SPOILERS
| Added | Mon, 26/03/2018 |
| Release date | 1907
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| Original title | La Roue Fulgurante (Soucoupe Volante)
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| Феномены | |
| References | Ла-Ир Ж. де. Сверкающее колесо. Небывалые приключения на земле и в воздухе капитана Хозе Мендес. В 7 частях. -- Москва, 1908.
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The novel by the famous French writer Jean de la Ira "The Fiery Wheel" ("La roue fulgurante"), published for the first time in 1907, can be considered one of the first works of world literature in the genre of "space fiction".
This work describes flying machines similar to the familiar "flying saucers", and also tells about the abduction of the inhabitants of the Earth by aliens. These and many other ideas were new to the author's contemporaries. It is not surprising that the novel gained such popularity that the newspaper "Morning" ("Le Matin"), which published it, immediately concluded a contract with La Ire, according to which he undertook to transfer to publishers one of the same work annually. Very quickly (already in 1908) the novel was published in Russia under the title "The Sparkling Wheel".
Despite the confusing plot, the author in the novel gives out a powerful stream of interesting ideas, many of which will be continued and reflected not only in later works of literature and cinema, but also in modern mythology.
The novel of the famous French writer Jean de la Ira "The Fiery Wheel" ("La roue fulgurante"), published for the first time in 1907, can be considered one of the first works of world literature in the genre of "space fiction". This work describes flying machines similar to "flying saucers", and also tells about the abduction of the inhabitants of the Earth by aliens. These and many other ideas were new to the author's contemporaries.
We will retell the plot of this work, dwelling in more detail on the moments concerning the abducted, aliens or UFOs. The narrative is divided into seven parts, 3-5 chapters each.
Part I. The action begins on June 18, when a captain of the Spanish Carabinieri named Jose Mendes sees a Sparkling Wheel. It kidnaps his daughter and servant. After that, the captain finds himself in the hospital, where he learns that the abductees may have burned down along with the Wheel, and that Wheel attacks on houses, neighborhoods and entire cities are taking place all over the world, sowing destruction and panic. Next, we are told how some friends Paul Sivrak, Jonathan Bild and Arthur Brad notice that no one has seen the Wheel draw water, and decide to take shelter on a boat. At the moment of discussing this plan, the Wheel arrives and kidnaps them.
The action is postponed to the meeting of ministers of France, where there is a discussion of further actions in relation to the Sparkling Wheel. They come to the conclusion that the only one who can explain the phenomenon is Dr. Ahmed Bey, who conducts seances. The prefect of police goes to visit him, but Ahmed Bey does not explain anything to him, saying only that soon there will be an opportunity to "find out the secret and save the globe from further catastrophes."
The author takes the reader back to one of the previously abducted - Paul Sivrak, who is in an unknown place for him. His friends also come to their senses there. They realize that they are inside some kind of cloud room. They are visited by the inhabitants of the Wheel, shaped like "green pillars", but soon leave without saying a word. One of the friends sees a beautiful girl Lolla Mendes (the captain's daughter) in the hole through which the "aliens" leave.
She and her servant get acquainted with Arthur, Jonathan and Paul, and also talk about the origin of the creatures who kidnapped them. Deciding that these are spirits, they also remember Dr. Ahmed Bey, and also figure out how to celebrate their days here and what to eat. Paul falls in love with Lolla. Together they make several futile attempts to get out and decide to go to bed.Meanwhile, the Wheel comes out of the earth's atmosphere and flies through space. After waking up, the prisoners again talk about the origin of the Wheel and its inhabitants. They are interrupted by suddenly appearing green pillars. People decide to shoot one of them with a revolver, but Lolla does not let them do it, and the pillars disappear for a while. When the pillars appear again, they are still shot at, and all five prisoners are outside the Wheel and begin to fall.
Part II. Prisoners who have fallen out of the Wheel find themselves on an alien planet. It's very hot there, the gravity is less than earth's, and the air is breathable; the grass is brown, the water is yellow, and the clouds are green. They conclude that it is Mercury. When they hide in the forest and decide to sleep, they are attacked by local animals that look like a one-and-a-half-meter rat on one leg and with a trunk instead of a nose, driven by curiosity rather than rage. After that, they are caught by some black creatures, but while they are carrying them somewhere, the Wheel kidnaps two friends, leaving Paul, Lolla and Francisco with the Mercurians.
Part III. The Mercurians carry the prisoners to some place and begin to whistle in different ways. Friends guess that whistling is the speech of local residents. It also turns out that Mercurians feed on each other. The prisoners decide to break out with a fight, run away and hide. They go out to the river, swim along it and accidentally split up. Lolla is left alone. Men, having eaten some flowers and made weapons from branches, go to look for her. Running away from the Mercurians again, Paul injured his leg. Francisco has to carry it on his shoulders. They get to the twilight zone. It turns out that the Wheel took Bild and Brad to Venus, where the locals helped to track down their friends with a telescope and give them a message. Paul and Francisco have to kill and eat Mercurians to survive.
Part IV. Earthlings receive a light letter from Venus: a huge white rectangle with black letters. Articles about him are published in various newspapers. Dr. Ahmed Bey reads the news and orders to gather famous people for a seance, where he talks about the disincarnation and reincarnation of souls. To demonstrate his abilities, he moves the soul of a sleeping person into the body of a deceased person, and then sends his soul to Mercury.
Part V. Paul and Francisco are waiting for the next letter. Francisco is captured by the Mercurians, where he meets Lolla. They're trying to escape. The souls of Ahmed Bey and Brad arrive at the Field and inhabit the bodies of the dead Mercurians. They can't speak, so they communicate with the Field in writing. They head to the Mercurian camp, where they find out that Lolla is alive.
Part VI. In one of the Mercurian huts, they find a flap from Lolla's skirt, but neither she nor Francisco see it. They try to find them in vain, and then decide to get out of town. They swim down the river to the cave. A terrible howl is heard in it, and it ends in a precipice, into which the travelers fall. Meanwhile, Lolla and Francisco, trying to escape from the chase, also descend into this abyss. Lolla sees Paul's body and, out of fear that he has died, falls into a coma. Paul, Ahmed Bey and Brad turn out to be alive. Francisco and Ahmed Bey switch bodies. Ahmed Bey tries to disembowel Lolla's soul, but they are distracted by a crowd of Mercurians. They try to escape, but end up in a new city where other Mercurians live, obviously more developed, because they control certain mechanisms. The travelers run away again and again meet a new, already third, race of Mercurians. The travelers realize that they need to escape from this planet. To do this, they kill Lolla's body, and they disincarnate themselves. They return to Earth and all but Ahmed Bey, who has returned to his body, find new bodies among the recently deceased. Lolla and Paul decide to get married, and Earth scientists begin work on an interplanetary radiotelephonograph to communicate with Venusians and with Jonathan Bild.
Part VII. After 38 days, the radiotelephonograph is built. With the help of light waves, people establish a connection with Venus. The Venusians send a ship to Earth, but it crashes. Only Bild survives, and six Venusians die. Fragments of the aircraft explode and kill everyone nearby: Ahmed Bey, Jonathan Bild, Arthur Brad and many who are privy to this story. Only Paul, Lolla and Francisco remain alive. They move to an island in the Indian Ocean, where Francisco and Lolla's father soon die.
Phenomena in artwork: UFO
The novel is almost in the first paragraph describes a phenomenon that contemporary readers would call a UFO. The author also describes a classic kidnapping (i.e. SE IV classification D. A. Heineken):
Suddenly a strange noise made him raise his head and what he saw, nailed him to the spot. He dropped the cigar and opened his eyes widely.
Imagine a huge, dazzling glittering wheel! It hovered in the sky with incredible speed. In the middle he had a black ball covered with holes from which the fireworks rained down green rays. It's breathtaking the wheel sped from West to East. Captain eye decided that it was at the height of about 500 meters. Suddenly it stopped, turned a quarter circle and rushed to the mountain of Pelada.
The captain just thought that it must now be over a quarter of GRATSIA, he heard suddenly a thunderous Bang. He instinctively lowered his eyes and looked to where his daughter was. And he saw — he couldn't believe it! — saw how his daughter Lolly and waiter Francisco was raised from the ground, fascinated by the sky and drawn into the Glittering Wheel; after that flashed a bright light, something painful hit him on the forehead, he fell and lost consciousness.
This is probably the first work of fiction, which so clearly describes the kidnapping of a mysterious flying object, the shape of which is similar to the classic flying saucer. Here was expressed the idea about the alien origin of the discs. In his work "war of the worlds" by Hg wells, which was published ten years earlier, the thought had appeared, but there the ships of the Martians had a different appearance, and the aliens don't abduct people, and exterminated them.
The kidnapping described herein on behalf of one of the victims:
And suddenly Paul felt as he climbs, flies through the air, is attracted... Vaguely he was aware that Bild and brad are walking together with him... the Brilliance blinded him, and he lost consciousness...
This "wheel" was also observed by a group of not very sober friends. One of them describes it as follows:
... we saw just a few hundred meters in front of me like a bunch of tall buildings off the ground and flew the arrow to the wheel. And all died in the flames...
Also, there are mentioned a huge pit in place of the missing buildings:
...the wheel has absorbed the courthouse and the monastery, leaving in their place a gaping hole in a hundred meters deep.
Obviously, there is a reference to sinkholesappearing around the world. In those days they were considered a mystical phenomenon called "devil's crater" or "gates to hell", but their appearance was attributed to evil spirits, not unidentified flying objects. In our time the appearance of indentations of various sizes in soil is also sometimes associated with traces of landing UFOs. This is probably the first work in which voiced this idea.
The book also describes the condition of the kidnapped, who come up inside the UFO, and what he saw there:
When he came to, the first thing opened his eyes, but he firmly shut his eyes.
A few minutes and then he remained with closed eyelids, trying to give an account of their situation. He couldn't move neither head, nor hands, nor feet. He was glued to a flat surface with your legs extended and outstretched hands. He felt the back of his head, back and limbs are precisely attached to the soft cold substance. In the left cheek gushing continuously violent wind. In his ears echoed a lot of noise. Through closed eyelids he saw the monotonous pink light, what I see when I draw closed eyes to the midday sun.
But the blood pounded in his ears and breathing was extremely difficult. He did not seem to have enough air. He was breathing fitfully and frequently, but silently.
[...]
Quietly, quietly he opened his eyes, gradually accustoming them to a dazzling Shine. A quarter of an hour used it just to polarisavenue ever. But before my eyes there was nothing except the endless sky, unusually brilliant. Wanting to see maybe more around him, he began to rotate the eyes, but this time felt immersed in the substance, which was glued.
Modern kidnapped by aliens, people often describe their condition as well: enveloping a bright light and the inability to move.
Further, the characters are in a room inside the ship:
They were inside the room a strange shape. Imagine a multi-faceted box with twenty sides, seven yards high; stand inside, on one of its triangular sides, and you will get a notion in what position were they in his prison. In fact it was a real prison: it can be seen there was neither door, nor window, nor any opening; the walls were completely smooth: but it seemed amazing the material from which they were built. Best of all it could be compared to a very, very thick, dark grey fog. Wall of condensed cloud!
They note that the atmosphere in the room is low. Then they sneak into some other room, then decide what's in the cloud:
"Room" in which they were represented inside the large star; he had so many sides that he seemed almost round. A faint greenish light illuminated them, where? It seemed that it gave off themselves spherical walls with their strange dwellings of the former... but empty inside.
The book describes and the Venusian space ship, but it looks like a normal car, flying across the sky. After the crash it is a "monstrous thing, like a broken air bell", and this bell is just the outer shell of the device protecting the main cabin from exposure to temperatures in the fall:
The vessel is nothing but a frame... inside is a Venus shell attached to the vessel's props... a Shell the correct square shape and seem to the door.
[...]
The Venus machine is composed of two different parts.
The first part of it is a huge cylindrical vessel of 20 meters height and 10 meters in diameter, with a wall thickness of 20 cm; all outside surrounded by metal bars and frame that shifted and broke in the fall. Vessel, rack and frame are made of solid platinum and are, from an earthly point of view, enormous value, as we have platinum costs more than gold.
The second part is positioned in the centre of the vessel and attached to elastic inside the props of the red metal, whose composition is not yet investigated. This inner part represents a platinum cubic box is 5 meters.
On each of the five sides of the cube made window shutters, hermetically closed and without glasses, and the sixth — convex door the heavens; thus, this box on each side there is one hole. The inner surface is upholstered in a soft metal, is more elastic than rubber. Attached to the walls of some tools and devices; only Jonathan Bild may explain their action. Of these one is obviously intended for the production of oxygen and absorption of carbon dioxide from the air. In one trunk was found a stock of crackers from concentrated meat, but from what animal — again, no one but Bildt doesn't know. This, of course, those crackers that feed Bild, because they themselves Venerian, as we know, eating a special gas, fabricate on their planet...
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
Phenomena in artwork: The Alien
The aliens, the inhabitants of a Glittering wheel, presented in the book as follows:
In the hole came a bright green glowing pillar, then another, then a third... They were like tall people. At the top of each pole, hesitated a translucent white ball of light, with a crash throws off sparks of fire... Three heads on the three transparent glowing pillars!..
The heroes of the novel come to the conclusion that these pillars - the highest form of life. They compare them with the ghosts:
these pillars — luminous substance, the reservoir of pure spirits... almost perfect mind... the Brain, so to speak, attained such perfection that they do not need any authority, and manifested in the form of fire balls... ghosts, seeing in the land of spirits...
Since mercuriale in this book landed on the Ground, we'll get to describe them only in passing. Travelers meet three kinds of Mercurian. The first two races – black and red, which is a one-eyed and one-legged creature with a trunk:
The creature that was the size of a child of age 12, black and shining; round trunk, on which sat something like a rat head with no neck, but the trunk kept on a single leg; from the middle of the torso out a single hand with three long claws, and It moved irregular: his leg was bent at the knee, then straightened like a spring, and the animal jumped by 4-5 yards... Over the trunk, which it fiercely waved on all sides, sparkled with red eyes...
Third, a more advanced race Mercurian yellow. They have two legs and two eyes, but also advanced enough to build complex mechanisms:
— They are yellow!..
And more growth...
— They have two eyes!
— And there is no trunk, no mouth...
All aliens described in the book, the Earth was only Venerian, and those at the time of detection was already dead because their ship was wrecked. Here is how the author describes these creatures:
Their bodies (not covered by feathers, as reported by some Newspapers, and a white rough skin without fur, feathers or hair), their body with the time turned into a shapeless gelatinous mass; you can only barely discern the outline of the wings, resembling the wings of our bat. Even the bones of the skull dissolved. As for their eyes — a huge eye venelanna something, they first underwent the process of decomposition; they were only a piece of spoiled fatty matter in amorphous and softened the skull...
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
Phenomena in artwork: Circles on the field and other formations
It is unlikely this can be fully attributed to the phenomenon of crop circles, but there is clearly a General concept: the transmission of messages to the inhabitants of the land from the inhabitants of other planets made by means of signs large area left on earth.
The book is called light letter:
Light a letter from Venus.
Tonight, at 11.30 a.m., Director of the astronomical Observatory forest Vengerskogo Mr. constant Polaron saw on a flat surface sown field engineered round the world.
Watching Venus, Mr. Polaron the past few nights was surprised to notice that the planet is rushing towards earth a beam of light, more intense than ordinary light.
That night, at 11 h. 34 m., a wonderful beam touched the ground on the field which mentioned above.
Amazed by the phenomenon, Mr. constant Polarion out of his Observatory, came to the luminous circle and stated that on the bright surface with a diameter of 4 meters, stood out black letters, not quite clear, but legible.
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
Phenomena in artwork: Ghost
The book describes the soul of man, which is able not only to escape from the body, but also to travel without it on long distances, even to other planets. It looks like a small but bright spark. For example, here is its description in the transmigration of the soul from the living to the dead:
With unspeakable excitement soon saw five scientists, like the body of a Negro the convulsive trembled, and his lips seemed reddish foam... Suddenly black body sat up again, slumping on the table; from his open mouth came a small spark began to move and jump in the air... Ahmed Bey made a strong move and screamed; the spark went to the mouth of the white corpse and disappeared into his lips.
However, such sparks are not material, because they easily go through the items:
He made a right-hand movement of the child who catches the fly on the fly. But sparks is not swayed and accurately through the hand.
This appearance of the soul is not similar to the classic phenomenon of the Ghost, but it still requires a mention.
Translated by «Yandex.Translator»
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