1986 06 00 Journal of Popular Culture - Vol 20 No 1 - Sandels

Magazine Overview

This document, comprising pages 141-150 of the 'Journal of Popular Culture,' is an article titled "UFOs, Science Fiction and the Postwar Utopia" by Robert Sandels. It delves into the optimistic visions of a future utopia that were prevalent in American culture during World War II, exploring how these visions were shaped by advertising, science fiction, and the burgeoning interest in UFOs, and how they ultimately contrasted with the realities of the postwar era.

The Postwar Utopia Vision

The article begins by recalling the "postwar utopia" foretold by popularizers, advertisers, and pundits during World War II. This envisioned future was one where Americans would live lives of leisure and ease, benefiting from advanced technology and good sense, much like the aliens often depicted in science fiction. For a generation that had experienced the Great Depression and the war, this future offered a promise of prosperity and comfort. The "Postwar" was conceived as a distinct historical era, combining economic freedom with state intervention to manage the business cycle, all underpinned by the nation's immense wartime industrial capacity.

However, the author notes that this future arrived "piecemeal and late with decidedly non-utopian side effects." The optimism was tempered by the looming threat of nuclear annihilation and a general sense of doubt and disappointment. Concurrent with this, there was a "Big Boom" in science fiction, which explored both utopian and dystopian possibilities, featuring wondrous technology and aliens. The idea of "real" creatures from space in flying saucers emerged, aligning with the long-awaited "Postwar."

The vision of a postwar utopia began to take shape in 1943, fueled by commercial advertising and speculation in media. This speculation was so intense that the Advertising Council had to remind advertisers that the war was still ongoing. Some counter-utopian articles also appeared, satirizing these rash prophecies.

The Role of Advertising and Propaganda

The article highlights the significant role of the advertising industry in shaping public perception during the war. The Office of War Information (OWI), dominated by men from advertising firms, used advertising techniques to report on the war and elicit public support. This reliance on advertising for propaganda had the effect of trivializing the war's aims, as people bought war bonds more for personal investment or to support family members than out of deep concern for war goals. The implication was that America was fighting to preserve or enhance its material life.

Advertising expenditures increased significantly during the war, with advertisers receiving tax write-offs. In return, they donated space to promote war bonds, V-mail, food conservation, and other government initiatives. Businesses, facing few consumer products to sell, lavished fortunes on promoting their corporate images and future or imaginary products. Advertisers often bragged about their contributions to the war effort, and by 1943, many big companies focused their advertisements on the war as a theme. The War Advertising Council discouraged "brag advertising," but it persisted. Companies even used wartime products to promote their postwar offerings, with advertisements for cars proclaiming their cannons were "Putting the kick in the Mustang."

Corporations increasingly used "reconversion" themes in dual advertisements, showing their war products alongside their future postwar products. By 1944, home appliances were the most desired goods. Businesses based their wartime advertising on this reconversion theme, anxious about recapturing their market share. The government's reliance on advertising agencies also offered businesses a chance to improve their image after the failures of the 1930s. Many ads praised pre-Depression free enterprise, with slogans like "Don't Change Anything." War contractors portrayed themselves as patriots and promised full employment and new products, citing advances in transportation, plastics, electronics, and chemicals as the basis for these future plans.

Visions of the Future in Technology and Transportation

The typical postwar household was imagined living far from the city, commuting via personal plane or helicopter. Aerocars could convert to planes, and helicopters could land on rooftops. Enormous cargo planes and flying wings were expected to revolutionize air transportation, with planes hauling gliders to form "sky trains." Locomotives, trucks, and automobiles were envisioned to be powered by jet turbines and fueled by tiny atomic cells. Advertisements depicted futuristic cars, houses, and helicopters made with "velon, the magic plastic." Goodyear promised moving rubber sidewalks, and Seagrams showed submarines with helicopter rotors. Amphibious cars, slumless cities, prefabricated houses, and advancements in food preservation (dehydrated milk, eggs lasting a month) were also part of this vision. Shopping by television, personal atomic generators for clothing, plastic vehicles, facsimile newspapers, and an end to the common cold were also anticipated. Cities were imagined as streamlined and rounded.

Many of these futuristic elements were borrowed from military technology, such as DDT and synthetic rubber. The craze for streamlining in consumer products derived from the designs of high-speed military aircraft. Airframe manufacturers, fearing a drop in business after the war, focused on promoting private aircraft sales. Surveys indicated a strong interest in learning to fly and purchasing personal aircraft, with manufacturers like Cessna planning "family cars of the air." Igor Sikorsky announced plans for a postwar helicopter, and the Civil Aeronautics Board anticipated a need for thousands of airports.

Improvements in transportation were seen as fundamental to the nation's health, with the family aircraft reflecting a desire for shifts in social relationships similar to those brought by the automobile. The idea of a nation where everyone could travel by air, akin to the accessibility of roads for cars, was a powerful image.

Disillusionment and the Rise of Dystopia

Despite the outward appearance of prosperity and optimism in the late 1940s and 1950s, popular culture revealed themes of despair and a flight to "other-worldly alternatives." Americans, expecting a return to prewar working hours at wartime wages and eager for consumer goods, were met with a reality that fell short of the utopian dream. The advent of the atomic bomb, the paramount marvel of the war, cast a shadow over the postwar era, introducing images of mushroom clouds and fears of global annihilation. While many foresaw atomic-powered planes, a significant portion of the public worried about the destructive potential of atomic testing.

Technological advancements brought their own problems: superhighways led to urban sprawl and pollution, jumbo planes to jumbo crashes, and DDT to increased insect resistance. Cybernetics raised fears of robotization. The postwar vision of utopia was seen as the latest in a long American tradition of utopian thinking, but it was increasingly challenged by a sense of mission that required power and the destruction of opposing forces, whether for global dominance or industrial paradise.

The war also shifted American foreign policy towards containment, leading to an "anguish of adjustment to narrowed choices." Hopes for the future sought refuge elsewhere, possibly in space. The popular culture of the first postwar decade reflected "anguished thoughts of a dismal future or of no future at all." This sentiment was captured in science fiction, with themes of invasion and the Earth being doomed.

Science Fiction as Social Commentary

Science fiction became a significant medium for exploring these anxieties. Films like "The Body Snatchers" and "The Thing" depicted alien invasions that served as scapegoats for societal changes and fears. The emergence of UFOs in their modern form after a 1947 sighting coincided with this postwar pessimism, as Americans struggled to achieve their terrestrial paradise or harmonize international relations.

The presence of aliens in science fiction often symbolized advanced technology and peaceful intent, offering a vision of a harmonious world that Americans themselves could not achieve. These aliens were sometimes seen as projections of humanity's own thwarted ambitions for a transcendent scientific order.

The "Big Boom" in science fiction popularity in the early 1950s saw its work move from pulps to slick magazines. Science fiction's focus shifted from rockets and ray guns to broader social concerns, becoming a "perfect literary medium for social commentary." It was often dismissed as trivial but served as a vehicle for political dissent, particularly in the context of McCarthyism and the Cold War.

Science fiction in the postwar period was less about science and more about society confronting science. Common plots involved societies striving for utopian visions or experiencing the monstrous perversions of that utopia through technology. Themes included criticism of conformity, Cold War hysteria, and post-holocaust scenarios. Dystopian narratives, such as those by Kurt Vonnegut and John MacDonald, explored mass dehumanization, the rise of controlling elites, and the blurring of lines between the humane and the self-destructive. Many science fiction utopias, like dystopias, depicted worlds overwhelmed by an excess of reason, science, and technology.

The atomic bomb undermined confidence in science, while the Cold War eroded faith in America's ability to control peace. The realization that the US could not unilaterally dictate outcomes in Europe led to a belief in the need for large military systems and a decline in the confidence that individuals could alter societal trends. The "supreme collective experience" of the war years faded in the pursuit of domestic interests.

Inventing New Futures

Ultimately, the article suggests that when a future-oriented society begins to question the future itself, it invents new futures. This is reflected in the themes of science fiction and the persistent "reality" of visitors from space, indicating a society grappling with its dashed utopian hopes and seeking new possibilities.

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The recurring themes in this article include the contrast between the optimistic vision of a postwar utopia and the disillusioning reality, the pervasive influence of advertising and propaganda in shaping public perception, the role of science fiction as a medium for social commentary and exploring anxieties, and the emergence of UFO phenomena as a cultural response to postwar uncertainty. The editorial stance appears to be analytical and critical, examining how societal hopes and fears were projected onto popular culture and technological advancements, ultimately questioning the nature of progress and the pursuit of utopia.

This document is a single page, numbered 151, from a publication titled "UFOs, Science Fiction and the Postwar Utopia". It functions as a reference list or bibliography, citing numerous sources related to the topic. The content is primarily composed of bibliographic entries, with a brief note about the author at the end.

References and Citations

The page lists 50 numbered references, spanning a range of publications and media from the 1940s to the late 1970s. These include:

• Periodical Articles: Citations from "Newsweek" (e.g., "Winged Hearse," Oct. 18, 1943; "Report on Opinion," Aug. 4, 1947) and "The Saturday Evening Post" (e.g., "Revolution in the Air," Sept. 25, 1943; Advertisement, Sept. 21, 1943).
• Books: References to books such as "Days of Sadness, Years of Triumph" by Geoffrey Perrett, "The UFO Guidebook" by Norman J. Briazack and Simon Mennick, "Flying Saucers" by Carl Jung, "Modern Science Fiction" edited by Reginald Bretnor, "The Spaceflight Revolution" by William Sims Bainbridge, "Science Fiction of the Fifties" edited by Martin Harry Greenberg and Joseph Olander, and "Science Fiction of the Forties" edited by Frederick Pohl, Martin Harry Greenberg, and Joseph Olander. Specific works like "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov and "Piano Player" by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. are also cited.
• Journal Articles: A citation from "Journal of Popular Culture" (Vol. 13, 1979) by Glen M. Johnson regarding "'We'd Fight... We Had To,' The Body Snatchers as Novel and Film."
• Films: Mentions of "The Thing" (RKO/Winchester, 1951) and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (Fox, 1951).
• Other Sources: Citations include "In Your Opinion" by John Fenton, and articles by Judith Merril such as "What Do You Mean-Science Fiction?: Extrapolation" and "That Only a Mother."

The references cover a variety of authors and editors prominent in the fields of UFO studies and science fiction, including Harold Isaacs, Geoffrey Perrett, Glen M. Johnson, Norman J. Briazack, Simon Mennick, Carl Jung, John W. Campbell, Reginald Bretnor, William Sims Bainbridge, Judith Merril, Martin Harry Greenberg, Joseph Olander, Frederick Pohl, John D. MacDonald, Isaac Asimov, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Author Information

At the bottom of the page, it is stated that "Robert Sandels teaches history at Quinnipiac College, Hamden, CT 06518."

Recurring Themes and Editorial Stance

The primary theme of this page is the intersection of UFO phenomena and science fiction, particularly within the context of the "Postwar Utopia." The extensive list of references suggests a scholarly or analytical approach to the subject, drawing from a wide array of historical and cultural sources to explore how UFOs and science fiction narratives influenced or reflected societal perceptions and aspirations during the post-World War II era. The editorial stance appears to be academic, providing a foundation of cited evidence for the article's arguments.