Voltaire's sci fi tale of a giantic visitor from Sirius, 09 Aug 2004
Francois Marie Arouet de Voltaire wrote "Micromegas" in 1752. Mr. Micromegas is a visitor from Sirius who is four and twenty thousand paces in length from head to foot. Obviously, this tale is in the tradition of Rabelais's famous giants, Gargantua and Pantagruel, but also also Swift's "Gulliver's Travels," which had been written two decades earlier. However, in terms of social satire Voltaire is clearly worker closer to Swift (and the fact Voltaire mentions Swift helps bear this out), especially in presenting the "smallness" of humanity. Voltaire is using science as a tool to ridicule the church and other human institutions, just as he used pretty much everything towards that end.

"Micromegas," in which the stranger from Sirius pays a visitor on the beings of Saturn, is one of the earliest examples of what we would now call science fiction (or speculative fiction to use Harlan Ellison's preferred choice), along with Swift and Cyrano de Bergerac's "Other Worlds" from a century earlier. The adventures around the solar system are simply excuses for Voltaire to create conversations amongst these beings that allow the writer to hold forth of various philosophical questions and political concerns. In other words, Voltaire is dressing up his rhetoric as both narrative and conversation. So, on one level your ability to appreciate this book will depend on how well you know your Locke. However, I prefer to consider it as an early example of science fiction and of some historical interest to students of that genre.

Given the strong identification of this genre with imagining the future, the end of Voltaire's novel offers some interesting symbolism: Micromegas leaves behind a book in which he will write down the purpose of existence, but the pages of the book are blank. Some have argued that Voltaire is being pessimistic and that the book is clearly an attack on science that concludes the ability of science to reduce everything to rationality proves there is no purpose to existence. However, from a more optimistic perspective, the blank pages could suggest humanity must supply its own purpose, which would certainly be in keeping with the main points of Voltaire's philosophy.