Venus in fiction
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In science fiction and ufology, a Venusian is a native inhabitant of the planet Venus.
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Etymology
The word "Venusian" is simply a combination of the name of the planet Venus and the suffix -ian, formed on the analogy of "Martian" (as if = "Marsian"). It is usually pronounced Template:IPA or Template:IPA. Based on the latter pronunciation, the spelling "Venutian" is sometimes found.
The classically correct form of the word should be "Venerean" or "Venerian" (cf. Template:Lang-la "belonging to the goddess Venus"), but these forms were only used by a few authors (e.g. Robert A. Heinlein). Scientists sometimes use the adjective "Cytherean" to describe Venus, from the goddess' epithet Cytherea. "Venusian" is likely to be preferred to "Venerean" due to the latter's undesirable similarity to the word "venereal", as in venereal disease.
Venusians in literature
- In the "Venus series" of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Burroughs created a fictitious 'Venusian' alphabet supposedly used by the Venusians (or "Amtorians" - as "Amtor" is what the natives call their planet). His artificial Amtor letters flow nicely together like cursive writing.
- In Charles R. Tanner's "Tumithak of the Corridors" (1932) and its sequels, Venus is the homeworld of the shelks, spider-like aliens who have conquered Earth and forced most of the few surviving humans underground.
- In H. P. Lovecraft's "The Diary of Alonzo Typer" (1938), part of the Cthulhu Mythos, there are mentions of the "Lords of Venus", and conflicting indications that the Serpent People originated there.
- In C. S. Lewis' book Perelandra (1943), professor Elwin Ransom travels to Venus (the title is the name of the planet in the Old Solar language), a planet mostly covered by water, in order to fight a possessed professor Weston and prevent the "Adam and Eve" of this young planet from bringing about the same fate that befell Earth (Thulcandra). In the book, Lewis depicts a wide variety of flora and fauna, with some animals close to being sentient. The King and Queen of the planet are humanoid, but green.
- In the British comic Dan Dare (1950-1967), Venus is inhabited by Treens and Therons.
- I Am the Doorway, a short story in Stephen King's 1971 collection Night Shift, concerns an astronaut who returns from a tragic mission to Venus to find himself possessed by a murderously terrified alien entity.
- In Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (1972), Willy Wonka says that Venus used to be home to an alien race before they were "gobbled up" by vermicious knids.
- In Jacqueline Susann's romance Yargo (1979), Venus is said to be inhabited by bees that are as big as horses.
- In the self help book by John Gray, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, women are occasionally (metaphorically) referred to as Venusians, while men are referred to as Martians.
Venusians in film
- The creature in It Conquered the World (1956) is from Venus. It resembles a large carrot with teeth and a nasty grin.
- 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) deals with the crash near Sicily of a spaceship returning from an expedition to Venus and the rampage by a creature brought back. (There are no scenes of Venus, and we are told very little about it.) The creature (called in production, but not in the film, a "Ymir") is a reptilian humanoid with perhaps the intelligence of a chimpanzee. The film was animated by Ray Harryhausen.
- Queen of Outer Space is a science fiction movie filmed in 1958 starring Zsa Zsa Gabor as Talleah, the Venusian leader of the resistance to overthrow cruel Queen Yllana of Venus.
- In the film Easy Rider, Jack Nicholson's character speaks of Venusians around a campfire after smoking marijuana.
Venusians in television
- Venusian visitors sometimes appeared on the The Twilight Zone, (specifically the episodes "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" and "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?"), as a means of further twisting stories already featuring Martian visitors with similar goals.
- Although never seen or actually discussed in Doctor Who, the Third Doctor was a master of a martial art known as Venusian Aikido (or Karate). Also, the Doctor spoke the words of a Venusian lullaby in "The Dæmons", sang the lullaby (to the tune of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen") in The Curse of Peladon, and was shown to carry a toothbrush containing "venusian spearmint" in "The Shakespeare Code."
Venusians in Ufology
Many supposed contactees of the 1950s such as George Adamski and Howard Menger claimed to have encountered friendly human-like Venusians, usually blond-haired Nordic-like beings. However, Venus was subsequently scientifically shown to have an extremely hot life-unfriendly climate (as opposed to ideas of a life-friendly aquatic Venus common in the 1950s).
Venusians in religion
New Age Theosophical guru Benjamin Creme subscribes to the Theosophical view that the Nordic aliens (like those seen by George Adamski--Creme accepts Adamski's UFO sightings as valid) pilot flying saucers from a civilization on Venus that exists on the etheric plane (Theosophists believe that since the Venusians' civilization is on the etheric plane, the heat doesn't affect them) and are capable of stepping down the level of vibration of themselves and their craft to the slower level of vibration of the atoms of the physical plane. It is also believed in Theosophy that the governing deity of Earth, Sanat Kumara, is originally from Venus. Sanat Kumara is said to live in a castle in a mythical city on the etheric plane of Earth called Shamballa.
See also
- Venus in fiction
- Martian
- Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
