La Tachipompa e altre storie

by Edward Page Mitchell, Martina Volpe (Translator)

Un genio dotato di un cervello meccanico, destinato a dominare il mondo. Gli Stati Uniti ucronici di un 1937 che non è mai stato, invasi dalla Cina. Un teletrasporto finito male. Un orologio capace di portare indietro nel tempo. Una macchina per analizzare l'anima degli uomini. Uno scienziato invisibile. Una macchina per raggiungere velocità infinite. Queste sono le sette idee principali dietro i sette racconti di Edward Page Mitchell qui proposti. Autentiche perle della fantascienza d'epoca, pubblicati negli USA tra 1874 e 1881, anni prima della macchina del tempo o dell'uomo invisibile di H. G. Wells e molto prima del teletrasporto di Star Trek.

[Sette racconti di fantascienza d'epoca, collana Vaporteppa (Vekkiume), 31.000 parole, circa 112 pagine, con in aggiunta una postfazione sulla loro importanza storica e sull'autore]

Genres: Short Stories, Science Fiction, Fiction

112 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

"Edward Page Mitchell (1852–1927) was an American editorial and short story writer for The Sun, a daily newspaper in New York City. He became that newspaper's editor in 1897, succeeding Charles Anderson Dana. Mitchell was recognized as a major figure in the early development of the science fiction genre. Mitchell wrote fiction about a man rendered invisible by scientific means ("The Crystal Man", published in 1881) before H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, wrote about a time-travel machine ("The Clock that Went Backward") before Wells's The Time Machine, wrote about faster-than-light travel ("The Tachypomp"; now perhaps his best-known work) in 1874, a thinking computer and a cyborg in 1879 ("The Ablest Man in the World"), and also wrote the earliest known stories about matter transmission or teleportation ("The Man without a Body", 1877) and a superior mutant ("Old Squids and Little Speller"). "Exchanging Their Souls" (1877) is one of the earliest fictional accounts of mind transfer. Mitchell retired in 1926, a year before dying of a cerebral hemorrhage.

The gradual rediscovery of Mitchell and his work is a direct result of the publication in 1973 of a book-length anthology of his stories, compiled by Sam Moskowitz with a detailed introduction by Moskowitz giving much information about Mitchell's personal life. Because Mitchell's stories were not by-lined on original publication, nor indexed, Moskowitz expended major effort to track down and collect these works by an author whom Moskowitz cited as "the lost giant of American science fiction".

Mitchell's stories show the strong influence of Edgar Allan Poe. Among other traits, Mitchell shares Poe's habit of giving a basically serious and dignified fictional character a jokey name, such as "Professor Dummkopf" in Mitchell's "The Man Without a Body". Since Mitchell's fictions were originally published in newspapers, typeset in the same format as news articles and not identified as fiction, he may possibly have used this device to signal to his readers that this text should not be taken seriously."

-- Wikipedia

Reviews

[Ivan Lanìa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Questa raccolta di fantascienza americana del pieno 1800 è il luogo di nascita di un cazzilione di tropi: è in questi sette racconti, infatti, che sono apparsi per la prima volta teletrasporti, macchine del tempo, intelligenze artificiali, cyborg, macchine tendenti alla velocità infinita, uomini invisibili e musica registrata e trasmessa in streaming (giuro!).
Ora, al di là del primato creativo di Mitchell, questi racconti secondo me sono ancora validi e godibili: quasi tutti sono scritti in prima persona secondo la formula "Lo strano caso che mi accadde quella volta" (che a quell'epoca mi risulta andasse forte), e spaziano moltissimo a livello di toni e vicende: "La Tachipompa" è una storia umoristica con dentro una spiegazione scientifica messa quasi per fare contrasto, "L'orologio che andava all'indietro" ha un che di allucinato che lascia quasi un senso di ansia, "L'uomo più intelligente del mondo" e "L'uomo di cristallo" si basano sullo scontro fra un umano "normale" e uno "sovrumano", "Lo spettroscopio dell'anima" e "L'uomo senza corpo" hanno lo stesso protagonista e si basano sulle sue sparate eccentriche, e sono l'uno ironico (con un tocco distopico) e l'altro grottesco. Il mio preferito, comunque, è "La Figlia del Senatore", che si ambienta in un'ucronia e ha alla base uno scontro "individuo vs società" - sarei stato molto felice di leggere un romanzo lungo con quelle premesse.

[Stoyan · Rating 4 out of 5]

по-скоро 3.5.

- тахипомпата (1874) - 3.5/5
- спектроскопът на души (1875) - 3/5
- мъжът без тяло (1877) - 3.5/5
- най-способ. мъж на света (1879) - 4/5
- дъщерята на сенатора (1879) - 3/5
- кристалният човек (1881) - 3/5
- часовникът, който .. (1881) - 4.5/5

[Димитър Цолов · Rating 4 out of 5]

Към настоящия момент, почти век и половина по-късно след написването им, творбите ще ни се сторят доста наивни и остарели, но ако отчетем времевата рамка, ще установим, че идеите, заложени в тях определено са били визионерски. Едуард Пейдж Мичъл експлоатира теми като телепортацията, изкуствения интелект, пътуването във времето, че дори и вегетарианството като политическа кауза. 3,5/5

СЪДЪРЖАНИЕ:

1. Тахипомпата (1874)
2. Спектроскопът на души (1875)
3. Мъжът без тяло (1877)
4. Най-способният мъж на света (1879)
5. Дъщерята на сенатора (1879)
6. Кристалният човек (1881)
7. Часовникът, който вървеше назад (1881)

[Daniele Giampaoli · Rating 5 out of 5]

È inutile che ti nascondi H.G. Wells, lo vedo da qui che stai copiando

[Cicero · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am nearly convinced that Mr. Mitchell was a time traveler himself. How else could he have written such prescient stories?

[Silver Keeper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Idee originali (per l'epoca) trattate spesso con ironia.

Un'antologia breve consigliata a tutti gli amanti della fantascienza delle origini.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read that mixes satire, mathematics, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and adventure. Mitchell weaves an early tales of androids in "The Ablest Man in the World", almost coinciding with Villiers' Tomorrow's Eve (the latter was released a year later, but it was a novel rather than a short story). The chief flaw of the collection is that many of the stories are simply sketches for ideas rather than completed tales with beginnings, middles, and ends; "The Senator's Daughter" is probably the worst offender, spending a lot of time on political romance involving a member of the Mongol-Vegetarian party before finding its way to a really interesting idea involving cryogenics--and then it just cuts off. Other stories, such as "The Crystal Man" and "The Clock That Went Backward", are most notable for introducing concepts that prefigured more famous H.G. Wells stories like The Invisible Man or The Time Machine. Worth a read, if you're into genre literature from this time period.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tachypomp: A Mathematical Demonstration - A lot of mathematical inside jokes in this one. It was very enjoyable, although it gets a bit bogged down near the end, when Mitchell is discussing the infinite sequence of trains. Still, I give it 4.5 stars for the general goofiness of it all.

The Soul Spectroscope - A very short story about a mad scientist. But then most of these stories have to do with a mad scientist. This one delves into metaphysics in a scientific manner, sort of. Amusing and inventive. 4 stars.

The Man without a Body - About a bodiless head that talks. More silliness. I like Mitchell's writing style quite a lot, but I was less interested in this story than some of the others in this collection. 3 stars.

The Ablest Man in the World - 1879 story about an android made by a power hungry clockmaker. This story reads like a science fiction story from a much later time. It seems to be a parody of (or social commentary on) the aristocracy of Europe. Mitchell's characters ware interesting and remarkably well developed for such short stories. 4.5 stars.

The Senator's Daughter: Mitchell writes of two lovers, the man from "Mongolia" (oddly, with a Chinese name), who is apparently a senator from California, and a young woman, who is a daughter of a white senator from the eastern U.S. China has conquered the U.S., but this really plays no part in the story. The woman's father prohibits her marriage to the mongolian man because of his race, but true love cannot be denied. Mitchell introduces cryogenics and synthetic food wafers. He puts forward an extreme form of vegetarianism. This is an odd choice, since it makes the protagonist less likable. The story had some interesting ideas, but is a little dull. 3 stars.

The Crystal Man - A precursor to H.G. Well's "The Invisible Man". A scientist experiments on his assistant and then dies before he can undo his experiment. The condition of the crystal man ruins his life. There is an interesting twist concerning the man's lover. Very short, but very good. 5 stars.

The Clock that went Backward - A clock goes backwards and two guys go back in time. This story apparently inspired H.G. Wells 's "The Time Machine". It is considerably less interesting than Wells's story. I thought this was the weakest story in the collection. 2 stars.

Overall I'm giving the collection 4 stars, largely because Mitchell is so inventive and creates such interesting characters with so few words. Very nice.

[Blossom]

Honestly, I do not know that my copy included the 'other stories'. I read "The Tachypomp" and "The Clock That Went Backward". I enjoyed both.
"The Tachypomp" had math and scientific references that I really couldn't quite grasp. Even with the jargon, I could follow that this is a subject thought on and discussed. It had a twist ending that I appreciated but also I especially liked that it ended with a sentence intended to get the reader thinking.
I found "The Clock That Went Backward" to be predictable but still well written.

[Russ Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun and entertaining! Old old school SF&F.

[Brolie · Rating 2 out of 5]

eh. I looked into this guy due to my love and admiration for mr. H G Wells. I can understand why he didn't do as well, but at the same time, it was fun

[Lulu]

1874 - 1881 His stories included invisibility, faster than light travels, teleportation, time travel, cryogenics, mind transfer, mutants, cyborgs and mechanical brains


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