Slan
Encyclopedia
- Slan is also the name of a character in Berserk (manga)Berserk (manga)is a manga series written and illustrated by Kentaro Miura. Set in a medieval Europe-inspired world, the story centers around the characters of Guts, an orphaned mercenary, and Griffith, the leader of a mercenary band called the...
; for the Irish phrase see Slán AbhaileSlán Abhaile"Slán abhaile" is an Irish phrase used to bid goodbye to someone who is travelling home. A literal translation is 'Safe Home', which is used in the same way in Hiberno-English...
Slan is a science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
written by 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....
, as well as the name of the fictional race of superbeings featured in the novel. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction (September - December 1940
1940 in literature
The year 1940 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Aldous Huxley is a screenwriter for the movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.*Jean-Paul Sartre is taken prisoner by the Germans....
). It was subsequently published in hardcover in 1946 by Arkham House
Arkham House
Arkham House is a publishing house specializing in weird fiction founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei to preserve in hardcover the best fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. The company's name is derived from Lovecraft's fictional New England city, Arkham. Arkham House...
, in an edition of 4,051 copies.
Lydia van Vogt, A. E. van Vogt's widow, and 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...
wrote a sequel to Slan, titled Slan Hunter, based on an unfinished draft by van Vogt. It was published July 10, 2007. Lydia van Vogt has previously given permission to publish online her introduction which partly deals with the onset of Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
that van Vogt struggled with at the end of his life.
Plot
Slans are evolved humans, named after their alleged creator, Samuel Lann. They have the psychicPsychic
A psychic is a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception , or is said by others to have such abilities. It is also used to describe theatrical performers who use techniques such as prestidigitation, cold reading, and hot...
abilities to read minds and are super-intelligent. They possess near limitless stamina, "nerves of steel", and superior strength and speed. When Slans are ill or seriously injured, they go into a healing trance automatically.
There are two kinds of Slans. One has tendril
Tendril
In botany, a tendril is a specialized stem, leaf or petiole with a threadlike shape that is used by climbing plants for support, attachment and cellular invasion by parasitic plants, generally by twining around suitable hosts. They do not have a lamina or blade, but they can photosynthesize...
s and can read the minds of ordinary humans and telepathically communicate with other Slans. The tendrils are golden in colour thus making it easy to spot a slan. These Slans are hunted to near extinction. The other type of Slan is tendrilless. They are still super intelligent but do not have psychic capabilities, only the ability to hide their thoughts from the first type of Slan. Kier Gray is the leader of the human society and promises to exterminate the Slans. As the novel begins, Jommy Cross (a telepathic Slan of the first type) is brought with his mother to the capital, Centropolis. They are both discovered, and Jommy's mother is killed. Jommy is only nine years old and manages to escape. Jommy Cross is not only the heir to the brilliant inventions of his father, but he represents the last hope of his race to save it from genocide
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
. Because of the importance of his mission, he is opposed by various enemies. Jommy seeks to destroy Kier and in confronting him discovers an astonishing secret: Kier Gray is also a Slan.
Reception
Groff ConklinGroff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...
, reviewing a 1951 edition, described Slan as "a little overblown, considerably melodramatic, but still [a] really gripping adventure story." P. Schuyler Miller
P. Schuyler Miller
Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...
called Slan "van Vogt's first and most famous novel, perhaps his best." In a back-cover blurb in the 1998 Orb edition, Charles De Lint says this: "Over fifty years on from when it first saw print, van Vogt's Slan is still one of the quintessential classics in the field that other SF novels will inevitably be measured against."
R. D. Mullen reported Slan to be "perhaps the most widely read, and perhaps the best of [van Vogt's] novels." He described the situation of the slan minority in the imagined society as "obviously intended" as analogous to "the position of the Jews in the Third Reich," while "there actually is a secret world-wide conspiracy, and the Slans actually do control the world in much the same way as is imagined about the Jews by students of The Protocols of Zion."
"Fans are slans"
In science fiction fandomScience fiction fandom
Science fiction fandom or SF fandom is a community or "fandom" of people actively interested in science fiction and fantasy and in contact with one another based upon that interest...
a slogan quickly developed, "Fans are slans", analogizing the perceived greater intelligence and imaginative capability of science fiction fans with the supernatural abilities of slans in the novel, and their harassment by non-fans to the persecution of slans in the novel. Although some regard the usage as a symbol of fandom elitism, along with the related term mundane
Mundane
In subcultural and fictional uses, a mundane is a person who does not belong to a particular group, according to the members of that group; the implication is that such persons, lacking imagination, are concerned solely with the mundane: the quotidian and ordinary...
for non-fans, others regard it as a reaction to the perceived disapproval of science fiction or the fans of it by non-readers/non-fans. The related term "slan shack" came to be used in fanspeak
Fanspeak
Fanspeak is the slang or jargon current in science fiction and fantasy fandom, especially those terms in use among readers and writers of science fiction fanzines....
to designate a house or building occupied entirely or primarily by fans. The first Slan Shack to bear that name was established in 1943 in Battle Creek, Michigan
Battle Creek, Michigan
Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek Rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area , which encompasses all of Calhoun county...
. Initial inhabitants included Al and Abby Lou Ashley, Walt Liebscher, E.E. Evans and fan artist Jack Wiedenbeck.
Toward the Terra
The manga and anime series Toward the TerraToward the Terra
is a Japanese science fiction manga series by Keiko Takemiya. It was originally serialized in Asahi Sonorama's Gekkan Manga Shōnen magazine, between January 1977 and May 1980...
is strongly influenced by Slan. Both stories feature a hero named Jommy/Jomy, who discovers that he is a member of a race of telepathic mutants who are persecuted by non-telepathic humans.
See Also
- SlannLizardmen (Warhammer)The Lizardmen are an army in Warhammer Fantasy Battle-Development history:In earlier versions of the setting there was a separate Slann army based in Lustria...
, a sub-species of the Lizardmen in the game Warhammer.