IMMORTALITY

   Immortality is one of the basic motifs of speculative thought; the elixir of life and the fountain of youth are hypothetical goals of classic intellectual and exploratory quests. What is usually involved is, strictly speaking, extreme longevity and freedom from ageing - the uselessness of the former without the latter is reflected in the myth of Tithonus and in Jonathan SWIFT's account of the Struldbruggs.One thing immediatelynoticeable about this rich literary tradition is that immortality is often treated as a false goal, sometimes as a curse recalling the infinitely tedious punishments meted out to Ixion, Tantalus, Sisyphus and the Wandering Jew. It is understandable that GOTHIC fantasies such as St Leon(1799) by William Godwin (1756-1836), Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) by Charles MATURIN, The Wandering Jew (1844-5) by Eugene Sue (1804-1857), Auriol (1850) by W. Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882) and The Death Ship (1888) by W. Clark RUSSELL should be suspicious; these are cautionary tales, warning against the emptiness of dreams (though a cynic might equally suggest sour grapes). It is perhaps surprising, though, that early sf writers mostly followed suit. Walter BESANT's The Inner House (1888) proposes that immortality would lead to social sterility - an opinion echoed by many later writers, including Martin SWAYNE in The Blue Germ (1918), Harold Scarborough (1897-1935) in The Immortals (1924) and AldousHUXLEY in After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939; vt After Many a Summer UK). Stories which take a brighter view - like George C. FOSTER's The Lost Garden and the trilogy by George S. VIERECK and Paul ELDRIDGE begun with My First Two Thousand Years (1928) - usually have only a few privileged immortals living in a world of mortals. When George Bernard SHAW expressed enthusiasm for universal longevity in Back to Methuselah (1921), Karel CAPEK added a rebutting preface to his own play The Makropoulos Secret(1925) to explain his own opinion that it would be an unmitigated curse even for a single individual.This difference of opinion remains very evident in sf. In some stories immortality is the beginning of limitless opportunity; in others it represents the ultimate stagnation and the end of innovation and change. We find the former view in such early pulp stories as "The Jameson Satellite" (1931) by Neil R. JONES and The Man who Awoke (1933; fixup 1975) by Laurence MANNING, and its converse in David H.KELLER's "Life Everlasting" (1934; title story of Life Everlasting and Other Tales (1947)) and John R. PIERCE's "Invariant" (1944). In later magazine sf, the former attitude is implicit in J.T. MCINTOSH's "Live For Ever" (1954) and James BLISH's "At Death's End" (1954), while the latteris seen in Damon KNIGHT's "World without Children" (1951). Frederik POHL's Drunkard's Walk (1960), Brian W. ALDISS's "The Worm that Flies" (1968) andBruce MCALLISTER's "Their Immortal Hearts" (1980). There is, however, a general acceptance of the fact that the desire for immortality is immensely powerful, and that it constitutes the ultimate bribe; lurid dramatizations of this supposition include Jack VANCE's To Live Forever (1956), James E. GUNN's The Immortals (1955-60; fixup 1962), JohnWYNDHAM's Trouble with Lichen (1960), Norman SPINRAD's BUG JACK BARRON (1969), Bob SHAW's One Million Tomorrows (1970), Robert SILVERBERG's The Book of Skulls (1972), Thomas N. SCORTIA's "The Weariest River" (1973) and Mack REYNOLDS's and Dean ING's Eternity (1984). There have been numerous notable sf novels featuring immortal heroes, including A.E. VAN VOGT's The Weapon Makers (1943; 1952), Wilson TUCKER's The Time Masters (1953; rev1971), Clifford D. SIMAK's WAY STATION (1963), Roger ZELAZNY's THIS IMMORTAL (1966) and Robert A. HEINLEIN's Time Enough for Love (1973). But the dominant opinion seems to be that boredom and sterility must eventually set in. Raymond Z. GALLUN's The Eden Cycle (1974) is an extended study of this presumed phenomenon, and the protagonists of Michael MOORCOCK's Dancers at the End of Time sequence (1972-6) must go toextreme and absurd lengths to keep ennui at bay.Some of the modern stories dealing with the theme are scrupulously analytical, and are among the finest exercises in speculative thought that the genre has produced. Most are respectful of the problematic aspects of longevity, but almost all eventually favour the prospect; notable examples of extended contes philosophiques in this vein include Robert Silverberg's "Born with the Dead" (1974) and Sailing to Byzantium (1985), Octavia E. BUTLER's WILDSEED (1980), Pamela SARGENT's The Golden Space (1982), Kate WILHELM's Welcome, Chaos (1983) and Poul ANDERSON's epic THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS (1989). A particularly notable negative story is "The Tithonian Factor" (1983) by Richard COWPER, in which hasty users of a technology which gives them a Struldbrugg-like longevity are discomfited by the subsequent discovery that humans do indeed have a joyous spiritual afterlife. Damon Knight's "Dio" (1957), Marta RANDALL's Islands (1976; rev 1980) andFrederik POHL's Outnumbering the Dead (1990 UK) are interesting stories about lone mortals in societies of immortals.Research in biotechnology following the cracking of the genetic code has encouraged speculation that technologies of longevity are a real prospect, and a new immediacy was introduced into the theme when R.C.W. Ettinger's The Prospect of Immortality (1964) popularized the idea that CRYONIC preservation mightallow people now living to be preserved until the day when they might benefit. Though satirized in such novels as Anders BODELSEN's Freezing Down (1971; vt Freezing Point), this notion inspired a curious political"manifesto" in Alan HARRINGTON's The Immortalist (1969), followed by his extravagant novel Paradise 1 (1977); Harrington prefers the term "emortality", which signifies an immunity to ageing but not to injury.Technologies of longevity and genetically engineered emortality play a central role in Brian M. STABLEFORD's and David LANGFORD's future history The Third Millennium (1985), and the theme is a constant preoccupation inStableford's recent solo work, notably The Empire of Fear (1988). A collection of essays on immortality in sf is Death and the Serpent (anth 1985) ed Carl B. YOKE and Donald M. HASSLER. A theme anthology is Immortal(anth 1978) ed Jack DANN.

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   See also: ESCHATOLOGY; GODS AND DEMONS; HIVE-MINDS; LOST WORLDS; MEDICINE; RELIGION; SUPERMAN.