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“Voyage to the Moon”

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“Voyage to the Moon” is one of many texts collected in an anthology of P. Craig Russell’s work, titled Isolation and Illusion: Collected Short Stories 1977-1997. This is a three part tale of an Earthling who is sucked up by the moon’s gravity well and transported to its surface. Having landed in a lush forest, the adventurer stops to admire a delectable flower, and its mere scent makes him twenty years younger, foreshadowing a society where mores are the opposite of those on earth and youth is more highly prized than age. Shortly thereafter, he is discovered by the race of men who inhabit the planet. Unfortunately, they make sport of him and treat him as an oddity until he encounters a man from the sun who helps him navigate his way through this world. Russell’s simple playful lines and broad color palette render a caricatural depiction of this seventeenth century science fiction novel—with its exotic world and denizens—that complements and extends the text yet is fitting for modern sensibilities. “Voyage to the Moon” would find a home in a literature study of early science fiction that includes works such as Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon, and Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In addition, it couches social commentary in an outlandish plot, thus it is critical without being biting; consequently, this tale would make a nice introduction to other indirect critiques of modern society such as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

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