Hubbard fiction still being peddled, now by comparing it to Dune and Foundation.
These guys will try to cash in on anything. Because these two sci-fi classics are currently getting buzz because of new screen adaptations (though i must say every review I have seen of Asimov’s Foundation indicates it bears little resemblance to the books) the hustlers at Galaxy Press are trying to make it seem as though Battlefield Earth is in the same league. After all, it too was turned into a film, and what a magnificent disaster that was, memorialized in numerous “worst films of all time” lists.
I wonder how many people realize that the revenue generated by Galaxy Press/Author Services channels directly into the coffers of Church of Spiritual Technology, the organization that preserves Hubbard’s most important mostly-fiction works for eternity etched onto steel plates blah blah blah in nuclear bomb-proof tunnels (as you see above, courtesy of Tony Ortega’s blog). This is why Galaxy Press continues to exist. It’s not because there are some individuals who are making a living out of it. John Goodwin and the rest of the “Galaxy Press” staff are Sea Org members. They don’t earn anything.
Hubbard also made clear that scientologists should promote his fiction works because increasing his name recognition would result in more people being lured into the real money-making operation of his mostly-fiction works (Dianetics and Scientology). This is, as everything Hubbard ever said, an absolute fact.
Wonder if the people who get on board with their Writer’s and Illustrators of the Future and the people they schmooze at these Comic/Dragon/Whatever/Cons ever wake up to these facts?
Anybody see those “plays” put on by LRH Theater? It’s kind of amusing seeing people desperately trying to act out Hubbard’s weird ass tales.
you CAN compare Hubbard to Asimov and Heinlein, like you can compare a dog’s breakfast to prime rib.
When the movie Battlefield Earth was first released I went to the local theatre with a Scn friend. I left there completely embarrassed by it. A week or so later OSA in Boston contacted me and ask me to go on an AOL site and give the movie a 5-star rating and review. I told my OSA friend ( Mary Frances Newey), that she was out of her mind. The movie was awful and I wasn’t going to lie. She laughed because she knew it was the truth.
If Hubturd was such a fantastic Sci-Fi writer why was he starving and asking for gov’t handouts due to his poverty?
He wasn’t a great pulp fiction author, was barely literate, tbh, so could never get his stuff to sell for more than a penny a page… word … whatever. Not until he tried the fictional science angle. THAT finally worked for him, if not for those who who were taken in by his con.
So I looked up the List of science fiction short stories on Wikipedia and found that they have ONE entry by l ron hubbard, titled ‘The Great Secret’. So much for hubbard being a successful sifi writer.
Galaxy Press is more like a gassy meteorite
As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, I am appalled by the choice made by the University of Toronto Press to become a distributor for L. Ron Hubbard’s material.
I find it shocking that an institution of higher learning would agree to such a relationship with a Scientology shell company. This could be due to a lack of due diligence on the part of U of T Press or another example of the University of Toronto chasing the almighty dollar, no matter where it comes from.
Either way, I’m not sure if the U of T knows or cares that they are doing business with the Church of Scientology.
commiseration, Dee. It sucks when things like that happen.
https://www.gotquestions.org/Dianetics.html
The BEST book on Science Fiction ever written by Lron Hubbard………………….. I read it in 1973…..my jaw dropped & hit the floor with a loud thud scaring the shit out of all those troublesome “Engrams”….. All my “engrams” ran for the hills……..haven’t seen or heard from them since.
Just a point of clarification, Galaxy Press is a for-profit entity. The staff get paid at least minimum wage for a 40 hour week, although they work long hours and don’t get paid overtime. I got a bit of a stink eye when I mentioned that the staff must make a huge amount on overtime pay (they don’t). Also, the staff at Galaxy Press are not considered Sea Org. They supposedly route out of the Sea Org if they’re going into ASI/Galaxy Press. This is just a technicality though since there’s really no such entity as the “Sea Org”.
Really Philip? When did that start? I knew numerous SO members that went to ASI and not a one routed out of the SO to work there as staff.
This was what my daughter told me. She said that for legal purposes since ASI was a for-profit entity they had to route out of the SO since they were getting paid a salary. This is what she had to do. That was about 6 or 7 years ago I think.
Phil — this is interesting. Where does she live?
You can bet she and John and the rest show up at Int on Sea Org Day (if they still have them). ASI were always part of the Int Base SO Day activities…
Ah! VERY recent then. I only know of data from 80- 00. Strange as legally there would be no requirement to “route out of the SO” to be employed by either corporation.
Routing out of the SO would be another cut-out separating Davey-Boy from the crimes committed in his name. THEN they promoted the fiction that there IS no Sea Org. Funny! WHO was I working for and studying with from ’75 to ’80, then?
Interesting Jere. Good points indeed!
As an avid sci-fi fan and collector of pulp books I can easily say I own not one Hubbard tome. In the sci-if community he is a laughing stock. Used as promo only. A name that people recognize mainly from him turning his schlock sci-fi into a religion. For years I attended and worked DragonCon in Atlanta. I haven’t been for the last few years mainly because I no longer work in the industry I used to work in that led me there to set up booths and work the floor. The Hubbard booth was there every year…and every year it was the booth with the least amount of people hanging around. On the Con floor during the day there are thousands of people at any given time in costume standing shoulder to shoulder in front on some of these booths waiting to meet their favorite author, actor or buy merchandise. CO$ giving away Battlefield Earth for free at the Heinlein blood drive was I’m sure something that the blood drive people allowed. Probably they were too embarrassed to say ‘No’…plus there were probably others giving away books for free…there usually always is. For CO$ to use this as a PR piece is expected. Hell I could’ve written a book and handed it out to people as they left the blood drive…does that mean that the Heinlein reps follow or even care about my work…of course not.
The Battlefield/Mission Earth series was awful. Terrible. They had to give them away because I doubt they sold even one copy. The audience at these Cons are well versed in the scam that is CO$. Anons were born in these cons back before the internet was even dreamed of. I learned my first hacking skills on the con circuit…learning how to phreak phones and build tone generators. Ah the good old days. I actually feel sorry for whomever had to sit in that booth all day. I’m sure they took quite a bit of abuse.
I’m hoping that more and more new sci-fi writers are becoming aware of the ‘Writers of the Future’ scam. The blog post written by one of the winners that appeared on Ortega’s blog (linked by grisianfarce below) shows that nothing has changed. They manage to cobble together a couple of big names (Orson Scott Card being one) to make attendees feel like their work is going to get recognized but what they don’t know is that the only publishing their story is going to get is in a compilation tome numbered in the high 30’s that only Scientologists are going to (be forced to) buy. It will bring little to no recognition to these authors.
For them to even hint at a comparison between Hubbard and Heinlein is desperation at its height. The word spew that is his ‘Earth’ series is unreadable. I can’t believe they waste the paper to print it.
Linear13, your first statement echoes mine. I have over 1,000 science fiction books in my library. Not one of them was from Tubby until I was in the S.O. (I did sheepishly get Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth to see if he might have written anything worth reading — he didn’t. Though I have plenty of novels from his supposed era like “Doc Savage”, nothing under any nom de plume he’s mentioned over the years. I *did* pick up a copy of “Buckskin Brigades” while “in”; a forgettable pile of fluff.
It it weren’t for the lies and half-truths, there would be no scientology and Hubbard would be completely forgotten
At this point all the social programs and secular organizations like Galaxy Press and WISE are getting trashed by the truth about the cult. The word Scientology connected to anything is now a formula for failure. Thanks Mike for the update.
I don’t know whether to laugh or scream.
Comparing any Hubbard sci-fi to Asimov is a leap beyond the pale. It seems the Germans have a compound word for everything so maybe they they could conjure something to convey the depths of laughable crossed with offensive that I’m feeling right now. (Das ist ein GesamtBlödsinnSandwich? I didn’t learn enough in my time in Germany.)
I have nearly every Asimov book on my showcase bookshelf behind me. Asimov created an amazing futuristic universe in Foundation (and the somewhat precursor Caves of Steel trilogy and other robot stories) that made me think beyond science to cultural and moral issues. I bought them all in hardcover because they are worth re-reading on a regular basis. It’s not surprising Scn would try to glom onto his work.
Conversely, reading Battlefield Earth is like drinking sewage from a fire hose. The movie was bad but it only takes 2 hours of your life; the book will take a month of your free time to process. Most of the reading will be the literary equivalent of watered down oatmeal. The “prose” makes a lot more sense when you picture Hubbard at his typewriter in a darkened room sweating and furiously typing on a roll of butcher paper for 14 hours straight.
The only thing I can say about the movie is while it really is bad I do think Travolta’s performance is pretty good. He brings a very on-source portrayal of Hubbard’s Terl to the screen with all the flair that an 8-foot tall biker alien with a questionably-prominent codpiece commands.
Comparing Hubbard to Asimov is akin to comparing a Trabant to a BMW 3-series. After all, they’re both German-built.
Name dropping may be odious; however, it is a common marketing device in the arts. To evaluate an artist’s standing in their community is not hard: Are they the benchmark used to measure others by, or are they the also-ran proclaiming that they too measure up to some legend’s name.
In other words: Is Team Heinlein telling the world, “Look at our guy. He’s as good as even Hubbard.” Or is it Hubbard’s cult following making a desperate bid for admission to Heinlein’s world?
IMO as a SF connoisseur for over 60 years: Hubbard was a never-been, didn’teven-try poser. At best, he was an adequate-enough con-man to build a small following of his anti-science views.
He is, to me at least, the epitome of a 10th rate hack (oh, just discovered a better and more apt phrase for Tubby, a “greasy grind”) pulp writer.
Cattlecar Mirth is still on my top ten list of awful films. Still can’t past thinking about the scenes of half of Travolta’s long rubber fingers poking through the trigger guard and wobbling about as he fired his BzztZap, Mark 3 My Biscuits Are Burning ray gun without cringing.
“more apt phrase for Tubby, a “greasy grind”) pulp writer”
GOOD one, GL! He wrote ‘stream-of-consciousness’, never edited or reviewed his verbal diarrhea, and was instantly forgettable;
The trifecta of “bad” writer. Yet his megalomania and narcissism maintained to his dying day that he was one of the GREATS of the golden Age of fiction. He’d just grind out one poorly-executed formulaic pulp novella after another, none of them with enough substance to generate a loyal following; UNTIL he switched to the genre of fictional science.
Comparing someone to Hubbard is easy: Even *I* am a better writer than he is, I do believe.
Without the Science Fiction elements the text of Dune by Frank Herbert could be boiled down to one sentence: Those who’re involved in politics aren’t nice people.
Isn’t Galaxy Press where Brian Anderson, of Flag and Lisa McPherson infamy, ended up? Just curious about whatever happened to him.
The same group raving about “futuristic technology” also claims the secrets to optimum mental health can be found in the pages of a 1950s self help book.
The same group gushing about “tech innovation” will hunt people down and attempt to destroy those who dare to improve upon any of its techniques.
A group whose most futuristic technology currently consists of an aerotrim and an oiliness table.
A group who, in the age of digital media, provides its doctrines solely in book and CD formats.
A group who only reluctantly embraced video call technology in the year 2020.
A group whose most advanced religious “technology” consists of solitary séances, occult exorcism and “the thetan hand technique.”
A group that asserts galvanic skin response activity is credible scientific evidence for past lives, ancient slavers, galactic holocausts and trillions of years worth of spiritual history.
So silly.
A group whose primary use of computers was a “Nagging Nanny” mismanagement system…😉.
👏👏👏👏👏
You nailed it
The tragedy of every dying cult is ” UTopia”
As Galaxy Press is a profit making, tax paying company, why don’t they pay at least minimum wage?
It’s scientology; it needs no reason.
Scn is now so well known as a highly toxic subject that they have to hide behind fictitious facades in order not to be caught. But they can’t anymore.
Before the web they could do what they wanted but now it’s all out in the open.
Their “tech” and policy keeps them stuck in time too many decades ago, while the world for better or for worse moves on very quickly leaving them in the past, unable to take a step forward.
Cancelling disconnection policy would be a fundamental change.
While those few times that they decide to make innovations – generally technological – at the time of implementing them, in the outside world these are already labeled as antiquities.
Now the situation is such that they can no longer bring in new people. And they have no idea how to get a foot out of it.
Scn TV is useless, a burden to use even for scientologists themselves, a resounding fiasco.
And his science fiction books don’t have any thickness, let alone pull someone in.
They are naturally destined to disappear faster and faster.
@Loosing My Religion: You mention “Cancelling disconnection policy would be a fundamental change.”
In a moment of searing light, I finally see why disconnection exists. It is not, as it is stated, to remove the possible agitation in your space that would make spiritual gain impossible. It is to ensure you have NO ONE in your life who will WAKE YOU UP to stop going into debt and giving thousands upon thousands of dollars (and hours, if you are staff or Sea Org) to this group.
If money and other forms of enslavement were not the primary motivations for this group existing, then there would be no reason Hubbard had to craft and order his practice of “disconnection.”
Anybody at any time has “naysayers” in their life, people who respond to your ideas or life choices as dumb or unworkable. This is normal to have people around like this, to whom you may be related or with whom you spend time on the job. It is not a crime. It is not really that big of a deal.
If Scientology were merely posing “normal” demands to its members, such as, “Could you donate some gently used clothes for our clothing drive to help the homeless shelter?” Then there would be no cataclysmic “threat” posed by having people in your life, here and there, who say, “Clothing drive? That’s stupid. Why are you involved with that dumb church?”
It would be no big deal at all. Having a few naysayers in your life would pose no “risk” except you might experience being annoyed. You might wonder what is going on with that person where they oppose things frequently, and not just with you.
Other wisdom and belief sets might advise that you LIMIT your time with such people, because they can drain you, but DISCONNECT is just so ludicrously EXTREME. It begs the question: Why? Why is the perceived “threat” for Hubbard, when he was alive, and the C of S then and now, so great?
To be in this group, you must agree to and submit (many times) to behavior that you MUST KEEP SECRET. This should be a warning sign at the beginning, but for so many of us, it is not. The warning sign that I now know as “Run the other direction.” It still creeps me out tremendously, all the enforced secrecy from the group that claims to have the technology and ideal practice set to release people from their secrets (their withholds).
I appreciate this community.
Peridot. I very much appreciated your comment. I agree. In fact, SP declare began around the mid-60s. As far as I understand – and I think you know it better than I do – they were initially a control system against those who began to question certain things said by hubbard and then to maintain member control.
Then it was all stopped – canceled – as it had become too out of PR for the cult.
It was then reinstated at the beginning of the 80s with the historic massacre of the missions where much were declared there on the spot (miscavige was present).
Scn is part of those fascist / authoritarian organizations or states, which make the control of others a necessity in order to exist.
@Loosing my Religion: The clarity we experience when we leave is something. If you would have tried to explain the above to me while I was still-in, I would have whisked it away. I can see now, better and better, the truth of your recounting above (which is absolutely dreadful, ‘the mission massacre’), and what I read/hear from others whether on this blog, the Ron Miscavige, Sr. YouTube series, the biographies I have read, or the Aftermath TV series hosted by Leah and Mike.
This is well observed: “control of others a necessity in order to exist.”
Peridot. I understand very well. After one comes out there is always a recovery path.
Consider one thing. I’ve been out of there for 15 years and I haven’t done anything after that. But until 3/4 years ago I was still of the idea that sooner or later I would go back to become clear and OT. There had even been a time when they tried to bring me back to SO and I was about to fall for it.
Then I started reading other authors and questioning certain things about scn. But it was always difficult because indoctrination is so well set up with little traps that are part of the thoughts. An example: for every critical thought or doubt it means that you have overts. Giant bullshit.
Then I ended up on Mike’s blog. In addition to the posts and how he explains things there are also comments and experiences of others. This was a great help in waking me up and defusing all those mind traps.
And one eventually understands more and more he wakes up little by little and for better or for worse takes his own life back in hand.
@Loosing my Religion, I appreciate your words. When first out, I considered, if an intention-packed staff or Sea Org member got in front of me, they might succeed in “hooking” me back again. I feel differently now (not vulnerable).
I believe the wisdom here that you write: the traps are cleverly and carefully laid. It is a whole other level of “covert.” Like you, this blog helps me with my education.
On the “critical thought always indicate overts” – I hear you. If that were true, by Hubbard’s standards, there would be no need for his “Doubt Formula” where you get to sift through and weigh out: “Does this group or activity suit me?” If there was never any valid reason to depart an activity, then the Doubt formula would simply say, “Write up your overts & withholds and get back to what you were doing.”
Further, in one of the Ron Miscavige, Sr. YouTube programs, “Life After Scientology,” he interviews a professional vocalist who was a guest artist on the Apollo ship with ample face time being around Hubbard. She calmly explains her recall of Hubbard making a decision to switch the order of importance of Affinity-Reality-Communication breaks and Overt-Withholds. She remembers that Hubbard made a decision to trumpet Overts & Withholds as the primary “indicator” and item to be tackled for one reason: control.
According to this source, Hubbard did consider ARC to be the primary governing factor in one’s state, not overts & withholds, but he switched them in priority to address.
I enjoyed all of the Ron Miscavige, Sr. interviews. That one stood out.
Peridot. Thank you. It is a path to get out of it. What I finally realized is that scn doesn’t know anything about us. What happens is that we get ‘introverted’ by all the bullshit they tell and we start rummaging inside thinking there must be something wrong with us. This is what happens and then we get stuck inside. But in fact there is nothing wrong with us and with our true essence. It’s just a damn trap to recognize and never fall for it again.
In MY life, the worst naysayers were the scientologists — until they tossed me away like week-old fish.
Peridot, that’s a GREAT wognition! Welcome back to the real world.
LmR, Elron’s books had PLENTY of thickness: Many, many excess pages of word salad purporting to be an intelligible story. At least WE didn’t have to star-rate the garbage. It took long enough to wade through the slimy stuff as it was. Definitely not a pleasant experience.
cancelling the Disconnection law WOULD be a fundamental change. It’s what’s keeping Dwarfenführer’s® tiny little fiefdom together; without it, clams would be leaving even faster than they have been. There’s no other threat that their lords and masters have at their disposal to keep them in, and there SURE ain’t no OT powers for them to aspire to. Pretty early, it’s obvious that those ‘powers’ just don’t exist. Instead, I figured out within my first year that OTs, particularly the 3s, were physically and psychically sick puppies desperately pretending to be superior.
Jere, I agree, disconnection is sort of the glue holding the CofS together at this point. It’s sort of deviously clever, or at least brutally effective, on DM’s part, people don’t dare leave because of the social, family, and business consequences – and they even manage to suck a few people back in, in hopes of restoring family connections.
Peacemaker. What you write gives the right idea of how things are going at the moment.
However, I wonder how long DM will be able to maintain this situation of precarious balance as the flow of new members has been interrupted – and will remain so – and an internal cannibalism activity has begun on those who remained, given that fundraising must continue to regardless of everything.
And this, sooner or later, will make other people flee.
Never mind the awful film, Battlefield Earth the book is so bad they have to give it away.
This link to a Writers Of The Future winner’s experience of book signing in Clearwater recently appeared on the Underground Bunker: https://www.authoralden.com/2018/08/goingclearwater.html
The non-scientologists involved need to stop nodding and smiling, and quit the cult front.
How many of the freebie books wound up in the nearest trash bin like most of the group’s promotional brochures? Con-goers are typically pretty savvy SF readers and recognize authors of little interest. Even ComiCon attendees are more sophisticated than the scilons.