Edward Bulwer Lytton - The Coming Race.

[Beorn]

Edward Bulwer Lytton - The Coming Race (http://nsl-archiv.com/Buecher/Fremde-Sprachen/Bulwer-Lytton,%20Edward%20-%20The%20Coming%20Race%20%28EN,%201871,%2088%20p.% 29.pdf)


The Coming Race

by Edward Bulwer Lytton

Legendary for his turgid prose ("it was a dark and stormy night...")
Bulwer-Lytton's pioneering science fiction novel "Vril" was taken
very seriously by 19th Century Atlantis fans (for instance, Scott-
Elliot). Vril is a mysterious energy which is used by Lytton's
subterranian race (refugees from the Deluge) to power their
advanced civilization; it was later treated as a reality by occultists.
The plot of this book was recycled for numerous 'B' pulp scifi
movies and assorted crank theories.

[Osweo]

Finished it last night, cheers Mate!

Top book quote of all time:

Among the pithy sayings which, according to tradition, the philosopher bequeathed to
posterity in rhythmical form and sententious brevity, this is notably recorded: "Humble
yourselves, my descendants; the father of your race was a twat: exalt
yourselves, my descendants, for it was the samd Divine Thought which created your
father that develops itself in exalting you."

(tadpole)

Some great politics in there too:

They pretend
to be all equals, and the more they have struggled to be so, by removing old
distinctions and starting afresh, the more glaring and intolerable the disparity
becomes, because nothing in hereditary affections and associations is left to soften
the one naked distinction between the many who have nothing and the few who have
much. Of course the many hate the few, but without the few they could not live. The
many are always assailing the few; sometimes they exterminate the few; but as soon
as they have done so, a new few starts out of the many, and is harder to deal with
than the old few. For where societies are large, and competition to have something is
the predominant fever, there must be always many losers and few gainers. In short,
the people I speak of are savages groping their way in the dark towards some gleam
of light, and would demand our commiseration for their infirmities, if, like all savages,
they did not provoke their own destruction by their arrogance and cruelty.

On America:

What
was the condition of your native community before it became a Koom-Posh (democracy)?"
"A settlement of emigrants--like those settlements which your tribe sends forth--but
so far unlike your settlements, that it was dependent on the state from which it came.
It shook off that yoke, and, crowned with eternal glory, became a Koom-Posh."
"Eternal glory! how long has the Koom-Posh lasted?"
"About 100 years."
"The length of an An's life--a very young community. In much less than another 100
years your Koom-Posh will be a Glek-Nas."

In about OUR day! :eek:

[ikki]

strangely enough, found it in a library here :p
And quite surprised at how thin it was, considering all the myths and stories that have arisen around it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlMmuj_JFZc :p

[xor eax, eax]

Hopefully I'm not breaking any rules by bumping this thread. The book itself is well over a hundred years old, so I don't think it will be a problem, but if it is, forgive me.

This is one of my favorite fiction books. The idea of a hollow earth absolutely fascinates me, and the warnings about koom-posh and strife-rot are quite relevant today. The description of the automata that could only be differentiated from living beings when observed up close absolutely stunned me; not many 100+ year old texts describe androids. I highly recommend this book.

The link in the original post is dead, but it's available from gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1951

[Joe McCarthy]

He was close to Disraeli.

[xor eax, eax]

He was close to Disraeli.
Interesting, I wasn't aware.