How Science Fiction Grew up Rob Latham Savours the Convoluted Tale of Four Men Who Reshaped the Genre
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BOOKS & ARTS COMMENT shared through trusted social connections The media’s frames of choice prevented the country’s implacable foes. on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other the full implications from sinking in — for Indeed, Jamieson plays little heed to platforms, exploiting the “two-step flow” of instance, casting e-mails hacked from the accusations that the actual electoral system propagation, in which interpersonal rela- Democratic National Committee and pub- — voting machines and voter registries — tionships increase the traction of a message. lished in 2016 as ‘leaked correspondence’. might have been tampered with. She con- That flow also helped to set an agenda And the media inadvertently aided coun- cludes (rightfully, in my view) that if they in the mainstream media. Jamieson shows ter-messaging that protected Trump from had been, the manipulation would probably how much news reportage was triggered by bad press (such as represent only a fraction of the votes ‘stolen’ uncritical tracking of Twitter and Facebook “Trolls aimed recordings of him through troll activity. In the end, Jamieson’s memes. Finally, the contagion effect did much strategically to speaking lewdly final analysis is clear, if not explicit: Russian to ensure that even attempts to dismiss the direct attention while filming for trolls must have swung many more votes than more ludicrous conspiracy theories meant the Access Holly- the 78,000 in 3 crucial states that constituted that negative associations still clung to Clin- to hot-button wood programme) Trump’s winning Electoral College margin. ton. Facebook became a “contagion machine”, issues such through the tim- Indeed, the reader is left with the distinct Jamieson writes. Its algorithms quickly learnt as illegal ing of reports, even impression that the number of affected votes that the best way to retain users was to keep immigration.” distracting from was probably orders of magnitude higher. them angry and afraid — responses that troll US government Cyberwar provides a convincing model messages were designed to elicit. announcements that a Russian disinforma- of how the old Soviet ‘active measures’ of As Jamieson writes, the trolls aimed strate- tion campaign was under way. propaganda, honed throughout the twenti- gically to direct attention to hot-button issues Cyberwar is all the more powerful for what eth century, can be enacted with great effect such as illegal immigration or police brutal- it is not. It is not a book of international poli- under the new media order. Most impor- ity. Exploiting the two-step flow, the trolls tics or warfare. Its title is likely to displease tantly, Jamieson specifies the roles of com- gained traction in niche groups by pretend- those who think it might inadvertently sup- plicit citizens and an unwitting media. By ing to be extremists in both left-wing and port those actors (such as Russia) who wish to showing that modern Western democracy right-wing camps and sending out messages cast information warfare as ‘war’. It does not has a significant existential challenge, she has ranging from exaggerations to complete fic- attempt to portray the full landscape of this set us on the path to help patch it — if only tions. As Senator Mark Warner (Democrat, new, cyber-enabled cold war. It describes only we are able to move fast enough. ■ Virginia) of the Senate Intelligence Com- part of the new conflict paradigm, which also mittee recounts, these efforts were largely includes Russia’s preparations for ‘real’, criti- Alexander Klimburg is a senior non- directed at demobilizing possible Clinton cal-infrastructure-crashing cyberwar, along resident fellow at the Atlantic Council voters. Meanwhile, trolls tried repeatedly to with the slow and steady erosion of the West- in Washington DC and an affiliate of incite violence, attempting to organize at least ern alliance, democracies and international the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard 129 rallies on both left and right — some at law writ large — all in an attempt to fulfil a University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He the same time and place, with the clear intent zero-sum world view in which Russian great- is the author of The Darkening Web. that they should clash. ness can be (re)achieved only by vanquishing e-mail: [email protected] SCIENCE FICTION How science fiction grew up Rob Latham savours the convoluted tale of four men who reshaped the genre. lec Nevala-Lee’s Astounding is a a science-fiction writer — delivers a of California’s Division of War Research, led fascinating collective portrait of four compelling account of its hopeful rise and a team of authors revising technical manu- men who, together and apart, helped ignominious fall. als for military use. He also joined Heinlein Ato shape modern science fiction. They were Pivotal in this trajec- and de Camp in brainstorming unconven- the legendary, irascible John W. Campbell tory was the massive, tional responses to kamikaze attacks, such Jr, long-time editor of the magazine lingering impact of as detecting approaching aeroplanes using Astounding Science Fiction (later Analog), the Second World War sound. and three of his key writers. Isaac Asimov on the magazine and Despite knowing that publishing stories and Robert A. Heinlein became giants of the its stable of authors, treating potential new forms of military genre. L. Ron Hubbard, by contrast, was a several of whom were technology would run afoul of the wartime prolific purveyor of pulp fiction (and future drawn into military censors, the ever-obstinate Campbell did just founder of the Church of Scientology). research. Asimov, that in March 1944. Cleve Cartmill’s ‘Dead- Under Campbell’s editorship, Astounding Heinlein and fellow line’ depicted the invention of a nuclear was transformed during the late 1930s and Astounding regular Astounding: John bomb using isotopes of uranium. Campbell, a 1940s from a showcase for space-opera L. Sprague de Camp W. Campbell, Isaac trained physicist who strongly suspected the schlock into a serious venue for futuristic tested war materials Asimov, Robert A. government was working on such a weapon, extrapolation, often written by professional at the Philadelphia Heinlein, L. Ron fed technical details to Cartmill, who set the Hubbard, and the scientists such as Asimov, a biochemist, Navy Yards in Penn- Golden Age of tale on another planet. (Cartmill slyly called and electronics engineer George O. Smith. sylvania from 1942. Science Fiction the warring aliens Sixa and Seilla, Axis and That era has become known as science fic- Campbell, under the ALEC NEVALA-LEE Allies spelt backwards.) tion’s golden age. Nevala-Lee — himself aegis of the University Dey Street (2018) Unsurprisingly, the story drew the ©2018 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All ri ghts reserved. ©2018 Spri nger Nature Li mited. All ri ghts reserved.11 OCTOBER 2018 | VOL 562 | NATURE | 189 COMMENT BOOKS & ARTS attention of the national Counter- superpowers purportedly lurking in every- Hubbard’s gift for the hard sell was intelligence Corps, which suspected a leak one — once they had gone through an pivotal, and Nevala-Lee’s portrait of him as from the Manhattan Project; swathes of ‘auditing’ process and emerged as ‘clears’ — a paranoid narcissist and skilled manipula- the personnel at the project’s site in Los gripped Campbell, and he helped Hubbard tor is scathing. However, Campbell is also Alamos, New Mexico, were science-fiction to market his 1950 book Dianetics. Nevala- sharply scrutinized for his role in midwifing fans. Campbell was aggressively and unleashing Dianetics. Heinlein interviewed by an intelligence agent, and Asimov were repelled by what Cartmill’s personal correspondence they saw as an uncritical embrace of was put under surveillance, and quackery, and took refuge in newer, Astounding came close to having its often more lucrative markets. The mailing privileges revoked. After book’s final chapters detail the steady the war, Campbell often cited the decline of the magazine into a second- incident to demonstrate the genre’s rank publication, and Campbell (who prophetic nature — its capacity to died in 1971) into a reactionary crack- project a convincing fictional future pot with racist views. from known scientific facts. Although much of the story out- Indeed, the unprecedented tech- lined in Astounding has been told nological advances of the war fuelled before, in genre histories and biogra- ARCHIVE/ALAMY PICTURE GRANGER HISTORICAL the public taste for science and tech- phies of and memoirs by the princi- nology, in turn raising the cultural pals, Nevala-Lee does an excellent job status of science fiction. The late of drawing the strands together, and 1940s and 1950s were a boom time braiding them with extensive archival for the genre. That boosted the stock research, such as the correspondence of Astounding, which came to spe- of Campbell and Heinlein. The result cialize in stories of nuclear conflict is multifaceted and superbly detailed. and crisis. It also led to the rise of The author can be derailed by trivia competing titles such as Galaxy and — witness a grisly account of Hein- The Magazine of Fantasy & Science lein’s haemorrhoids — and by his Fiction, as well as an expansion of the fascination for clandestine love affairs science-fiction book market. Camp- and fractured marriages. He also bell’s talent began to be poached. gives rather short shrift to van Vogt, Nevala-Lee carefully traces the one of Campbell’s most prominent rifts that developed in the core group, discoveries and a fan favourite dur- largely prompted by Campbell’s ing Astounding’s acme, whose work increasing fondness for pseudo- has never since received the attention scientific ideas such as the Dean it deserves. drive (proposed by inventor Norman These quibbles aside, the book is a Dean, who claimed it could produce Astounding Science Fiction’s cover for May 1947. rich, gripping cultural and historical thrust without a reaction — in viola- study of how a small cadre of talents tion of the laws of motion).