Title: Creatures of Light
Author: Sophie Wenzel Ellis
Date of First Publication: February 1930
Place of Publication: Astounding Stories of Super-Science, Vol 1, No. 2
Type: Short Story
Characters: No Character
Themes: ANDROID; POSTHUMAN; MAD SCIENTIST/MONSTER; SYMPATHETIC MONSTER; WOMEN WRITING MONSTERS
Critical Summary: The story follows John Northwood, an assistant professor, who runs into the well known electrical wizard and scientific writer Emil Mundson in a nightclub. The pair leave, and Mundson leaves his wallet behind. Northwood grabs it, but is soon approached by a too-perfect human named Adam who demands Northwood give him the wallet, and promises Northwood that he will never have what is inside. Adam then disappears on a near deserted street.
Inside the wallet that he kept, Northwood finds a photo of a beautiful woman named Athalia, and an address to Mundon’s. After arriving at Mundon’s to return the wallet, Northwood discovers that Athalia had been picked out to be his wife, and Northwood leaves on a journey with Mundon to New Eden, using a ship that is powered by the sun and able to move 1000 times faster than any plane. In doing so, Northwood leaves behind his plain but intelligent fiance, and every hope of a normal life in exchange for the chance to be a part of a future humanity.
Upon arriving in New Eden, Adam steals Athlia from Northwood, and Mundon teaches Northwood about his Science. Mundon explains that the human body and mind are run purely through electricity. Mundon reveals that he has not only discovered the power of life but has harnessed it in a Life Ray. Mundon then explains that New Eden is a type of super-earth where people and plants are bred for perfection in a rapid gestation that is meant to subvert the thousands of years it would take for man to become their best selves.
After meeting Eve, Adam’s Fiance, Eve brings Adam to the fourth-dimension. She and Adam have mastered time and are able to use their sixth sense to travel outside of time and see the future. In this dimension, she and Northwood appear invisible, except to others in the fourth-dimension, and, afraid of Adam seeing them, Eve moves Northwood and herself five minutes into the future. Here, Northwood and Eve discover Adam’s plan to destroy all of humanity using the Death Ray he has created by harnessing the power of destruction.
Thanks to this future insight from the fourth dimension, Northwood and Eve beat Adam to the death ray. However, Eve plans to kill both Adam and Athalia, while Northwood is in love with Athalia and wants to protect her. When the door opens, Northwood lunges at Eve and manages to push the ray past the doorway, so that when Eve turns the ray on, only Adam is hit. The collision inadvertently causes Eve to fall into the death ray. Northwood turns the death ray off, but not before it destroys the rest of Eden.
Northwood and Athalia are saved by Mundon’s Foresight and his sun-powered ship, and escape to live a normal life.
Like Frankenstein, Mundon is a mad scientist who gives birth to a creation that seeks to destroy him, due to the fact that Mundon tried to dictate too much of the creature’s life. It is through Northwood that we are able to view Adam as a sympathetic monster; Northwood recognizes why Adam would be so against Mundon’s work and Mundon’s insistence that he marry the “perfect” woman rather than who Adam wants. Meanwhile, Mundon’s desire to create a humanity that won’t naturally exist for years to come brings the threat of the last human through Adam and his kin. However, Adam and his kin are murdered by the end of the story, preempting the beginning of a new humanity.
Administrative Notes: Elizajane Wright, CSUF, Joshua Newman (editing)