Fanning Flames on Mars

I spent much of last weekend on Mars – well…in two novels set on Mars. I have little to say about Thin Air by Richard Morgan beyond that it is serviceable scifi/detective-noir. On a Mars roughly terraformed just enough to be livable in spots, there are corrupt politicians, corrupt police, corrupt corporations, and outright gangsters, as well as sincere ideologues of both the authoritarian and anti-authoritarian variety who are more dangerous than any of the corrupt folk. If you like the scifi-noir combination (there is more than enough of it out there to constitute a genre), you’ll like this one well enough. The more interesting of the two novels, however, was, oddly enough, by far the more poorly written one. What made it interesting was the context, which requires a brief detour.

Fan fiction – unauthorized stories with a setting and/or with characters created by another author – took off in a big way with Star Trek. It was by no means limited to Star Trek – Dr. Who was another franchise that inspired a lot of amateur writers – but Star Trek was the big one in the 1970s. Manuscripts were swapped at conventions and at fan clubs; numerous stories were published in fan magazines. Paramount decided that fan fiction didn’t hurt the value of their Star Trek franchise, and in the 70s allowed a number of fan-written non-canon paperback novels to be sold. The key word is “allowed.” The legal status of “fanfic” is murky. U.S. copyright law has a number of “fair use” exceptions for imitators. Satire is broadly permitted on 1^st Amendment grounds. In non-satirical works, the courts take account of factors such as whether or not the fanfic is commercial and whether it harms the value of the copyright holder’s intellectual property. In general, though, if a copyright-holder objects to the publication of fan fiction and asks for an injunction, a court will issue one. The courts blocked, for example, publication of an unauthorized sequel to Catcher in the Rye featuring Holden Caulfield 60 years after the events in Salinger’s novel. Original authors vary a lot in attitude toward fan imitators. Anne Rice objected to all fan fiction based on her work at first, though she has mellowed somewhat over time. J.K. Rowling has objected to some fanfic: particularly Harry Potter stories with sexual themes. Joss Whedon has been tolerant – even supportive – of Buffy fanfic even though it competes to some degree with his Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic books. Most fan fiction has been online since the mid-90s, of course, and a number of authors honed their skills on online fanfic sites. Fifty Shades of Grey began as fan fiction for the Twilight series; E.L. James removed the Twilight setting and characters in her rewrite for publication as a novel.

Fan fiction as a widespread pop-cultural phenomenon may be dated to Star Trek, but it existed in pockets long before then. Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and all the writings of Jane Austen inspired fan fiction in the 19^th century as they still do today. One peculiar example of early scifi fanfic is Edison’s Conquest of Mars, which was serialized in the Boston Post in 1898. It is an unauthorized sequel to H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, which in 1897 had been serialized in Pearson’s Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan in the US prior to its release as a novel. Edison’s Conquest of Mars by Garrett P. Serviss was my second visit to Mars last weekend. The novel is a steampunk Starship Troopers written by an actual Victorian. Serviss was an astronomer who also wrote popular science articles for newspapers. I don’t think there is much doubt Wells or Cosmopolitan could have halted the publication of Serviss’ serial had they chosen, but they didn’t bother. I suspect Wells simply wasn’t aware of it. For all his avowed socialism, Wells was notoriously protective of his intellectual property: asserting that the idea for the tank in World War 1 had come from one of his pre-war science fiction stories, for example, he even (unsuccessfully) sued the British government.

Cover depicts rescue of
human captive from Martians

Edison’s Conquest of Mars is set shortly after the failure of the Martian invasion described by Wells. As the reader doubtless remembers, the Martians in Wells’ novel had laid waste to the planet while scarcely being inconvenienced by the futile efforts of earth’s militaries. The Martians were defeated in the end not by humans but by the microorganisms of earth to which they had no resistance. In Serviss’ sequel, human authorities are convinced the Martians will return to finish their conquest as soon as they devise a means to resist earth’s diseases. They believe the only hope is to strike first. A team led by Thomas Edison – yes, that Thomas Edison – reverse engineers the Martian machines and does them better. He develops “electrical” spaceships: not ion drives, but anti-gravity drives using electromagnetic fields. The Martian spaceships, by contrast, are simply launched toward their targets and freefall there; they don’t maneuver in space the way Edison’s ships can. (The atmosphere of Mars itself is defended by fleets of powerfully armed airships however.) Edison improves on the Martian weapons as well. 100 electrical spaceships are built and an international force sets out in them to attack Mars. Along with the military personnel on board are a number of leading scientists including Professor Sylvanus P. Thompson, Lord Kelvin, Dr. Mossian, and Professor Roentgen.

A surprising number of elements in this book became scifi tropes in the 20^th century. There are ray guns, accurately described spacesuits, and an evil Martian king. The Martians, we learn, have (apparently disease-free) human captives. There is a scene presaging Princess Leia and Jabba the Hutt where a raiding party rescues a human slave girl (whose ancestors were from Kashmir) from Martians. She speaks to a Heidelberg linguist professor on Edison’s flagship and helps with Martian translations. The linguist like Yoda speaks, putting his verbs at the end in German fashion. We learn that thousands of years ago the Martians visited the earth, influenced ancient civilizations, and built the pyramids. The war with the Martians is touch and go; the humans have technical superiority but are vastly outnumbered. The humans express regret at the damage they do to the Martians (attacks on the canals cause mass civilian casualties) but feel they must demonstrate to the Martians that they shouldn’t mess with earth. Until then a peace settlement can’t be trusted.

I’m making this book sound better than it is. Make no mistake: the writing is terrible, the characters are badly drawn, the plotting is absurd, and it is full of 19^th century presuppositions and prejudices. If you just accept that, however, it is great fun.

While I do dabble in fiction (see Richard’s Mirror and Richard’s Novel Ideas) I’ve never attempted fan fiction. I can see the draw of it. One can like characters so much as to want to be part of their world – or even to shape their world. Some fictional universes have been created specifically to be shared with other authors: notably Larry Niven’s Known Space universe. But while I can see the draw, I haven’t felt it – at least not enough to choose it over fictional worlds of my own. However, for those who do enjoy redecorating the worlds of their favorite authors, have fun – and say hello to Emma, Sherlock, and Buffy for me.

Sammy Hagar - Marching To Mars