I Think We're Property

A quotation from The Book of the Damned (1919) by Charles Fort:

Would we if we could, educate and sophisticate pigs, geese, cattle?
Would it be wise to establish diplomatic relations with the hen that now functions, satisfied with mere sense of achievement by way of compensation?
I think we're property.
I should say we belong to something:
That once upon a time, this earth was No-man's Land, that other worlds explored and colonized here, and fought among themselves for possession, but that now it's owned by something:
That something owns this earth—all others warned off.

The concept, that humans might be owned by alien beings as we own domestic animals, has been hugely influential on science fiction.

Edmond Hamilton was among the earliest to make use of it, in such stories as "The Space Visitors" (Air Wonder Stories, March 1930) and "The Earth Owners" (Weird Tales, August 1931).

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Fanspeak

1930—

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