"Millions Now Living Will Never Die" slogan appeared in sci-fi novel

by VM44 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  VM44

  Rutherford's (in)famous slogan "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" appeared in a sci-fi book, part of which was written around 1949.

  The novel is "Cities in Flight" by James Blish.

  In the first section of the book (there are three or four sections to it), there is a religious group that plays a minor role in the novel that is shooting fireworks into the sky to display a message. The message is:

  *** Millions Now Living Will Never Die ***

  *** NOW! ***

  Has anyone come upon this before as I have?

  Think James Blish was influenced by the Rutherfordian Bible Students?

  --VM44
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  Gerard

  Never heard of him... but It seems that James Blish liked to write theologically-inspired science fiction novels; A Case of Conscience earned him a Hugo award back in 1959.

  http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue186/classic.html

  http://members.aol.com/firoane/blish.htm

  It should not be surprising that he studied the "newspeak" or powerful slogans used by current religious groups such as the JWs.
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  gaiagirl

  It seems likely that when James Blish wrote "Cities in Flight", he was remembering that slogan from some 20-25 years earlier, just as we often remember songs, commercials, etc from the '70s and '80s (and look how often popular songs from that era show up in advertisements!). Perhaps he, or his parents, had read some WTBTS literature. My grandmother had a very thick book published by some other bible company which also taught that Armageddon was drawing near, so the idea may have been relatively widespread.
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  blondie

  James Blish was the first one to novelize Star Trek stories in paperback as well.

  Good find, VM. I'm going to start re-reading his books.

  Blondie
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  doofdaddy

  Rutherford was misquoted

  What he really said was ........ "Millions now living will never fly"

  He, like Russell prefered train travel
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  VM44

  Here is a sections from the book, the characters are talking about the discovery of an drug which would allow people to live forever. --VM44

  " Think for a moment of what it will do to the religious people alone. What happens to the after-life if you never need to leave this one? Look at the Believers. They believe in the literal truth of everything in the Bible—that’s why they revise the book every year. And this story is going to break before their Jubilee year is over. Did you know that their motto is: ‘Millions now living will never die’? They mean themselves, but what if it turns out to be every­body?"
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  Markfromcali

  What about something like "Millions now brunettes will never dye!"? No, I guess it doesn't really relate to the topic, I just wanted to say it.
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  Leolaia

  Wow, I read all of Blish's Star Trek books as a nerdette pre-teen circa 1980....without owning a VCR, it was the way to get my fill of Star Trek...interesting JW connection....