Greats of Science Fiction

Barjavel, Rene

“Which does not exist, exists”, Zoran’s Equation [1].

‘Science and War’, ‘Influence of Man on Nature’ and ‘Love that lasts beyond death’ are themes underlying all René Barjavel's (1911-1985) major works. The downfall of civilisation, the excess of science, the foolishness of humanity and its thirst for war, all of these can be found in his Sci-Fi writing, expressing the fear of an uncontrollable science and its use by thoughtless humans.

"They're here! They're us! They repopulated the world, and they're just as dumb as before, and ready to blow up the house again. Isn't it great? It's Man" [2].

As La Nuit des temps (1968, translated as The Ice People) is considered Science Fiction by his contemporaries, Barjavel’s earlier writings also tend to be attached to the genre, although he is generally more of a Social Science Fiction subgenre writer (in French: ‘Anticipation’).

His view on destructive progress is even more present in Ravage (1943, translated as Ashes, ashes), his first book, written whilst under the French occupation by the Germans in World War II.

“The men released the terrible forces of nature that stood locked carefully. They believed make themselves masters. They named it Progress. This is an accelerated progress towards death. They use these forces for some time to build, then one day, because men are men, that is, beings in whom the evil dominates the good, because the moral progress of these men is way less rapid as the progress of their science, they turn it to destruction.” [3]

While Progress is to be feared, Ravage recounts the return to Nature, where a technological society is suddenly brought centuries back to a time where machines didn’t exist, and where men mend the earth for a living…

With his second book, Le Voyageur imprudent (translated as Future Times Three), published the same year, he reveals his interest in HG Wells' - The Time Machine, and is one of the first to introduce the ‘Grandfather Paradox’.

Most of Barjavel’s Sci-Fi books are set in an Aternative Reality but he doesn’t hesitate to use people of his time or events contemporary to his writing. In La Nuit des temps, he uses the uprising theme recurrent to the period, the revolt of the students in France, with names coming from the Eastern Europe countries finding themselves in an uproar (Prague Spring). The same is true of Le Grand Secret (1973, translated as The Immortals) where he mentions the political men of his time.

Emphasising Man’s manipulation of Nature, Science and Life, Barjavel’s writing is above all a satire of the society of his time. In Le Diable l’emporte (1948), he raises the Third World War question. Humankind is working to its own destruction. But then, Man is also searching for its immortality, as Le Grand Secret relates.

It can be said that René Barjavel was a French author, journalist and critic, who used science fiction and fantasy to denounce the materialism of Society with satire and irony, and he is recognised as one of the great French Fiction and Science Fiction writers.

“Beware always the fools, they are more dangerous than wolves" [4]

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[1]« Ce qui n’existe pas existe ». Zoran’s Equation is formulated in La Nuit des temps (The Ice People), published in 1968. In the original text, the symbol is represented, whereas in the Anglo-American translation it is replaced by a written description: « [...] Elea drew the beginning of a spiral on the paper; then it was bisected by a vertical straight line; two short lines, one vertival and one horizontal, were drawn inside the spiral. Elea handed the paper to Hoover. "This is Zoran’s equation", she said. » This equation represents the Universal Knowledge.

[2]« Ils sont là ! Ils sont nous ! Ils ont repeuplé le monde, et ils sont aussi cons qu'avant, et prêts à faire de nouveau sauter la baraque. C'est pas beau, ça ? C'est l'homme ! », extract of La Nuit des temps (The Ice People).

[3]« Les hommes ont libéré les forces terribles que la nature tenait enfermées avec précaution. Ils ont cru s'en rendre maîtres. Ils ont nommé cela le Progrès. C'est un progrès accéléré vers la mort. Ils emploient pendant quelque temps ces forces pour construire, puis un beau jour, parce que les hommes sont des hommes, c'est-à-dire des êtres chez qui le mal domine le bien, parce que le progrès moral de ces hommes est loin d'avoir été aussi rapide que le progrès de leur science, ils tournent celle-ci vers la destruction. », extract of Ravage (Ashes, ashes), published in 1943.

[4]« Méfie-toi toujours des imbéciles, ils sont plus dangereux que les loups. », exctract from Les Dames à la licorne (1974).

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Written by angerbda