L. Ron Hubbard never creates scientology

What if L. Ron Hubbard had not founded Dianetics and Scientology? What if he had just continued writing science fiction books for the rest of his life? What would his legacy be? Would any of his books be remembered at all?
 
Legacy

To be honest, from what I've read of his stuff, it was fairly typical pulp sci-fi throughout. None of it was particularly good or memorable in my opinion. I did however find 'Final Blackout' full of some interesting ideas and I started a re-write some time ago, but I've haven't been writing for a while.
 
He will likely be remembered as a fairly obscure writer from the Golden age of Science Fiction. Perhaps, his work will become the topic of a blog exploring esoteric writer, but he wasn't particularly memorable in his works the same way other writers of the time (like Heinlein, Asimov, or de Camp) were. Most likely, he would be forgotten, except for hard core Sci-fi buffs.
 
Yeah, extremely pulpy, like written cartoons.

Part of his problem appears to a lack of willingness to allow a lot the imagery to be in the reader's imagination
 
Probably, although without this thing what they do latch onto will probably be slightly more acceptable, although a few might go even more extreme.
 
To be honest, from what I've read of his stuff, it was fairly typical pulp sci-fi throughout. None of it was particularly good or memorable in my opinion. I did however find 'Final Blackout' full of some interesting ideas and I started a re-write some time ago, but I've haven't been writing for a while.

a little off topic, but did you know that Final Blackout was actually considered being made into a movie back in the 90s?
 

Cook

Banned
What if L. Ron Hubbard had not founded Dianetics and Scientology?

The revelation of the truth would have come from John W. Campbell instead; that it would be revealed at this time, when the beginning or the space age awakened thetans to their past history. Artists and writers, particularly writers of speculative fiction are the most attuned to the history stored in their thetan subconscious and therefore the inevitable conduit for its broadcast to the less attuned general mass of the population currently inhabiting human form.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. Suddenly, there was a terrible roar all around us, and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car...
 
Supposing he hadn't created Dianetics, Hubbard would probably have gone down in history as a prolific pulp author with a penchant for domestic violence and grandiose self-promotion. He would be remembered as a minor literary eccentric like his editor John Campbell.

So much of Scientology was directly derived from Hubbard's psyche and personality, and so much of its success was owed to Hubbard's personal charisma, it's unlikely that anything remotely similar to Scientology would have developed in Hubbard's absence. Hubbard wasn't a common huckster who happened to come along at the right cultural moment. All through his life he showed a preternatural talent for manipulating and dominating otherwise intelligent people -- and not just harebrained actors, as is commonly believed.

With no Hubbard, there would still be cults and pseudo-psychiatry, but I doubt if there'd be anything with the organization and ambition of Scientology.
 

Sabot Cat

Banned
To satisfy his overarching ambition that o'er leaps itself, L. Ron Hubbard moves into... *shudder* ...politics.
 
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