Ion Hobana, first name also Ioan, last name also Hobană (born Aurelian Mantaroșie or Manta-Roșie; 25 January 1931 – 22 February 2011) was a Romanian science fiction writer, literary critic and ufologist. His debut as a journalist, novelist and children's poet coincided with the early stages of Romanian communism, when he was also employed as an editor and translator; at that stage, Hobana adhered to Marxism-Leninism and socialist realism, which influenced his literary output. His participation in the local field of science fiction began in during his period studying at the University of Bucharest, when he produced a pioneering paper on the work of Jules Verne. It continued in the late 1950s, with stories which focused on describing futuristic technology in a terrestrial setting. By the early 1960s, Hobana was also a critic and theorist of science fiction, postulating that Romanian science-fiction culture was a byproduct of communism. He revisited the thesis later that decade, producing award-winning essays about pre-modern science fiction, Romanian as well as foreign. He was also involved on the scene as an anthologist and film critic.
In the mid-to-late 1960s, the new communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu, inaugurated a détente with the Western world. This policy allowed Hobana to inaugurate a school of Romanian ufology; he also became internationally recognized as an authority on early science fiction, on Verne, on H. G. Wells, and more generally on comparative literature. He attended the Eurocons, at which he took two awards for separate achievements, and eventually became chair of the European Science Fiction Society. At home, Hobana continued with his work as a translator and raconteur, also writing and presenting shows for TVR 1—covering topics such as ufology and oneiromancy. He attained a mid-level position in the Romanian Communist Party, and spent 18 years as secretary of the Writers' Union. These activities had controversial aspects, including his participation in official censorship, targeting authors such as Paul Goma and Bujor Nedelcovici. Hobana was also engaged in promoting Ceaușescu's personality cult, and wrote homages to Ceaușescu's wife, Elena.
In the 1990s, after the Romanian Revolution had ended communism, Hobana became exposed to criticism for his past activities, though he continued to hold executive positions at the Writers' Union. Publishing new works of prose, including a World War II-themed novel, he returned to ufology with a monograph on the Roswell incident, leading a Romanian Agency for UFO Studies; he also contributed a national textbook of children's literature, and curated a series of science-fiction classics at Editura Minerva. His work suffered after 2009, when he was diagnosed with a terminal illness; he died in hospital less than a month after his 80th birthday, having managed to complete a critical overview of French science fiction.
Early life and debut The future Ion Hobana was born on 25 January 1934 at Sânnicolau Mare, Timiș-Torontal County,Robu, p. 722Gheorghe Catana, "Scriitori români premiați peste hotare", in Almanah Flacăra, 1979, p. 65L. Nistorescu, "Ion Hobana, omagiat la Sânnicolau Mare", in Renașterea Bănățeană, 18 November 2011, p. 2 in what was then the Kingdom of Romania. He was officially known under his birth name, Aurelian MantaroșieIon N. Oprea, "Călătorul profund în librăriile Iașului. La sărbătorirea lui Alexandru Mălin Tacu", in Monitorul, 22 May 1993, p. 5 or Manta-Roșie.Oprea (2008), pp. 196, 338"Lumea românească. Scurt. Jurnalul lui Eugen Barbu", in Minimum, Vol. XX, Issue 237, December 2006, p. 40 His parents were Ioan, a magistrate, and Antoaneta née Patrichi, who worked as a teacher. Despite their child being born in the extreme west of the country (in the Banat), the family hailed from the Moldavian city of Bârlad, where, in the 1920s, Ioan had published several issues of a magazine called Freamătul Literar.Oprea (2008), pp. 337–338 He had also founded a Bârlad literary club, named for Alexandru Vlahuță.Oprea (2008), p. 338
Aurelian attended a school in Alba Iulia (1937–1938), before continuing in Bârlad (1938–1938, 1941–1942). The latter city hosted his literary debut: in 1938, the local magazine Școlarii Tutoveni agreed to published stories and poems he had sent in.Oprea (2008), pp. 195–197 Later, the boy moved around Greater Romania, attending schools in Tighina (1942–1944), Râmnicu Vâlcea (1944–1946), and again Bârlad (1946–1949).Robu, pp. 722–723 Bârlad also hosted more of Aurelian's works, appearing in the local newspapers Păreri Tutovene and Lumina (1947).Oprea (2008), pp. 197, 361. See also Robu, p. 723 During his time at Gheorghe Roșca Codreanu High School, he was acquainted with several colleagues who were similarly active in literary life—Lucian Raicu, Dumitru Solomon, and C. D. Zeletin. By his own account, he had been attending a summer school of the Union of Communist Youth in Vălenii de Munte, and was writing agitprop verse.Oprea (2008), p. 197 He was also attending various of Bârlad's literary clubs, including one headed by George Tutoveanu (to whom he would address one of his poems), he introduced his colleagues to works by Henric Sanielevici and Walt Whitman.Oprea (2008), pp. 197–198
The young man took a diploma from the University of Bucharest Faculty of Letters after a one-year's course (1949–1950), being the first-ever Romanian to have submitted a final paper on a science-fiction-related subject.Carmen Maftei, "Specialistul în OZN-uri Ion Hobana și-a încărcat bateriile la Iași", in Ziarul de Iași, 18 May 2004, p. 8B He later took his Ph.D. with a Verne-themed monograph, which was also unprecedented. According to literary critic Lucian Vasile Szabo, he was entering a "no man's land", at a time when "the genre itself was not entirely individualized."Lucian Vasile Szabo, "Portrete. Ion Hobana sau despre tot", in Orizont, Vol. XL, Issue 18, May 1989, p. 4 From 1948, Romania had been officially declared a people's republic, and enclosed within the Eastern Bloc. As noted in 2006 by critic and political scientist Ioan Stanomir, Hobana was "not at all innocent" in his subsequent commitment to the science fiction genre: in that context, its "shamanistic worship of technology" had a propaganda function, and closely imitated the Soviet models.Ioan Stanomir, "Istorie intelectuală. Douăzeci de mii de leghe sub cărți", in Idei în Dialog, Vol. III, Issue 10, October 2006, p. 53 Szabo contrarily argues that Hobana's main ideological guideline was his "humanism", producing a "literature of warning, one capable of instilling in humanity a care for its own survival". In a 1988 piece for Ramuri, Ioan Lascu proposed that modern Romanian science fiction, and therefore Hobana's stories as well, had "an engaged character, aiming for educational goals—the instilling of scientific knowledge, of atheistic convictions, and of peace as an ideal."Ioan Lascu, "Viața cărților. O literatură a spațiului", in Ramuri, Issue 6/1988, p. 4
In 1950–1952, while having his contributions hosted by the magazine Flacăra of Bucharest,Robu, p. 723 Hobana was employed as editor of the cultural page at Scînteia Tineretului, a central newspaper of the Communist Youth. His colleagues there included Nicolae Țic, who later recalled that Hobana was "well-read, meticulous, focusing on children's literature [but] dreaming of cosmic openings".Nicolae Țic, "Arhiva sentimentală a Scînteii tineretului. În miezul unui ev aprins", in Almanah Scînteia Tineretului, 1980, p. 121 His literary debut was in children's poetry, of which he produced five separate volumes,"In memoriam — Ion Hobana", in România Literară, Issue 9/2011, p. 14 "rooted in the principles of socialist realism."Ilie Stanciu, "Decada culturii. Literatura în sprijinul educării tineretului", in Gazeta Învățământului, Vol. XI, Issue 528, August 1959, p. 9 He moved on from Scînteia Tineretului to the children's magazine Luminița, which had him as literary editor until 1956. Active within the Writers' Union of Romania (USR), in May 1956 Hobana performed self-criticism over his poetic output, citing new literary guidelines as published in the Soviet journal Kommunist. He praised other children's authors, including Vladimir Colin and Călin Gruia, for their modern fairy tales."În întîmpinarea Congresului Scriitorilor. Plenara comisiei de literatură pentru copii. Referatul tov. Al. Popovici", in Gazeta Literară, Vol. III, Issue 20, May 1956, p. 5
In July 1957, Știință și Tehnică magazine printed Hobana's first work of science fiction, Glasul mării ("Voice of the Sea").F. Manolescu, p. 265 It was panned by another author, Ovidiu Rîureanu, who argued that it was mainly a journalistic-style discussion about infrasounds, lacking "many of artistic literature's most crucial features."Ovidiu Rîureanu, "Literatura științifico-fantastică", in Gazeta Literară, Vol. III, Issue 15, April 1956, p. 7 His full debut in young adult prose was with the story collection Ultimul văl ("The Last Veil"), appearing at Editura Tineretului in 1957. The title story was a mixture of spy and detective fiction, but in a futuristic setting—it described the adventures of a junior cameraman who uncovers a foreign plot against Romanian communism. In January 1960,Gheorghe Achiței, "Ion Hobana: Sfîrșitul vacanței", in ''Scînteia Tineretului, 24 January 1961, p. 3 the same imprint also put out his non-science-fiction novel, Sfîrșitul vacanței ("A Holiday's End"; second edition 1963). It was a World War II epic, dealing with youths that observe the "collapse of capitalist society" during the August 1944 coup. Sfîrșitul vacanței was read by Hobana's colleague Gheorghe Achiței as unequal, in that it failed to highlight the "leading role of the working class" within the resistance movement, presenting the latter's acts of sabotage as "mysterious". Hobana had translated and published (also in 1957) Sergey Mikhalkov's Uncle Styopa the Militsioner. He was for also a reviewer at Editura Tineretului, first in the early readers' section (1955–1961), and then in the new science-fiction department (to 1968). While there, he attended at least one party alongside the anti-communist poet Ion Vinea, though they never discussed politics.Nicolae Tzone, "Interviu inedit cu Vlaicu Bârna despre Ion Vinea — poet, prozator și ziarist de mare clasă", in România Literară, Issue 36/2002, p. 17
In December 1963, the Communist-Party journal Lupta de Clasă hosted Hobana's overview of local science fiction, in which he embraced the (since-obsolete) claim that the genre only had a decade-long history locally—identifying it almost exclusively with a local almanac, Colecția de Povestiri Științifico-Fantastice.F. Manolescu, p. 257 That same year, Hobana's own short stories had been collected as Oameni și stele ("Humans and Stars"), signalling his taking up of science fiction as a near-exclusive focus. In a companion to Romanian science fiction, Florin Manolescu observed that these writings were closely modeled on Verne and Hugo Gernsback's classics—focused on the advancements of human science, they had only very rare glimpses into speculative astrobiology (only one of them had aliens as characters).F. Manolescu, pp. 265–266
1960s détente and international fame