Battlefield Earth is a 1982 science fiction novel written by
ScientologyScientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics. Hubbard characterized Scientology as a religion, and in 1953 incorporated the Church of Scientology in New Jersey.Scientology teaches that...
founder
L. Ron HubbardLafayette Ronald Hubbard was an American science fiction author who developed a self-help system called Dianetics, which was first published in 1950. Over the next three decades, Hubbard developed his self-help ideas into a wide-ranging set of doctrines and rituals as part of a new religion he...
. He composed a soundtrack to the book called
Space JazzSpace Jazz: The soundtrack of the book Battlefield Earth is a music album and soundtrack companion to the novel Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard, released in 1982. Hubbard composed the music for the album.-History:...
.
The subsequent
film adaptationBattlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is an American film adaptation of the novel Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard that was released on May 12, 2000. Directed by Roger Christian, the film 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 madeThe films listed here have achieved a significant level of infamy through critical and popular assertion as being among the worst films ever made. The films have either been cited by a combination of reputable sources as the worst movie of the year, or been on such a source's list of the worst...
".
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 MountainsThe 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 Canada, to New Mexico, in the United States. The range's highest peak is Mount Elbert in Colorado at above sea level...
. 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 high, 1000-pound
sociopathPsychopathy is a psychological construct that describes chronic disregard for ethical principles and antisocial behavior.The term is often used interchangeably with sociopathy. This is a commonly made mistake. Sociopathy is no longer a correct term to use, and when it is used it actually refers to...
s, originate from a planet with an atmosphere very different from that of earth. Their "breathe-gas" explodes on contact with even trace amounts of radioactive metals, such as uranium. For his greediness and incompetent planning, Terl 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 years on Earth, he decides to buy his way off the planet and return home a wealthy Psychlo. From the very beginning, the reader learns that Terl has discovered a lode of gold up in the Rocky Mountains that he wants to get his hands on "off the company books" but is surrounded by uranium deposits that make Psychlo mining impossible. Terl captures Jonnie by accident while searching for "man-animals" to train to mine where he himself cannot.
After a time, Terl captures Jonnie's girlfriend and her little sister and uses the threat of their deaths to ensure cooperation from Jonnie. 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 nullify the threat of counterattack that could come 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 huge coffins with nuclear dirty bombs and "planet busters" in hopes of destroying the Psychlos' home planet. After the teleportation firing, the humans use the Psychlos' own war planes, tanks, and 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 newly-emerging group of humans 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 is a book publisher headquartered in the iconic 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 ScientologyThe Church of Scientology is the largest 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...
publishing companies
Bridge PublicationsBridge 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 PressGalaxy 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-bookAn e-book , as known as a digital book, is an e-text that forms the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book, sometimes protected with a digital rights management system...
versions.
According to
Nielsen BookScanNielsen 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 has sold 29,000 copies between 2001 and 2005.
Critical response
The book had a mixed reception from literary critics and fans.
The EconomistThe Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in an office in the City of Westminster, London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. While The Economist calls itself a...
, for instance, called
Battlefield Earth "an unsubtle saga, atrociously written, windy and out of control" while in the science fiction magazine
Analog,
Thomas EastonThomas 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 from 1979 - 2009.Easton holds a doctorate in theoretical biology from the University of Chicago....
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.'"
PunchPunch was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire published from 1841 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2002. Punch material was also collected in book formats as early as the 1800s, including Pick of the Punch annuals with cartoons and text features, Punch and the War a 1941 collection of...
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 LangfordDavid 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".
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science FictionThe 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 Press, 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, former US
presidentialThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
candidate and former Massachusetts governor
Mitt RomneyWillard Mitt Romney is an American businessman and former Governor of Massachusetts. Romney was CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm...
pointed to the book as his favorite novel. The fantasy author
Neil GaimanNeil Richard Gaiman is an English author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, audio theatre, and films. His notable works include The Sandman comic series, 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 PohlFrederik George Pohl, Jr. is an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine if, winning the Hugo for if three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and...
admits, "I read 'Battlefield Earth' straight through in one sitting although it's immense... I was fascinated by it."
Kevin J. AndersonKevin J. Anderson is an American science fiction author. He has written spin-off novels for Star Wars, StarCraft, Titan A.E., and The X-Files, and is the co-author of the Dune prequels. His original works include the Saga of Seven Suns series and the Nebula Award-nominated Assemblers of Infinity...
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 WeeklyPublishers 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, 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 listThe New York Times Best Seller list is widely considered to be the preeminent list of best-selling books in the United States. It is published weekly in the The New York Times Book Review magazine, which is usually found inserted in the Sunday edition of The New York Times, or as a stand-alone...
and also those of the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
, Time magazine,
United Press InternationalUnited Press International is a news agency headquartered in the United States with roots dating back to 1907. Once a mainstay in the newswire service along with Associated Press and Reuters, it began to decline as afternoon newspapers, its chief client category, began to fail with the rising...
,
Associated PressThe 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
WaldenbooksWaldenbooks , operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., is an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain. The Walden Book Company is a subsidiary of Borders Group. Currently, there are 370 Waldenbooks stores in malls across the United States...
. According to Hubbard's literary agents,
Author Services Inc.Author Services Inc. is a literary agency in Hollywood, California that represents only one author, 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 MillerRussell 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
WaldenbooksWaldenbooks , operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., is an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain. The Walden Book Company is a subsidiary of Borders Group. Currently, there are 370 Waldenbooks stores in malls across the United States...
) 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
franchisesFranchising is the practice of using another person's business model. The franchisor grants the independent operator the right to distribute its products, techniques, and trademarks for a percentage of gross monthly sales and a royalty fee...
- 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 1000 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 NYT 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 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
psychiatristA psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry and is certified in treating mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
), described as a group of evil
charlatanA charlatan is a person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretence 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 controlPsychosurgery is a subset of neurosurgery intended to modulate the performance of the brain, and thus effect changes in cognition, with the intent to treat or alleviate severe mental illness...
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 "mental patient" in the alien language, signifying that the Catrists feel (or in any case claim) that the entire population requires treatment as mental patients. Scientology portrays modern society as being the
battleground for a war between psychiatry and Scientology for the future of humanity.
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 in the real world, opposes psychiatry.
In one passage of the book, a human doctor recalls a long-ago "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."
Space operaSpace opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful technologies and abilities...
tropesA literary trope is a common pattern, theme, motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...
are common in
Scientology doctrineIn Scientology, founder L. Ron Hubbard used the science fiction term space opera to describe what he said were actual extraterrestrial civilizations and alien interventions in past lives...
. Scientology works describe intergalactic battles between alien races and a powerful galactic ruler known as
XenuXenu, also Xemu was according to Scientology founder and science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the dictator of the "Galactic Confederacy" who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of his people to Earth in DC-8-like spacecraft, stacked them around volcanoes and killed them using hydrogen bombs...
. Hubbard went as far as to claim that the sub-genre of
space operaSpace opera is a subgenre of speculative fiction or science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing powerful technologies and abilities...
was merely an unconscious recollection of real events from millions of years ago. He described Earth to Scientologists as being a "prison planet" known as Teegeeack.
Film adaptation
Ever since the book was released, Scientologist and science-fiction fan
John TravoltaJohn Joseph Travolta is an American actor, dancer and singer. He 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 PicturesFranchise 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: A Saga In The Year 3000Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000 is an American film adaptation of the novel Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard that was released on May 12, 2000. Directed by Roger Christian, the film stars John Travolta, Forest Whitaker, and Barry Pepper...
. Directed by
Roger ChristianRoger Christian is an award-winning set decorator, production designer and feature film director.-Career:Christian was born in London, England. He began his career as an assistant art director on several UK productions including the Hammer Studios film And Soon the Darkness . He won an Academy...
, it starred Travolta (who felt he was too old to play the hero) as Terl,
Barry Pepper-Early life:Pepper was born in Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada. He spent much of his early life travelling the world in a homemade ship. When Barry was five years old, the family set sail. Pepper and his family navigated through the South Pacific islands for five years. His education was...
as Jonnie Goodboy, and Forrest Whitaker as Ker.
The film opened to nearly universal negative reviews and poor box office returns. Due to
word of mouthWord of mouth is a reference to the passing of information from person to person. Originally the term referred specifically to oral communication , but now includes any type of human communication, such as face to face, telephone, email, and text messaging.-History of word of mouth marketing:One of...
and
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized 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, 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 fraudently 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
National Public Radio is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, signed into law...
.)