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PARTISAN REVIEW
were translated from hostile into friendly language, it might be found
not to differ so very much from the answers given by some authors who
are on the other side of the fence.
Kenneth Heuer is sure that there is life on heavenly bodies. In
Men of Other Planets
he even gives a "census" of their inhabitants–
the estimated population of Mars is 624,800,000, that of Jupiter 267,
805,925,000. In a more rational mood he has this to say about the
motive behind the interest in space travel: "Perhaps man's curiosity and
his essential loneliness are what makes this eternal theme appealing."
Gerald Heard is no less bizarre and no less popular. He advises us
in his book
Is Another World Watching?
to learn the language of the
bees (the bees of Earth, that is) so that they will act as our inter–
mediaries with the Martian bees who indubitably operate the flying
saucers, and that they may propitiate those powerful creatures. His
thoughts about space travel are similar to Heuer's: "We have lost our
paranoid loneliness and dream of utter superiority. But we have found
companions-yes, and possible guides-minds that have gone ahead of
ours. Is not this 'good news' . . .
?"
There is in this almost, to use a germane term, an extrapolation of
the emotional climate that develops in aerial flying. Dr. Douglas D.
Bond, in
The Love and Fear of Flying,
one of the most elaborate studies
of the psychological problems in this area, puts it thus:
Flying ... has been associated with aspiration and freedom from the
restrictions of earth or of reality.... Deeply rooted in man's mind is
the idea that flying is a supernatural achievement: man has attributed
it to both kind and unkind gods who have guarded the secret of flight
from mortal encroachment and have punished with Icarian failure
those so bold as to try. . . .
Flying, in actuality, emphasizes an unreality that encourages fan–
tasy. . . . The usual earthly qualities are dwarfed and tenuous and
exercise a weaker hold. Flying ... gives one a feeling of loneliness and
newly found power that can hardly be matched in other pursuits.
The immense role which flying plays in the reality as well as in
the fantasy life of our day can yet not cover up the fact that flying is
a secondary means of locomotion and is bound to remain so until space
travel becomes a reality. There is no spot in the world on which man
can dwell which is in the exclusive realm of aviation-i.e., which can
only be reached by flying.
The plane has in this respect never acquired the dignity of the
ship. Man has used ships for thousands of years to accomplish voyages
which he could not possibly undertake without ships. The heavenly
bodies would be for the flying machine what the other shore has been
for the ship. Spaceships alone would make flying for man what flying
