Tiphaigne de la Roche, C F
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1729-1774) French author of some works of fantasy with Proto-SF elements, three of which were miscellaneously assembled as Amilec; Ou la graine d'hommes qui sert à peupler les planétes (1753; trans anon as Amilec; Or, the Seeds of Mankind 1753), Zamar, député à la Lune par Amilec ["Zamar, Delegated to the Moon by Amilec"] [for full subtitle see Checklist] (1754 2vols) and L'Empire des zaziris sure les humains; Ou, la zazirocratie ["The Empire of the Zaziris over Humankind; Or, Zazirocracy"] (1761), all three trans Brian Stableford as Amilec and Other Satirical Fantasies (omni 2011), a volume that also includes Giphantie (see below). Within various formats of telling – including narrations by a genie (or more abstractly the genius of the tale: the pun is strong in French) – Tiphaigne engages in Cosmological speculations, as well as suggesting a theory of the origin of species which includes the notion that seeds from our species propagate other planets (see Fred Hoyle). Zamar incorporates a Fantastic Voyage to the Moon and Venus, plus two short Utopias, told Satirically. La zazirocratie describes the djinns of legend as in fact Secret Masters of our planet.
The protagonist of Giphantie (1760; trans anon as Giphantia, or A View of What Has Passed, What Is Now Passing, and, During the Present Century, What Will Pass, in the World 1760-1761 2vols) undertakes a Fantastic Voyage into the East, where a mentor describes the prelapsarian world he has entered, where the elementals that govern all life (earth, fire, water and air) retain their pre-Adamic virtue, and all forms of life blossom. The absorbed protagonist (Giphantie is an anagram of Tiphaigne) to whom a great globe of the Earth is now revealed is allowed to make use of two high-Technology devices: one a pointer which, when touched anywhere on the planet, transmits conversations; and a device that records visual images, and can be understood as a metaphorical prevision of photography. Through these devices, he learns that Homo sapiens benefits from three (clearly allegorical) descendants of the first Tree: of these, the Tree of Itches irritates humans into becoming articulate, and the leaves of the Fantastical Tree infect human brains, forcing them to create various Inventions. There are elements of Satire here detectable. The protagonist is then taken Underground, eventually transiting the Hollow Earth within and arriving back in France. [JC]
Charles-François Tiphaigne de la Roche
born Montebourg, Contentin, France: 19 February 1729
died 11 August 1774
works
- L'Amour dévoilé; Ou, le système des sympathistes ["Love Unveiled; Or, the Theory of Sympathism"] (1747) as by l'A de P*** [binding unknown/]
- Amilec; Ou la graine d'hommes qui sert à peupler les planétes (Paris: Michel Lambert, 1753) as by l'A de P*** [place of publication given as Luneville: binding unknown/]
- Amilec; Or, the Seeds of Mankind (London: W Needham, 1753) [trans anon of the above: binding unknown/]
- Zamar, député à la Lune par Amilec, Grand-Maître de la Manufacture des Graines d'Hommes, augmentée de la Relation du Voyage d'un Sublunaire ["Zamar, Delegated to the Moon by Amilec, Supervisor of the Manufacture of Human Seed, Augmented by an Account of the Voyage of a Sublunary"] (Paris: no genuine publisher given, 1754) [place of publication given as Luneville: published as volumes two and three of Amilec above: in the introduction to his translation of the above texts, see below, Brian Stableford argues that Zamar was intended as a separate production: it is so treated here: binding unknown/]
- Giphantie (Paris: Durand, 1760) [place of publication given as Babylone: binding unknown/]
- Giphantia, or A View of What Has Passed, What Is Now Passing, and, During the Present Century, What Will Pass, in the World (London: Robert Horsfield, 1760-1761) [published in two volumes: volume two is dated 1760: trans anon of the above: binding unknown/]
- L'Empire des zaziris sur les humains; Ou, la zazirocratie ["The Empire of the Zaziris over Humankind; Or, Zazirocracy"] (Paris: "Peking, China: Dsmgtlfpqxz" [i.e. no genuine publisher given], 1761) [binding unknown/]
- Amilec and Other Satirical Fantasies (Encino, California: Hollywood Comics/Black Coat Press, 2011) [omni: trans by Brian Stableford of the above plus Amilec, Zamar and Giphantie above: introduction by Stableford: pb/Ladronn]
about the author
- Everett F Bleiler. Science-Fiction: The Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-Fiction Stories ... (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1990) [nonfiction: p740: hb/nonpictorial]
links
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