Peter Fitting, Subterranean Worlds, A Critical Anthology (Wesleyan University Press, 2004)
Ever wonder if there's another world under your feet? Ever peer into a hole in the ground and wonder how far down it goes, what strange and wonderful things it might lead to, what fascinating things the dirt and rocks and roots might hide from your prying eyes?
I must confess that I have. I've long been fascinated with the idea that down there, at the end of that cave, or under that rock, or beneath that tree, there might be a passage to a land wholly different from the green, sunny earth we inhabit.
I'm not alone in my fascination. It's an idea that's entertained many a writer's brain, seemingly since ink was first set to paper. Some ideas of heaven and hell itself propose a land of milk and honey above, and a land of fiery desolation and torment below. When I was a child, I used to take this quite literally, thinking that right under my toes the devil was poking some pitiful soul with a pitchfork, and that somewhere up in the clouds, angels were lounging around playing harps or reading. Later, watching Filmation Studio's ABC cartoon "Journey To The Center Of The Earth," (based on the Jules Verne novel) I became convinced that somewhere there was a cave that would lead me to a fantastic and unexplored underground world.
Luckily, Peter Fitting, a professor of cinema studies at the University of Toronto, takes a much more educated look at hollow earth theories and fiction in Subterranean Worlds. Though this critical anthology is meant to be academic rather than amusing, it still is a compelling read. And if your interest in the subject is piqued, there's a very detailed bibliography, some notes from Fitting and Web sites listed for further research.
Logically enough, Fitting's book first examines the hollow earth theories that have inspired a wealth of fiction.
There's Athansius Kircher, who in 1665 wrote Mundus Subterraneus, which, when boiled down to its simplest form, stated that the earth was made up of a series of compartments containing fire and water. The fire, he said, radiated outward from a central core, eventually shooting out though volcanoes. Thomas Burnet talked of subterraneous cavities, burrows, channels, clefts and caverns. He also talked about the 'hollow and broken frame of the Earth.' Even Edmund Halley, of comet fame, had a 'Theory of the Magnetic Variations' that was based on the outside earth -- where we live -- revolving around a central, stationary core that was surrounded by liquid.
Perhaps the most surprising revelation, for me at least, was of a gentleman named John C. Symmes, who sent out the following declaration to a number of countries: 'I declare the earth is hollow and habitable within; containing a number of solid concentrick spheres, one within the other, and that it is open at the poles 12 or 16 degrees; I pledge my life in support of this truth, and am ready to explore the hollow, if the world will support and aid me in the undertaking.' While he was mostly ridiculed, a few took him seriously, and he was supposedly the inspiration for The United States Exploring Expedition in 1836. Though they never found Symme's so-called entrance at the poles -- focusing instead on a more practical exploration -- they did collect some 50,000 specimens that eventually needed a home. Out of this, the Smithsonian Institution was born.
After this introduction, Fitting starts mining the gems that make up the heart of this book: hollow earth fiction. There is, of course, Jule's Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth (though the title is given in the original French) and At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs; The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket by Edgar Allen Poe; Symzonia: A Voyage of Discovery, whose authorship is disputed, and a number of other works, some with titles so long they'll make your head spin. For instance: The Journey of Niels Klim to the World Underground, with a New Theory of the Earth and the History of the Previously Unknown Fifth Kingdom by Ludvig Holberg.
Fitting classifies each type of fiction by aligning it with the theories it is most closely associated with. He also describes the category of fiction -- such as utopian, satirical, or fantasy -- each story falls under.
Generally speaking, I found this book fascinating. The fact that humans have been speculating about what's under our feet, and writing some pretty fantastical tales about it, makes me want to strap on a helmet lamp and start exploring the nearest cave, or at least head over to the library. However, I did run into a few blocked passages that I had to dig through when I read this book.
The first is Fitting's tendency to repeat himself. Often. For instance, he talks about Symme's theories in the book's first chapter, "A Bluffer's Guide to the Underworld: An Introduction to the Hollow Earth Theories and Descriptions of the Inner Earth, from Kircher to Symmes." Then, in the intro to the chapter devoted to Symmes, he discusses the theories again. OK, I understand that. You can't just jump in again without testing the waters. But he then reprints some of the very articles he's already discussed, in great detail, and by way of introducing each of the articles, talks about the theories again.
After a while all this redundancy becomes nothing short of bothersome. I found myself mentally scrambling over this flotsam and jetsam to get to the next point. And while I realize some of the stories he discusses are far too big to be reprinted in any great detail, I still wish he would have used more space to reprint some of the actual sections of the books he discusses, instead of repeating himself.
Overall, though, this is quite an interesting work. While it's not light reading, the sometimes long-winded Fitting does manage to be entertaining and informative, something many scholars have trouble with.
So if you're interested in hollow earth fiction, dig around in your local library or bookstore and see if you can find this little gem. While it may not have enough facets to sparkle brightly, it's certainly polished enough to catch hold your attention for a while. Who knows, you may come up with a hollow earth theory of your own.
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