Comments on: Science Fiction Pioneer … of the Great Moon Hoax

By: Bret

Bret — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:13:12 +0000

Heck, CYRANO DE BERGERAC wrote a moon landing story (using methods somewhat based on science) over a century before that.

By: Carl

Carl — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 16:23:32 +0000

Now date, oh, Kepler’s Sleep.

That’s recent, of course. How about Lucian of Samosata’s works like “Macrobii” and others?

By: RAB

RAB — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:14:26 +0000

Beg to differ with Sean: if anything, I get the impression critical thinking and skepticism are underemphasized today, rather than overemphasized. Any third grader who refuses to accept a wild claim and understands that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof is more than okay in my book.

Beg to differ with the writer of this strip: that hoax would hardly be the first science fiction story, as Frankenstein for one predated it by some 17 years.

By: Mr. B

Mr. B — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:37:54 +0000

I’d never heard of the moon hoax before. Now the confabulation of Martians, seems to be entirely logical.

The word channels/canals was originally used to describe the terrain of Mars. Later it was translated from canali to canals (red planet now has a plethora of plumbers). Combine the 1835 Moon Hoax to the 1870s “Martians have plumbing”, and it seems to explain the genesis of sci fi.

Less than a 100 hundred years and you get Marvin the Martian trying to destroy Earth with his Illudium Pu-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

Bugs Bunny – HareDevil Hare, 1948

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfDIQqn5RI4

By: Sean Duggan

Sean Duggan — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 19:38:37 +0000

Hoax that it was, it does imply a certain sense of wonder that our current generation lacks. Honestly, if you went up to the average 3rd grader and told them that we’d discovered a civilization on Mars, they’d snort and whip out their enycloapedias to prove you wrong.

To quote from Tom Smith’s Rich Fantasy Lives:
We’re piling up fears, but we’re out of frontiers.
Some need to escape, but there’s nowhere.
Can’t go to the Moon, at least any time soon,
But an inner-space trip costs you no fare.