File:Popeye - Jeep origin.jpg
Original file (750 × 1,026 pixels, file size: 179 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Summary
When Eugene the Jeep was introduced, E.C. Segar gave him a surprisingly hard science fiction introduction for the year 1936, only a decade after the term "science fiction" was invented, and two decades before the phrase "hard science fiction" was coined.
Here is a transcript of the professor's explanation of the Jeep:
A Jeep is an animal living in a three dimensional world… in this case, our world; but really belonging to a fourth-dimensional world…. Here's what happened… a number of Jeep life-cells were somehow forced through the dimensional barrier into our world. They combined at a favorable time with free life cells of the African "Hooey Hound". The electrical vibrations of the Hooey Hound cell and the foreign cell were the same – they were kindred cells… in fact, all things are to some extent relative – whether they be of this or some other world…. Now you see — the extremely favorable conditions of germination in Africa caused a fusion of these life-cells – so the uniting of kindred cells caused a transmutation…. The result – a mysterious strange animal. |
The reference to an "African 'Hooey Hound'" is very likely an early nickname for the Basenji, a dog breed from Africa that had just been introduced to America that decade and which had a distinctive howl ending in a whine: "HOOOO-eeee". The Basenji's curled tail and propensity for standing on its hind legs can be seen in Eugene the Jeep. "Free life cells" can be interpreted as a delicate reference to reproductive cells, e.g. eggs, which were "at a favorable time" (estrus) for fertilization. The result was that a Basenji gave birth to the hybrid creature known as Eugene, allowing a "fourth-dimensional" being to live in our three-dimensional world.
It's hard to resist comparing this to my concept of the Daodan organism as an entity or genetic process which invades our world through the phase barrier. --Iritscen (talk) 00:17, 25 November 2021 (CET)
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| current | 22:47, 24 November 2021 | | 750 × 1,026 (179 KB) | Iritscen (talk | contribs) | When Eugene the Jeep was introduced, E.C. Segar gave him a surprisingly hard-SF introduction for 1936, only ten years after the term "science fiction" was invented. Category:Images from other mediaCategory:Oni 2 influences |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage
There are no pages that use this file.
