Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I went back to science fiction to try a few experiments …and my first experiment was a disaster…"
- Alfred Bester
 |
| Dark Side | ||
| Referring to the unlit part of a planet's surface. |
As far as I know, the first use of the phrase "dark side" with this meaning in science fiction (if not elsewhere, see below).
| The main telescope on the dark side is almost never turned on to the central observatory. It is the most delicate, the most perfect, of all the instruments on the Power Planet. Its scanning-disk alone took three years to make, with over one hundred thousand apertures to the inch. At its highest amplification, it will magnify something more than ten thousand diameters. |
| Technovelgy from The Power Planet,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Amazing Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
This phrase was also used in The Mercurian Menace (1939) by Nelson Bond.
“The dark side?” Carson stared at the investigator in amazement; then slowly shook his head. “No ma’am! Not Mr. Carson, lady. He stays away from the dark side of Mercury!”
“I’m not sure I understand you,” said the girl slowly. “You mean to say that you’ve made no investigations whatsoever on the dark side?”
“My dear young lady,” said Buzz seriously, “there are some things that even a space scout doesn’t go out of his way to meet..."
I'm sure this phrase was in use in the nineteenth century. I recall a famous quote by Mark Twain, taken from his 1880 travel guide A Tramp Abroad:
Compare to farside from We Have Fed Our Sea (1958) by Poul Anderson.
"...You must have seen plenty of night over on the dark side of Mercury.”
"Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody."
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Power Planet
More Ideas
and Technology by Murray Leinster
Tech news articles related to The Power Planet
Tech news articles related to works by Murray Leinster
| ISS Plagued By Leak - Again! |
| Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug |
| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
