| Edition |
First Da Capo Press edition. |
| Description |
303 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 290-297) and index. |
| Contents |
Hollow science -- Symmes' holes -- Polar Gothic : Reynolds and Poe -- Jules Verne : a journey to the center of geology -- Cyrus Teed and koreshanity -- Hollow utopias, romances, and a little kiddie lit -- Edgar Rice Burroughs at the Earth's core -- The hollow Earth lives : evil Nazis, flying saucers, Superman, new age utopias. |
| Summary |
"Beliefs in mysterious underworlds are as old as humanity. But the idea that the earth has a hollow interior was first proposed as a scientific theory in 1691 by Sir Edmond Halley (of comet fame), who also suggested that there might be life down there as well. Hollow Earth traces the many surprising, marvelous, and just plain weird permutations his ideas have taken over the centuries." "Both Edgar Allan Poe and (more famously) Jules Verne picked up the torch in the nineteenth century, the latter with his science fiction epic A Journey to the Center of the Earth. The notion of a hollow earth even inspired a religion at the turn of the twentieth century - Koreshanity, which held that we're all living on the inside." "Utopian novels and adventures abounded at this time, including L. Frank Baum's hollow earth addition to the Oz series and Edgar Rice Burrough's Pellucidar books chronicling a stone-age hollow earth. In the 1940s an enterprising science-fiction magazine editor convinced people that the true origins of flying saucers lay within the hollow earth, relics of an advanced alien civilization. And there are still devout hollow earthers today, some of whom claim there is a New Age utopia lurking beneath the earth's surface, with at least one entrance near Mt. Shasta in California." "Hollow Earth travels through centuries and cultures, exploring how each era's relationship to the idea of a hollow earth mirrored its hopes, fears, and values. Illustrated with everything from seventeenth-century maps to 1950s pulp art to movie posters and more, Hollow Earth is for anyone interested in the history of strange ideas that just won't go away."--BOOK JACKET. |
| Subject |
Science fiction -- History and criticism.
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Earth (Planet) -- In literature.
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Civilization in literature.
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| ISBN |
0306813734 hardcover alkaline paper $24.95 |
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9780306813733 hardcover alkaline paper |
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0306815338 paperback |
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9780306815331 paperback |
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