Lucian

   1) (c120-180)

   Syrian-Greek writer, known also as Lucian of Samosata; born in Samosata, capital of Commagene, in Syria. He early became an advocate and practised at Antioch, but soon set out on the travels which were to help provide the verisimilitude underlying the fantastic surface of some of his works. He visited Greece, Italy and Gaul, studied philosophy in Athens, and eventually became procurator of part of Egypt, where he died. The number of works attributed to him varies with criteria of authenticity, but at least 80 titles have been suggested, some certainly spurious. His works can be subdivided into various categories, some of little interest to the student of PROTO SCIENCE FICTION: works of formal rhetoric, numerous essays, biographies and the prose fictions - which include The True History and the possibly spurious Lucius, or The Ass - and the seriesof Dialogues which comprise L's most important work, and to the form of which he gave his name.The Lucianic Dialogue mixes PLATO's Dialogues, Old and New Comedy, and Menippean Satire into a racy, witty, pungent form ideally suited to the debunking activities with which L is most associated, and which are his most important bequest; his influence on these lines extends from Sir Thomas MORE and Erasmus (?1466-1536) to the dialogue-based SATIRES of Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866) and others. The Lucianic Dialogue of greatest sf interest is the Icaro-Menippus, in whichMenippus, disgusted with the fruitless animadversions of Earthly philosophers, acquires a pair of wings and flies first to the MOON, whence he is able to get a literal (i.e., visual) perspective on the nature of mankind's follies, and second to Olympus, where he meets Jupiter and watches that god deal with men's prayers (which arrive fartlike through huge vents). Jupiter proves moderately venal, but does in the end threaten to destroy the acrimonious philosophers who drove Menippus to flight. Other Dialogues of interest include the Charon, Timon, the 26 Dialogues ofthe Gods and the Dialogues of the Dead.Though less important, the prose fictions are vital proto sf. The True History - taking off from the numerous unlikely travellers' tales that proliferated at the time - is an extremely enjoyable and frequently scatological debunking exercise. L travels with 50 companions to the Moon, where they become embroiled in a space war; they then fly past the Sun and back to Earth, where they land in the sea and are soon swallowed by an enormous whale, from which they escape and visit various ISLANDS, where L's fertile imagination piles marvel upon lunatic marvel. With regard to fantasy and the spirit of romance, The True History is detumescent. Its influence extends to François RABELAIS and Jonathan SWIFT. Lucius, or The Ass is important as acognate of or original for Apuleius's The Golden Ass (cAD200; vt Metamorphoses), about a magician's helper who is turned into an ass,suffers much, and is finally retransformed by a goddess. Lucius's picaresque adventures, and the earthy manner of their telling, provided models for picaresque counterattacks on idealistic fiction from Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) onwards.L is vital to that somewhat problematic lineof descent of prose fictions which leads eventually to what we might legitimately think of as sf proper. Though he has often been misunderstood as being himself a romancer, he was in fact a consistent (and often savage) debunker of the idiom and ideals of romance. His attitude to the FANTASTIC VOYAGES of his supposed descendants would not have been that ofthe typical proud father.There are various translations, the earliest in English being A Dialog of the Poet Lucyan (trans 1530 UK); The CompleteWorks of Lucian (trans in 4 vols 1905 UK) is useful.

   JC

   About the author: "Lucian's True History as SF" by S.C. Fredericks in SCIENCE-FICTION STUDIES, vol 3, part 1, Mar 1976.

   2) Pseudonym of a UK writer whose 1920: Dips into the Near Future (1917 The Nation; coll of linked stories 1918 chap) sharply examines a UK inherently deformed by years of unending war.

   JC