9. Wasn't L. Ron Hubbard a science fiction writer?
Description
This article is from the New Readers Scientology FAQ, by rkeller@netaxs.com (Rod Keller) with numerous contributions by others.
9. Wasn't L. Ron Hubbard a science fiction writer?
Answer By: Rod Keller <rkeller@netaxs.com>
Hubbard wrote some science fiction. The church claims he was one of the
early great writers in the field. I haven't seen any non-church sources
that support this status. He did write for several magazines in the
early, formative years of the genre.
Two of his works are the novel Battlefield Earth and the Mission Earth
dekology, a 10 volume series. Both were maneuvered into bestsellers
lists by the church to lend Hubbard prestige. One tactic was for members
to purchase dozens of books, wait for the bookstore to reorder, then
return the books. The trade newsletter "Hot News" reported that Bridge
Publications, a church operation, offered over 230,000 hardback
remainders from the Mission Earth series in 1989. These volumes falsely
counted towards the total sold.
Both titles are heavily allegorical. The conclusion to Battlefield Earth
has the hero, who resembles Hubbard, conquering the aliens and taking
over the galaxy by outmaneuvering the galactic lawyers, who resemble
sharks. In Mission Earth, the hero also conquers the galactic empire,
this time defeating a main villain who is a saboteur, assassin and
psychologist. Both titles draw heavily on the OT3 science fantasy story.
Mission Earth is particularly interesting in that both the hero and the
villain use dirty tricks tactics similar to those of the Church of
Scientology today, such as extortion, blackmail and kidnapping.
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