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298 ] •14• the historiCal death ray and sCienCe FiCtion in the 1920s and 1930s William J. FanninG, Jr. Given the genre’s inherently speculative nature, it is commonplace for critics and commentators of science fiction (or “sci-fi,” as it is often called in the media) to talk about how life imitates art—that is, how many scientific advances and/ or hi-tech gadgets portrayed in the sf of yesterday eventually materialized in the real world of today. Less frequently discussed but just as interesting is how art imitates life in these works—that is, how the fanciful extrapolations of many sf tales were inspired/informed by the real-life scientific prototypes of their time. The following essay offers an excellent case in point: the “death ray” so prominent in the sf pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s had its origins not only in H. G. Wells’s famous 1898 novel War of the Worlds but also in real news reports about inventors who claimed to have developed such a device during the years immediately following World War I. The essay originally appeared in SFS 37, no. 2 (July 2010): 253–74. Although thewar-weary populations of Europe and theUnited States looked forward to an era of peace following the 1914–18 cataclysm, no sooner had the ink dried on the Versailles Treaty than the phrase “the next war” entered into common parlance (Irwin 1). Articles in newspapers, magazines, professional journals, and books began to appear that warned of a new conflict in which airpower, poison gas, disease germs, and exotic weapons such as death rays would result in the destruction, or near destruction, of civilization . Naturally, there were many who disagreed with such a scenario, charg- The Historical Death Ray and Science Fiction [ 299 ing that antiwar activists, overzealous journalists, and well-meaning but badly misinformed leaders perpetrated this frightening—and false—vision of the future. As a result, a spirited debate over the probability of a new war in the near future and how it would unfold raged in the popular media throughout the 1920s and 1930s. This “next war” concern also found expression in the fiction of the period, with tales of imaginary war and futuristic science appearing frequently in novels, short stories, theatrical plays, movies, and on radio.1 Some of these works reflected disillusionment with traditional ideals in the aftermath of the First World War—the uncertainty wrought by new discoveries in science and the increasing subordination of the individual to the machine.The development of powerful weapons and the widespread belief that humankind would not, or could not, change its aggressive nature also played a role. For other authors, however, the “next war” syndrome pervading the popular media simply provided updated story and plot ideas. Scenarios of future conflict were described in the mainstream media by journalists, military leaders, and others who sensed that the First World War had been only a prelude to an even greater cataclysm. These “next war” stories focused not only on existing weapons such as the airplane and poison gas but also on remote-controlled weapons in development and various types of “death ray.” Indeed, H. G. Wells’s Martian heat ray in The War of the Worlds (1898) had introduced this exotic weapon to sf even before the twentieth century began. Yet the most important decades for the death ray were the 1920s and 1930s, and the increase in interest during this period coincided with multiple stories that announced its actual discovery or development. Following the First World War, extensive coverage in newspapers, popular magazines , books, and professional journals described a variety of new death-ray weapons designed to destroy airplanes or lay waste to whole armies and civilian populations. Political leaders, soldiers, scientists, and prominent journalists engaged in a debate over the plausibility of such claims; indeed, after some years, consensus concluded that this type of energy weapon lay beyond the limits of existing technology. The media of this era nevertheless continued to encourage readers to see the advent of such weapons as inevitable. The death ray of popular sf—introduced into the genre, as mentioned, by Wells’s Martian heat ray—flourished mightily during this interwar period. Yet critical studies and histories of the genre seldom mention any real-world, real-time link as a context for this era’s sudden proliferation of “death ray” stories. My essay aims to fill that gap by examining the death [3.149.233.72] Project MUSE (2024-04...

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