Sussing out religion and science deep in a comments thread, Eric B. goes way, way back to Sir Edmund Gosse’s father Philip for this tidbit:
…he argued that God planted all of the dinosaur fossils, etc. as an attempt to trick and tempt people into the sin of rejecting creationism.
(That’s kin to the “omphalos argument,” from the navel, i.e., “Did Adam have one?” And Edmund chronicled their relationship in the classic Father and Son, predicting the evangelical-science strife to come.)
I’m struck by the theatrical, literary flair of the argument. God matters more than the world He created, so we can assume it’s a stage set. Quit teasing and raise the curtain. I love the image, which is especially good for fantasy/SF, as in the beginning and ending of the Chronicles of Narnia (religious), the first Matrix (faux-philosophic), or Dark City (intertextual). And others, like Electric Warrior.
I’ve never forgotten it since reading it as a kid– it’s a DC comic about a rogue robot in a futuristic city. Doing stuff. That is, I’ve never forgotten the ending. It ran for 10? 12? issues until the plug got pulled. Rather than just stop, or even resolve the plotlines set to run on and on, its creators sent down a spaceship to tell the cast their whole world was an elaborate stage set. Hop on, let’s get out of here. I even think they asked about the dinosaur bones, and they spaceship captain was like, “we planted them! Come on, I’m gonna miss my shows.” I guess it’s a meta way of flipping the bird at editorial.
So I don’t remember it very well (and I much prefer the dust on my memories to Google blotting out yet another part of my mind.). The ending floored me, though. Life hadn’t yet pulled any rugs out from under me– I was very young, my family all still living, and as to Santa, losing him didn’t stop the toys. And stories, for a kid miles from any other kid but his brother, offered a consistent escape in exchange for being given life by my attention. Having that attention betrayed made a mediocre work linger. The first one hurts. The next few times, as with Blazing Saddles‘ ending, I just got mad. Mel Brooks was flipping the bird at me! Then I got jaded and in on the joke, which meant I gave less and less to stories. (Until much later, when I needed them again.)
Now, like everyone else, I’m just navigating the huge swath of competing, contradictory stories without much dissonance. It’s a condition of media, spin culture, whatever comes after postmodernism. I’d love to wipe out the stories I disagree with and so reshape the world and school board to my liking, but in the end it might be all I can do to ignore them. Others disagree, and go through mental acrobatics that put Adam on a dinosaur, impressive to say the least.
” its creators sent down a spaceship to tell the cast their whole world was an elaborate stage set. Hop on, let’s get out of here. I even think they asked about the dinosaur bones, and they spaceship captain was like, ‘we planted them! Come on, I’m gonna miss my shows.'”
That is so wild. I can’t believe I never heard about it before. The notion is Alan Moore-ish (“everything you know is a lie”) but before he came along.
Come to think of it, the Gosse idea is Moore-ish too, though kind of desperate as a defense of a religion. What was the reaction to it at the time?
I’m kind of hoping someone hops on here to preach the gospel of Electric Warrior, though I’m not sure anyone read it. I think it’s from the same time as those weird 80s graphic novels? Metalzoic, Me and Joe Priest, the computer-art Iron Man one. Post-V for Vendetta, anyway. I also recall a DC “maxi-series” about futuristic rock stars that had someone swimming in a vat of pubic hair.
Reading it, I suddenly realized my parents didn’t know everything I was up to. I was also grossed out, but still.
I don’t know the reception of Gosse’s idea; I’m trying to think of other SF/fantasy uses of the “everything you know is a lie” bit. Other than dream sequences, of course. Does the Wizard of Oz count?
Well, Philip K. Dick, right? I gather he did a lot of that stuff.
About Moore, I got mixed up about the chronology. The mention of Blazing Saddles made me think the DC series came out in the late 60s, which is not too likely.
That pubic hair thing is really disgusting.
The wikipedia page is here. Not a whole lot of info, but it was by Doug Moench, who was definitely kind of a weirdo writer in the 80s. Is he still around?
And great post, by the by.
Yeah, very disgusting. I think that one was called “Maximum Volume?” Or “Thunder” or something. Futuristic superhero glam rockers, the kind of thing that would have become a movie starring Malcolm McDowell as a David Bowie clone for an eventual revival at the Cinefamily.
Thanks, Noah. Doug Moench. I vividly remember the art, too, in that it had a herky-jerky quality I didn’t like. Everyone looked emaciated, but it was easy to copy.
Woah, I just had a deja vu looking at Moench’s “Six from Sirius” credits.
Gosse was treated as a joke/laughingstock. This didn’t seem like the best way to preserve God’s existence.
Good. Hey, those Victorians weren’t so dumb, huh?
But someday I got to find the text where Gosse made his argument.
Okay, McGill’s library catalogue indicates I can find the book pretty easily. But the book is 397 pages long, so maybe I wont.
Here’s a piquant title from the author’s works:
Aquarium: an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea
He was quite the marine biologist, it seems. I like how he titled the book “Omphalos” instead of “Bellybutton.”
Would that Fanta’d published “Bottomless Omphalos.”
I didn’t know “omphalos” meant anything, let alone bellybutton.
If the title’s that strange, maybe I will have to look at the book.
Well, I have to admit I really enjoyed this series back then (including the ending).
I remember Moench explaining at the time (via the letters column) that while he had several more issues planned, the revelation from the final issue (#18) was something that had been planned all along. It was hinted at for at least a few issues before the last one, and it made sense within the context of the entire series (in other words, I never thought this was a case of Moench “flipping the bird” at DC).
Art was by the under-rated Jim Baikie, who did a fine job.
Noah asked if Moench was still around: he was out of comics for a few years, but he’s recently written a few X-Files comics for Wildstorm and I understand he will be doing a Batman mini with Kelley Jones.
Thanks, Rodrigo. I’d rather hear it from you than Google.
I’d like to reread the series, as I’m going by my childhood impressions. Which would mean getting into the labyrinthine closets of the family home, finding boxes of old toys, drawings, love letters, diaries, photo albums, and unfortunate sweaters before Electric Warrior.
That’s terrifying, so I’m stuck with the kid’s view. He loved Art Adams and hated Infantino, Kirby, and Ditko all three, so Baikie’s in good company. Looking back, the books that stayed with me aren’t the ones I enjoyed the most. I want to reread Jim Starlin and EW, not TMNT.
The whole series was set up to have a HUGE twist every 7 – 8 issues, and Moench has said that he had a lot more of the story set after the Spaceship came down. The series is one of the better experimental books from DC in the 80’s, and I wonder how many more big twists Moench had set up