Synopsis
Here we have increase in size pushed to its utmost limit. Here we have treated the growth of a man to cosmic dimensions. And we are told of his strange sensation and are led up to a sudden startling and impressive conclusion, and are taken through the picture of his emotions and despair.
History
First publication: Science and Invention, August 1923
Review
This is the a story that stands between two ages. The one age of "scientific romances" started with Verne and Wells. The new age is that of pulp science fiction. The story borrows the idea of the lone man confronting a vast universe that you get from the far future ending of The Time Machine. Except this story does not have the narrative of the human future and just focuses on the grand cosmic scheme. So the story is like a travelogue through Wertenbaker’s “scientific” vision of the atoms and the universe. True science fiction, presenting vast ideas far larger than our lives and our world. There is literally nothing else to this story, unless you want to reflect on the fact that a lone, socially awkward scientist recklessly applies his invention to a living human being. The ethics of this are obvious. So the story stands as an excellent example of the cosmic breakthrough idea of science fiction. An idea that would lead us to stories like 2001: A Space Odyssey. But there is little esle that people look for in literature. No real character, no deep feeling, little real plot. Just a giant scientific idea. You can’t seriously criticise this story, but in the end I still found it compelling, capturing what makes science ficrtion unique and compelling in literature.
Videos
We have the story in these editions:
Amazing Stories April 1926, edited by Hugo Gernsback, magazine, Fiction House Press, 2014-09-25
All of the stories in the The Man from the Atom series:
1 The Man from the Atom
2 The Man from the Atom (sequel)
