the early pulp years of American sf. As many know, this period of science fiction magazines in America under the leadership of the immigrant Gernsback was critical in the emergence of American science fiction, a time in which a sense of community developed, and hence a logical place to look for the origin of themes that might have grown into crescendos or taken on more grandiose resonances in later genre years.
Many questions came to mind while collecting and then writing up what I had found. One of the first that I began to ponder was, are these stories focusing on themes of immortality, prolonged life, perpetual youth and rejuvenation really about fear, or of aging? And is it aging we really fear, or dying –to which aging merely serves as a bridge?
Is it easier then, I began to wonder, and less anxiety-provoking, to express issues about the bridge, rather than about the other side to which we might be crossing? Or, to shift metaphors, is it easier to express concerns about the sturdiness or stability of the ladder, than about the surface to which we might be climbing?
In this paper, I will explore stories such as Lilith Lorraine’s “The Celestial Visitor” and Edmond Hamilton’s “The Comet Doom” and contrast the differential relationships to age and immortality in the pulps of the Golden Age, I will develop a timeline and show how issues reflected in the stories published in several magazines changed, resonating with world political events and patterns.
