Editing Venus in fiction (section)

=== Beasts ===
<!-- Megafauna -->
Early writings, in which Venus was often depicted as a younger Earth, often populated it with large beasts. Pope's ''Journey to Venus'' (1895) depicted a tropical world featuring [[dinosaur]]s and other creatures similar to those known from Earth's history.<ref name="Westfahl2022Venus" />{{Rp|page=168}}<ref name="MillerVenus" />{{Rp|page=12}} Says a 2023 article in ''[[Space Science Reviews]]'', "While Mars offered a sort of barren elegance, Venus had perhaps too much life."<ref name="SpaceScienceReviewsVenus" />{{Rp|page=7}} [[Stanley G. Weinbaum]] portrayed Venus as home to a voracious ecosystem in "[[Parasite Planet]]" (1935), and his visions inspired other authors such as Asimov, whose ''Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus'' depicts colonists encountering various hostile sea-dwelling creatures.<ref name="Westfahl2022Venus" />{{Rp|page=167}}<ref name="Zalasiewicz" />{{Rp|page=42}} Zelazny's "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth" revolves around an encounter with a giant Venusian sea monster,<ref name="Westfahl2021VenusAndVenusians" />{{rp|672}}<ref name="GreenwoodVenus" />{{rp|860}} and in Clarke's ''[[The Deep Range]]'' (1957) sea creatures on Venus are commercialized.<ref name="Westfahl2022Venus" />{{Rp|page=168}} Venus is home to [[dragon]]s in Heinlein's ''[[Between Planets]]'' (1951) and to dinosaurs in the [[Three Stooges]] short ''[[Space Ship Sappy]]'' (1957), while a Venusian monster brought to Earth by a space probe attacks humans in the film ''[[20 Million Miles to Earth]]'' (1957).<ref name="Westfahl2022Venus" />{{Rp|page=168}}<ref name="Westfahl2021VenusAndVenusians" />{{rp|672}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McGiveron |first=Rafeeq O. |date=July 1996 |title=Heinlein's Inhabited Solar System, 1940–1952 |journal=[[Science Fiction Studies]] |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=245–252 |issn=0091-7729 |jstor=4240506}}</ref>{{rp|248}}

<!-- Humans and dinosaurs coexisting -->
Prehistoric creatures sometimes coexist with primitive humanoids in depictions of Venus.<ref name="Westfahl2022Venus" />{{Rp|page=168–169}} The [[Green Lantern]] story "[[Summons from Space]]" (1959) features the heroes protecting the human-like inhabitants of Venus from dinosaurs.<ref name="Westfahl2021VenusAndVenusians" />{{Rp|page=673}} In the British children's television show ''[[Pathfinders to Venus]]'' (1961), the local fauna includes both [[pterodactyl]]s and "apemen".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Klossner |first=Michael |title=Prehistoric Humans in Film and Television: 581 Dramas, Comedies and Documentaries, 1905-2004 |date=2015 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-1-4766-0914-0 |language=en |chapter=Pathfinders to Venus |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=65QdBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA249}}</ref>{{Rp|page=249}} The Soviet film ''[[Planeta Bur]]'' (1962) features an American–Soviet joint scientific expedition to Venus, which finds the planet teeming with various lifeforms, many resembling terrestrial species, including sentient if primitive Venusians.<ref name="HistoricalDictionaryOfScienceFictionCinemaVenus" />{{Rp|page=448}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dudziński |first=Przemysław |date=2014 |title=W drodze do gwiazd — film fantastycznonaukowy w Związku Radzieckim w dobie wyścigu w kosmos na przykładzie twórczości Pawła Kłuszancewa |trans-title=Road To The Stars — Science Fiction Film Of The Soviet Union In The Space Age, Based On The Example Of Pavel Klushantsev's Works |url=https://wuwr.pl/sf/article/view/1544 |journal=Studia Filmoznawcze |language=pl |volume=35 |issn=0860-116X}}</ref>{{Rp|page=|pages=179–182}} 

<!-- Exotic lifeforms -->
Science fiction author [[Jerry Pournelle]] noted that early science fiction was rife with images of exotic Venusian life: "thick fungus that ate men alive; a world populated with strange animals, dragons and dinosaurs and swamp creatures resembling [[Creature from the Black Lagoon|the beastie from the Black Lagoon]]".<ref name="Pournelle" />{{rp|page=90}} Sentient plant life appears in several stories including Weinbaum's "Parasite Planet" sequel "[[The Lotus Eaters (Weinbaum)|The Lotus Eaters]]" (1935), the [[Superman]] comic book story "[[The Three Tough Teen-Agers]]" (1962) by [[Jerry Siegel]] and [[Al Plastino]], and ''[[The Outer Limits (1963 TV series)|The Outer Limits]]'' episode "[[Cold Hands, Warm Heart]]" (1964).<ref name="Westfahl2022Venus" />{{Rp|page=170–171}}A sentient Venusian worm called [[Mister Mind]] appears as a [[supervillain]] in the [[Fawcett Comics]] stories about [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]].<ref name="Westfahl2021VenusAndVenusians" />{{Rp|page=673}} In the second half of the 20th century, as the hellish conditions of Venus became better known, depictions of life on Venus became more exotic, with ideas such as the "living petroleum" of [[Brenda Pearce]]'s "[[Crazy Oil]]" (1975), the telepathic jewels of Varley's "In the Bowl", and the more mundane cloud-borne microbes of [[Ben Bova]]'s ''[[Venus (novel)|Venus]]'' (2000; part of Bova's [[Grand Tour (novel series)|''Grand Tour'' series]]).<ref name="GreenwoodVenus" />{{rp|860}}