PBIPSQUEAK PROMETHEUS: Some Remarks on the Writings of L, Ron Hubbard By Willian Blackbeard “pe Lisiddes, 4a 2'audace, of toutoure de 1. Steve Fisher, 1n/a Weiter's Yearbook article written fears ago, mentions, among other fixturey notet in the Mi Jeane M60 she editor of one of the lese lurid ‘pulna of L. Ron Huppant ins pith helmet." a member of the =: Clu and one of the most prolific producers. of pulp fieti today, Hubbard's picture was probably 38 bas: ey many in editorial ganetum a6, the reject box, and th meee isartain ea intesral & part Orlesas gos ‘yubbard "6 hear Aodication and flowing stgnature +” i prief © discara Hubbard's p portrait of the author. material read anoroaches thi Ta eo and more presented, sa T osnoleds. stract, with & gmtesquely: swollen: pith jielmet alone, wich has enveloped the man. have. warmosely. Limited, myself, a6 implied above, to Hu Ja fantasy a8 1 basie for these remaness ag his. writings = lag, however preiiftc titious, can al Aneidered sufficiently | in intent to quality analytical ¥™ thing ole he has done 2 pt to present a8. tent and clear 9 pattern of B Anking, philosopay gnnscimus or subconoious attitut ae. omianarily sn author Ging of no more than aa télé malt {ious of one's svars time Zyeapt. the really sup-rior Fear from the general applicat! Serr atanants a8 well ws the opening chapters of cae ee adniaun aueanaim atratls Mubbe At hive agsuned 2 661 eetoriety.and adinence im tha not-quebe najacent but mu Tiiar worjde of science nd soisnéd-fietion with the publ! his panacse untveraelia, Dianstigse: Loshall make little Raanent an that volume heres thst 1 not tthe purpose Of cle. Hubbard has guarded to° ‘qdelliagainst frontal 3ssua the text of Dinette: He postulates the existence of a1 unoonsetqus menory etentions fran. painfal oecwrent : amatal stage ‘and nerinds at uneonsctousneas pradevta by ‘natin in the post-natal, which restrain and ‘hamper the actitna and reflections of. the indiviaual), in eye: ong, then ingenisisly ‘prints ‘out that anynne ortts ot zing “or attaneine the denotust hye Peabhed tn the bork must hive’ been lo@ to dn sa by his engtais, this closing, ©: ghz the tevel of his theary, 411 refutation ahd AAnG beative, debate, Characteriatically, however; Hubbard '. ogo hd 1Ha Hig bo overinnike his most. obviously exposed flank--that. of Mis beteonal dtanaing as Sere tee artist and thinkers: Hb. Has fatled’ tn esneides that the “Status of hig wre in Distettes migit be GHallenget by ah exdhinas tion of his work In fields outside Dianetics, and, by analysis exs tended thrdugh that work, of the pature of his qualifications for serious work on any. high creative or sclentific level whatgoever,~ Conclusions derived from such & project and backed with sufficient evidence anf example oan hardly be termed, engrammatic tn 9: gine. not, ‘at least, successfully, inasmich as nothing but ‘accepted. liter= ary values, a little Ansight, and some known facts need be used a8 the basis for the analysts, It 49 Just such an examination and: ‘analysis, short though it must necessarily be in this space, that IT propose to make here, Hubbart-~Englehantt-von Rachén-Lafayette'’s first Selenee flotion story, "The. Dangerous Dimension,” was a short and appeared 1h Ast tence Fiction for July, 1938, Editor Canpbell's biurby or the story stated that "a namo-well known to adventure readers makes 4te first apoearance in ASTOUNDING," and 4t 4s plain that © Campbell, casting abwut for the sart.of writerd who could "trin'! stortes to the "smoothness" ha Sesired, thought’ that he haa gare, nered oné such in Hubbari, Thig initial work, briot though {tis and Hastily written, contains in Seedling form nearly every point which I wish to make about Hubhara'a writing, points whigh later grew to become monstmusly evident in most of his major fiction and sent clotting bPanches into nearly everthing ‘ekse ha wrate, These prints are of primal inport, in evaluating Hubbant as:a thinker, 4 creator, and a researcher, Is 9 man, for example, who always thinks in terms of Sterentyped images usually of much paal value in any of these functions? Certain not, Yet 1s 1s precise. ly in such images that Hubbard thinks cohtinually; they are eleare ly evidenced in thie initial selence-fiction story, they are almost 1ever’ absent from 4 chapter, 9 page, and paragraph, of hig writings ind. this includes the writing in Digne: « , Hubbard's ee ae alent, for the mst, part, consists in an extraordinarily tsetle bility to revamp infinitely 4 anal number of stereotyped chanac= ers, plots, an? settinss which.are baste to his {maginative prom esses; he has only rarely and..very olunsily attempted to rise: byee this level of creation, “In. "The Dangerous Dimension" wa ‘ind a brilliant, absent-minded, -unimaginat ve, shy,’ant unwarldaly clentist, Dr. Henry Mudgs,. with. slight variations, Mudge ‘becomes ne of the two Hubbard hero” sterntypés, who are found thrmughout ework t9 follow,, Mudge 1s endowed ‘with a miraculous power, the xercise of which whigks him abdut ‘from’ placs..to. place, Again, ith variations, this becomes one sf the two or three theme, stiercon yoes in Hubbard's solence-fantasy, Mr, Mudge is taken oare of by female housekeeper, Mrs, Dédlin, who mothers him through the 3.oe eo Jocales to Sebost in the phoaio of tute 18 the prostitute, enters this story briefly. as ne ‘Of: ttie more unique of. the generally rather which iudge wills himeelti she te the woman on Yartian canal, at the gonelusion of the story,” the house-keeberemother -steraotyne into that. of {molied in the sudden. fanning-of rds Doolin net, authorative Mudge’ an? her. use of the term hin,* The change 1n Mudge himself, of, coursa in the Pairy tale manner, from tha bastoally @ kept by anchantment in a lowly state, wher Bs every day,-in ¢ twinkling te a position of pi ty. It. 8 thead two figures, at the antpod ess characterization, which dominate Hubbard @ ge writings Tita. tie neck, hubled brom-beaten | Wiptars!é sympatnys it is only his tranct tion nating, self-sufficient individual, or his. ras ual, which ean save him from himsolf snd hi underetarding and conmiseration are reserved tyne; nie resect and worsnin for the latter fo analyze this matter of stereotypes fur our arviving at an understanding of Hubbard Standard procedures. and methods of,,developtn whieh are thomselves usually.stangard stereo df. the creative process in his work... an, ouRs of aigaificance in‘itaelf which we find tm {eithe stack comic. atrip.."socker” with whi cates the,tranattion of Midge from one los pidloulously but eharacter'stioally enough, 3 iuszes' own -torainology, for this.epeedy ark peated onl slightly less often in the starg 4 Dha-udeLof. similar, "ssekera”. for Lika nurposs “the Professor is a Thief," (in. the : ly, "mnoogOSHi"), and in "The Ohsolete, These tarna are significant inasmuch ae rap indtestive of Hubbari's apparent, conviction acennplishaents of an essentially. mixacul ture ame abrupt, swiftly, executed, and abse mich Hubbam’ has his characters ach* eve a {tion in his dterigs ts, 18 2 rule, arift = position or ‘condition te. nearly vrays Are jabs become revooible “only "Hen, aa. in the maraion in Horace Hackett 's novol in Type golutely necossrry to aive the story & PB the Anitial impression me gin of a mind p00 ceted by. an acqualnitance 2 #It has bren suai have dropoed ‘out to lunch batween the fim ane Dangerous, Dimension” and that the wo tn,the opening pages may Have become, ange thoughts on a theme in Exealitur, sud gequences, A not unlikely. fists, by bla way Bablinergohy of Eubpard'estortee in Ths Bie gogreeey. ae Ruevels a Ayfixed and definitively bounded conception 9f the oanstant renccurence.of sterectynes engthened by the nature of certain of those Qeat thisepoint, some’. consideration might pro- Acinatinn of the most obvious defense, 2b by Hubard and, pernaps; certain of his ntees, in reply to the statements and-in- = This, alncet certainly, wFll be that Hub~ Sand indefatigable ormducer of hack pulp not interest’ in’ the work: bys which he: earns his /@tilizes sterntynes 13a method of. simplifying ; Hubbard himself has frequently derided ;his g his’major: science-fiction and. fantasy works, in |, stating that he cares little or nothing, for. any— peny 2nd tht “the bulk of it 1s deliberately for~ marily % pose @esigned to escape criticism for way vaguely sense exist. in even those: storics comprsition he has palpably directed the mst ‘effort of which he 1s capable, 1s,,1»feel, read~ F, demonstrable. in thase: stories themselves, Cer- 2) pretend to any artistic sensitivity at all are ‘think, of devining in 9 work that.oxeitoment and the author, often uneoncirusly,, when he- has nated bya theme and its: delingevton, Just as we ‘the’ vurely mechanical orocese of “oreation" sif¥eally, hackneyed: type of story Which Hubbard production on the pulp fiction level, That‘ many dy bear the water-narks of this Latter method. of Je ‘ana chvinus, among these ore .the Unknown 4ics, ‘Slaves of ‘Sleev, The Ghoul, Death's Deputy, i fie Indigestible Triton, and, desnite the evi- mA had in writing it, the clunstly~titled fof Ye Astounding Science-Piotion novels, The mand TOs are, 28 well 8-many ‘short ¥ azines, notably the reprehensible "Doe, Methus appearing IniAstounding. \That certain other not beir these witernirks, but rather presont every $0 ordduce an outstanding and»lasting-ork, ‘whose “Anspired the author deeply, ‘18 equally evident. in my spinion, specifically. the Unknown novels o eee and the astounding novels Final Black~ nt feat ithe fact that these latter. stories much the same sterestyned characters and story APically and cteerly hack miterial unierlines my ba- this point: that Hubbard's thinking -1s. inescapably sived) unquestioned, and. ironclad patterns, Images, cht, whether he 4s coainusly amare of 1t or note 4 basic objection which Hubbard 1s.most Likely to sis of his pulp sclence ma. fantasy fiction 18, nt yalia to the sensitive and:;thinking rdajer, but £9 basic aspect nf the Hubband Character: in- peapsnsibility for.ancaction or nostulated, thought Saw*pressnting teen commentary on any portion of the idea, pi “nothing ‘but contemptible ‘trash “in order to disarm eritictom in “lated based on'thertotality of meining implied by the sum of: in which the author senses the possibility of dn-opening for eal wedge, Rath*r than face a debate in "hich something he hi duced ‘may te attdcked or analyzed sfparaginly, Hubbard will ai to sidestep thé antire issue either by dtsmiesing it as 4 thil Heath disdussion: t.e,,,a9 In:the oase of His fiction, viewing vances or, agoim the cage of Dianstics, establishing a dimple postulates 'advanadd in the body of-hid:4dea sd that the eritte, Kingelf erratic in direct ratio to the extent of his negative tudes" in chort, anyon who-does not see'the light in.thts idea be unable to do so because he fe nartiatly or wholly in the -dai from Hubbard's oatefull defended poetion, he seeme hoisted by hi! petand, to’ return to the’general courgs nf the discussion, kt should stated, to further’evolve the points in making, that Hubbard is g-g00d Writer, That this ts‘eo-1e nota. result of his delibora pulp orientation, for’ there 1s a style-of writing that 18 sped! ly of the major pulp profucers of the past twenty yearse-in tha Norvell 7 Page’ (Grant Stockbridge, Tilliam J, Makin, ete Cham@ler, Lester Dont (Kenneth Robason), Frederick Fiust (tax B: ete, )y Cornell ‘Woolrich. (Wi111am Irish, All Hassan, ‘eto,), and John D, MacDonald, to name a fow, . The Ww all these writers ‘1g slick, wsift, ant packs a punch, It ts fi rate pulp, Hubbard's, in contrast, 18 selventy, 111-pace- (meant: at one nofnt an breaking into.a halting gallop at ansthar for parent renson), confused, and possesses A tendency to telegraph little punch 1t le "able to davelop. This 18 possibly duc: tn pai Hubbard's ‘aclf-aimittedly breakneck method of composition, as 9 of which ho 1s okeelledsby few favthe swift and able produetion saleable fletion; poasibly it 4e leo -partly the repult of: undue fluence unon-his work of the styles of certain "classic" authors, notably Dickens, which’ brings about, partiai larly in his more se! ectenco-fictish and fantasy, the frequent intrsduction of an un: style in his’ work, not ‘quite “literary,” not quite vulp, In sny o a passage salested. at random from Hubbard's work (4t is a pity that in the ‘smalliapace I have here that I-cannot, quote. many more to i2: trate sheet fio points) 111 serve to: emphasize my meaning... Tats ee graph ig from Tho” et, (Astounding, Oct., 1947, page 1089 fry and grasp the moaning expressed here in the initial reading; I couldn't, ant have yet to find snyons who could, "§ few Aays later Martel was seated in the laboratory be~ Hin some Lats eonvertet tinanafommera a>ing sone basic osl~ culations for afditional use of the magnificent. jinnd he had Alcesvered ana, to some @egres, baum’ to him with mathematical natha, The small desk wae rickety ‘and ‘high, its top sloping towamt Him, “The Light svar it wag dim and an o14 quill serat~ che4, {n anctent style over ‘protlems well in advance of nsdemms 8 dcop was he iwhis caleulations. that he #14 Ast dmnedtately Fecrsnize the bustle an? wrangle which was coming to hin: thou his abstraction and then at last he loxked up, peercA through two enormous transformers and “stared,” Ss‘gibberish ts typical of much that nasdes for works; there are worse passages (particularly this was selected because of its ready avallability raph of the third-nart of Is Not Yet), its jllustration of Hubbard’s disconcerting mixing mages and mannerisms derived from’ "classic" fiction = pulpisms, (In this gase, a5 in tuch of The ‘Ena Is Ss the chief Influence: mot: the ridkety desk an e laveino logica)l olace inthe story, either as pic- contrast of the atmosyher= of the past with that ‘Taboratorios ‘and ‘factory which s-rve is much of ound: Marte%, in such an environn-nt, would not use Pickety desk any moreithan he Would work under 4 “ts amusing, in passing, to note that the first sen in vrint ‘ina science-fiction or fantasy magazine » italicized, in “The Dangerous Dinension"), ammatical error, To e.nclude this point, howsver, 2 Assumdtion ‘that Hubbard'g ‘style sf writing 1s t, and erratic becwise the author's ‘thought-processes yy me Uncertain’ of an idea, only that 1f he pounds long enough at typovriter that it will shortly omerge ably .toothsome mailarky, he has never conaistente ow a thought totes ultimate and logical oon- worry “an idea until it his ytelded up tts love-~ tressures, to discard the shvisug and sterso~ mcentinn initially, is of little lesnseque: Selving beneath ‘the surface of the dpnarsnt a: Thus’ we have The z C46: 3 gut Not thus, but by sone reverse applica inferred above, sone breaking through “f the eoniitinned “crsative" crust, some miraculous stentialities, we have But there has been bhard's work; y a fluke, "unlikely, 1t Hin, Perhans 1f will be dtfferent with a see, But this: article 1s about the@isen-~ » the Hubbard who wrotethe great volume of thes’ arks, ‘tho Hubbard who wrote Dinw those three nr four works of fiction in which “and crewtive plevsure donstderably beyond tisn of his average science-fiction or ‘really quite go? Fear, the ‘mexplicably, an.not sure but ‘that T may reat ‘mre depth than actually ‘exists there; ithe novel is Better than averige weiri fiction, ‘complete A ghoqstics--yet Ifael that there is.a novel @ Kecent school ofenovels of psychological “Aevelope? in such works as ‘Charles Jackson's m2Brown's Brainstorn, and Mary Jane Webb's =r than any of then. It offere a picture emainely chilling nad en etely convince ive images of the most unusual and unfor~--Mre than aféquate to the thema. I was ire innregse? by th’ echapters toa delinertion of this tyne of life equalled only. tr : ‘ invinollte to the end, carves fay himgelf out of the hulk af w (the avowed nunpsse: of the Licutenant, but is eubgnkibdousiy: Hobe iferre? Anvapolioation to the salution and. dawning of. any, cbetae ‘ment, gives nihle quarter, td loved by, a-atingle 2904 wanan tes Gettatle varletyn=n> sterestynes haressand bullas ta/ol{n! ‘trug prteney, The writing throudhaut 1s. adequate. and frequen than any stherTorev in the fimst two years of Unimow, with excention sf Ny 980 that perhaps I am urduly ‘b An'Lts favors however, T-foolwthat ts 12 aalAutetanding work a Kina and perhaps the snly piece sf-writing of Hubbard's enrks wil) survive hin, rer b ta Sky, anvther Uninown nov. takes up an eternally deltichtful theme. ana morka soma really alovartations on it. Phe-mriting js only so-so, ant the plausi of the chiracters, who.ara all aténestypes, nil, ‘ot thore t ing of goof fun and high eomte snirite in the nowel “hich gene work 1ike yeast’ on the unleavened ough which seems te darve Hl with b4s usual plot material, ana one frequenly sendes atrind a1 to curiosity and apt t> make ‘spectfic inquiries into the natuma: 4 things inj feferencé to fis considerable research wort in the abronautical field under discussion--which he most dertainly any extensive degree), and to each and ell of thoss asvects-of the Hudbard nature which have astounded, ‘shocked, and puzzled his ac- guaintances--Hubbard probably “is incapable of true friendship ‘or love for anyone other than himself, excentin; a ‘sort ofveazer de- pendence, concealed in sndb5ish.condéseension, he probably fesis to Ward those. who see himin bis .own.terma and treat him asodrdinsly-- for so many years. ‘I believe-that-the final-key to this underatar ing lies in Hubvarda work,,and‘it ig by the various aspects of tha! work, ds delincated clumsily and-ir uéeinctly in this too-brief ar= ticle, that we arrive at-an attitule toward the gan and his. likely ‘abilitids in any field callinz for ‘aérisus, concentrated, detacned work. That Hubzard is capakle of aonceivins a sood idea is not, of course, denied--but that he ts capable, oF much worthwhile devel ment of that idea, or that his statements pertatnins to results achieved in that develosnent are: trustworthy I do challenqe--and do Geny, | Bhose) of you ho ‘ere readin; Dignetiod and practicing Diane- tic "therapy" cen take the.ball from there : i =000- : > Norg: Four as overlooked Wn the beste of stencillins ana mimeo sraphinz, nally intended,for the: bottom of page. 3, are. orinted | herewith: - : UL, FeyaU A cae VE eae institution of « rigid resimin which whe affects: to dislike but upon which be is really dependént} tnid, thé matherimaze, one of Kubbar 'g two basic female stereotypes, 1s introduced iin this story, as im many others: The! other female Bterestyne, that of t imran ‘nich he “makes vrais: +4 eer ?