Atlantis

Much like the Bermuda triangle, Bigfoot, and the psychic powers of plants, serious discussions of Atlantis seem to have dwindled down to nothing since the '70s and '80s. But maybe it would be more fair to say that they've gotten less fun because, much like any other conspiracy theory, belief in Atlantis is now an on-ramp to harmful views like climate change denial or white supremacy.

That's just one takeaway from this cool new interview with archaeologist Flint Dibble about Atlantis.

The whole thing is worth reading, but the two most interesting bits are early on. First, he explains that Atlantis doesn't even rise to the level of a myth:

"I focus on Ancient Greece, and I've read a lot of Plato in its original language, in ancient Greek. I've taken graduate level courses, and I've taught undergrad level courses, on Plato, as well as on the archaeology of Ancient Greece. It's really clear that Atlantis is a philosophical allegory created by Plato.

It's not even a myth. A myth is something we think of as an oral legend that can pass on through the ages and oftentimes has some sort of kernel of truth. So it might be the place in the myth is real, like Troy in the Trojan War, or maybe some of the characters could be based on real people, or an event could be, or the description of the weapons and the armor."

Then he covers the main rhetorical trick to watch for when spotting an archeology fraud:

"As soon as there's somebody saying this entire discipline is trying to cancel me, that should be a red flag immediately. This person is probably creating a narrative of them as a savior that knows more than an entire discipline and therefore is probably full of crap. When you look at the people who actually did make major paradigm shifts in various scientific fields, they never claimed they were being canceled. Where's Albert Einstein going on air and saying physicists are canceling me for proposing new ideas? No. Real archeologists and historians that propose new ideas are plentiful, and they're my colleagues and friends. We talk about Galileo being burned by the Church. Galileo was not being burned by his colleagues. And so there's a big difference there. As soon as somebody's using that kind of language of, "I am being canceled, there's a conspiracy against me to shut me down because these people don't want their truth challenged," that should immediately be a red flag. Why is this person using this kind of rhetoric? They're only using it to convince you, rather than to convince you of the veracity of their ideas. Because what they're doing is they're appealing to the public rather than the experts who understand all the evidence."

Now that I've gotten all the sensible opinions out at the front of this post, I have to admit that I really enjoy all this pseudo-historical nonsense. I devoted a whole chapter of my sci-fi art book to cryptozoology and the paranormal - while it was clearly distinct from science fiction, it was a thriving genre with plenty of crossover, including many big-name artists.

Chris Foss did a few paintings around the theme of "Atlantis" in the 70s. I doubt there's a source material outside of Foss's own interest in Atlantis - I wasn't able to find them used as book covers, but even most of his book covers aren't related to their contents.

Based on my very limited historical knowledge, I would assume that this is – very appropriately for Atlantis – an ahistorical grab-bag of concepts: Pyramids, Roman-like ships, the requisite Pompeii-style setting, some Da Vinci-looking flying machines, sci-fi egg buildings, and the trademark Foss stripes and checkers. If any historians have a more informed opinion, hop in the comments!

Here's other Atlantis painting from Foss – confusingly, these both pop up in his art collections with the same title, "Atlantis."

There must be a book about Atlantis that uses this as an interior illustration, because this 2015 blog post has a picture, but I wasn't able to find the title itself. The post includes some excerpts that are exactly the type of fanfic history I'd expect. Here's a section talking about the Sky Chariots:

"As time has progressed, the secret of their manufacture has passed to the Tlavatlis and the Muvians, and each empire maintains its own aerial navy with its own character: the rough-edged privateers of the Second People, the colossal ironclad monsters of the Muvians. The Atlantean Civil War was fought largely in the air."

Finally, I found one website that lists a third Chris Foss painting under the title "The Destruction Of Atlantis," although I couldn't find more info with a quick search.

I wonder if John Harris drew any inspiration from those Foss artworks for his own 1997 take, titled "The Building of Atlantis" in the 2014 collection The Art of John Harris: Beyond the Horizon. Harris includes the same red and yellow stripes in his design, although he shifts the focus towards the inexplicable and fantastical – two themes that Foss isn't as big on.

His website adds a simple description: "The theme of weightlessness revisited, in an ancient context."

Here's another big name, Frank Frazetta's 1973 cover for Brad Steiger's nonfiction pseudohistory Atlantis Rising.

David A Hardy has an ancient Greek take on Atlantis.

Here's the explanation that he includes on his website for that image. As the scientifically minded space artist that he is, Hardy makes sure to highlight that this is a fantasy image:

"Although decidedly a fantasy painting, this was done for Hardy's book with Dr. John Murray, The Fires Within. It shows the legendary island of Atlantis which sank beneath the waves after a volcanic eruption. The most likely factual site for this is the Greek island of Santoriini, which Hardy has visited."

Science fiction authors explored a wide range of types of Atlantis over the decades, of course. This 1978 Dean Ellis cover art for Attack From Atlantis, by Lester Del Rey, depicts a classic version, where Atlantis is thriving underwater in the modern day. They even have trained ichthyosaurs.

Ron Walotsky’s surrealist 1970 cover for The Magic of Atlantis, an Atlantis-themed short story collection edited by Lin Carter, may have taken some inspiration from Easter Island, with the giant heads.

Speaking of surrealism, here's the rare fine art detour, with a 1977 artwork by Vangel Naumovski, who mastered "a gooey sort of surrealism," according to the Internet Archive.

It's titled "Atlantis" – there's one other Naumovski on the internet that's mistakenly labelled Atlantis, but Google Translate has empowered me to confidently tell you that the Атлантис written on the lower righthand corner of this one is "Atlantis" in Serbian.

Here's a sadly uncredited 1963 cover for Lords of Atlantis, by Wallace West, a sci-fi novel set in the ancient past, where Egyptians use pterodactyls to bomb Atlantis and destroy its radio tower of Bab El.

The 1960 first edition had a cool Ed Emshwiller cover, but I wasn't able to turn up a scan larger than this one:

This 1978 cover by Lou Feck was used for The New Atlantis and Other Novellas of Science Fiction, a collection of three stories, but it appears to be illustrating the eponymous story, by Ursula K Le Guin.

The future-set plot features rumors of new continents rising from the depths of the sea while the old continents are sinking to make room for them, thanks to global warming amid a corporate takeover of Washington, DC. And Le Guin wrote that in 1975!

The Brothers Hildebrandt have a fun pulpy 1982 Atlantis-themed calendar that, shockingly enough, is still available on their website for just $10. Not only is that an amazing deal for any vintage sci-fi art, but it'll be reusable in 2027! That's worth it for the sick giant mushroom art alone.

We'll wrap up with a few Atlantis video game covers. Here's an uncredited 1982 cover to Synergistic Software's text adventure game "Apventure to Atlantis."

Even better, here's Enrique Ventura's cover for "Rescue from Atlantis," released across 1988 and 1989 for the Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum, and MSX, according to the ArcadeFan tumblr.

My music recommendation this week: Jurassic Park Theme (1000% Slower)

Next Time: Coffee, Tea, and Drinks