Ralph 124C 41+

Ralph 124C 41+

Serialized in Modern Electrics
Author Hugo Gernsback
Country United States
Language English
Genre Science fiction novel
Publication date
 1911
Media type Print (hardback & paperback)
Preceded by none
Followed by none

Ralph 124C 41+, by Hugo Gernsback, is an early science fiction novel, written as a twelve-part serial in Modern Electrics magazine beginning in April 1911. It was compiled into novel/book form in 1925. While one of the most influential science fiction stories of all time, modern critics tend to pan the novel and few people read it today. The title itself is a play on words, ( 1 2 4 C 4 1 + ) meaning "One to foresee for one another".

Plot summary

The eponymous protagonist saves the life of the heroine by directing energy remotely at an approaching avalanche. As the novel goes on, he describes the technological wonders of the modern world, frequently using the phrase "As you know..." The hero finally rescues the heroine by travelling into space on his own "space flyer" to rescue her from the villain's clutches.

Predictions

Some successful predictions from this novel include television (and channel surfing), remote-control power transmission, the video phone, transcontinental air service, solar energy in practical use, sound movies, synthetic milk and foods, artificial cloth, voiceprinting, tape recorders, and spaceflight. It also contains "...the first accurate description of radar, complete with diagram...", according to Arthur C. Clarke in his "non-genre" novel Glide Path (1963).

"A pulsating polarized ether wave, if directed on a metal object can be reflected in the same manner as a light-ray is reflected from a bright surface or from a mirror..."[1]

Science mistakes

Inevitably, some of the science predictions made in the story turned out to be wrong.

For example, in 1911 it was commonly assumed that, just as a sound wave needed a medium to travel in, so did a light wave. Ether was postulated as the unknown substance that light traveled in. In the story an ether vacuum occurred when too much energy was radiated at once. Radiation caused more ether to be drawn to an area of energy expenditure and the lack of ether resulting from this overusage caused a temporary blackout because light could not travel where there was no ether. Heat and cold could also not be transferred during such a blackout. It is now known that such ether does not exist and is not needed for light to travel. Such effects are impossible.

Influence and critical reception

Even though Ralph 124C 41+ is one of the most influential science fiction stories of all time,[2] and filled with numerous science fiction ideas, few people still read the story.[3] Brian Aldiss has called the story a "tawdry illiterate tale" and a "sorry concoction" while Lester del Rey called it "simply dreadful."[4] Martin Gardner referred to the book as "surely the worst SF novel ever written." [5] Groff Conklin more generously described it as "thoroughly delightful . . . [with] the genuine charm of a sound, workmanlike antique."[6]

Reviewing the 1950 Frederick Fell edition in the New York Times, Rex Lardner wrote that while the "fine" novel "contain[ed] a good deal of sound prophecy, . . . it has a narrative style as quaint as the retarder on a Hupmobile."[7] Everett F. Bleiler similarly noted that "The literary treatment is on a very low level, but Ralph 124C41+ is renowned for its many highly imaginative technical projections."[8]

While most other modern critics have little positive to say about the story's writing, Ralph 124C 41+ is still considered an "essential text for all studies of science fiction"[9] and "arguably the first major work of American science fiction".[10]

Specially named inventions and technological devices

In the anime Ergo Proxy, the main character, Re-l Mayer, has the ID number 124C41+.

Ralph Numbers, the first robot to achieve free will and hence start the bopper revolution in Rudy Rucker's novel Software, may also hold a reference to the aforementioned Ralph 124C 41+.

In the video game Mass Effect 2: Jacob Taylor's father was a crewman aboard a vessel named "The Hugo Gernsback" as a nod toward the author's fascination with free-willed robots, romance, and space travel.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Gernsback, Hugo (2000). Ralph 124c 41+. University of Nebraska Press. p. 207. ISBN 0-8032-7098-4.
  2. ↑ The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction by Gary Westfahl, Liverpool University Press, 1999, page 135.
  3. ↑ Magill's Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature Volume 3: Lest Darkness Fall by T. A. Shippey and A. J. Sobczak, Salem Press, 1996, page 767.
  4. ↑ The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction by Gary Westfahl, Liverpool University Press, 1999, page 92.
  5. ↑ Introduction to "Science-fiction: The Gernsback Years : a Complete Coverage of the Genre" by Everett Franklin Bleiler, Richard Bleiler, Kent State University Press, 1998.
  6. ↑ "Galaxy's Five Star Shelf," Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1950, p.64.
  7. ↑ "Spacemen's Realm", The New York Times, September 17, 1950
  8. ↑ Everett F. Bleiler, Science-Fiction: The Early Years, Kent State University Press, 1990, p.282
  9. ↑ The Mechanics of Wonder: The Creation of the Idea of Science Fiction by Gary Westfahl, Liverpool University Press, 1999, page 93.
  10. ↑ Books, arts and culture Prospero (December 26, 2011). "Science fiction: Rejoice for Utopia is nigh!". The Economist. Retrieved 2011-12-31.

See also

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