Customer Reviews

Other Worlds (SF Master)

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An inspiration for Jonathan Swift, Other Worlds (which I first saw translated to English as Voyages to the Sun and to the Moon)has some parts that are still side-splittingly funny, as in the account of the Serpent's punishment for tempting Eve (it was condemned to lie coiled up inside Man, with only the head sticking out. And when the head rose up to bite Woman, the resultant swelling would last 9 months.) I have a feeling that much of the humor is more pointed than I can discern, unacquainted as I am with 17th century French politics.Much of it is still pertinent though, and it is interesting to read a work by the original of Rostand's hero.

"Other Worlds" consists of "The States and Empires of the Moon" and "The States and Empires of the Sun," both of which were published shortly after the death of their author, Cyrano de Bergerac in 1655. It should not surprise anyone that the real Cyrano was different from the tragicomic protagonist of Edmond Rostand's classic play, which was but loosely based on the life of the courtier, soldier, poet, essayist and accomplished gentleman.

"Other Worlds" is of interest because it is arguably one of the very first works in the field of what we would not recognize as science fiction. True, the work, like Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" and Voltaire's "Micromegas" published a century later, is primarly a satire in the service of philosophical speculation. Cyrano's protagonist ends up in a "topsy-turvy world" where youth is valued and repression is rarely seen. But as much as "Other Worlds" is a call for philosophical reform it is also clearly science fiction. Like the later works of Verne and Wells there are elements of prescience in this story (e.g., Newton's first law of motion). But more important, these stories reflect the Baconian principles of modern science focusing on how matter is composed and interactions with other matter. Thus Cyrano is able to talk about the harmony and influences of the celestial globes.

I can appreciate that you would not want to have "Other Worlds" as assigned reading in a Science Fiction course. However, I do think that it is important to point to this work as evidence for how the scientific revolution was inspiring not only scientists but writers in the middle of the 17th-century. This is almost two centuries before Shelley wrote "Frankenstein" and other works like Edward Bellamy's dystopian novel "Looking Backward" and those of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells brought the field into full flower.

This fascinating book is actually a combination of two books (The States and Empires of the Moon and The States and Empires of the Sun) written in around the year 1650 by Cyrano de Bergerac. Yes, Monsieur de Bergerac was a real person: a soldier, a duelist, a romantic, and a thinker. In these books the author uses the Moon and the Sun as vehicles to allow characters to express opinions beyond those of normal people, and experience conversations that would not have happened in the world of 17th century Europe. However, this is not a work of pure comedy, but rather a philosophical work on the same level as Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

I first read about this book when reading Plurality of Worlds by Steven Dick (an excellent look at how the idea of life on other worlds evolved), and was very glad to get ahold of a copy, and I was not disappointed! Though it is at times rather heavy in its verbosity, it is both interesting and humorous, and should be considered a classic of European literature. I enjoyed this book, and recommend it to you.

To show something of Bergerac's intelligence and prescience, I took this from the first book: "I believe that the planets are worlds surrounding the sun and the fixed stars are also suns with planets surrounding them..."

This is a compliation of two books, which tell the stories of Cyrano's travels to the Moon and the Sun. Cyrano satirizes 17-century French and European societies, through a hilarious use of the Classical and Christian traditions. In the first part, Cyrano wants to go to the Moon. His first idea is to use a belt containing pots of water: as they evaporate, the man will go up too. But it fails (not surprisingly). The he launches himself in a rocket, and lands on the Moon. Upon arrival, the inhabitants take him for a monkey and imprison him. Socrates's Demon liberates him, and introduces him to the famous personalitites living on the Moon. After several funny adventures, he goes back, landindg in Italy. The book reflects Cyrano's thoughts on several subjects: the theories of Copernico, heliocentrism (the belief that the center of the Universe is the Sun and not the Earth), and in general, Cyrano's advanced thinking for his time.

In the second book, Cyrano is believed to be crazy, and he's chased for imprisonment. He escapes in a machine that takes him to the Sun, where he has new and hilarious adventures. He meets Tomasso Campanella, an Italian philosopher, who takes him to the Land of Philosophers. These books should not be out of print, since they are not boring or confusing, but funny and enlightened. One additional advantage is that they were written by the real Cyrano, who would later appear as the hero of Rostand's play.