Line #8 Literature/TheCosmicExpress


1	Science fiction story written by Creator/JackWilliamson and published 1931, this is notable as the first appearance of a teleportation beam in science fiction.
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3	Eric Stokes-Harding is an author of adventure tales in the hyper-civilized New York of 2432 A.D. He lives in luxury, but yearns for the adventure and excitement of a more primitive life. His newlywed wife Nada agrees with him. So they embark on a real adventure -- they travel by the matter transmitter beam of the Cosmic Express to the savage jungle world of Venus, in hopes of enjoying a less artificial existence!
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5	The story is available [[http://fantasticworlds-jordan179.blogspot.com/2011/02/reprint-cosmic-express-by-jack.html here]].
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7	!!Tropes appearing in this work include:
8	* AffectionateParody: Between his name and the sort of stories he writes, Eric Stokes-Harding was almost certainly a parody of Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs. Eric romanticizes the natural life in ''exactly'' the way that ERB did in his tales, especially the Franchise/{{Tarzan}} series. It should be noted in this regard that Creator/JackWilliamson actually ''did'' grow up on one of the last American frontiers (rural Arizona and New Mexico in the 1910's and 1920's; while Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs grew up in Chicago but was stationed on the very same frontier as a US Cavalry trooper in the 1890's, over a decade before Williamson was born, so both men had seen truly savage surroundings -- but Burroughs had the more urban upbringing.
9	* {{Arcology}}: Not discussed in detail, but near the start of the story, Eric and Nada order food through a wall control panel and it is shot up by elevator from their building's "kitchens," which implies that they are living in a rather self-sufficient skyscaper.
10	* BedMateReveal: G-rated version. The story introduces the two main characters in its first two sentences in this fashion:
11	-->Mr. Eric Stokes-Harding tumbled out of the rumpled bed-clothing, a striking slender figure in purple-striped pajamas. He smiled fondly across to the other of the twin beds, where Nada, his pretty bride, lay quiet beneath light silk covers.
12	* BigApplesauce: The story takes place in the New York City of 501 years in the future -- now equipped with a [[DomedHometown dome]] to keep off the weather.
13	* CityPlanet: Earth is well on its way to becoming one of these. Much of the world is covered by cities, often [[DomedHometown domed cities]], with most of the remaining space being used for farms, parks, and resorts. Wild Nature is gone, which is one of the principal complaints of Eric and Nada.
14	* CreatorCouple: In-universe, Eric and Nada are both successful writers, and were even before they got married. He's a best-selling adventure author, and she's a prominent poetess.
15	* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: New York, and presumably the entire world, has evolved into this sort of place:
16	-->Below him was a wide, park-like space, green with emerald lawns, and bright with flowering plants. Two hundred yards across it rose an immense pyramidal building—an artistic structure, gleaming with white marble and bright metal, striped with the verdure of terraced roof-gardens, its slender peak rising to help support the gray, steel-ribbed glass roof above. Beyond, the park stretched away in illimitable vistas, broken with the graceful columned buildings that held up the great glass roof.
17	* DeusExNukina: Atomic-powered ''residential lighting'' is common in the world of 2432. This may well be an accurate prediction, however, as some forms of low-temperature fusion theoretically possible may turn out to be small enough to use in individual light bulbs, and if one ''could'' do this, one would have an artificial light which could last longer than a natural human lifespan, independent of any central power source.
18	* DidntThinkThisThrough: Despite both Eric and Nada being writers on natural themes, and thus people who ''should'' be aware of what is required to survive in primitive conditions, they travel to [[HungryJungle Venus]] without any equipment.
19	* DomedHometown: New York City is now equipped with a "great glass roof" which is supported by "graceful columned buildings." When the story commences, a blizzard is raging outside, while Eric and Nada are warm and comfortable in the controlled environment.
20	* DontGoInTheWoods: The {{Aesop}} of this story: the ultra-urban writer couple Eric and Nada are utterly unsuited for survival in primitive conditions.
21	* ExtyYearsFromPublication: The story was written in 1930 and published in 1931, and is set in 2432 -- which is just a bit over half a millennium from the date of publication (Jack Williamson was not yet a big enough name to be sure of an immediate sale).
22	* FatComicRelief: A fat woman at the Cosmic Express office, who is worried about her dog Violet.
23	-->A very fat woman, puffing angrily, face highly colored, clothing shimmering with artificial gems, waddled pompously out of the door ... Shrill words floated back:
24	-->"I'm going to see my lawyer! My precious Violet—"
25	* FunetikAksent: This gem from a French cardiologist at the Cosmic Express office:
26	-->"Queek! I have tell you zee truth! I have zee most urgent necessity to go queekly. A patient I have in Paree, zat ees in zee most creetical condition!"
27	* HappilyMarried: Eric and Nada. Their love [[spoiler:survives their disappointment with Venus, too]].
28	* HardToLightFire: Eric and Nada can't light one at all. Amply [[JustifiedTrope justified]], in that they are trying to light ''wet'' wood, ''in the rain'', by ''rubbing sticks together'' -- they have brought no matches and have apparently never heard of the concept of "tinder." Jack Williamson, who grew up on the Southwestern Frontier, would have been quite aware that what his characters were trying to do was utterly [[ArtisticLicensePhysics impossible]].
29	* HerrDoktor: The Cosmic Express, the titular teleportation beam, has just been invented by "Ludwig Von der Valls, the German physicist." 1930-31 was just long enough after UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne that the resentments of the war had begun to fade in America, and 2-3 years before ThoseWackyNazis took over and began destroying the German scientific tradition.
30	* HorribleCampingTrip: Eric and Nada's experience on Venus. Made more horrible by the presence of dinosaurs and the fact that they have brought ''no'' camping equipment.
31	* InHarmonyWithNature: Eric and Nada's ambition, which drives them to voyage to Venus. [[spoiler:Utterly and totally [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] by their lack of survival skills]].
32	* MostWritersAreWriters: Both Eric and Nada are writers: he, an author of best-selling adventure novels; she, a widely-admired poetess.
33	* NatureLover: Both Eric and Nada are obsessed with returning to a more "natural" way of life -- he because he wants adventure and excitement, she because she loves the (theoretical) poetic beauty of the natural world.
34	* TeleportersAndTransporters: The Cosmic Express machine is one of the first examples of a "transporter" in science fiction. It works ''exactly'' like the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' type, too -- it can transport matter from machine to machine, from machine to a location, or from a location to a machine.
35	* TooDumbToLive: Eric and Nada, who teleport themselves to a savage jungle planet with no survival equipment or skills. They live anyway, because the story is comedic satire rather than survival tragedy.
36	* TwoFistedTales: Eric writes these sorts of stories, which are not-so-coincidentally [[MostWritersAreWriters exactly what Jack Williamson was writing]] at the time:
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38	-->He wrote "thrilling action romances," as his enthusiastic publishers and television directors said, "of ages past, when men were men. Red-blooded heroes responding vigorously to the stirring passions of primordial life!"
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40	-->He was impartial as to the source of his thrills—provided they were distant enough from modern civilization. His hero was likely to be an ape-man roaring through the jungle, with a bloody rock in one hand and a beautiful girl in the other. Or a cowboy, "hard-riding, hard-shooting," the vanishing hero of the ancient ranches. Or a man marooned with a lovely woman on a desert South Sea island. His heroes were invariably strong, fearless, resourceful fellows, who could handle a club on equal terms with a cave-man, or call science to aid them in defending a beautiful mate from the terrors of a desolate wilderness.
41	* VenusIsWet: In the story, Venus is a habitable jungle planet similar to pre-Cenozoic Earth, complete with dinosaurs.
42	* WishFulfillment: Eric Stokes-Harding is a prolific best-selling author (audience of over 100 million, which means he's probably sold over a billion copies of his books) whose success enables him to live in a swanky New York apartment. He's just married a beautiful and prominent poetess. At the time Creator/JackWilliamson wrote this story, he was a single 24-year-old, just starting in the business and with serious emotional and physical health problems.

Context Literature / TheCosmicExpress