A Voyage to the Moon: With Some Account of the Manners and Customs, Science and Philosophy of the People of Morosofia, and Other Lunarians

George Tucker

Anatomy of Wonder 1 Core Collection Library - Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel Project Gutenberg Science Fiction _bleiler _isfdb

Publisher: New York: E. Bliss

Published: Jan 2, 1827

Description:

91. A VOYAGE TO THE MOON: WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE PEOPLE OF MOROSOFIA, AND OTHER LUNARIANS. Flam Bliss; New York, 1827. +Gregg Press', New York, 1975. 
Intro, by David Hartwell. Early American satirical moon voyage. 
*  The narrator, Joseph Atterley, a young native of Long Island, who has just returned from the moon, has written a narrative of his adventures. 
*  Atterley, needing a respite from domestic bliss, takes a voyage to the Orient on one of his father's ships. The ship founders off Burma, and Atterley, shipwrecked, is captured and sent inland where he is held in mild captivity for what may be political reasons. Permitted a certain amount of freedom, he makes the acquaintance of Gurameer, a Brahmin sanyasin who takes a fancy to him. 
*  After a time the Brahmin reveals a secret: He has been to the moon. Atterley at first thinks the Brahmin mad, but Gurameer explains matters rationally. In the vicinity there is a supply of the rare mineral lunarium, which acts as repulsion to the earth and attraction to the moon. The Brahmin now suggests that they make a voyage to the moon together. 
*  He and Atterley hire the natives to build an air-tight,box-like vessel, partly of iron, partly of lunar ium, from which they can drop weights or lifters as needed. The vessel has thick glass portholes and a compressed air apparatus. 
*  They leave and after a three-day voyage arrive at their destination. Locating a settled area in Morosofia, they throw out ballast and make a landing. 
*  The moon is much like the earth, except that its gravity is weaker, permitting the earthmen to make enormous leaps. The moon was once part of the earth (ripped away by repelling forces) and is similar in flora and fauna, including mankind. 
*  The people of the moon, considered realistically, are Mongoloids of a sort, and completely human. Considered from a satirical point of view, some of them are Glonglims (an appi-oximate anagram of Mongols?), or people whose bodies have taken up the psyches of earthmen who have lost their minds. These Glonglims are excessively foolish. 
*  The narrator and the Brahmin proceed through the lunar culture, their progress consisting for the most part of sketches satirical of terrestrial customs, achievements, philosophies, etc. Some personalities are concealed by anagramming or other verbal play: Vindar (Erasmus Darwin) , Lozzi Pozzi (Pestalozzi}, Wighurd (William Godwin), Avarabet (J. K. Lavater), etc. Medical quacks are lambasted; political theorists, legal luminaries, and religionists are all politely ridiculed. 
*  In their wanderings the two earthmen visit the happy valley of Okalbia. (The name seems significant, but its interpretation is not obvious. Perhaps it refers to William Black, M. D. , a British, physician and writer who did pioneer work on birth statistics, a topic that greatly concerned Tucker, who was a firm Malthusian.) The essential idea of Okalbia is the limitation of population by means of birth control, although, of necessity, Tucker fudges about expressing the concept directly. 
*  The land is held by an oligarchy, and the state is ruled by a loosely organized pyramid of magistracies. All in all, it is a limited eutopia. 
*  After a time Atterley and the Brahmin decide to return to earth. Their departure is timely and appropriate, for many of the Lunarians are apprehensive of an invasion from the earth. 
*  As the two men descend, the Brahmin recounts his life history, which is a somewhat disappointing conventional Oriental love tale, not remarkably apt in its ethnography. After landing in South i\merica, the Brahmin travels to the Andes in order to check certain scientific theories about the origin of the moon, and Atterley takes ship to New York. 
*  Among the oddities of lunar life: a functioning gunpowder engine with cylinder and valve mechanism; law cases settled as prize fights; and a connection between roses on the moon and marriage on earth. 
*  On the whole the narrator can communicate with the Lunaians, although in one place he needs an interpreter. 
*  A pleasant book, which can be read with some enjoyment. The author does not have the sustained power of Swift, nor is he as apt at absurdities, but many of his vignettes are amusing. A major problem is that much of the book consists of throwaway matter, good ideas set forth, but not adequately developed. 
*  The Gregg Press edition also reprints a long anonymous summation review from the American Quarterly Review of March 1828.