A PROPHETIC ROMANCE; MARS TO EARTH (1896) – Written by Boston’s John Mccoy in the form of reports sent from future Earth to Mars.
McCoy narrated this novel as the Lord Commissioner, a humanoid Martian sent from the Red Planet to Earth of the 1990s. Lord Commissioner is the title of official visitors that Mars’ one-planet government sends to all the other populated planets of the solar system when they become sufficiently advanced in science. Our narrator will be filing his reports from Earth to the Chancellor Commander of Mars, his superior.
The entire novel is presented through those reports. Martians have long been capable of interplanetary travel and the Lord Commissioner journeys by spaceship to Earth with a brief stopover on the moon.
Our narrator observes the ruins of a long-dead civilization on the moon and notes that a lunar atmosphere is forming, which may benefit Earthlings when they become advanced enough to fly to their planet’s satellite.
From there the Lord Chancellor journeys on to Earth, but an Earth unlike the real 1990s ever were.
Earth has no one-world government yet, so he visits the United States, which in this mock “future” has absorbed all of Canada and the nations of Central America. Washington D.C. is no longer the capital of the U.S. – a large midwest city called Midland is.
The Lord Chancellor arrives as expected and is greeted, wined and dined in elaborate ceremonies presided over by America’s female president of the time. She expresses hope that all populated planets will establish peaceful relations.
We readers learn some of the history that led to this alternate version of the 1990s. Fairly early in the 1900s, the American people rose up against the corruption and abuses of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The climactic act was a Guy Fawkes fantasy come true as the entire capitol building was blown up along with the self-serving politicians inside. Ironically, that orgy of violence was followed by a peaceful period of political reform.
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America’s democratic republic with a president as the head of state was retained, but from then on all laws passed by congress had to be ratified in a nationwide referendum of all the voters. As the years went by, women were granted the right to vote and then were given all the other rights which men enjoyed.
Other changes over time limited the right to vote to men and women between the ages of 40 and 60. Voters were also required to be heads of households. Divorces were nearly unheard of and literally required legislative approval on a case-by-case basis.
To qualify to run for office, candidates had to pass courses that taught civics and statecraft. Capitalism and socialism existed side by side but with socialism currently ascendant. The U.S. had an income tax (a “futuristic” concept in 1896) and a graduated inheritance tax.
The salaries of executives in publicly traded corporations were fixed, with the savings going toward higher dividends for all the shareholders. Executives still held shares in the companies they ran, so they still had a motive to ensure maximum profitability.
Our Martian narrator files his next report from America’s west coast, which he is taken to in express vehicles that travel through one long tunnel that runs under the Rocky Mountains. Technology in the United States of the 1990s includes items like all-electric cars, plus personal as well as mass-passenger aircraft.
Cities have much higher skyscrapers than the world of the 1890s had and different levels of those buildings were connected by vast walkways. Science has reached the point where love and other emotions can be measured by machines. The human soul can be photographed as it leaves the body of a dead person.
Other aspects that the Lord Chancellor reports back to Mars include America’s adoption of a truncated Bible in which much of the violence has been edited out. Vegetarians outnumber meat eaters and consumption of alcohol has become nearly nonexistent.
Unfortunately, human behavior is tightly managed in this future U.S. From childhood, the people are drilled in “correct” ways of eating, sleeping, exercising, etc. Ugliest of all, the old and unhealthy are euthanized.
In the end the humanoid Martian visitor realizes he has fallen in love with Madam President’s friend Loleta. The Lord Chancellor informs the Chancellor Commander of Mars that he prefers to marry Loleta and remain on Earth rather than return at the end of his visit.
Author John McCoy was one of the many late 1800s writers who wanted in on the Edward Bellamy act when it came to quasi-utopian futures. A Prophetic Romance; Mars to Earth is better than most of the others because it less slavishly imitates Bellamy’s Looking Backward.
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I think it’s a fictional story based on American people’s protest against corruption and abuse . Well shared
Thank you very much! Plus women’s more active role in political marches and such in the 1890s.
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These stories, although they were fictional, are now coming true. Elon Musk will go to Mars next year. 😍🙏🏼🌹🌹Thanks for sharing Edward. Have a great day and good luck.
You are right, they are coming true in a way. Great day and good luck to you, too!
Superb
Thank you very much!
It makes you think about our current climate in this story. However, the photograph of the soul leaving the body is a wonderful addition. Great read, and it’s great that you revisit all these old gems of the past. Great read.
Thank you for the kind words! I agree, just by chance this story had elements that parallel where we are now. Always good to hear from you!
Such a cool book! Amazing that you unearthed it! Love the report style and the way emotions can be measured and seen — I bet we’d all be flabbergasted if this were really possible, the human soul is dark, methinks.
Thanks! Yes, so many of these forgotten books are gems. I agree, that concept of photographing the human soul really makes you think.
The whole tripe revisionist history of “Saved” religious propaganda totally ignores Yom Kippur.
Interesting take.
Another example of Gospel revisionist history which substitute the gospel for the T’NaCH narrative as primary: Luke 19:41-42
The noun peace does not correctly translate the verb shalom. Shalom stands upon the foundation of trust. Peace reflects ancient Greek philosophical rhetoric; where undefined key terms which require the listeners fuzzy logic to define these essential undefined terms, like shalom, upon which all later ideas thereafter hang upon. Herein defines the classic use of Greek rhetoric by which a person controls and directs the masses. The City of David represents the rule of fair and righteous Judicial common law justice. It has absolutely nothing what so ever to do with the revisionist history of the imaginary physical history of Jesus the imaginary myth man.
I never knew that.