A traditional Fantasy theme dating back to medieval times, in which a ship – the Narrenschiff or Ship of Fools – carrying all sorts of persons provides a literal vehicle for allegorical Satire on the follies of humanity (this is further discussed in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy). Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876) is a comic though ultimately disquieting example. Sf novels set on sea-vessels which to a greater or lesser degree echo the Ship of Fools theme include Fenner Brockway's Purple Plague: A Tale of Love and Revolution (1935), John Bowen's After the Rain (1958), Martin Bax's The Hospital Ship (1976), Damon Knight's CV (1985), James Lovegrove's The Hope (1990) and Melvin Jules Bukiet's Signs and Wonders (1999). In Frank Herbert's The Dragon in the Sea (November 1955-January 1956 Astounding as "Under Pressure"; 1956; vt 21st Century Sub 1956; vt Under Pressure 1974), the literal and psychological pressures of a voyage deep Under the Sea push folly to the brink of insanity. The many nautical homages in China Miéville The Scar (2002) include an expansion of the Ship to a vast Armada of Fools with a hubristic mission.
In science fiction, the theme is easily and logically extended to a Spaceship of fools. Some examples are the deluded amateur Scientists of Theodore Sturgeon's "The Pod and the Barrier" (September 1957 Galaxy as "The Pod in the Barrier"; vt in A Touch of Strange, coll 1958), the brasshats and bureaucrats in Eric Frank Russell's The Great Explosion (fixup 1962), and the lunar expedition crew of William F Temple's Shoot at the Moon (1966). More distant echoes of the Ship of Fools are found in many a Generation Starship whose inhabitants have forgotten or slipped into denial about their true mission. [DRL]
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