Jane Loudon - The Mummy
Early Science Fiction or rather a Proto-Steampunk novel
Erneut eine alte Hausarbeit. Diesmal aus dem ersten Semester Anglistik, Proseminar “Science and Literature in the 19th Century”
1 Introduction
1.1 Jane C. Loudon
Jane C. Loudon (born Webb) (1807 – 1858), was the daughter of a wealthy manufacturer form Edgbaston, Birmingham. Her mother, whose name is unknown, died in 1819, when Jane was 12 years old. After traveling through Europe with her father for a year and learning several languages, the family business faltered upon their return to England due to an unprofitable investment. Ruined, her father died in 1824, leaving his 17 years old daughter a penniless orphan (Rauch 62f) (Wikipedia, “Jane C. Loudon”).
As Jane had been writing poems since the age of twelve she published her first book Prose and Verse in 1826 followed by The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-second Century in 1827 (“Jane Loudon - Birmingham City Council”) to support herself (Rauch 66).
[…] and, finding on the winding up of his affairs that it would be necessary to do something for my support, I had written a strange, wild novel, called the Mummy [sic], in which I had laid the scene in the twenty-second century, and attempted to predict the state of improvement to which this country might possibly arrive. (Martello)
She published The Mummy! anonymously (“The Mummy and the Knitters” 20) at the age of 20 under a male pen name. The book caught the interest of John Loudon (Martello) who wanted to meet the author of the book. On the 14th of the following September Jane Webb married the Scottish botanist John Loudon. During her marriage she wrote the botanical Handbooks for which she should become famous (Rauch 66) (Wikipedia, “Jane C. Loudon”).
Figure 1 Jane C. Webb Loudon (August 19, 1807 – July 13, 1848) (“Jane Loudon - Birmingham City Council”)
1.2 What is Steampunk?
The term “Steampunk” was originally coined by the writer Kevin Wayne Jeter in 1987 (Chambers and VanderMeer 8) (Wikipedia, “Steampunk”) “as a joke analogy with “cyberpunk” [:..] to link his own fiction to that of Tim Powers and James Blaylock” (Rose 320). A definition of Steampunk as a literary genre was given by the designer John Coulthart in 2008 on a moleskin design for Modofly.
Steampunk = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man / baroque stylings) x (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot.
“Steampunk is at the same time retro and forward-looking in nature” (Chambers and VanderMeer 8) and thus basically a mixture of alternate history and Science Fiction (“Steampunk | BestScienceFictionBooks.com”), “it blends Gothic and sci-fi modes” (Ashurst, Gail; Powell 150).
Figure 2: Steampunk (text by Jeff VanderMeer). Year: 2008. Vector art. A moleskin design for Modofly (Coulthart)
One has to be careful though concerning the term “Victorian” mentioned in the equation, as at that point it was no longer used in the historical sense describing the period of the reign of Queen Victoria (1837 – 1901). “Victorian” in Steampunk also encompasses the succeeding Edwardian era (1901-10) and is mostly used in a general sense to circumscribe roughly the time of the industrial Revolution (Chambers and VanderMeer 9). Steampunk can be seen a as “deviant avatar of Gothic” , which is “no longer morbid or melancholy […] (but) appears(s) to be entirely secular” (Ashurst, Gail; Powell 148). Like the Gothic Literature the Steampunk subculture is a countermovement. Gothic Literature was the countermovement to the industrialization; Steampunk is the countermovement to the throwaway society, a movement against the “instability and obsolescence of our time” as “people are consciously realizing that the way that we live has already died […]. Steampunk is a funeral theatre” (Chambers and VanderMeer 13). Furthermore Steampunk “offers profound critique of patriarchal capitalism ” (Ashurst, Gail; Powell 149).
As the term “Steampunk” was coined in 1987, literature published before 1987 has to be called Proto-Steampunk literature. This Proto-Steampunk literature thus comprises early authors like Mary Shelley (1797 – 1851), Jane C. Loudon (1807 – 1858), Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849), Jules Verne (1828 – 1905) and H. G. Wells (1866 – 1946). At the time of publication this literature was considered to be “scientific romance” (Chambers and VanderMeer 18) which still quite accurately describes most of the contemporary Steampunk novels.
Scientific romances and Steampunk though both have much deeper literary roots in the tradition of philosophical fiction (contes philosophiques) used by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) and Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), who used fantasy as a way to explain science (Chambers and VanderMeer 20). Poe, Shelley and Loudon were authors who paved the way to modern Science Fiction, Fantasy and Steampunk by “abandoning the vehicle of the dream story” (Chambers and VanderMeer 20) of the philosophical fiction. This lead sometimes to confusion of the readers as shown by the example of Mitchell’s tale The Case of George Dedlow which “readers found […] so realistic that they mistook it for an actual case.”(Otis xxiii).
2 Results and discussion
To investigate, if The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century would qualify as a Steampunk novel if it was not written before 1987, the equation by John Coulthart will be used:
Steampunk = Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man / baroque stylings) x (pseudo) Victorian setting] + progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot (Coulthart)
This equation though is not enough to fully describe the features of Steampunk literature. According to Gail Carriger “the fashion, the gadgetry, the use of high-flown prose to add literary merit, even to action sequences” (Chambers and VanderMeer 64) is essential for a Steampunk novel. This is supported by Margaret Rose who also sees this “archaic diction” as one of the essential features (Rose 322).
Additionally the “up-to-date scientific trappings” used by Poe according to H.G. Wells (Chambers and VanderMeer 25) and supernatural characters will be investigated as further essential ingredients in Steampunk literature.
2.1 Mad Scientist Inventor [invention (steam x airship or metal man / baroque stylings)
In fiction, a mad scientist […] is a scientist or professor who is considered "mad" […] due to the nature of their experiments that many consider to be against the forces of nature and god. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral; may be insane, eccentric, or clumsy; and often works with fictional technology or fails to see potential objections to playing God. Some may have benevolent or good-spirited intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental villains. (Wikipedia, “Mad Scientist”)
According to this definition from the Wikipedia, Dr. Entwerfen is a mad scientist. As the telling name indicates, Dr. Entwerfen likes to design new things, and like a true scientist he even experiments on himself. He galvanizes himself by accident (“Mrs Loudon & the Victorian Garden - Victoria and Albert Museum”) (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 112) and he is the one who wants to revive some mummies to become immortal “We shall visit the pyramids, we shall animate the mummies, and we shall attain immortality” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 113). He carries around “several chemical preparations in his walking stick; with one of these he dissolved the iron of their chains” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 169) and wants to bring on the journey “bladders […] filled with laughing gas, for the sole purpose of keeping up our spirits” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 177).
Dr. Entwerfen is
the fortunate inventor of the immortalizing snuff, one single pinch of which cures all diseases by the smell; the discoverer of the capability of caoutchouc being applied to aerial purposes; and the maker of the most compendious and powerful galvanic battery ever yet beheld by mortal! (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 103).
He is the eccentric, clumsy, overweight, mad scientist, a Jack of all trades but master of none, which makes him a funny sidekick to his pupil Edric resulting in some entertaining dialogues which act as comic reliefs.
Dr. Entwerfen collects old poems and tries in vain to understand their meaning which resultina in a ridiculous interpretation of some fragments of the Ballad of Wednesbury Cooking (Butler Appendix A) which Edric sums up with the words “It was about a man killing his own father, and putting his eyes out with a fork” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 120).
With his newly invented caoutchouc ballon, which fits into a pocket, Dr. Entwefen proposes a very special way of travelling to Egypt to Edric. Wrapped in cloaks of asbestos, to protect them from ignition,
“[…] with elastic plugs for our ears and noses, and tubes and barrels of common air, for us to breathe when we get beyond the atmosphere of the earth. […] I thought, of course, you would adopt the present fashionable mode of travelling and after mounting the seventeen miles or thereabouts, which is necessary to get clear of the mundane attraction, to wait there till the turning of the globe should bring Egypt directly under our feet.”
“But it is not in the same latitude."
“True; I did not think of that! […]” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 176)
These two dialogues are typical for the relationship of Edric and his teacher. Dr. Entwerfen is the crazy sidekick of the logical and cool Edric who likes to destroy the high flying plans of his teacher with just a few well-chosen words.
Still, Dr. Entwerfen thinks very highly of himself and is afraid of nothing. As he is asked to operate a machine unknown to him to cure a spanish general from palsy, he is sure he will be capable of understanding any machine. Unfortunately
the ill-managed machine had drawn down the electric fluid from a heavy cloud, that happened unfortunately to be just above them, upon the head of the unfortunate general, whom it scorched to a cinder, levelling some of his officers to the earth, and scattering the rest in all directions. (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 202)
This incident results in him and Edric being thrown into prison, again.
2.2 x (pseudo) Victorian setting]+Progressive or reactionary politics x adventure plot
Steampunk novels are often set in a pseudo Victorian monarchy. The political intrigues and schemes are sometimes the background for the adventures of the heroes either in the service of her Majesty or in their attempt to establish a new government.
This book is set in the year 2126. The UK has undergone a quick succession of revolutions and different forms of government. Partly due to stock market bubbles as “(a)bundance of wealth caused wild schemes and gigantic speculations; and though many failed, yet, as some succeeded, the enormity of the sums gained by the projectors, incited others to pursue the same career (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 3), partly due to universal education. This universal education lead to unrest and rebellion and finally ended in complete anarchy.
It was impossible for those to study deeply who had to labour for their daily bread; and not having time to make themselves masters of any given subject, they only learned enough of all to render them disputatious and discontented. Their heads were filled with words to which they affixed no definite ideas, and the little sense Heaven had blessed them with was lost beneath a mass of undigested and misapplied knowledge. Conceit inevitably leads to rebellion. The natural consequence of the mob thinking themselves as wise as their rulers, was, that they took the first convenient opportunity that offered, to jostle these aforesaid rulers from their seats. An aristocracy was established, and afterwards a democracy; but both shared the same fate; for the leaders of each in turn, found the instruments they had made use of to rise, soon become unmanageable. The people had tasted the sweets of power, they had learned their own strength, they were enlightened; and, fancying they understood the art of ruling as well as their quondam directors, they saw no reason why, after shaking off the control of one master, they should afterwards submit to the domination of many. […] We will assert our independence, and throw off the yoke. If any man wish for luxuries, let him labour to procure them for himself. We will be slaves no longer; we will all be masters." Thus they reasoned, and thus they acted, till government after government having been overturned, complete anarchy prevailed(.) (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 4)
The solution of this problem is the return to an elective monarchy where the female monarch is elected by the people and not allowed to marry or have children. The people are the Queen’s children and her family. The Queen is counseled by “the nobles of the former dynasty […] she chose from amongst them the wisest and most experienced for her counsellors […]“ (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 10).
The book consists of two parallel political adventure plots. The cousins Elvira and Rosabella are both possible successors for the deceased Queen Claudia and both young woman scheme against each other to obtain the throne, while Edric Montague escapes with his German teacher, the mad scientist Dr. Entwerfen, to Egypt to revive Pharaoh Cheops, as he does not want to marry Rosabella. On their way home, the two men have to survive many adventures and due to these adventures will be the ones to decide which of the two Cousins will rule over the United Kingdom.
On their travels through Europe Edric and Dr. Entwerfen learn about the instable political situations in other countries. Spain is ruled by the military while Roderick the Hero of Ireland tries to help to reestablish the old Spanish Monarchy (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 234). At the same time Switzerland is ruled by a despot (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 277).
2.3 The fashion, the gadgetry
Fashion plays an important role in the books. It is often described in minute detail up to the point that women do not wear corsets anymore (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 75) which is in contrast to modern steampunk where the corset is a distinct and often the most important part of the steampunk fashion.
Otherwise the author makes use of the most modern materials available at that time like
robes made of woven asbestos, which glittered in the brilliant light like molten silver. The ladies were all arrayed in loose trowsers (sic), over which hung drapery in graceful folds; and most of them carried on their heads, steams of lighted gas forced by capillary tubes, into plumes, fleurs-de-lis, or in short any form the wearer pleased; (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 258)
Many of the ladies had turbans of woven glass; whilst others carried on their hats very pretty fountains made of glass dust, which, being thrown up in little jets by a small perpetual motion wheel, sparkled in the sun like real water, and had a very singular effect. (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 268)
The use of gadgetry is mainly restricted to the mad scientist Dr. Entwerfen, who has a walking stick that contains everything one might need in situations of distress, and he makes good use of these gadgets when he and Edric are frequently imprisoned.
“Here is a bed, bolster, and pillows, ready for inflation; a portable bedstead, linen, soap, pens, ink, paper, candles, fire, knives, forks, spoons, and money; all snugly packed up in my walking-stick!” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 249)
“You know it has been long discovered, that the whole material medica might be carried in a ring, and that all the instruments of surgery might be composed into a walking stick.” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 176)
2.4 The use of high-flown prose
High flown prose is a prominent feature of the steampunk genre and also of this Proto-Steampunk book. In this book, the way people talk distinguishes the classes but in a different way than one would expect. In Loudon’s vision of the future, the higher classes speak a plain, simple language “so much so, indeed, as sometimes almost to degenerate into rudeness, in order that it might be clearly distinguished from the elaborate and scientific expressions of the vulgar” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 53).
[…] education was carried to such a pitch in England, that all, even the common people, were universal linguists. Instruction indeed, in that respect, was imparted in many brief and ingenious modes; and knowledge being thus rendered so cheap and easy, as to be à la portée de tout le monde, it of course was going partially out of fashion with the higher classes; but as Sir Ambrose piqued himself on his devotion to all the old customs, he would not swerve from them in the education of his sons; and in consequence, Edric was almost as learned in this respect as a servant or a labourer (sic).
This had often been a source of chagrin to him at home, as it prevented his feeling upon equal terms with those in the same situation of life as himself, and had contributed greatly to give him those shy and reserved manners we have noticed.(Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 235)
The “vulgar” prose of the overeducated working class is sometimes scientific to the extremes, which makes normal things like soap and dialogues about profane acts like drinking beer nearly unintelligible, if the reader is ignorant of the underlying scientific facts.
“Your olfactory nerves” replied the learned cottager, with a look of the greatest possible contempt: “that is, the nerves that line the membrane of the nasal organ. Every child knows that the nasal fossae are formed to receive sensations, as by their depth and extent a larger surface is given to the pituitary membrane, and these soft sinuses, or cavities, are enabled to retain a greater mass of air loaded with odoriferous matter." (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 234)
“I have some bottled beer,'' replied Mrs. Bussel; “but I am afraid the carbonic acid gas has not been sufficiently disengaged during the process of the vinous fermentation to render it wholesome; and there is scarcely any alcohol in the whole composition———''[…] "That is exactly what I want," said Abelard; “for my physicians have expressly forbidden stimulants. Provided the gluten that forms the germ was properly separated in the preparation of the malt, and the seed sufficiently germinated to convert the fecula into sugar, I shall be perfectly satisfied." (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 63f)
[…] and that some people of rank actually use a composition of alkali and oil to remove the pulverous particles that may have lodged upon their epidermis in the course of the day.” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 168)
A modern function of “high flung prose” in the Steampunk genre is the comic relief. Especially in the books of Gail Carriger the characters never lose their composure. The more dangerous the situation is the more elegant the language becomes. In The Mummy! one also finds this use of high flung prose as comic relief. When Prince Ferdinand is incarcerated and awaits his death sentences for assumedly being in love with the Queen, he is reassured by Father Murphy, that the worst that can happen to him is being burned alive.
“And ye may say that, for I don't see any great hope ye have, in respect that the people must have a victim, and they'd like to have you betther (sic) than Lord Edmund. But never mind that, for the worst that can happen at all, is that ye 'll be roasted alive!"
“Oh !” groaned Prince Ferdinand, not much consoled by this encouraging speech.
"Wehe mir!” exclaimed Hans; “and can nothing be done? - for though roasting alive may be the worst that can happen, I don’t think my master such an amateur in cookery as to wish to try the experiment.”(Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 143)
A similar dialog develops between the butler Abelard and Father Murphy after the monk nearly drowned.
“I am surprised to hear you talk of cold father,” said Abelard. “You are, surely, too fat to feel cold; for animal oil is universally allowed to be a bad conductor of caloric."
Father Murphy did not speak, but his look was sufficient, and his teeth clattering in his head afforded an ample commentary upon the text.
"It is strange," continued the butler, "that fat people generally seem ashamed of their obesity, for they have many advantages which lean people never can enjoy. For instance, they ought never to feel any violent craving for food. Fat serving as an interdium, through which the nutritive matter extracted from food passes, before it is assimilated to repair the loss of the individual, ought to serve as a magazine to supply his wants; and a fat man should be able to abstain from food much longer than another; because, during his abstinence, the collected fat must be rapidly reabsorbed." (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 227f)
2.5 Up-to-date scientific trappings
H.G. Wells wrote “Verne responded chiefly to the cleverness, ratiocination, and up-to-date scientific trappings Poe wrapped his strange stories in” (Chambers and VanderMeer p 25). The Mummy! is also full of visionary scientific inventions, not as intricately described as in Verne’s books but still Loudon’s vision of the future is full of technological innovations. In 1871 a review on the book stated “To a certain degree, many modern discoveries were shadowed forth in this remarkable novel of the year 1827” (“The Mummy and the Knitters” 20). In Steampunk though “machines are powered by an aetheric (and Gothic) blend of science and magic” (Ashurst, Gail; Powell 161), or at least “Steam-age technologies” (Rose 322), which is not necessarily the case in The Mummy! although one could argument, that all technology described is in principle Steam-age technology as it is technology of the time of the industrialization and often use steam as means of power.
At this point it is however impossible to interpret and discuss all the technological motives in this homework, as this would develop into a treatise on the history of sciences and their development. I will thus only pick some highlights and list Loudon’s visions with hints and keywords as to the scientific and historical background by which they were inspired.
Mobility is and was always an important topic for any civilized culture. In Loudon’s time the hot-air balloon was still all the rage after the first public demonstration on 4th June, 1783 by the brothers Joseph and Etienne Montgolfier (“First Public Demonstration of a Montgolfier Balloon, 4th June, 1783.”). In 1785 Jean-Pierre Blanchard crossed the English Channel in a balloon (Wikipedia, “Jean-Pierre Blanchard”). This fascination with travelling by balloon later inspired Poe who published his Balloon Hoax in April 13, 1844 and wrote about a leisure-cruise Zeppelins in Mellonta Tauta (1850) (Poe). It is thus only logical that in Loudon’s vision of the future travelling by balloon is the normal way to get from A to B.
Besides balloons, a variety of other modes of conveyance fluttered in the sky. Some dandies bestrode aerial horses, inflated with inflammable gas; whilst others floated upon wings, or glided gently along, reclining gracefully upon aerial sledges, the last being contrived so as to cover a sufficient column of air for their support. As the procession approached the river, the scene became still more animated; innumerable barges of every kind and description shot swiftly along, or glided smoothly over the sparkling water. Some floated with the tide in large boat-like shoes; whilst others, reclining on couch-shaped cars, formed of mother of pearl, were drawn forward by inflated figures representing the deities or monsters of the deep. (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 271)
Loudon’s vision of flying though is not restricted to balloons. “(S)ome young city apprentices having hired each a pair of wings for the day, and not exactly knowing how to manage them, a dreadful tumult ensued” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 280).
Other inventions which also belong to the topic of mobility are moving houses – “houses that just fit on the iron railways; and as they are propelled by steam, they slide on without much trouble” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 141). These moving houses might have been inspired by the first locomotive in Britain, designed by John Blenkinsop in1811 (Wikipedia, “Rail Transport”).
The history of robots and automatons is a very ancient and long one and robots and automatons still play an important part in modern Steampunk literature. The Caliph Al-Muqtadir is reported to have owned an automaton bird in 915 (Wikipedia, “Automaton”). Robots are also part of the 101 Nacht written in 1234 (Ott) and in 1770 Wolfgang von Kempelen constructed the fake Mechanical Turk (Wikipedia, “The Turk”). The Mummy! contains many different kinds of automatons, which make life more agreeable. There are automaton steam surgeons (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 89), automaton judges surgeons (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 145), automaton counsels surgeons (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 146), steam valets (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 187) and of course automaton birds (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 257).
Asbestos paper (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 117) and cloaks of asbestos (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 175) were not industrially produced until some years later (Wikipedia, “Asbestos”) (“Asbestos Textile Cloths & Garments - Lawsuits, Products & Brands”) although the use of asbestos in cloth was already known in antiquity (Maines) (Lumisden).
The Channel Tunnel between France and England was opened in 1994. But first ideas for this project already appeared in 1802 (Wikipedia, “Channel Tunnel”). Louden must have known about these plans, but her tunnel connects the United Kingdom with Ireland (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 256).
The future communication in The Mummy! comprises a light based telegraphic system (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 31) and “letters that (are) put into balls and discharged by steam cannon, from place to place” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1) 67).
Loudon’s future London has heated sidewalks like todays Oslo (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 89) and “chemical preparations alone being used to supply light and heat, smoke was unknown, and the atmosphere being no longer thick and cloudy, [...]” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 74f). There are plans for “making aerial bridges to convey heavy weights from one steeple to another; a machine for stamping shoes and boots at one blow out of a solid piece of leather; a steam-engine for milking cows ; and an elastic summer-house that might be folded up so as to be put into a man’s pocket” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 51) and “a steam-percussion moveable bridge shot across the stream, loaded with goods and passengers, collapsing again the instant its burthen was safely landed on the other side” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 76).
The examples show that the author was both up to date with the scientific developments of her days and visionary as to a possible future employment of these inventions.
2.6 Magical creature(s)
Magical creatures have their roots in the Gothic genre and still play an important role in modern Fantasy and Steampunk literature. These creatures may be vampires vampires and werewolves like in the Parasol protectorate Series by Gail Garriger (Garriger), talking animals like in His dark Materials by Philip Pullman (Pullman) or Nephilim in Cassandra Clare’s Infernal Devices Series (Clare). The magical creature in The Mummy! is the revived mummy of Pharaoh Cheops.
The Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat was the one to follow the lead to the beginning of the literary topic of the mummy’s curse back to this book of Mrs. Loudon (Keys). The idea to make a mummy the magical creature of her novel might have been inspired by “the egyptological discoveries of Napoleon’s scholars in the Description de l’Égypte and acquisition of antiquities for Britain by Belzoni“ (Day 46) and by the mummy unwrapping shows of Belzoni’s mummies in 1821 which took place near London's Piccadilly Circus (Keys). The use of galvanism to restore Cheops back to life was maybe based on Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, and The Mummy! was seen as a kind of second Frankenstein by contemporary critics (“The Mummy and the Knitters” 19). But, as the author seems to be very well educated in the sciences of her time, as shown by the futuristic inventions she describes in The Mummy!, it is plausible to suspect that she knew Luigi Galvani’s publication De viribus electricitatis in motu musculari (Galvani) which was published in 1791.
The principle underlying Loudon’s mummy concept though is more complicated and has not much or nothing in common with the mummies of the mummy’s curse genre which did not become popular until much later. Cheops is modelled more in the tradition of the psychic vampire (Wikipedia, “Psychic Vampire”) (Dmilewski) (Wikipedia, “Vampire (Dungeons & Dragons)”) as the mummy seems to be living on the soul enegery of the people it manipulates. “It was not, indeed, possible for human beings to hold daily intercourse with Cheops without feeling their souls withered” (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 101). “Those wild eyes, shaded as they were by the thick dark brows above them, always seemed to sink direct to the beholder’s soul […]”(Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 2) 72).
Furthermore, the behavior of Cheops strongly resembles the archetype of the magical, manipulative mentor that is often found in Fantasy literature and mythology. Examples for this archetype are Merlin (Artus Saga), Gandalf (Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien) and Allanon (Shanarra Series by Terry Brooks (Brooks)).
His athletic stature, his dark swarthy complexion, and his strongly marked features, aided by the fearful lustre of his piercing eyes, gave to his figure, swathed as it yet was in the vestments of the grave, a supernatural grandeur that thrilled through every nerve of Abelard's frame,[…]. (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 1)298)
Like Gandalf and Allanon, Cheops returns from the dead to lead young people to achieve a goal and purpose only he knows. Cheops also leads by a mixture of persuasion and manipulation. He is making the heroes and his victims believe that they take their own decisions and that he is only advising them while he makes them do what he wants them to do.
Permitted for a time to revisit earth, I have made use of the powers entrusted to me to assist the good and punish the malevolent. Under pretence of aiding them, I gave them counsels which only plunged them yet deeper in destruction, whilst the evil that my advice appeared to bring upon the good, was only like a passing cloud before the sun; it gave lustre to the success that followed. (Loudon, The Mummy! A Tale of the Twenty-Second Century (Volume 3) 309)
3 Conclusion
Some authors have tried to find out to which genre The Mummy! belongs. In 1871 a reviewer wrote that the book is “extremely original” hinting that it is not fitting any genre of that time (“The Mummy and the Knitters” 18).
The Egyptologist Dominic Montserrat saw the beginning of the literary topic of the mummy’s curse in this book (Keys). But as described in this homework, Cheops is distinctly different from the dumb mummies of the mummy’s curse genre.
Luckhurst described the book as “An eccentric piece of Regency Proto-Science Fiction inspired by Belzoni’s display in London in 1821” (159). The problem with this definition is, that science-fiction does not contain magical creatures or undead. These belong to the Fantasy, Gothic and Steampunk genre. Furthermore Luckhurst states that “Loudon’s novel is thus a conservative satire on disastrous kingship in the Regency: It has come to pass that a prehistoric pharaoh has more virtue than a corrupt English court” (161). This is unfortunately stating the obvious as science fiction was and still is a means to satirize and criticize restrictive regimes. Thus stating that a Science fiction novel is satirizing a regime does not make it a conservative satire it stays Science Fiction. “Loudon’s work is one of only a few novels that attempts to make sense (of the socially, politically and intellectually troubled 1820)” (Rauch 62) under the reign of George III and George IV.
Furthermore, this novel fits Rose’s definition that Steampunk wants to “recover new facts about the past to reshape our existing history” (323) to “force the reader to seize a non-existent past – to problematize the received truth about the past” (cf. 323). The application of this definition though is a bit tricky for The Mummy! as modern Steampunk is naturally written in retrospect. But as Steampunk “is at the same time retro and forward-looking in nature” (Chambers and VanderMeer 8) it could be also applied to The Mummy! especially in combination with another feature of modern Steampunk that likes to
(scatter) historical details […] through steampunk fiction like the “easter eggs” of video games, which invite and reward a deeper engagement from a dedicated player. They are prizes for readers with great reserves of historical knowledge but also for readers who look them up afterward, since following such a trail often adds layers of richness to the text. (Rose 324f)
The fascinating fact in this case is that these nowadays often forgotten facts are not used with the same intention as in modern Steampunk, but were more or less well known facts at the time the books was written. For the modern reader tough, the effect is the same as in today’s Steampunk literature.
Science Fiction is defined by “Scientific accuracy, theory, and logic” (Chambers and VanderMeer 69). Steampunk though is “madcap fantasy, strangeness, and escapism” (Chambers and VanderMeer 69).
The Mummy! fits all criteria for Steampunk literature as discussed above, even more so than some modern Steampunk novels. The only fact that prevents that The Mummy! is categorized as Steampunk is the year of its publication. This makes the book Proto-Steampunk but neither classical Science Fiction nor a conservative satire or classical book of the mummy’s curse genre.
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