Battlefield Earth (novel)
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| Author | L. Ron Hubbard |
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| Cover Artist | Gerry Grace |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction |
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
| Released | 1980 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover, Paperback) |
| Pages | 1050 (Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 1-59212-007-5 |
- For the film of the same name, see Battlefield Earth (film).
Battlefield Earth is the title of both a science fiction novel written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and a film adaptation of the novel produced by and starring John Travolta. The book was commercially successful, though it received a lukewarm critical reception on its publication. However, the film adaptation was a notorious commercial and critical disaster and has been widely criticized as one of the "worst films ever made".[1][2]
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[edit] Synopsis
In the year 3000 AD, Earth has been ruled by an alien race, the Psychlos, for a millennium. Humanity has been reduced to a few scattered tribes in isolated parts of the world while the Psychlos strip the planet of its mineral wealth. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a member of one such tribe, lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. He leaves his village to explore the lowlands but is captured in the ruins of Denver by Terl, the Psychlo chief of security. The Psychlos, hairy 9-foot high sociopaths, are constrained by the fact that the gas they breathe explodes on contact with even traces of uranium. To get around this problem, Terl plans to train "man-animals" such as Jonnie to mine where Psychlos cannot go and, in so doing, make Terl himself a very rich Psychlo.
Terl hooks Jonnie up to a Psychlo telepathic training machine which uploads the knowledge of the Psychlos into Jonnie's brain. The newly-civilized Jonnie realizes that it is up to him to organize and lead a revolt against the Psychlos. With Terl fatally distracted by machinations against the other Psychlos, Jonnie surreptitiously creates an alliance of humans including the Chinese, the remnants of the Red Army, Tibetan lamas and most notably Scottish highlanders. The humans manage to defeat the Psychlos and regain control of Earth.
This is, however, not the end of the story: Terl survives and Jonnie must now defend the planet against the predatory interests of several other interstellar races, including a race of intergalactic bankers seeking to repossess the Earth in lieu of unpaid debts.
[edit] Publishing history
Battlefield Earth was first published in 1980 by St. Martin's Press, though all subsequent reprintings have been by Church of Scientology publishing companies Bridge Publications and Galaxy Press. Written in the style of the pulp fiction era (during which Hubbard began his writing career), the novel is a massive work (over 750 pages in hardcover, 1000+ in paperback). It was Hubbard's first science fiction novel since his pulp magazine days of the 1940s, and it was promoted as Hubbard's "return" to science fiction after a long hiatus. It was reissued in 2000 with a new cover, in connection with the release of the film version. The book has also been released in audiobook and e-book versions.
[edit] Critical response
The book received a mixed reception from literary critics and science fiction fans. The Economist, for instance, called Battlefield Earth "an unsubtle saga, atrociously written, windy and out of control" [3] while the respected sci-fi magazine Analog criticized it as "a wish-fulfillment fantasy wholly populated by the most one-dimensional of cardboard characters." [4] Other critics pointed to the book's slipshod writing, such as "the ineffably klutzy destruction of the planet of the evil Psychlos by atomic bombs, which turns it into a "radioactive sun")." [5] Punch was somewhat kinder, commending Hubbard's "excellent understanding of evil impulses, particularly deviousness, which helps with the plot, and [he] is well-enough aware of his weaknesses not to dwell upon frailties like love, generosity, compassion." [6]. Similarly, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction described the book as a "rather good, fast-paced, often fascinating SF adventure yarn." [7]
[edit] Controversy
Hubbard's role as the founder of Scientology has led to a long-running controversy about whether Battlefield Earth contains Scientology themes, and about the role that the Church of Scientology has played in publishing and promoting the book.
Hubbard himself denied that the book was a vehicle for Scientology. He described his motives for writing as being that "it keeps my hand in, amuses people and whiles away the otherwise idle hour. It's better than playing video games!" [8] He addresses the question directly in the book's introduction, where he says: "Some of my readers may wonder that I did not include my own serious subjects in this book. It was with no thought of dismissal of them. It was just that I put on my professional writer’s hat. I also did not want to give anybody the idea I was doing a press relations job for my other serious works." [9]
[edit] The Church of Scientology's role
Battlefield Earth went to the top of the New York Times Best Seller list shortly after its release. Not long afterwards, stories emerged of a reported Church of Scientology book-buying campaign mounted to ensure that the book would appear on the bestseller lists. According to newspaper reports, Church representatives promised the publishers that a particular number of copies would be bought by Church subsidiaries [10][11] (the author and journalist Russell Miller cites a figure of 50,000 hardback copies [12]).
Local Churches of Scientology and individual Scientologists were reportedly also urged to buy copies of the book. Various bookstore chains (including Waldenbooks) have cited examples of Scientologists repeatedly coming into stores and buying armfuls of the book at a time. Several bookstores reported that shipments of the book arrived with the store's own price tags already affixed to them, even before they were unpacked from the shipping boxes, suggesting that copies were being recycled. [10][11] According to Miller, Scientologists throughout the United States were instructed to go out and buy at least two or three copies each.[12] Gerry Armstrong, who worked in the Church's archives at the time, claims that "One of the wealthy Scientologists, by the name of Ellie Bolger, apparently paid a huge amount of money to the organization, which they then disbursed to staff members to go down to B. Dalton or whatever and buy the book." [13]
Former Scientologist Bent Corydon has described how pressure was put on the managers of Scientology "missions" - effectively franchises - to promote and purchase Battlefield Earth. At a conference held in San Francisco on October 17, 1982, Scientologist "mission holders" were told by Wendall Reynolds, the Church's International Finance Dictator, to do their bit to make the book a success:
| And if you look at it Battlefield Earth has been released on the same pattern as the early 1950s, when LRH [L. Ron Hubbard] was a popular writer, with DMSMH [Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health] released right on the heels of it and that put it right on the best-seller list!
And right now Battlefield Earth is selling out and selling out and selling out again. So we got a tremendous popularity thing going and you guys are getting a gift at 5 percent of CGI [Corrected Gross Income]. It's a total gift. [14] |
According to Corydon, "we were ordered to sell 1000 copies of Hubbard's recently released science-fiction book Battlefield Earth "before Thursday" or I would be kicked out as mission holder." [15] The idea behind the publicity drive was said to be that it "would, in turn, get the Dianetics book selling"; Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health did in fact experience a marked increase in sales subsequently, re-entering the NYT Best Seller list four times in 1986. [13] Battlefield Earth, for its part, sold over 125,000 copies in its first print run and by March 1985 had sold 800,000 paperback copies. [16].
[edit] Possible Scientology-related themes
Hubbard portrays the Psychlos as being ruled by the Catrists, a pun on psychiatrists. He describes them as a group of evil charlatans, claiming to be mental health experts. This is comparable to Scientology's rejectionist view of psychiatry. Those among the Psychlos who do not share the views of the Catrists or oppose them are subjected to various forms of persecution; particularly, the Catrists use surgical mind control to maintain their power. Again, Hubbard frequently claimed in Scientology that psychiatrists used such tactics to maintain their influence and funding.
A supporting character, a Psychlo mathematician named Soth, is described as having been shaped by the views of his mother who was a member of a resistance group, a so-called "church," which held religious meetings secretly.
Early in its history, the Psychlo species had no fixed name, instead being named after the Emperor of the day. The word "Psychlo" is revealed to have originally meant "mental patient" in the alien language, signifying that the Catrists feel (or in any case claim) that the entire population requires treatment as mental patients. Scientology portrays modern society as being the battleground for a war between psychiatry and Scientology for the future of humanity.
Space opera is a common recurring motif in Scientology doctrine. Scientology works describe intergalactic battles between alien races (most notably the Xenu teachings), and Hubbard went as far as to claim that the modern-day science fiction genre of space opera is merely an unconscious recollection of real events from millions of years ago. He described Earth to Scientologists as being a "prison planet"
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Campbell, Duncan. "Cult classic", Guardian Unlimited, Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2000-05-31. Retrieved on 2006-07-29. "... Battlefield Earth has opened to spectacularly bad notices, many of which have suggested that the film is the worst of the year, the decade, the millennium or whatever exotic time-frame the alien Psychlos recognise ..."
- ^ Farache, Emily (2000-10-18). Travolta Sets Sights on "Battlefield Earth 2". E! Online. Retrieved on 2006-07-29.
- ^ "L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction - Relic of the golden age", The Economist, 4 July 1984
- ^ Analog, February 1983
- ^ Thomas M. Disch, On SF, p.115. (University of Michigan Press, 2005)
- ^ Punch, April 4, 1984
- ^ The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 1983 (vol. 64; pp. 32-37)
- ^ L. Ron Hubbard, "Ron's Journal 36 - Your New Year", LRH ED 347 Int of 31 December 1982
- ^ L. Ron Hubbard, introduction to Battlefield Earth
- ^ a b McIntyre, Mike. "Hubbard Hot-Author Status Called Illusion", San Diego Union, 1990-04-15, p. 1. Retrieved on 2006-07-29.
- ^ a b Sappell, Joel, Welkos, Robert W.. "Costly Strategy Continues to Turn Out Bestsellers", Los Angeles Times, 1990-06-28, p. A1:1. Retrieved on 2006-07-29. Additional convenience link at [1].
- ^ a b Russell Miller, Bare-Faced Messiah, p.367. (Michael Joseph, 1987)
- ^ a b Quoted in Bent Corydon, L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?, p. 228 (Lyle Stuart, 1987)
- ^ Quoted in Bent Corydon, L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?, p. 209 (Lyle Stuart, 1987)
- ^ Bent Corydon, L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?, p. 228 (Lyle Stuart, 1987)
- ^ Stewart Lamont, Religion, Inc., p. 156 (Harrap, 1986)
[edit] External links
- Official book website (Galaxy Press)
- The Writing of Battlefield Earth (lronhubbard.org)
