Sixth Column (novel)
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| Original Title: | The Day After Tomorrow |
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| Written by: | Robert A. Heinlein |
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| Synopsis: | After an invasion of the USA, the last remaining army unit uses pseudo-science to fight back. |
| First published: | January, February, March 1941 |
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Does anyone have a kind word to say for "Sixth Column" or "Farnham's Freehold"? I'll try: 6thC was written to an outline supplied by famously racist editor John W. Campbell, at a point when Heinlein needed the money, and he is alleged to have watered down the racism as far as he could
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There is no such thing as a humane war. |
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Sixth Column, also known under the title The Day After Tomorrow, is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein using the pen name Anson MacDonald, based on a story by editor John W. Campbell, and set in a United States that has been conquered by the PanAsians, a combination of Chinese and Japanese. Originally published as a serial in Astounding Science Fiction (January, February, March 1941, using the pen name Anson MacDonald) it was published in hardcover in 1949.
On the Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness, this is "Really soft SF" - the "science" barely made sense for when the story was written, and (as always) Science Marches On.
Plot summary
A top secret research facility hidden in the Colorado mountains is the last remaining outpost of the United States Army after its defeat by the PanAsians. The conquerors had absorbed the Soviets after being attacked by them and had then gone on to absorb India as well. The invaders are depicted as ruthless and cruel — for example, they crush an abortive rebellion by killing 150,000 American civilians as punishment. Noting that the invaders have allowed the free practice of religion (the better to pacify their slaves), the Americans set up a church of their own in order to build a resistance movement — the Sixth Column (as opposed to a traitorous fifth column).
The laboratory is in turmoil as the novel begins. All but six of the personnel have died suddenly, due to unknown forces released by an experiment operating within the newly discovered magneto-gravitic or electro-gravitic spectra. The surviving scientists soon learn that they can selectively kill people by releasing the internal pressure of their cell membranes, among other things. Using this discovery they construct a race-selective weapon which will kill only Asians.
Background
The original idea for the story of Sixth Column was proposed by John W. Campbell (who had written a similar unpublishable story called All), and Heinlein later wrote in Expanded Universe that he "had to reslant it to remove racist aspects of the original story line" and that he did not "consider it to be an artistic success."
Heinlein’s work on Campbell’s All was considerably more than just a re-slanting; Campbell’s story was felt to be unpublishable as it stood, written in a pseudo-archaic dialect (with occasional inconsistencies), with no scientific explanations for the apparently miraculous powers of the American super-weapons. (There are plausible discussions of the weapons, but by the PanAsians, concluding that their powers must be divine.) George Zebrowski, in his afterword to the story, speculates that Heinlein was parodying Campbell in the character of Calhoun, who goes insane and actually believes the false religion created by the Americans. The bulk of Heinlein’s work on the novel, e.g. the explanations of the weapons’ effectiveness and the strategy for the Americans' rebellion, are missing from All.
Portrayal of Racism
The book was serialized in 1941, the same year as the attack on Pearl Harbor, while its hardcover publication coincided with the Communist victory in China; with the PanAsians being both Chinese and Japanese, it had a direct topical relevance in both cases. It is notable for its frank portrayal of racism on both sides. The conquerors regard themselves as a chosen people predestined to rule over lesser races, and they refer to white people as slaves. "Three things only do slaves require: work, food, and their religion." They demand outward signs of respect, such as jumping promptly into the gutter when a member of the chosen race walks by, and the slightest hesitation to show the prescribed courtesies earns a swagger stick across the face. One character is Frank Mitsui, an Asian American whose family was murdered by the invaders because they did not fit in the new PanAsiatic racial order. The Americans in the novel respond to their conquerors' racism by often referring to them in unflattering terms, such as "flat face", "slanty" (a derisive reference to the look typical of Asian eyes), and "monkey boy".
Sixth Column and Farnham's Freehold, another novel by Heinlein, both center on the issue of race. Whereas some people perceive Sixth Column as racist, Farnham's Freehold turns the tables by reversing the racial stereotypes.
- All Asians Are Alike: Very literally - the entirety of Asia has amalgamated to a massive nation of PanAsia, with most elements resembling Japanese culture.
- Applied Phlebotinum: The devices created to manipulate the energies that can be generated in the newly discovered magneto-gravitic, electro-gravitic and electro-magneto-gravitic spectra.
- Back From the Brink: Starts off with the United States completely conquered by technologically superior invading forces. The only remaining resistance is a secret underground U.S. Army laboratory which was almost completely depopulated by an experimental accident. Through tremendous effort and quite a bit of luck, the remaining soldiers and scientists manage to whip up several superweapons, create a secret army (masquerading as a religion) and defeat the invaders.
- Big Lie: The remaining unconquered army officers and La Résistance use the Big Lie "we are a religion" to be able to operate right under the noses of the invaders. It's so successful that one of the people who came up with the lie ends up believing it.
- Bindle Stick: Averted. An academic who's both studied hobos and is a hobo laid out for other characters a taxonomy of hobos, with bindle stiffs at the very bottom, as a reason for refusing to carry a Bindle Stick when he is sent out on an intelligence-gathering mission.
- Clarke's Third Law: Invoked by the lab staff well before it was named when they chose to cloak their superscience as a religion.
- Efficient Displacement: Invoked; revolutionaries use the Applied Phlebotinum to spook the occupying army by carving precisely man-shaped holes in the walls of the prison cells they escape from.
- Fair for Its Day: Heinlein disliked the racism in the original story outline given to him so he "fixed" it. Unfortunately, while it was fair for its day for having a "good guy" be Asian, it still contains enough racism to make you cringe today. He considered the story an Old Shame.
- A God Am I: All of the main characters have near-omnipotence thanks to their weapons, but Calhoun is the one who eventually goes crazy about it and actually thinks he's a divine in their scam religion.
- Hobos: A hobo character who stumbled upon the military base is a major character. The hobo used to be a graduate student who decided to research the hobo lifestyle. He discovered he liked it and gave up being a student to be a hobo. He also points out to the protagonist that hobos are not tramps or bums, and in fact lays out an entire social taxonomy of American transients, with bindlestiffs at the bottom and true hobos at the top.
- Old Shame / I Was Young and Needed the Money: This was a rewrite by Heinlein of an unpublished (and, at least according to some sources, unpublishable) story called All originally written by editor John W. Campbell, who farmed it out to Heinlein; Heinlein later recalled that he had had to dramatically rewrite it to purge it of unashamed and overt racism, and that he did not "consider it to be an artistic success".
- Pig Latin: Used as a code, under the theory that non-native speakers wouldn't be able to understand it.
- Reverse Polarity: The book's race-specific Death Ray has two kinds of Reverse Polarity. The first way turns it in to a health-ray (don't think too hard about that), and the second way lets you use it on non-Asians. (Strictly speaking, it's not the toggle that "Reverse Polarity" implies, but a more like tuning a radio. But once the settings are found, the change in function is made as simple as a button push.)
- Scam Religion: In order to fool the Asians, the Americans set up a cult worshiping the "god" Mota. Using staves fitted with omnipotence-granting weapons, Mota's "priests" even perform miracles to keep the Asians away from the temples - in which the revolution is planned.
- Sdrawkcab Name: "Mota" = "Atom"
- Slashed Throat: One of the characters kills a "traitor" this way. This "proves" he is fit to continue as an undercover agent.
- Smart People Play Chess: Major Aardmore shows his superiority over the Big Bad by offering the solution to a chess problem. The Big Bad can't figure out how it works; months later, after his defeat, he asks Aardmore about it. Aardmore admits that he had no solution and was simply bluffing. The Big Bad either kills himself in disgrace or dies of apoplexy or frustration; we're not sure which.
- Super Weapon, Average Joe: The Americans have a weapon that allows them to do pretty much anything with ease.
- Yellow Peril: Depicts heroic white Americans fighting back against sinister (and themselves racist) "Pan-Asian" (A Chinese/Japanese alliance) invaders, with race-specific weapons. The invasion had targeted Chinese- and Japanese-Americans from the start; one surviving Chinese-American was an integral part of the counter-attack by joining the scientists and helping them test their weapons. Heinlein usually made an effort to be non-racist; the plot of Sixth Column was editorially-enforced.