The
image of a disembodied brain is a familiar staple of science fiction and
horror. One assumption is that if a
brain can be kept alive outside of its body, it will become more powerful, but
also less compassionate, being devoid of human emotions and sensations. Our bodies humanize us, but a disembodied
brain is all intellect and will, preoccupied with power and control. Typically, such a brain must use others as
agents to accomplish its ends, because it lacks mobility and appendages with
which to grasp and manipulate. Disembodied
human brains require the weird and
artificial melding of brain tissue with experimental technology—often a
glorified aquarium tank with aerator and glowing amber light.
Another
premise is that a disembodied brain represents the pinnacle of evolution, as if
the eventual product of natural selection is a limbless thinking organism that
is served by its inferiors. This is the
category that “brains from outer space” fall into. Ironically, such highly advanced creatures
enjoy the physical lifestyle of a much lower organism, namely that of a
parasite. One can see a reflection of
this in ordinary extraterrestrial physiology even today, which nearly always
features an enlarged, brain-like cranium, whether disembodied or not. Which cranium is often divided
hemi-spherically, as our own brain is.
Donald
Wandrei’s The Red Brain (1927) is a
wonderful example of this second type of bodiless brain. The story was the first of fifteen that
Wandrei published in Weird Tales. Wandrei was a well-known correspondent of
H.P. Lovecraft, who with August Derleth established Arkham House Publishers in
the early 1940s. Arkham House was
instrumental in preserving Lovecraft’s work not long after the author’s death.
The Red Brain describes the end of the entire
universe and its last life forms—a race of highly evolved brains. There are several pages detailing the
smoldering and winking out of star systems and the growing presence of inert Cosmic
Dust. Finally, out near the giant star
of Antares, the Great Brain calls a council of fellow brains to review what
they have tried to do about the gathering Cosmic Dust. The history and evolution of these beings is
quite long, and Wandrei takes his time in describing it. We learn that:
The
minds of the people of Antares became bigger and bigger, their bodies
proportionately smaller, until the cycle eventually was completed. Every being in front of the speaker was a
monstrous heap of black viscidity, each mass an enormous brain, a sexless thing
that lived for Thought. Long ago it had
been discovered that life could be created artificially in tissue formed in the
laboratories of the chemists. Sex was
thus destroyed, and the inhabitants no longer spent their time in taking care
of families. Nearly all the countless
hours that were saved were put into scientific advance, with the result that
the star leaped forward in an age of progress never paralleled.
Yet
nothing the alien brains have attempted has worked to halt the advancing Cosmic
Dust. They have
1.
Aimed
vast sheets of lightening into the void in hopes of fusing the dust into new
planets,
2.
Placed
enormous magnets in various locations in space to attract and centralize the
dust,
3.
Exploded
their most powerful chemical compounds inside of dust clouds,
4.
Blasted
billion mile long paths through the dust using their rays of annihilation, and
even
5.
“destroyed
the life on Betelgeuse and rooted there titanic developers of vacua, sprawling,
whirring machines to suck the dust from Space…”
It is
all for naught, and at the conference on Antares a rogue brain, the titular
‘red brain’, goes crazy and destroys them all, sparing them another aeon or two
of misery. The Red Brain shows many of the typical weaknesses of pulp science
fiction of the time period. The story is
long—very long—on concept, but devoid of elements that make for a memorable
story, such as characters, plot, conflict, dialogue, or action. However, Wandrei definitely laid some
important groundwork on the natural history of extraterrestrial brain
creatures.
********************
Donald
Wandrei has been discussed in several earlier posts; see also
Wandrei, One of Lovecraft’s Associates (Nightmare)
An ‘Astounding Story’ by Wandrei (Raiders of the
Universes)
Aliēnus ex machina (Something From Above)
Aliēnus ex machina (Something From Above)
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