Astrofuturism: Science, Race, and Visions of Utopia in Space

305 Pages·2003·18.37 MB·English

by  De Witt Douglas Kilgore

Astrofuturism
A cartoon by Charles Addams, 1946. Reprinted, by permission, from The New Yorker
75th Anniversary Cartoon Collection, ed. Bob Mankoff (New York: Pocket Books,
1999), 25.
Astrofuturism
Science, Race, and Visions
of Utopia in Space
DE WITT DOUGLAS KILGORE
PENN
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia
Copyright © 2003 University of Pennsylvania Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Published by
University of Pennsylvania Press
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4011
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kilgore, De Witt Douglas.
Astrofuturism : science, race, and visions of Utopia in space / De Witt Douglas Kilgore.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 0-8122-3719-6 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 0-8122-1847-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Science fiction, American—History and criticism. 2. Literature and science—United States.
3. Life on other planets in literature. 4. Space and time in literature. 5. Astronautics in literature.
6. Utopias in literature. 7. Future in literature. 8. Race in literature. I. Title.
PS374.S35K43 2003
813'.08762093299—dc21
2002043045
To the memory of Cecil Douglass Bell, my grandfather
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Contents
Introduction: The Wonderful Dream 1
1. Knocking on Heaven's Door: David Lasser and the
First Conquest of Space 31
2. An Empire in Space: Europe and America as Science Fact 49
3. Building a Space Frontier: Robert A. Heinlein
and the American Tradition 82
4. Will There Always Be an England?
Arthur C. Clarke's New Eden 111
5. The Domestication of Space: Gerard K. O'Neill's
Suburban Diaspora 150
6. Ben Bova: Race, Nation, and Renewal on the High Frontier 186
7. On Mars and Other Heterotopias: A Conclusion 222
Abbreviations 239
Notes 241
Index 285
Acknowledgments 293
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I am captivated more by dreams of the future than by the history of
the past.
—Thomas Jefferson
Dreams are not so different from deeds as some may think. All the
deeds of men are only dreams at first. And in the end, their deeds
dissolve into dreams.
—Theodor Herzl