Besides
Francis Stevens, another woman who achieved renown as a writer of speculative
fiction was Catherine Lucille Moore. Her
career began somewhat later than Stevens’; she published in pulp magazines
beginning in the mid 1930s. She wrote
science fiction and ‘sword and sorcery’ stories primarily. Her work was remarkable for an emphasis on
characters’ emotions and sensual perceptions, a feature she shared with Francis
Stevens.
At
the risk of gender stereotyping, both of these writers seemed less enthused
about abstract speculations and technology and more interested in the horrific
effects of their story subjects on individuals and society. Characterization is generally superior, and
their stories exhibit warmth, compassion and a sense of humor that is missing
in the work of their male colleagues in pulp fiction. (The latter tend to have the colder “what if”
tone of a thought experiment.)
C.L.
Moore’s Miracle in Three Dimensions
is a science fiction story with some horror elements. It was published in 1939 in Strange Stories, a competitor of Weird Tales. The story may be found in an excellent
anthology of speculative fiction edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan R. Dziemianowicz
and Martin H. Greenberg, entitled Rivals
of Weird Tales, 30 Great Fantasy & Horror Stories From The Weird Fiction
Pulps (1990). The anthology contains
selections from various pulp magazines covering the period 1927 through 1955.
Moore’s
story has a very contemporary feel—the setting is the American film industry
circa mid 1930s. A cigar chomping studio
executive from “Metro Cosmic” is investigating the latest thing in moving
pictures. It is a device his technician
has invented that allows a three dimensional view of the actors and their
actions in a scene. (This is a very
interesting story to read now, given the current popularity of 3D movies, as
well as the amazing development of holographic and other 3D imaging technology
in various fields—Moore was quite prescient in exploring the possibilities of
visual media.)
The
device is briefly described: it involves a silvery U-shaped bar that audience
members grip during the show, which is connected to an apparatus of chrome and
glass resembling an enormous radio. The inventor
explains that the metal bar allows a low level electric current to stimulate the
sensual nerve endings of audience members to create perceptions of touch,
hearing, sight and taste. The studio
executive wonders where the screen is—but of course, one is not needed with
this new technology.
The
inventor demonstrates the device to the movie executive—a film clip of the
latest project, a film of Shakespeare’s A
Midsummer Night’s Dream—and he is very impressed. The actors go through their paces and appear
almost indistinguishable from a live production. But the inventor is worried. Is he inadvertently creating a new form of life
in these images?
Subsequent
demonstrations follow, involving larger groups of people. The effects of the device are striking and
also disturbing. But something strange
is beginning to happen to the actors, who suffer physical symptoms and whose
behavior begins to mimic the characters in the play. Even more troubling, the play itself begins
to morph away from the original plot, taking on the features of one of
Shakespeare’s tragedies instead of the familiar romantic comedy. The author has the inventor speculate about
the near universal fear among various indigenous cultures of having an
individual’s image recorded in visual art or by photography: “All of them declared and believed that too
good a likeness would draw the soul out into the picture.”
In the
introductory note to C.L. Moore’s story, the anthologists comment that her story
was published the same year that The
Wizard of Oz, Gone With the Wind,
The Grapes of Wrath, and other big
screen classics were released. For pulp fiction,
Moore’s Miracle in Three Dimensions
is remarkably sophisticated and far seeing. One can view it as a cautionary tale,
especially when you consider what has since transpired in the technology of
visual media, as well as the remarkable pervasiveness of image recording at all
levels of society. What is happening to
our souls?
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