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Psychlos stand up to 9 feet (2.7m) tall and weigh up to 1,000 pounds (450kg). They originate from Psychlo, a planet with an atmosphere radically different from Earth, located in another universe with a distinct set of physical laws characterized by a lack of elements that are radioactive. Their "breathe-gas" explodes on contact with even trace amounts of radioactive material, such as uranium. The Psychlos have been the dominant species across multiple universes for at least 100,000 years.
After one thousand years, humanity is an endangered species numbering fewer than 35,000 and reduced to tribes in isolated parts of the world while the Psychlos strip the planet of its mineral wealth.
Plot
The novel follows Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a young man in one such tribe who lives near the ruins of Denver in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. Depressed by the recent death of his father and both the lethargy and sickness of the surviving adults in his tribe, he leaves his village to explore the lowlands and to disprove the superstition long held by his people of monsters in those areas.
On a brief excursion to the ruins of Denver, Terl, Psychlo chief of mine site security, encounters and captures Jonnie. After forcing Jonnie to learn the Psychlo language, Terl learns that the "home office" has extended his tour of duty on Earth. Maddened by the prospect of being stuck on a minor planet in an insignificant universe, Terl schemes to take a load of gold in the Rockies for himself and escape. Uranium deposits surround the lode, making mining by Psychlos impossible, forcing Terl to resort to using humans as forced labor.
Terl orders a fellow Psychlo named Ker to train Jonnie to use Psychlo machinery. Ker, markedly different both in height (7 feet (2.1m) tall) and in temperament from other Psychlos, trains Jonnie as ordered, but the Psychlo and Jonnie also become friends. During their exchanges, Jonnie learns how the Psychlos initially conquered Earth, mainly by sending a large armored drone into Earth's orbit, known as a Gas Drone, which orbited the planet, gas bombing all major cities and killing billions. Humans fought back, launching attacks against the drone with first conventional and then nuclear weapons, but the drone was unharmed. Eventually, the last of the human leaders suffocated inside bunkers, the air vents sealed to prevent poison gas from entering. Terl and Jonnie travel to Scotland, where Jonnie recruits 83 Scottish people led by Robert the Fox to help with the mining. Using Terl's inability to understand English as a weapon, Jonnie plots with the Scotsmen to take back the Earth.
Months later, Jonnie and the Scots disrupt the semi-annual teleportation of personnel and other goods to Psychlo, using Psychlo technology against the Psychlos and gaining control of the planet. A year after humans gained control of the planet, other alien races arrived and orbited the Earth. Threatened by these races, Jonnie simultaneously opposes a race of intergalactic bankers seeking to repossess the Earth for unpaid debts. The security and independence of humanity once again threatened, Jonnie eventually discovers that Psychlo was destroyed by Jonnie and the Scots, mainly by transporting radiative material into the Psychlo atmosphere which caused a chain reaction, and that all other Psychlo facilities throughout the universes were also destroyed, effectively dooming the Psychlos to extinction. He then works out a way to prevent the repossession of Earth.
With the help of an aged Psychlo mathematician, Jonnie learns about Psychlo math and how the Psychlos protected their technology. Humans begin to rediscover their history, and with the Earth secure and the human population growing, a middle-aged Jonnie takes supplies and quietly slips away to the Rocky Mountains. He becomes a figure of legend.
Scientology-related themes
After Hubbard's book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health was published in 1950, the American Psychological Association passed a resolution stating that the book's claims were not supported by empirical evidence. Subsequently, Hubbard maintained an opposition to psychiatry, a viewpoint the novel reflects by portraying the Psychlos as being ruled by the Catrists ("Psychlo-Catrists" sounding similar to psychiatrists), described as a group of evil charlatans. Those Psychlos who disagree with or oppose the Catrists are subjected to various forms of persecution; particularly, the Catrists use surgical mind control or electroshock in order to maintain their power base. Hubbard frequently claimed in Scientology that psychiatrists used such tactics to maintain their influence and funding. The word "Psychlo" is revealed to have originally meant "brain" in the Psychlo language, signifying that the Catrists feel (or in any case claim) that the entire population requires treatment as mental patients.[1]
In one passage of the book, a human doctor recalls a "cult" called psychology which existed before the Psychlo invasion, but is "forgotten now".[citation needed]
In December 1980, two months after he completed the book, Hubbard told fellow Scientologists that "I was a bit disgusted with the way the psychologists and brain-surgeons mess people up, so I wrote a fiction story based in part on the consequences that could occur if the shrinks continued to do it".[2]
Publishing history
Initially titled "Man, the Endangered Species",[3]Battlefield Earth was first published in 1982 by St. Martin's Press, though all subsequent reprints have been by Church of Scientology publishing companies Bridge Publications and Galaxy Press. Written in the style of the pulp fiction era (during which Hubbard began his writing career), the novel is a massive work (over 750 pages in hardcover, 1000+ in paperback). It was Hubbard's first science fiction novel since his pulp magazine days of the 1940s, and it was promoted as Hubbard's return to science fiction after a long hiatus.
The cover artwork of the original hardcover edition featured an image of hero Jonnie Goodboy Tyler which did not coincide with the physical description given in the novel. The subsequent paperback release corrected the cover art, most notably by giving Tyler a beard.
The book was reissued in 2000 with a new cover, in connection with the release of the film adaptation. The book has also been released in audiobook and e-book versions.
According to Nielsen BookScan, Battlefield Earth sold 29,000 copies between 2001 and 2005.[4]
Hubbard is also credited with writing the accompanying music, which was released as Space Jazz; Chick Corea and Stanley Clarke are some of the Scientology notables playing on the album, of which The Vinyl Factory Amar reviewer Ediriwira said, "if this isn't one of jazz's worst, it's certainly its craziest".[5]
Criticism
Battlefield Earth received polarized mixed reviews, with some critics, and readers, considering the book Hubbard's most enjoyable sci-fi work and a classic of the genre, while others consider it to be genuinely terrible. The book had a negative reception from some literary critics: The Economist, for instance, called Battlefield Earth "an unsubtle saga, atrociously written, windy and out of control"[6] while in the science fiction magazine Analog, Thomas Easton criticized it as "a wish-fulfillment fantasy wholly populated by the most one-dimensional of cardboard characters."[7] Other critics pointed to the book's slipshod writing, such as "the ineffably klutzy destruction of the planet of the evil Psychlos by atomic bombs, which turns it into a 'radioactive sun'".[8]Punch sarcastically commended Hubbard's "excellent understanding of evil impulses, particularly deviousness, which helps with the plot, and [he] is well-enough aware of his weaknesses not to dwell upon frailties like love, generosity, compassion".[9]David Langford, after criticizing the plot, style and scientific implausibilities, concluded: "From this, Battlefield may sound almost worth looking at for its sheer laughable badness. No. It's dreadful and tedious beyond endurance".[10][11]
Other critics praised the novel, however. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction described the book as a "rather good, fast-paced, often fascinating SF adventure yarn".[12] In a 2007 Fox News interview, former U.S. presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney pointed to the book as "a very fun science fiction book."[13]Neil Gaiman reviewed Battlefield Earth for Imagine magazine, and stated that "over 1000 pages of thrills, spills, vicious aliens, noble humans. Is mankind an endangered species? Will handsome and heroic Jonny Goodboy Tyler win Earth back from the nine-foot-high Psychlos? A tribute to the days of Pulp, I found it un-put-downable."[14]
Not long afterwards, stories emerged of a reported Church of Scientology book-buying campaign mounted to ensure that the book would appear on the bestseller lists. According to newspaper reports, Church representatives promised the publishers that a particular number of copies would be bought by Church subsidiaries[16][17] (the author and journalist Russell Miller cites a figure of 50,000 hardback copies.[18]).
Local churches of Scientology and individual Scientologists were reportedly also urged to buy copies of the book. Bookstore chains including Waldenbooks cited examples of Scientologists repeatedly coming into stores and buying armfuls of the book at a time. Several bookstores reported that shipments of the book arrived with the store's own price tags already affixed to them, even before they were unpacked from the shipping boxes, suggesting that copies were being recycled.[16][17] According to Miller, Scientologists throughout the United States were instructed to go out and buy at least two or three copies each.[18]Gerry Armstrong, who worked in the Church's archives at the time, states that "One of the wealthy Scientologists, by the name of Ellie Bolger, apparently paid a huge amount of money to the organization, which they then disbursed to staff members to go down to B. Dalton or whatever and buy the book".[19]The New York Times reported that "two Scientology organizations bought a total of 30,000 copies of Battlefield Earth at discount directly from the publisher, apparently to sell or to give to current or prospective Scientology members". Booksellers told the newspaper that they had seen unusual purchasing patterns, including individuals buying as many as 800 copies of the book at a time. It was suggested that "church members could be trying to buy themselves a bestseller in order to obtain a large paperback or movie sale, both of which are often contingent on a book's first becoming a bestseller in hard cover."[20] Two months after the reports emerged, Author Services Inc. announced that it had sold the film rights for Battlefield Earth to a Los Angeles production company,[21] though it took another 16 years for the film to be made.
Former Scientologist Bent Corydon has described how pressure was put on the managers of Scientology "missions" – effectively franchises – to promote and purchase Battlefield Earth. At a conference held in San Francisco on October 17, 1982, Scientologist "mission holders" were told by Wendall Reynolds, the Church's international finance dictator, to do their bit to make the book a success:
And if you look at it Battlefield Earth has been released on the same pattern as the early 1950s, when LRH [L. Ron Hubbard] was a popular writer, with DMSMH [Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health] released right on the heels of it and that put it right on the best-seller list! And right now, Battlefield Earth is selling out and selling out and selling out again. So we got a tremendous popularity thing going and you guys are getting a gift at 5 percent of CGI [Corrected Gross Income]. It's a total gift.[22]
According to Corydon, "[W]e were ordered to sell 1,000 copies of Hubbard's recently released science-fiction book Battlefield Earth before Thursday or I would be kicked out as mission holder".[23] The idea behind the publicity drive was said to be that it "would, in turn, get the Dianetics book selling"; Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health did in fact experience a marked increase in sales subsequently, reentering The New York Times Best Seller list four times in 1986.[19]Battlefield Earth, for its part, sold over 125,000 copies in its first print run and by March 1985 had sold 800,000 paperback copies.[24]
Hubbard's role as the founder of Scientology has led to a long-running controversy about whether Battlefield Earth contains Scientology themes, and about the role that the Church of Scientology has played in publishing and promoting the book.
Hubbard himself denied that the book was a vehicle for Scientology. He described his motives for writing as being that "it keeps my hand in, amuses people and whiles away the otherwise idle hour. It's better than playing video games!"[25] He addresses the question directly in the book's introduction, where he says: "Some of my readers may wonder that I did not include my own serious subjects in this book. It was with no thought of dismissal of them. It was just that I put on my professional writer's hat. I also did not want to give anybody the idea I was doing a press relations job for my other serious works."[26]
The subsequent film adaptation, released in May 2000, was a commercial failure and was criticized as one of the "worst films ever made".[27][28] From the book's release, Scientologist and science-fiction fan John Travolta aimed to bring Hubbard's book to the big screen in a series of two movies with himself playing Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, as well as producing. A first film was planned to be released in 1983, but due to rising costs, trouble in finding a studio that would fund the project, and Travolta's waning star power, the project was cancelled. It was finally produced by Franchise Pictures and released in 2000 as Battlefield Earth. Directed by Roger Christian, it stars Travolta (who by now felt he was too old to play the hero) as Terl, Barry Pepper as Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, and Forest Whitaker as Ker.
The film opened to negative reviews and was a large box office bomb. Due to bad word of mouth and Internet buzz, it quickly disappeared from theater chains, having grossed $29,725,663 worldwide against a reported $73 million budget.[29] Almost all aspects of the film were criticized: hammy acting (especially by Travolta and Pepper), the film's overuse of Dutch angles, special effects, pacing, lack of action, plot, corny dialogue, and several plot inconsistencies. The film received seven Golden Raspberry Awards at the 21st such ceremony, including that for Worst Picture, and it later won two special awards: "Worst Drama of Our [the Razzies'] First 25 Years" and "Worst Picture of the Decade" (2000‒2009), at the 25th and 30th Golden Raspberry Awards respectively. Only Jack and Jill, a 2011 comedy co-written, produced by, and starring Adam Sandler, has won more Raspberries (jointly or solely winning all ten of the awards presented at the 32nd Razzies).
Franchise Pictures was later sued and went bankrupt after the company was discovered to have fraudulently overstated the film's budget. This kept it from following its plans to make a sequel, since the movie covered only the first half of the book. The first Battlefield Earth's poor reception kept the sequel from hitting its intended 2002 release date, and the collapse of Franchise Pictures made the project even more untenable.
Notes
↑ The theory that Battlefield Earth references Scientology is just a theory, of course.Glenn, Joshua (May 13, 2007). "Pulp Affection". Boston Globe Ideas. p.E2. Author follow-up blog post at Joshua Glenn (May 15, 2007). "More about Battlefield Earth". Archived from the original on October 24, 2012.
↑ "L. Ron Hubbard's science fiction – Relic of the golden age". The Economist. July 4, 1984.
↑ Easton, Thomas (February 1983). The Reference Library. Analog. […] we might as well switch to mainlining tetraethyl lead. It would be more fun, and the mind-rot would be no worse.
↑ L. Ron Hubbard, "Ron's Journal 36 – Your New Year", LRH ED 347 Int of 31 December 1982
↑ L. Ron Hubbard. "Introduction". Battlefield Earth. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2007.
↑ Campbell, Duncan (May 31, 2000). "Cult classic". Guardian Unlimited. London: Guardian Newspapers Limited. Archived from the original on August 5, 2006. Retrieved July 29, 2006. Battlefield Earth has opened to spectacularly bad notices, many of which have suggested that the film is the worst of the year, the decade, the millennium or whatever exotic time-frame the alien Psychlos recognise
Dianetics is a set of ideas and practices, invented in 1950 by science fiction writer L.Ron Hubbard, regarding the human mind. Dianetics was originally conceived as a form of psychological treatment, but was rejected by the psychological and medical establishments as pseudoscientific. It was the precursor to Scientology and has since been incorporated into it. It involves a process referred to as "auditing", which utilizes an electrical resistance meter, ostensibly to remove emotional burdens and "cure" people from their troubles.
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard was an American author and the founder of Scientology. A prolific writer of pulp science fiction and fantasy novels in his early career, in 1950 he authored Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and established organizations to promote and practice Dianetics techniques. Hubbard created Scientology in 1952 after losing the intellectual rights to his literature on Dianetics in bankruptcy. He would lead the Church of Scientology, variously described as a cult, a new religious movement, or a business, until his death in 1986.
Xenu, also called Xemu, is a figure in the Church of Scientology's secret "Advanced Technology", a sacred and esoteric teaching. According to the "Technology", Xenu was the extraterrestrial ruler of a "Galactic Confederacy" who brought billions of his people to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft 75 million years ago, stacked them around volcanoes, and killed them with hydrogen bombs. Official Scientology scriptures hold that the thetans of these aliens adhere to humans, causing spiritual harm.
Revolt in the Stars is a science fiction film screenplay written by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in 1977. It tells the space opera story of how an evil galactic dictator, named Xenu, massacres many of his subjects by transporting them to Earth and killing them with atomic bombs. L. Ron Hubbard had already presented this story to his followers, as a true account of events that happened 75 million years ago, in a secret level of Scientology scripture called Operating Thetan, Level III. The screenplay was promoted around Hollywood circles in 1979, but attempts at fundraising and obtaining financing fell through, and the film was never made. Unofficial copies circulate on the internet.
The reactive mind is a concept in Scientology formulated by L. Ron Hubbard, referring to that portion of the human mind that is unconscious and operates on stimulus-response, to which Hubbard attributed most mental, emotional, and psychosomatic ailments:
What can it do? It can give a man arthritis, bursitis, asthma, allergies, sinusitis, coronary trouble, high blood pressure and so on, down the whole catalog of psychosomatic ills, adding a few more which were never specifically classified as psychosomatic, such as the common cold.
Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science is a book written by L. Ron Hubbard. Originally published in May 1950 as an article in Astounding Science Fiction, and immediately preceding the publication of his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, it was expanded and republished as a 48-page book in 1955 by Hubbard Association of Scientologists International Ltd. In 2007, it was republished by Bridge Publications as a 213-page book — part of the re-release of the "basic books" of Scientology. The book is considered part of Scientology's canon.
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, sometimes abbreviated as DMSMH, is a book by L. Ron Hubbard about Dianetics, a pseudoscientific system that would later become part of Scientology. Hubbard claimed to have developed it from a combination of personal experience, basic principles of Eastern philosophy and the work of Sigmund Freud. The book is considered part of Scientology's canon. It is colloquially referred to by Scientologists as Book One. The book launched the movement, which later defined itself as a religion, in 1950. As of 2013, New Era Publications, the international publishing company of Hubbard's works, sells the book in English and in 50 other languages.
Scientology has been referenced in popular culture in many different forms of media including fiction, film, music, television and theatre. In the 1960s, author William S. Burroughs wrote about Scientology in both fictional short stories and non-fictional essays. The topic was dealt with more directly in his book, Ali's Smile/Naked Scientology. The 2000 film Battlefield Earth was an adaptation of a novel by L. Ron Hubbard.
Ronald Edward "Ron" DeWolf, also known as "Nibs" Hubbard, was the eldest child of Scientology's founder L. Ron Hubbard by his first wife Margaret Louise Grubb. He is known for having been highly critical of his father and of the Church of Scientology. In his opinion, Scientology was a cult that existed to make money.
History of Dianetics and Scientology begins around 1950. During the late 1940s, L. Ron Hubbard began developing a mental therapy system which he called Dianetics. Hubbard had tried to interest the medical profession in his techniques, including the Gerontological Society, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the American Journal of Psychiatry, but his work was rejected for not containing sufficient evidence of efficacy to be acceptable.
Scientology: A History of Man is a book by L. Ron Hubbard, first published in 1952 under the title What to Audit by the Scientific Press of Phoenix. According to the author, it provides "a coldblooded and factual account of your last sixty trillion years." It has gone through many editions since its first publication and is a key text of the Church of Scientology. The book has been ridiculed by critics of Scientology for its unusual writing style and pseudoscientific claims; it has been described as "a slim pretense at scientific method ... blended with a strange amalgam of psychotherapy, mysticism and pure science fiction; mainly the latter."
This is a Timeline of Scientology and its forerunner Dianetics, particularly its foundation and development by author L. Ron Hubbard as well as general publications, articles, books and other milestones.
Battlefield Earth is a 2000 American science fiction film based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. It was directed by Roger Christian and stars John Travolta, Barry Pepper, and Forest Whitaker. The film follows a rebellion against the alien Psychlos, who have ruled Earth for 1,000 years.
This bibliography of Scientology includes Scientology and Dianetics-related books, periodicals and other issues authored by L. Ron Hubbard and those produced by the Church of Scientology and its related organizations. Books bearing L. Ron Hubbard's name are considered texts of Scientology's canon.
The amount of material on Dianetics and Scientology is extensive, to say the least. This material is composed of books by L. Ron Hubbard ; compilations of his works; taped lectures; auditor training materials ; course packages; booklets; a large number of magazines and annuals; and video recordings of the major annual events.
Final Blackout is a dystopic science fiction novel by American writer L. Ron Hubbard. The novel is set in the future and follows a man known as "the Lieutenant" as he restores order to England after a world war. First published in serialized format in 1940 in the science fiction magazine Astounding Science Fiction, Final Blackout was published in book form in 1948 by The Hadley Publishing Co. Author Services Inc. published a hardcover edition of the book in 1988, and in 1989 the Church of Scientology-affiliated organization Bridge Publications said that a film director named Christopher Cain had signed a contract to write and direct a movie version based on the book.
Space Jazz: The soundtrack of the book Battlefield Earth is a music album and soundtrack companion to the novel Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard, released in 1982. Hubbard composed the music for the album.
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard, better known as L. Ron Hubbard, was an American pulp fiction author. He wrote in a wide variety of genres, including science fiction, fantasy, adventure fiction, aviation, travel, mystery, western, and romance. His United States publisher and distributor is Galaxy Press. He is perhaps best known for his self-help book, the #1 New York Times bestseller Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, and as the founder of the Church of Scientology.
Scientology is in part derived from, and shares elements with, a number of esoteric or occult systems. The extent of the influence of specific occult belief systems on Scientology is a subject of debate amongst scholars.
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