I was on social media a little bit ago and saw somebody wishing everyone a ‘Happy Hollow Earth Day!’. A quick online search didn’t turn up anything definitive, which means nothing. The whole thing could’ve been shadow-banned by Those Who Dwell in the Valley of Silicon with none the wiser. All I can say is, if there isn’t such a thing, there should be.

I would assume that 'Hollow Earth Day' was envisioned as a companion/complement to the much lamer and more boring 'Earth Day'. If so, maybe it was actually yesterday. Feel free to instruct me in the comments section.

I've seen a surprising amount of hate directed at the concept of a 'hollow earth' online the last few years. It's often labeled a 'conspiracy theory'. Considering that the CIA originated the term for--and the concept of--a 'conspiracy theory', I fail to see how that is supposed to be a convincing argument. For the record, I think that the possibility of the earth being hollow to be quite low. Low, but not impossible. The fact that I am asked to accept obvious conspiracy theories on a daily basis makes me cut the whole 'hollow earth' thing some slack. When one is mandated to believe six impossible things before breakfast, the Earth having a habitable and inhabited core is just par for the course.

On a lighter note, I have to say that the concept of a Hollow Earth has brought me nothing but joy and wonder--as opposed to guilt and riots--since the day I first read of it. My initial exposure to the idea was by way of Edgar Rice Burroughs and his 'Pellucidar' books. I found those in my local public library.

What a wondrous feast for my eight year-old mind those books were! A horizon that--in contrast to my mundane 'outer' horizon--curved up and up and up into a blue haze. A world ruled by reptilian Mahars and their brutish Sagoth servitors. A world filled with the 'greatest hits' of Earth's past: "sabertooths and T-rexes, living together!". An (inner) Earth where time meant nothing and you could forge your own destiny if smart and tough--and lucky--enough.

Little did I know at the time, but ERB was building on foundations laid by giants. Edgar Allan Poe's short novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, is founded on the Hollow Earth theory. It is a tale I need to revisit and review, because it holds a very important place in the evolution of Exotic Adventure Fiction within the English-speaking world.

Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth also should be mentioned. The 'Skartaris' found within its pages abounds with various wonders, including giant saurians. However, it is merely a 'pocket world', a huge cavern within the Earth's crust, and not a true Hollow Earth.

Very soon after reading ERB's Pellucidar series, I encountered The Warlord comic books by Mike Grell. While I didn't realize it at the time, Grell had synthesized ERB's Pellucidar and Barsoom into one setting while adding sword-and-sorcery elements from REH and others, capping it off by naming it 'Skartaris' as a nod to Verne. I still consider those first fifty issues to be one of the best comic book runs ever published.

There you have it. My quick take on Hollow Earth Day! Go read some of the foundational texts and hurl yourself into adventurous wonder.