Battlefield Earth (novel)
Encyclopedia
Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is a 1982 science fiction novel written by the Scientology
founder L. Ron Hubbard
. He composed a soundtrack to the book called Space Jazz
.
The subsequent film adaptation
, released in 2000, was a commercial failure and was criticized as one of the "worst films ever made".
. Depressed over the death and disease affecting his tribe, he leaves his village to explore the lowlands and to disprove the superstitions long held by his people involving ancient gods and monsters. However, he is captured in the ruins of Denver by Terl, the Psychlo chief of security.
The Psychlos, hairy 9 feet (2.7 m) high, 1,000-pound sociopath
s, originate from a planet with an atmosphere very different from that of Earth. Their home world is in fact located in a different/parallel universe, and follows slightly different physical laws, with a slightly different table of elements. As a result, some interactions between the two worlds are problematic. Their "breathe-gas" explodes on contact with even trace amounts of radioactive metals, such as uranium
.
Terl, a Psychlo, had been assigned to Earth, and he eventually learns that his term has been extended with no word of relief. Fearful at the thought of spending several more years on Earth, he decides to con his way off the planet and return home a wealthy Psychlo. Terl has discovered a lode of gold up in the Rocky Mountains
that he wants to get his hands on "off the company books". However, it is surrounded by uranium deposits that make Psychlo mining impossible. Terl captures Jonnie while searching for "man-animals" that he can train to mine the gold for him.
After a time, Terl captures Jonnie's childhood friend Chrissie and her little sister and threatens to kill them unless Jonnie helps him. Jonnie is afterwards free to move around the mining area. Shortly thereafter, Terl and Jonnie travel to Scotland
and recruit 83 Scottish youth, old women, a doctor, and a historian to help with the mining. Jonnie, however, has different plans. Because Terl does not understand English
, Jonnie is able to convince the Scots to help him overthrow the Psychlo rule on Earth.
During the next months, Jonnie and the Scots try to mine the gold as well as develop a means of defeating not only the Psychlos on Earth, but also nullifying the threat of counterattack from Psychlo (the Psychlos' home planet). During the semi-annual teleportation
of personnel, goods, and coffins (all dead Psychlos are shipped home for burial) back to Psychlo, Jonnie and the Scots manage to pack several of the coffins with "dirty nukes" and "planet busters" in hopes of destroying the Psychlos' home planet. After the teleportation firing, the humans use the Psychlos' own weapons against them and regain control of Earth.
This is, however, not the end of the story. Unsure as to whether the bombs sent even reached Psychlo and under the imminent threat of counterattack, Jonnie must now defend his newly-retaken planet against the predatory interests of several other interstellar races, including a race of intergalactic bankers seeking to repossess the Earth in lieu of unpaid debts, as well as a longtime rival seeking to wrest control of Earth from him. In order to ensure the security and independence of humanity, he does something that no other race in 300,000 years has been able to do: uncover the secret of Psychlo mathematics and teleportation.
, though all subsequent reprintings have been by Church of Scientology
publishing companies Bridge Publications
and Galaxy Press
. Written in the style of the pulp fiction era (during which Hubbard began his writing career), the novel is a massive work (over 750 pages in hardcover, 1000+ in paperback). It was Hubbard's first openly science fiction novel since his pulp magazine days of the 1940s, and it was promoted as Hubbard's "return" to science fiction after a long hiatus.
The cover artwork of the original hardcover edition featured an image of hero Jonnie Goodboy Tyler which did not coincide with the physical description given in the novel. The subsequent paperback release corrected the cover art, most notably by giving Tyler a beard.
The book was reissued in 2000 with a new cover, in connection with the release of the film version. The book has also been released in audiobook and e-book
versions.
According to Nielsen BookScan
, Battlefield Earth sold 29,000 copies between 2001 and 2005.
, for instance, called Battlefield Earth "an unsubtle saga, atrociously written, windy and out of control" while in the science fiction magazine Analog, Thomas Easton
criticized it as "a wish-fulfillment fantasy wholly populated by the most one-dimensional of cardboard characters." Other critics pointed to the book's slipshod writing, such as "the ineffably klutzy destruction of the planet of the evil Psychlos by atomic bombs, which turns it into a 'radioactive sun.'" Punch
sarcastically commended Hubbard's "excellent understanding of evil impulses, particularly deviousness, which helps with the plot, and [he] is well-enough aware of his weaknesses not to dwell upon frailties like love, generosity, compassion." David Langford
, after criticizing the plot, style and scientific implausibilities, concluded "From this, Battlefield may sound almost worth looking at for its sheer laughable badness. No. It's dreadful and tedious beyond endurance".
A few critics praised the novel, however. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
described the book as a "rather good, fast-paced, often fascinating SF adventure yarn." In a 2007 Fox News interview, current US presidential
candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney
pointed to the book as his favorite novel. The fantasy author Neil Gaiman
wrote, "For value for money I have to recommend L. Ron Hubbard's massive Battlefield Earth - over 1000 pages of thrills, spills, vicious aliens, noble humans. Is mankind an endangered species? Will handsome and heroic Jonny Goodboy Tyler win Earth back from the nine-foot-high Psychlos? A tribute to the days of Pulp, I found it un-put-downable. And all for £2.95". Frederik Pohl
said, "I read 'Battlefield Earth' straight through in one sitting although it's immense... I was fascinated by it."
Kevin J. Anderson
says, "Battlefield Earth is like a 12-hour 'Indiana Jones
' marathon. Non-stop and fast-paced. Every chapter has a big bang-up adventure." Publishers Weekly
said about the novel, "This has everything: suspense, pathos, politics, war, humor, diplomacy and intergalactic finance..." Science fiction author A. E. van Vogt
stated, "Wonderful adventure ... great characters ... a masterpiece." but later admitted that he had not actually read it due to its size.
and also those of the Los Angeles Times
, TIME, United Press International
, Associated Press
, B. Dalton's and Waldenbooks
. According to Hubbard's literary agents, Author Services Inc.
, by June 1983 the book had sold 150,000 copies and earned $1.5 million.
Not long afterwards, stories emerged of a reported Church of Scientology book-buying campaign mounted to ensure that the book would appear on the bestseller lists. According to newspaper reports, Church representatives promised the publishers that a particular number of copies would be bought by Church subsidiaries (the author and journalist Russell Miller
cites a figure of 50,000 hardback copies).
Local Churches of Scientology and individual Scientologists were reportedly also urged to buy copies of the book. Various bookstore chains (including Waldenbooks
) have cited examples of Scientologists repeatedly coming into stores and buying armfuls of the book at a time. Several bookstores reported that shipments of the book arrived with the store's own price tags already affixed to them, even before they were unpacked from the shipping boxes, suggesting that copies were being recycled. According to Miller, Scientologists throughout the United States were instructed to go out and buy at least two or three copies each. Gerry Armstrong, who worked in the Church's archives at the time, states that "One of the wealthy Scientologists, by the name of Ellie Bolger, apparently paid a huge amount of money to the organization, which they then disbursed to staff members to go down to B. Dalton or whatever and buy the
book." The New York Times reported that "two Scientology organizations bought a total of 30,000 copies of Battlefield Earth at discount directly from the publisher, apparently to sell or to give to current or prospective Scientology members." Booksellers told the newspaper that they had seen unusual purchasing patterns, including individuals buying as many as 800 copies of the book at a time. It was suggested that "church members could be trying to buy themselves a bestseller in order to obtain a large paperback or movie sale, both of which are often contingent on a book's first becoming a bestseller in hard cover." Two months after the reports emerged, Author Services Inc. announced that it had sold the film rights for
Battlefield Earth to a Los Angeles production company, though it took another 16 years for the film to be made.
Former Scientologist Bent Corydon has described how pressure was put on the managers of Scientology "missions" - effectively franchises
- to promote and purchase Battlefield Earth. At a conference held in San Francisco on October 17, 1982, Scientologist "mission holders" were told by Wendall Reynolds, the Church's International Finance Dictator, to do their bit to make the book a success:
According to Corydon, "we were ordered to sell 1,000 copies of Hubbard's recently released science-fiction book Battlefield Earth "before Thursday or I would be kicked out as mission holder." The idea behind the publicity drive was said to be that it "would, in turn, get the Dianetics book selling"; Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health did in fact experience a marked increase in sales subsequently, re-entering the New York Times Best Seller list four times in 1986. Battlefield Earth, for its part, sold over 125,000 copies in its first print run and by March 1985 had sold 800,000 paperback copies.
Hubbard's role as the founder of Scientology has led to a long-running controversy about whether Battlefield Earth contains Scientology themes, and about the role that the Church of Scientology has played in publishing and promoting the book.
Hubbard himself denied that the book was a vehicle for Scientology. He described his motives for writing as being that "it keeps my hand in, amuses people and whiles away the otherwise idle hour. It's better than playing video games!" He addresses the question directly in the book's introduction, where he says: "Some of my readers may wonder that I did not include my own serious subjects in this book. It was with no thought of dismissal of them. It was just that I put on my professional writer's hat. I also did not want to give anybody the idea I was doing a press relations job for my other serious works."
, a viewpoint the novel reflects by portraying the Psychlos as being ruled by the Catrists (a word similar to psychiatrist
), described as a group of evil charlatan
s. Those among the Psychlos who do not share the views of the Catrists or oppose them are subjected to various forms of persecution; particularly, the Catrists use surgical mind control
in order to maintain their power base. Hubbard frequently claimed in Scientology that psychiatrists used such tactics to maintain their influence and funding. Early in its history, the Psychlo species had no fixed name, instead being named after the Emperor of the day. The word "Psychlo" is revealed to have originally meant "brain" in the alien language, signifying that the Catrists feel (or in any case claim) that the entire population requires treatment as mental patients.
One supporting character, a Psychlo mathematician named Soth, is described as having been shaped by the views of his mother. She was a member of a resistance group, referred to as a "church", which held religious meetings secretly. This "church", much like Church of Scientology, opposes psychiatry.
In one passage of the book, a human doctor recalls a "cult
" called psychology which existed before the Psychlo invasion, but is "forgotten now."
In December 1980, two months after he completed the book, Hubbard told fellow Scientologists that "I was a bit disgusted with the way the psychologists and brain surgeons mess people up so I wrote a fiction story based in part on the consequences that could occur if the shrinks continued to do it."
aimed to bring Hubbard's book to the big screen in a series of two movies with himself playing Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, as well as producing. A film was planned to be released in 1983, but due to rising costs and trouble in finding a studio, the project was cancelled. It was finally produced by Franchise Pictures
in 2000 as Battlefield Earth
. Directed by Roger Christian
, it starred Travolta (who felt he was too old to play the hero) as Terl, Barry Pepper
as Jonnie Goodboy, and Forest Whitaker
as Ker.
The film opened to nearly universal negative reviews and was a huge box office bomb. Due to word of mouth
and Internet
buzz, it quickly disappeared from theatre chains. Almost all aspects of the film were criticized: hammy acting by Travolta, the film's overuse of Dutch angles
, corny dialogue, and several plot inconsistencies. A sequel, although planned for a 2002 release, was never made. Franchise was later sued and went bankrupt after it emerged that the company had fraudulently overstated the film's budget.
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
founder L. Ron Hubbard
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
. He composed a soundtrack to the book called Space Jazz
Space Jazz
-Personnel:Artists*L. Ron Hubbard*Chick Corea*Rick Cruzen*Nicky Hopkins*Stanley Clarke*Tamia Arbuckle*Fernando Gambos*Tomo Allison*Charlie Rush*Gayle MoranProduction personnel*All arrangements and orchestrations by - Rick Cruzen and Tamia Arbuckle...
.
The subsequent film adaptation
Battlefield Earth (film)
Battlefield Earth is a 2000 American science fiction film adapted from L. Ron Hubbard's novel of the same name. It was directed by Roger Christian, and stars John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, and Barry Pepper...
, released in 2000, was a commercial failure and was criticized as one of the "worst films ever made".
Synopsis
In the year AD 3000, Earth has been ruled by an alien race, the Psychlos, for a millennium. Humanity has been reduced to a few scattered tribes in isolated parts of the world while the Psychlos strip the planet of its mineral wealth. Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, a young member of one such tribe, lives in the shadow of the Rocky MountainsRocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
. Depressed over the death and disease affecting his tribe, he leaves his village to explore the lowlands and to disprove the superstitions long held by his people involving ancient gods and monsters. However, he is captured in the ruins of Denver by Terl, the Psychlo chief of security.
The Psychlos, hairy 9 feet (2.7 m) high, 1,000-pound sociopath
Psychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
s, originate from a planet with an atmosphere very different from that of Earth. Their home world is in fact located in a different/parallel universe, and follows slightly different physical laws, with a slightly different table of elements. As a result, some interactions between the two worlds are problematic. Their "breathe-gas" explodes on contact with even trace amounts of radioactive metals, such as uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
.
Terl, a Psychlo, had been assigned to Earth, and he eventually learns that his term has been extended with no word of relief. Fearful at the thought of spending several more years on Earth, he decides to con his way off the planet and return home a wealthy Psychlo. Terl has discovered a lode of gold up in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
that he wants to get his hands on "off the company books". However, it is surrounded by uranium deposits that make Psychlo mining impossible. Terl captures Jonnie while searching for "man-animals" that he can train to mine the gold for him.
After a time, Terl captures Jonnie's childhood friend Chrissie and her little sister and threatens to kill them unless Jonnie helps him. Jonnie is afterwards free to move around the mining area. Shortly thereafter, Terl and Jonnie travel to Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and recruit 83 Scottish youth, old women, a doctor, and a historian to help with the mining. Jonnie, however, has different plans. Because Terl does not understand English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Jonnie is able to convince the Scots to help him overthrow the Psychlo rule on Earth.
During the next months, Jonnie and the Scots try to mine the gold as well as develop a means of defeating not only the Psychlos on Earth, but also nullifying the threat of counterattack from Psychlo (the Psychlos' home planet). During the semi-annual teleportation
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
of personnel, goods, and coffins (all dead Psychlos are shipped home for burial) back to Psychlo, Jonnie and the Scots manage to pack several of the coffins with "dirty nukes" and "planet busters" in hopes of destroying the Psychlos' home planet. After the teleportation firing, the humans use the Psychlos' own weapons against them and regain control of Earth.
This is, however, not the end of the story. Unsure as to whether the bombs sent even reached Psychlo and under the imminent threat of counterattack, Jonnie must now defend his newly-retaken planet against the predatory interests of several other interstellar races, including a race of intergalactic bankers seeking to repossess the Earth in lieu of unpaid debts, as well as a longtime rival seeking to wrest control of Earth from him. In order to ensure the security and independence of humanity, he does something that no other race in 300,000 years has been able to do: uncover the secret of Psychlo mathematics and teleportation.
Publishing history
Initially titled "Man, the Endangered Species", Battlefield Earth was first published in 1982 by St. Martin's PressSt. Martin's Press
St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in the Flatiron Building in New York City. Currently, St. Martin's Press is one of the United States' largest publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under eight imprints, which include St. Martin's Press , St...
, though all subsequent reprintings have been by Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
publishing companies Bridge Publications
Bridge Publications (Scientology)
Bridge Publications, Inc. is a Californian 501 non-profit corporation. It is based in Los Angeles, California, and is the Church of Scientology's North American publishing corporation. It publishes the Scientology and nonfiction works of L. Ron Hubbard...
and Galaxy Press
Galaxy Press
Galaxy Press is a trade name set up to publish and promote the fiction worksof L. Ron Hubbard, and the anthologies of the L. Ron HubbardWriters of the Future contest....
. Written in the style of the pulp fiction era (during which Hubbard began his writing career), the novel is a massive work (over 750 pages in hardcover, 1000+ in paperback). It was Hubbard's first openly science fiction novel since his pulp magazine days of the 1940s, and it was promoted as Hubbard's "return" to science fiction after a long hiatus.
The cover artwork of the original hardcover edition featured an image of hero Jonnie Goodboy Tyler which did not coincide with the physical description given in the novel. The subsequent paperback release corrected the cover art, most notably by giving Tyler a beard.
The book was reissued in 2000 with a new cover, in connection with the release of the film version. The book has also been released in audiobook and e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
versions.
According to Nielsen BookScan
Nielsen BookScan
Nielsen BookScan is a data provider for the book publishing industry, owned by the Nielsen Company. BookScan compiles point of sale data for book sales.-History:...
, Battlefield Earth sold 29,000 copies between 2001 and 2005.
Critical response
The book had a mixed reception from literary critics and fans. The EconomistThe Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, for instance, called Battlefield Earth "an unsubtle saga, atrociously written, windy and out of control" while in the science fiction magazine Analog, Thomas Easton
Thomas Easton
Thomas A. Easton is a professor at Thomas College of Maine and a well-known science fiction critic. He wrote the book review column in SF magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact from 1979 - 2009....
criticized it as "a wish-fulfillment fantasy wholly populated by the most one-dimensional of cardboard characters." Other critics pointed to the book's slipshod writing, such as "the ineffably klutzy destruction of the planet of the evil Psychlos by atomic bombs, which turns it into a 'radioactive sun.'" Punch
Punch (magazine)
Punch, or the London Charivari was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 50s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration...
sarcastically commended Hubbard's "excellent understanding of evil impulses, particularly deviousness, which helps with the plot, and [he] is well-enough aware of his weaknesses not to dwell upon frailties like love, generosity, compassion." David Langford
David Langford
David Rowland Langford is a British author, editor and critic, largely active within the science fiction field. He publishes the science fiction fanzine and newsletter Ansible.-Personal background:...
, after criticizing the plot, style and scientific implausibilities, concluded "From this, Battlefield may sound almost worth looking at for its sheer laughable badness. No. It's dreadful and tedious beyond endurance".
A few critics praised the novel, however. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
described the book as a "rather good, fast-paced, often fascinating SF adventure yarn." In a 2007 Fox News interview, current US presidential
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
candidate and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney
Willard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and politician. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007 and is a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party presidential nomination.The son of George W...
pointed to the book as his favorite novel. The fantasy author Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
wrote, "For value for money I have to recommend L. Ron Hubbard's massive Battlefield Earth - over 1000 pages of thrills, spills, vicious aliens, noble humans. Is mankind an endangered species? Will handsome and heroic Jonny Goodboy Tyler win Earth back from the nine-foot-high Psychlos? A tribute to the days of Pulp, I found it un-put-downable. And all for £2.95". Frederik Pohl
Frederik Pohl
Frederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years — from his first published work, "Elegy to a Dead Planet: Luna" , to his most recent novel, All the Lives He Led .He won the National Book Award in 1980 for his novel Jem...
said, "I read 'Battlefield Earth' straight through in one sitting although it's immense... I was fascinated by it."
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson
Kevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author with over forty bestsellers. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and with Brian Herbert is the co-author of the Dune prequels...
says, "Battlefield Earth is like a 12-hour 'Indiana Jones
Indiana Jones
Colonel Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Indiana Jones franchise. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg created the character in homage to the action heroes of 1930s film serials...
' marathon. Non-stop and fast-paced. Every chapter has a big bang-up adventure." Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly
Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
said about the novel, "This has everything: suspense, pathos, politics, war, humor, diplomacy and intergalactic finance..." Science fiction author A. E. van Vogt
A. E. van Vogt
Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the "Golden Age" of the genre....
stated, "Wonderful adventure ... great characters ... a masterpiece." but later admitted that he had not actually read it due to its size.
The Church of Scientology's role
Battlefield Earth went to the top of the New York Times Best Seller listNew York Times Best Seller list
The New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is published in the Sunday edition of The New York Times and as a stand-alone publication...
and also those of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, TIME, United Press International
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
, B. Dalton's and Waldenbooks
Waldenbooks
Waldenbooks , operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware as well as a children's edutainment chain under Walden Kids...
. According to Hubbard's literary agents, Author Services Inc.
Author Services Inc.
Author Services Inc. represents the literary, theatrical and musical works of the late Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Church of Spiritual Technology....
, by June 1983 the book had sold 150,000 copies and earned $1.5 million.
Not long afterwards, stories emerged of a reported Church of Scientology book-buying campaign mounted to ensure that the book would appear on the bestseller lists. According to newspaper reports, Church representatives promised the publishers that a particular number of copies would be bought by Church subsidiaries (the author and journalist Russell Miller
Russell Miller
Russell Miller is an award-winning British journalist and author of fifteen books, including biographies of Hugh Hefner, J. Paul Getty and L. Ron Hubbard.-L. Ron Hubbard biography:...
cites a figure of 50,000 hardback copies).
Local Churches of Scientology and individual Scientologists were reportedly also urged to buy copies of the book. Various bookstore chains (including Waldenbooks
Waldenbooks
Waldenbooks , operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain and a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware as well as a children's edutainment chain under Walden Kids...
) have cited examples of Scientologists repeatedly coming into stores and buying armfuls of the book at a time. Several bookstores reported that shipments of the book arrived with the store's own price tags already affixed to them, even before they were unpacked from the shipping boxes, suggesting that copies were being recycled. According to Miller, Scientologists throughout the United States were instructed to go out and buy at least two or three copies each. Gerry Armstrong, who worked in the Church's archives at the time, states that "One of the wealthy Scientologists, by the name of Ellie Bolger, apparently paid a huge amount of money to the organization, which they then disbursed to staff members to go down to B. Dalton or whatever and buy the
book." The New York Times reported that "two Scientology organizations bought a total of 30,000 copies of Battlefield Earth at discount directly from the publisher, apparently to sell or to give to current or prospective Scientology members." Booksellers told the newspaper that they had seen unusual purchasing patterns, including individuals buying as many as 800 copies of the book at a time. It was suggested that "church members could be trying to buy themselves a bestseller in order to obtain a large paperback or movie sale, both of which are often contingent on a book's first becoming a bestseller in hard cover." Two months after the reports emerged, Author Services Inc. announced that it had sold the film rights for
Battlefield Earth to a Los Angeles production company, though it took another 16 years for the film to be made.
Former Scientologist Bent Corydon has described how pressure was put on the managers of Scientology "missions" - effectively franchises
Franchising
Franchising is the practice of using another firm's successful business model. The word 'franchise' is of anglo-French derivation - from franc- meaning free, and is used both as a noun and as a verb....
- to promote and purchase Battlefield Earth. At a conference held in San Francisco on October 17, 1982, Scientologist "mission holders" were told by Wendall Reynolds, the Church's International Finance Dictator, to do their bit to make the book a success:
According to Corydon, "we were ordered to sell 1,000 copies of Hubbard's recently released science-fiction book Battlefield Earth "before Thursday or I would be kicked out as mission holder." The idea behind the publicity drive was said to be that it "would, in turn, get the Dianetics book selling"; Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health did in fact experience a marked increase in sales subsequently, re-entering the New York Times Best Seller list four times in 1986. Battlefield Earth, for its part, sold over 125,000 copies in its first print run and by March 1985 had sold 800,000 paperback copies.
Hubbard's role as the founder of Scientology has led to a long-running controversy about whether Battlefield Earth contains Scientology themes, and about the role that the Church of Scientology has played in publishing and promoting the book.
Hubbard himself denied that the book was a vehicle for Scientology. He described his motives for writing as being that "it keeps my hand in, amuses people and whiles away the otherwise idle hour. It's better than playing video games!" He addresses the question directly in the book's introduction, where he says: "Some of my readers may wonder that I did not include my own serious subjects in this book. It was with no thought of dismissal of them. It was just that I put on my professional writer's hat. I also did not want to give anybody the idea I was doing a press relations job for my other serious works."
Scientology-related themes
During his lifetime, L. Ron Hubbard maintained an opposition to psychiatryScientology and psychiatry
Scientology and psychiatry have come into conflict since the foundation of Scientology in 1952. Scientology is publicly, and often vehemently, opposed to both psychiatry and psychology. Scientologists view psychiatry as a barbaric and corrupt profession and encourage alternative care based on...
, a viewpoint the novel reflects by portraying the Psychlos as being ruled by the Catrists (a word similar to psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
), described as a group of evil charlatan
Charlatan
A charlatan is a person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretense or deception....
s. Those among the Psychlos who do not share the views of the Catrists or oppose them are subjected to various forms of persecution; particularly, the Catrists use surgical mind control
Psychosurgery
Psychosurgery, also called neurosurgery for mental disorder , is the neurosurgical treatment of mental disorder. Psychosurgery has always been a controversial medical field. The modern history of psychosurgery begins in the 1880s under the Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt...
in order to maintain their power base. Hubbard frequently claimed in Scientology that psychiatrists used such tactics to maintain their influence and funding. Early in its history, the Psychlo species had no fixed name, instead being named after the Emperor of the day. The word "Psychlo" is revealed to have originally meant "brain" in the alien language, signifying that the Catrists feel (or in any case claim) that the entire population requires treatment as mental patients.
One supporting character, a Psychlo mathematician named Soth, is described as having been shaped by the views of his mother. She was a member of a resistance group, referred to as a "church", which held religious meetings secretly. This "church", much like Church of Scientology, opposes psychiatry.
In one passage of the book, a human doctor recalls a "cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...
" called psychology which existed before the Psychlo invasion, but is "forgotten now."
In December 1980, two months after he completed the book, Hubbard told fellow Scientologists that "I was a bit disgusted with the way the psychologists and brain surgeons mess people up so I wrote a fiction story based in part on the consequences that could occur if the shrinks continued to do it."
Film adaptation
Ever since the book was released, Scientologist and science-fiction fan John TravoltaJohn Travolta
John Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. Travolta first became known in the 1970s, after appearing on the television series Welcome Back, Kotter and starring in the box office successes Saturday Night Fever and Grease...
aimed to bring Hubbard's book to the big screen in a series of two movies with himself playing Jonnie Goodboy Tyler, as well as producing. A film was planned to be released in 1983, but due to rising costs and trouble in finding a studio, the project was cancelled. It was finally produced by Franchise Pictures
Franchise Pictures
Franchise Pictures LLC was an independent motion picture production and distribution company founded by Elie Samaha and Andrew Stevens. They were known for their production in the action film genre...
in 2000 as Battlefield Earth
Battlefield Earth (film)
Battlefield Earth is a 2000 American science fiction film adapted from L. Ron Hubbard's novel of the same name. It was directed by Roger Christian, and stars John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, and Barry Pepper...
. Directed by Roger Christian
Roger Christian (filmmaker)
-External links:*...
, it starred Travolta (who felt he was too old to play the hero) as Terl, Barry Pepper
Barry Pepper
Barry Robert Pepper is a Canadian actor. He is best known for playing roles like Sergeant Michael Strank in the Clint Eastwood film, Flags of Our Fathers, Private Daniel Jackson in Saving Private Ryan, Roger Maris in 61*, Ned Pepper in True Grit and for his recent role as Robert F...
as Jonnie Goodboy, and Forest Whitaker
Forest Whitaker
Forest Steven Whitaker is an American actor, producer, and director. He has earned a reputation for intensive character study work for films such as Bird and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and for his recurring role as ex-LAPD Lieutenant Jon Kavanaugh on the gritty, award-winning television...
as Ker.
The film opened to nearly universal negative reviews and was a huge box office bomb. Due to word of mouth
Word of mouth
Word of mouth, or viva voce, is the passing of information from person to person by oral communication. Storytelling is the oldest form of word-of-mouth communication where one person tells others of something, whether a real event or something made up. Oral tradition is cultural material and...
and Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
buzz, it quickly disappeared from theatre chains. Almost all aspects of the film were criticized: hammy acting by Travolta, the film's overuse of Dutch angles
Dutch angle
Dutch tilt, Dutch angle, Dutch shot, oblique angle, German angle, canted angle, Batman angle, or jaunty angle are terms used for one of many cinematic techniques often used to portray the psychological uneasiness or tension in the subject being filmed...
, corny dialogue, and several plot inconsistencies. A sequel, although planned for a 2002 release, was never made. Franchise was later sued and went bankrupt after it emerged that the company had fraudulently overstated the film's budget.
External links
- Official book website (Galaxy Press)
- The Writing of Battlefield Earth (lronhubbard.org) (Audio of radio broadcast on NPR.)