David Longhorn's video: The Man Who Awoke by Laurence Manning - Book 2: Master of the Brain

Our 1933 'scientifiction' saga continues with a novella about a decadent future society that was probably influenced by Huxley's 'Brave New World', published the previous year. Huxley was influenced,, in his turn, by the Russian writer Yevgeny Zamyatin's little-known classic 'We'. Zamyatin, like Manning and Huxley, was a disciple of H.G. Wells, the fountainhead of most modern science fiction ideas. But in his portrayal of a domed city of hedonists run by a giant computer, Manning clearly anticipates Logan's Run and many similar tales. The now hackneyed idea of a world-ruling 'brain machine' would only become a sci-fi staple after WW2. As in his depiction of a Green 'utopia', Manning was ahead of the curve here. And wait until you hear the next part...