Search results for ""Flammarion""

Originally published in French in 1805, The Last Man is a powerful story of the demise of the human race. Drawing on the traditional account in Revelations, The Last Man was the first end-of-the-world story in future fiction. As the first secular apocalypse story, The Last Man served as the departure point for many other speculative fictions of this type throughout the 19th century, including works by Shelley, Flammarion and Wells. Grainville's masterful imagination is evident in the vast scale of the action as Omegarus, the Last Adam, and Syderia, the Last Eve, are led toward the moment when "the light of the sun and the stars is extinguished." This is essential reading for anyone interested in the roots of apocalyptic science fiction.

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El presente volumen recoge relatos de ciencia ficción escritos por autores procedentes de distintas literaturas antes del año 1926, fecha de la publicación de la primera revista dedicada íntegramente a este género. Esta publicación es uno de los puntos de inflexión en la proyección del género de ciencia ficción. Varios son los méritos de esta edición: en ella se hallan autores imprescindibles de esta materia, con lo que el libro cumple, en cierto modo, con el objetivo de rescatar del olvido y dar a conocer a escritores imprescindibles de este género asimismo, en estas páginas se incluyen textos de autores clásicos de la talla de Kipling, London o Salgari, lo que supone un acercamiento de plumas imprescindibles y universales a lector español a excepción de los cuentos A la conquista de la Luna de Emilio Salgari, Reflumen Temporis de Camilo Flammarion, The Battle of Dorking de George Chesney, La maldición de Londrés de George Barr y La última guerra de

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Halley’s Comet visits the earth every seventy-five years. Since the dawn of civilization, humans had believed comets were evil portents. In 1705, Edmond Halley liberated humanity from these primordial superstitions (or so it was thought), proving that Newtonian mechanics rather than the will of the gods brought comets into our celestial neighborhood. Despite this scientific advance, when Halley’s Comet returned in 1910 and astronomers announced that our planet would pass through its poisonous tail, newspapers gleefully provoked a global hysteria that unfolded with tragic consequences. In Comet Madness, author and historian Richard J. Goodrich examines the 1910 appearance of Halley’s Comet and the ensuing frenzy sparked by media manipulation, bogus science, and outright deception. The result is a fascinating and illuminating narrative history that underscores how we behave in the face of potential calamity – then and now. As the comet was nearing closer to Earth, scientists and journalists alike scrambled to get the story straight as citizens the world over panicked. Popular astronomer Camille Flammarion attempted to allay fears in a newspaper article, but the media ignored his true position that passage would be harmless; weather prophet Irl Hicks, publisher of an annual, pseudo-scientific almanac, announced that the comet would disrupt the world’s weather; religious leaders thumbed the Bible’s Book of Revelation and wondered if the comet presaged the apocalypse. Newspapers, confident that there was gold in these alternate theories, gave every crackpot a megaphone, increasing circulation and stoking international hysteria. As a result, workmen shelved their tools, farmers refused to plant crops they would never harvest, and formerly reliable people stopped paying their creditors. More opportunistic citizens opened “comet insurance” plans. Others suffered mental breakdowns, and some took their own lives. Comet Madness reveals how humans confront the unknown, how scientists learn about the world we inhabit, and how certain people—from outright hucksters to opportunistic journalists—harness fear to produce a profit.

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