UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Aerofuturism: Vectors of Modernity in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5mq8v12k Author Lovegreen, Alan Richard Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Aerofuturism: Vectors of Modernity in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English by Alan Richard Lovegreen June 2014 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Rob Latham, Chairperson Dr. Steven Axelrod Dr. Jennifer Doyle Dr. Sherryl Vint Copyright by Alan Richard Lovegreen 2014 The Dissertation of Alan Richard Lovegreen is approved: _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements This project would not have been possible without the assistance of a diverse network of scholars, as well as the ancillary support of enthusiasts, friends, and family. First, I wish to thank UC Riverside’s English Department for the funding and the opportunity to pursue this unique research. Many people directly or obliquely contributed to the development of this dissertation, including, but not limited to: Jon Adams, Matthew Bond, John Briggs, Jill Cantonwine, Teri Carter, Geoff Cohen, Melissa Conway, Adriana Craciun, Tina Feldmann, Kimberly Hall, Jeff Hicks, Katherine Kinney, Farah Mendlesohn, Kathleen Moore, Linda Nellany, Josh Pearson, Cynde Sanchez, Phillip Serrato, Linda Strahan, Kelle Truby, Peter Vanek, Jerome Winter, Mark Young, and Susan Zieger. I am indebted to my dissertation committee: Steven Axelrod, Jennifer Doyle, Rob Latham, and Sherryl Vint. They promoted my research agenda, cultivated my critical vocabulary, and took me under their wings. At many different times and sundry locales — from art exhibitions to professional conferences, over email and across café tables — each member made this project possible. As my committee went above and beyond in support of my project, my chairperson Rob Latham’s involvement was cis-lunar. His indefatigable enthusiasm for each stage of the project, especially after reading some of my early chapter drafts, is compelling evidence that a twisted version of Asimov’s First Law prevents him from letting his graduate students come to harm. It is difficult to imagine a more invested, more erudite, or more accessible mentor. iv Trevor Paglen’s photographs They Watch the Moon and Untitled are used with the courtesy of the artist; Metro Pictures, New York; Altman Siegel, San Francisco; Galerie Zander, Cologne. A condensed version of Chapter Two is forthcoming as “The Air-Body Complex: Posthuman Bodies & Aerial Futures, 1904 – 1916” in The Tower of Babel Vol. 10: Science and Science Fiction (La Torre di Babele Vol. 10: Scienza e Fantascienza). An overview of the research methodology and findings that informed Chapter Three was published previously in a methods essay entitled “Aerofuturism in the Archive” in The Eaton Journal of Archival Research in Science Fiction. Frank R. Paul’s Air Wonder Stories cover artwork is reproduced with the acknowledgement of the Frank R. Paul Estate. Frank Monaghan’s “Democracity (Assembling the Future),” republished by Paul Mason Fotsch in Cultural Critique, No. 48, is reproduced with the permission of the University of Minnesota Press. The capture of the photograph “Futurama” is used with the permission of the Estate of Margaret Bourke-White as licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. All other figures are from nineteenth-century and earlier source material and as such are covered by the fair use section of U.S copyright law, section 107. My family has tirelessy supported my research, with my parents unendingly encouraging me to pursue my academic goals. Our wonderful cat, Sabrina, offered consistent advice and company. The birth of my daughter coincided with the genesis of the first pages of this dissertation, and the birth of my son overlapped with the final weeks of writing; both did and continue to inspire. Finally, I am indebted to my wife, Rory, who has been a perpetually sage coach, a patient proofreader, a spirited listener, and an incredible companion throughout this process. v Dedicated to Rory and my growing family And Isä vi Abstract of the Dissertation Aerofuturism: Vectors of Modernity in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Literature and Culture by Alan Richard Lovegreen Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in English University of California, Riverside, June 2014 Dr. Rob Latham, Chairperson In Aerofuturism, I argue that the protean aviation technoculture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries produced a unique discourse network used by authors, painters, futurists, scientists, engineers, and policymakers to mediate and amplify public anxieties about the human body and its relationship to the surrounding built environment. Each of my four chapters covers a specific chronological period in the evolution of aerofuturist discourse. Chapter One synthesizes representations of the bird’s-eye view in late nineteenth- century painting and photography, providing the optic background for the remainder of the project, and then arguing that the aerial tropes mediate colonial views of subaltern groups. I analyze Ignatius Donnelly’s Caesar's Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century (1890), and Mark Twain’s underappreciated parody of balloon narratives, Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894). vii Chapter Two shows how visionaries in the early twentieth century used aerial space to theorize nascent forms of eugenic posthumanism. Writers such as Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Alfred W. Lawson, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, and Algernon Blackwood all illustrate how an emerging air-body complex complicated contemporary discussions of evolution and problematized the pervasive eugenic tropes of the period. In Chapter Three I examine two aerofuturist phenomena that bookended 1930s American culture: the floating cities featured in Hugo Gernsback’s air pulps alongside the aero-cities of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. I argue that the shift away from dystopian urban aerofuturism involves an unconscious occlusion of the brick-and-mortar dwellings of the former world in preparation for a coming global air war. My final chapter considers aerofuturism’s dormancy in the nuclear age and the Space Race, and its 1970s reemergence as retro-aerofuturism. Critically examining the way that authors like J.G. Ballard juxtapose aviation with eco-topian short stories, I tie their nostalgic narratives to ecological pressures emanating from the environmental movements of the period. The chapter is followed by a short retrospective coda that suggests the next stage of reanimating and recreating aerofuturist structures. viii Table of Contents List of Figures x Introduction 1 Chapter One The Nineteenth Century and the Bird’s-Eye View, 1830 – 1900 19 Chapter Two The Air-Body Complex, 1904 – 1916 67 Chapter Three Air Cities, Fantasies, and Trajectories, 1929 – 1939 107 Chapter Four Retro-Aerofuturism, Steampunk, and Global Ecologies, 1971 – 2008 164 Coda Drones, Dirigibles, and Post-9/11 Aerial Futures 197 Works Cited 202 ix List of Figures i.1 Trevor Paglen, “Untitled,” 2010. C-Print. 2 i.2 Trevor Paglen, They Watch the Moon, 2010. C-Print 2 i.3 J.J Grandvill, “Gulliver Sighting Laputa,” 1835. Woodcut. 2 i.4 George Catlin, Beautiful Prairie Bluffs above the Poncas 2 […] St. Louis, 1832. Oil on canvas 1.1 “Christchurch.”-43.530855 N. and 172.636937 E., 2012. 32 Satellite image. 1.2 Michael Wolgemut and Wilhelm Pleydenwurff, “Constantinople,” 1493. Woodcut, colored. 35 1.3 George Catlin, Brick Kilns, Clay Bluffs 1900 Miles above St. Louis, 1832. Oil on canvas. 41 1.4 Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre, Boulevard du Temple, Paris, ca 1838. Daguerreotype on copper plate. 42 2.1 Daniel Carter Beard, “Evolution,” 1889. Pencil on paper. 70 3.1 Frank R. Paul, “Air Wonder Stories Vol. 1 cover art,” 1929. Oil on board. 113 3.2 Frank R. Paul “Air Wonder Stories Vol. 3 cover art,” 1929. Oil on board. 113 3.3 Balthasar Anton Dunker, “Aerostate de poste,” circa 1784. Etching on paper, colored. 120 3.4 Frank Monaghan, Democracity (Assembling the Future), 1939. Print. 150 3.5 Margaret Bourke-White, “Futurama,” 1939. C-Print. 152 x Introduction “Our Future is in the Air” –Pablo Picasso (np) “The poets of fire, water, and earth do not produce the same kind of inspiration as does the poet of the air.” –Gaston Bachelard (36) In his 2010 exhibition Unhuman, Trevor Paglen’s photographs of drone aircraft and classified military installations reveal what appear to be novel aerial perspectives. One print, “Untitled” (2010), features a U.S. Predator military attack drone legible only as an off-center focal speck, a small, blurry fuselage cross-section adrift in a cottony sky (Fig. i.1). The elusive visual clarity of the aircraft reflects the controversial use of drones in contemporary warfare and surveillance, and offers the final haunting perspective its target may glimpse during the last seconds of life. However, as journalist Jonah Weiner notes, these particular images of drones “mean less […] as a new technology for killing than as a new technology for seeing, reconfiguring our sense