Rafael Gonalves

Honors 401
February 13, 2017

Analysis of Clark Smiths Stories

Clark Smith mainly deals with issues related to the rapid scientific
growth and immigration in both of his short stories. We can see from reading
it that he admires science, but he also warns us that if we do not take care of
its development, science can hurt us rather than making it easier for life to
prosper. The Red World of Polaris talks about how aliens became living
machines so that they could do scientific research forever. The problem is
that this advancement took away the primordial things that make them
living creatures, such as feelings, emotions, and even death. An Adventure
of Futurity is about immigration and the dangers that come with it. It is
interesting to see that Smiths stories are not meant just to entertain the
reader, but also address the problems he sees in their society back in the
1930s.
In The Red World of Polaris, humans are traveling through space
towards Polaris onboard of the Alcyone ship. Just prior to arriving at the Polar
Star, the crew decided to take a closer look at one of Polaris planet. This
planet, with its red and smooth surface, captured the attention of the space
ship captain whom, guided by extreme curiosity, made the decision to visit
it. They end up being captured by Tloongs, robots that have a living brain
inside of them. Tloongs used to be living creatures who inhabit this far world.
They came up with a solution for its decline in population due to the climate
changes occurring in the planet by putting their brains into robots (using
them as exoskeletons). Thus, they are able to live forever and always
develop their scientific discoveries. There are many types of Tloongs. Some
had many eyes and mouths, while others were short or tall. Tloongs created
a very advanced society and they were almost indestructible. The only thing
that could kill them are the Murms, creatures created by Tloong scientists
that love eat Tloongs brain.
Murms were created by mad scientists and they lived underneath the
surface. An earthquake could trigger the release of Murms into the surface
and thus cause a major disaster. This exactly what happens to the Tloongs. A
huge earthquake set free many Murms who completely destroyed the
Tloongs civilization from the red planet.
Right before the apocalypse, the earth-men were offered to have their
brains transferred to a robot body. In the Tloongs point of view, this was the
most logical thing to do since robots are immortal and stronger than the
human body. However, Alcyones crew decided not to it since they wanted to
keep being humans. Thats a major difference between humans and Tloongs,
the later have lost their main characteristics of a living being because of
science.
The Red world of Polaris is a very interesting story if you put yourself in
the middle of the 1920s and 1930s. Modern science was going through its
most rapid growth back then. New scientific discoveries were being
published often and the world was beginning to change as a result of that.
Smith was worried that the scientific development would take again the
human part of us, turning the human kind into some form of heartless
robots. Smith was clearly wrong because while science helped society to
flourish and live as comfortable as never before imagined. The real problem
is how humans decide to use science. Governments tend to see it as a
national security issue because with the aid of science and technology, it is
possible to create very powerful weapons.
Smiths second story, An Adventure in Futurity, is all about
immigration. The story begins with the narrator being interested in a strange,
but very smart, guy named Conrad Elkins. Elkins had come to live in New
York for about a month before the narrator met him and he is always seen
around libraries and museums. Eventually Elkins meets the narrator and they
become good friends. The narrator later finds out that Elkins real name is
Kronous Alkon and he actually came back in time from the year 15000 A.D.
Alkon came back because the world in 15000 is suffering from a major
problem: there are not many women alive anymore and most people would
only have male children.
Alkon lives in what is called Akameria (modern America). The world in
15000 was filled with slaves from Venus and workers from Mars. Venuses
were viewed as an inferior race who wasnt as smart as humans or Martians
and thus they were slaved. Martians, although different, are smart and have
a well-developed society. They have their own belief, religion, addictions, and
life style. Martians are also the ones making sure the world is organized and
in peace. Everything is going well until the number of Venuses and Martians
got much larger than humans, thats when the slaves, united with the
Martians, organized a revolution and took control of the Earth. The surviving
humans had to travel to distant asteroids in order to keep the human race
alive.
During the 1930s, many people from all over the world immigrated
into the USA looking for a better life. Many Americans at the time didnt like
immigration and they were afraid that immigrants would turn the USA into
chaos. Smith was against immigration and he shows it by writing this work of
fiction. He was also racist and against the Jews since Venuses people refers
to the Black people living in the USA while Martians are a reference to the
Jewish community.
Smiths stories did raise awareness to some possible problems that a
growing society could face, from the dangers of immigration to the
unstoppable scientific advance in a short period of time. It is important to
note that these fears are present even today. Many people are fighting
against immigration in the USA and scientific research has always been
underfunded. However, if we look back in history, it is clear that those are
fake threats. The world became modern after the scientific revolutions in the
early 1900s. The USA became the most powerful country in the world
regardless of how many immigrants it has. Therefore, in spite of all the fears,
the world and America got better. Now we have to hope that we keep
fighting against unreal threats and thus deliver a better world to generations
to come after us.