Science fiction literature, film, television, and other media have become popular and influential over much of the world. Besides providing entertainment, it can also criticize present-day society, and is often said to inspire a "sense of wonder".[3]
"Science fiction" is difficult to define precisely, as it includes a wide range of concepts and themes. American science fiction and fantasy writer James Blish wrote: "Wells used the term originally to cover what we would today call "hard" science fiction, in which a conscientious attempt to be faithful to already known facts (as of the date of writing) was the substrate on which the story was to be built, and if the story was also to contain a miracle, it ought at least not to contain a whole arsenal of them."[4]
According to American writer and professor of biochemistry Isaac Asimov, "Science fiction can be defined as that branch of literature which deals with the reaction of human beings to changes in science and technology."[5] American science-fiction author and engineer Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "A handy short definition of almost all science fiction might read: realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method."[6]
The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, edited by John Clute and Peter Nicholls, contains an extensive discussion of the problem of definition, under the heading "Definitions of SF". The authors regard Yugoslav born academic, writer, and critic Darko Suvin's 1972 definition as having been most useful in catalysing academic debate. Suvin's definition is: "a literary genre whose necessary and sufficient conditions are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main formal device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment".[7]
American science fiction author and editor Lester del Rey wrote, "Even the devoted aficionado or fan—has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is," and the lack of a "full satisfactory definition" is because "there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction."[8] Author and editor Damon Knight summed up the difficulty, saying "science fiction is what we point to when we say it."[9]
By 'scientifiction' I mean the Jules Verne, H. G. Wells and Edgar Allan Poe type of story—a charming romance intermingled with scientific fact and prophetic vision... Not only do these amazing tales make tremendously interesting reading—they are always instructive. They supply knowledge... in a very palatable form... New adventures pictured for us in the scientifiction of today are not at all impossible of realization tomorrow... Many great science stories destined to be of historical interest are still to be written... Posterity will point to them as having blazed a new trail, not only in literature and fiction, but progress as well.[43][44][45]
Don Hastings (left) and Al Hodge from Captain Video and His Video Rangers
Science fiction and television have consistently been in a close relationship. Television or television-like technologies frequently appeared in science fiction long before television itself became widely available in the late 1940s and early 1950s.[122]
Brian Aldiss described science fiction as "culturalwallpaper."[170] Evidence for this widespread influence can be found in trends for writers to employ science fiction as a tool for advocacy and generating cultural insights, as well as for educators when teaching across a range of academic disciplines not limited to the natural sciences.[171] Scholar and science fiction critic George Edgar Slusser said that science fiction "is the one real international literary form we have today, and as such has branched out to visual media, interactive media and on to whatever new media the world will invent in the 21st century. Crossover issues between the sciences and the humanities are crucial for the century to come."[172]
Robots, artificial humans, human clones, intelligent computers, and their possible conflicts with human society have all been major themes of science fiction since, at least, the publication of Shelly's Frankenstein. Some critics have seen this as reflecting authors’ concerns over the social alienation seen in modern society.[179]
Feminist science fiction poses questions about social issues such as how society constructs gender roles, the role reproduction plays in defining gender, and the inequitable political or personal power of one gender over others. Some works have illustrated these themes using utopias to explore a society in which gender differences or gender power imbalances do not exist, or dystopias to explore worlds in which gender inequalities are intensified, thus asserting a need for feminist work to continue.[180][181]
Science fiction is often said to inspire a "sense of wonder." Science fiction editor and critic David Hartwell wrote: "Science fiction’s appeal lies in combination of the rational, the believable, with the miraculous. It is an appeal to the sense of wonder."[189] Carl Sagan said: "One of the great benefits of science fiction is that it can convey bits and pieces, hints and phrases, of knowledge unknown or inaccessible to the reader . . . works you ponder over as the water is running out of the bathtub or as you walk through the woods in an early winter snowfall."[169]
In 1967, Isaac Asimov commented on the changes then occurring in the science fiction community: "And because today’s real life so resembles day-before-yesterday’s fantasy, the old-time fans are restless. Deep within, whether they admit it or not, is a feeling of disappointment and even outrage that the outer world has invaded their private domain. They feel the loss of a 'sense of wonder' because what was once truly confined to 'wonder' has now become prosaic and mundane."[190]
Max Gladstone defined "hard" science fiction as stories "where the math works," but pointed out that this ends up with stories that often seem "weirdly dated," as scientific paradigms shift over time.[201]Michael Swanwick dismissed the traditional definition of "hard" SF altogether, instead saying that it was defined by characters striving to solve problems "in the right way–with determination, a touch of stoicism, and the consciousness that the universe is not on his or her side."[200]
In her much reprinted 1976 essay "Science Fiction and Mrs Brown,"[221] Le Guin asked: "Can a science fiction writer write a novel?"; and answered: "I believe that all novels, . . . deal with character, and that it is to express character–not to preach doctrines, sing songs, or celebrate the glories of the British Empire, that the form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose, and undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been evolved. . . . The great novelists have brought us to see whatever they wish us to see through some character. Otherwise they would not be novelists, but poets, historians, or pamphleteers." Orson Scott Card, best known for his 1985 science fiction novel Ender's Game, has postulated that in science fiction the message and intellectual significance of the work is contained within the story itself and, therefore, does not need stylistic gimmicks or literary games.[222][223]
Jonathan Lethem, in a 1998 essay in the Village Voice entitled "Close Encounters: The Squandered Promise of Science Fiction," suggested that the point in 1973 when Thomas Pynchon'sGravity's Rainbow was nominated for the Nebula Award and was passed over in favor of Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama, stands as "a hidden tombstone marking the death of the hope that SF was about to merge with the mainstream."[224] In the same year science fiction author and physicist Gregory Benford wrote: "SF is perhaps the defining genre of the twentieth century, although its conquering armies are still camped outside the Rome of the literary citadels."[225]
Science fiction is being written, and has been written, by diverse authors from around the world. According to 2013 statistics by the science fiction publisherTor Books, men outnumber women by 78% to 22% among submissions to the publisher.[226]A controversy about voting slates in the 2015 Hugo Awards highlighted tensions in the science fiction community between a trend of increasingly diverse works and authors being honored by awards, and reaction by groups of authors and fans who preferred what they considered more "traditional" science fiction.[227]
The earliest organized online fandom was the SF Lovers Community, originally a mailing list in the late 1970s with a text archive file that was updated regularly.[255] In the 1980s, Usenet groups greatly expanded the circle of fans online.[256] In the 1990s, the development of the World-Wide Web exploded the community of online fandom by orders of magnitude, with thousands and then millions of websites devoted to science fiction and related genres for all media.[251] Most such sites are relatively small, ephemeral, and/or narrowly focused,[257][258] though sites like SF Site and SFcrowsnest offer a broad range of references and reviews.[259][260]
Forrest J Ackerman is credited with first using the term "sci-fi" (analogous to the then-trendy "hi-fi") in 1954.[269] As science fiction entered popular culture, writers and fans active in the field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech "B-movies," and with low-quality pulp science fiction.[270][271][272] By the 1970s, critics within the field, such as Damon Knight and Terry Carr, were using "sci fi" to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction.[273]Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers."[274]Robert Heinlein found even "science fiction" insufficient for certain types of works in this genre, and suggested the term speculative fiction to be used instead for those that are more "serious" or "thoughtful."[275]
Elements
A person reading from a futuristic wraparound display screen
Science fiction elements can include, among others:
^ abvon Thorn, Alexander (August 2002). "Aurora Award acceptance speech". Calgary, Alberta. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^Prucher, Jeff (ed.). Brave New Words. The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction (Oxford University Press, 2007) page 179
^James Blish, More Issues at Hand, Advent: Publishers, 1970. Pg. 99. Also in Jesse Sheidlower, "Dictionary citations for the term «hard science fiction»". Jessesword.com. Last modified 6 July 2008.
^Asimov, "How Easy to See the Future!", Natural History, 1975
^Heinlein, Robert A.; Cyril Kornbluth; Alfred Bester; Robert Bloch (1959). The Science Fiction Novel: Imagination and Social Criticism. University of Chicago: Advent Publishers.
^Grewell, Greg: "Colonizing the Universe: Science Fictions Then, Now, and in the (Imagined) Future", Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, Vol. 55, No. 2 (2001), pp. 25–47 (30f.)
^Gunn, James E., The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Viking, 1988, ISBN978-0-670-81041-3, p. 249, calls it "Proto-Science Fiction."
^ abRichardson, Matthew (2001). The Halstead Treasury of Ancient Science Fiction. Rushcutters Bay, New South Wales: Halstead Press. ISBN978-1-875684-64-9. (cf."Once Upon a Time". Emerald City (85). September 2002. Retrieved 17 September 2008.)
^Dr. Abu Shadi Al-Roubi (1982), "Ibn al-Nafis as a philosopher", Symposium on Ibn al-Nafis, Second International Conference on Islamic Medicine: Islamic Medical Organization, Kuwait (cf.Ibnul-Nafees As a Philosopher, Encyclopedia of Islamic World[1])
^Khanna, Lee Cullen. "The Subject of Utopia: Margaret Cavendish and Her Blazing-World." Utopian and Science Fiction by Women: World of Difference. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1994. 15–34.
^Asimov, Isaac (1977). The Beginning and the End. New York: Doubleday. ISBN978-0-385-13088-2.
^Clute, John & Nicholls, Peter (1993). "Mary W. Shelley". Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Orbit/Time Warner Book Group UK. Retrieved 17 January 2007.
^Wingrove, Aldriss (2001). Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1973) Revised and expanded as Trillion Year Spree (with David Wingrove)(1986). New York: House of Stratus. ISBN978-0-7551-0068-2.
^Tresch, John (2002). "Extra! Extra! Poe invents science fiction". In Hayes, Kevin J. The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 113–132. ISBN978-0-521-79326-1.
^La obra narrativa de Enrique Gaspar: El Anacronópete (1887), María de los Ángeles Ayala, Universidad de Alicante. Del Romanticismo al Realismo : Actas del I Coloquio de la S. L. E. S. XIX , Barcelona, 24–26 October 1996 / edited by Luis F. Díaz Larios, Enrique Miralles.
^El anacronópete, English translation (2014), www.storypilot.com, Michael Main, accessed 13 April 2016
^Siegel, Mark Richard (1988). Hugo Gernsback, Father of Modern Science Fiction: With Essays on Frank Herbert and Bram Stoker. Borgo Pr. ISBN978-0-89370-174-1.
^Wagar, W. Warren (2004). H.G. Wells: Traversing Time. Wesleyan University Press. p. 7.
^Edwards, Malcolm J.; Nicholls, Peter (1995). "SF Magazines". In John Clute and Peter Nicholls. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (Updated ed.). New York: St Martin's Griffin. p. 1066. ISBN0-312-09618-6.
^Roberts, Garyn G. (2001). "Buck Rogers". In Browne, Ray B.; Browne, Pat (eds.). The Guide To United States Popular Culture. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 120. ISBN978-0-87972-821-2.
^Taormina, Agatha (19 January 2005). "A History of Science Fiction". Northern Virginia Community College. Archived from the original on 26 March 2004. Retrieved 16 January 2007.
^Codex, Regius (2014). From Robots to Foundations. Wiesbaden/Ljubljana. ISBN978-1499569827.
^"OFF-LINE интервью с Борисом Стругацким" [OFF-LINE interview with Boris Strugatsky] (in Russian). Russian Science Fiction & Fantasy. December 2006. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
^Mike Ashley; Michael Ashley (14 May 2007). Gateways to Forever: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1970–1980. Liverpool University Press. p. 218. ISBN978-1-84631-003-4.
^McGuirk, Carol (1992). "The 'New' Romancers". In Slusser, George Edgar; Shippey, T. A. (eds.). Fiction 2000. University of Georgia Press. pp. 109–125. ISBN9780820314495.
^Caroti, Simone (2011). The Generation Starship in Science Fiction. McFarland. p. 156. ISBN9780786485765.
^Peter Swirski (ed), The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem, McGill-Queen's University Press, 2008, ISBN0-7735-3047-9
^Fitting, Peter (July 1991). "The Lessons of Cyberpunk". In Penley, C.; Ross, A. Technoculture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 295–315
^SciFi Film History - Metropolis (1927) – Though most agree that the first science fiction film was Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon (1902), Metropolis (1926) is the first feature length outing of the genre. (scififilmhistory.com, retrieved 15 May 2013)
^"Metropolis". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
^Russo, Joe; Landsman, Larry; Gross, Edward (2001). Planet of the Apes Revisited: The Behind-The Scenes Story of the Classic Science Fiction Saga (1st ed.). New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN0312252390.
^Stanyard, Stewart T. (2007). Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone : A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series ([Online-Ausg.] ed.). Toronto: ECW press. p. 18. ISBN978-1550227444.
^O'Reilly, Terry (24 May 1014). "21st Century Brands". Under the Influence. Season 3. Episode 21. Event occurs at time 2:07. CBC Radio One. Transcript of the original source. Retrieved 7 June 2014. The series had lots of interesting devices that marveled us back in the 1960s. In episode one, we see wife Jane doing exercises in front of a flatscreen television. In another episode, we see George Jetson reading the newspaper on a screen. Can anyone say computer? In another, Boss Spacely tells George to fix something called a "computer virus." Everyone on the show uses video chat, foreshadowing Skype and Face Time. There is a robot vacuum cleaner, foretelling the 2002 arrival of the iRobot Roomba vacuum. There was also a tanning bed used in an episode, a product that wasn't introduced to North America until 1979. And while flying space cars that have yet to land in our lives, the Jetsons show had moving sidewalks like we now have in airports, treadmills that didn't hit the consumer market until 1969, and they had a repairman who had a piece of technology called... Mac.
^Moran, Caitlin (30 June 2007). "Doctor Who is simply masterful". The Times. London. Retrieved 1 July 2007. [Doctor Who] is as thrilling and as loved as Jolene, or bread and cheese, or honeysuckle, or Friday. It's quintessential to being British.
^"Special Collectors' Issue: 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". TV Guide (28 June – 4 July). 1997.
^British Science Fiction Television: A Hitchhiker's Guide, John R. Cook, Peter Wright, I.B.Tauris, 6 January 2006, page 9
^Gowran, Clay. "Nielsen Ratings Are Dim on New Shows." Chicago Tribune. 11 October 1966: B10.
^Gould, Jack. "How Does Your Favorite Rate? Maybe Higher Than You Think." New York Times. 16 October 1966: 129.
^*Richardson, David (July 1997). "Dead Man Walking". Cult Times. Retrieved 17 January 2007. Nazarro, Joe. "The Dream Given Form". TV Zone Special (#30).
^Science Fiction Film, Television, and Adaptation: Across the Screens, Jay Telotte, Gerald Duchovnay, Routledge, 2 August 2011
^Androids, Humanoids, and Other Science Fiction Monsters: Science and Soul in Science Fiction Films, Per Schelde, NYU Press, 1994, pages 1–10
^Elyce Rae Helford, in Westfahl, Gary. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Greenwood Press, 2005: 289–290.
^Hauskeller, Michael; Carbonell, Curtis D.; Philbeck, Thomas D. (13 January 2016). The Palgrave handbook of posthumanism in film and television. Hauskeller, Michael,, Philbeck, Thomas Drew, 1976-, Carbonell, Curtis D. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire. ISBN9781137430328. OCLC918873873.
^Barlowe, Wayne Douglas (1987). Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials. Workman Publishing Company. ISBN0-89480-500-2.
^Baxter, John (1997). "Kubrick Beyond the Infinite". Stanley Kubrick: A Biography. Basic Books. pp. 199–230. ISBN0-7867-0485-3.
^Gary K. Wolfe and Carol T. Williams, "The Majesty of Kindness: The Dialectic of Cordwainer Smith", Voices for the Future: Essays on Major Science Fiction Writers, Volume 3, Thomas D. Clareson editor, Popular Press, 1983, pages 53–72.
^Le Guin, Ursula K. (1976) "Science Fiction and Mrs Brown," in The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction, Perennial HarperCollins, Revised edition 1993; in Science Fiction at Large (ed. Peter Nicholls), Gollancz, London, 1976; in Explorations of the Marvellous (ed. Peter Nicholls), Fontana, London, 1978; in Speculations on Speculation. Theories of Science Fiction (eds. James Gunn and Matthew Candelaria), The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Maryland, 2005.
^Lethem, Jonathan (1998), "Close Encounters: The Squandered Promise of Science Fiction", Village Voice, June. Also reprinted in a slightly expanded version under the title "Why Can't We All Live Together?: A Vision of Genre Paradise Lost" in the New York Review of Science Fiction, September 1998, Number 121, Vol 11, No. 1.
^Benford, Gregory (1998) "Meaning-Stuffed Dreams:Thomas Disch and the future of SF", New York Review of Science Fiction, September, Number 121, Vol. 11, No. 1
^"Information About SFWA". Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. Archived from the original on 24 December 2005. Retrieved 16 January 2006.
^ abWertham, Fredric (1973). The World of Fanzines. Carbondale & Evanston: Southern Illinois University Press.
^Clute, John (1993). ""Sci fi" (article by Peter Nicholls)". In Nicholls, Peter (ed.). Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Orbit/Time Warner Book Group UK.
^Clute, John (1993). ""SF" (article by Peter Nicholls)". In Nicholls, Peter (ed.). Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Orbit/Time Warner Book Group UK.
^Peter Fitting (2010), "Utopia, dystopia, and science fiction", in Gregory Claeys (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Utopian Literature, Cambridge University Press, pp. 138–139
^Hartwell, David G. (1996). Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction. Tor Books. pp. 109–131. ISBN978-0-312-86235-0.
^Ashley, M. (April 1989). The Immortal Professor, Astro Adventures No.7, p.6.
^H. G. Stratmann (14 September 2015). Using Medicine in Science Fiction: The SF Writer's Guide to Human Biology. Springer, 2015. p. 227. ISBN9783319160153.
Sources
Aldiss, Brian. Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science Fiction, 1973.
Aldiss, Brian, and Wingrove, David. Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction, revised and updated edition, 1986.
Amis, Kingsley. New Maps of Hell: A Survey of Science Fiction, 1958.
Barron, Neil, ed. Anatomy of Wonder: A Critical Guide to Science Fiction (5th ed.). Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited, 2004. ISBN1-59158-171-0.
Jameson, Fredric. Archaeologies of the Future: This Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions. London and New York: Verso, 2005.
Milner, Andrew. Locating Science Fiction. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012.
Raja, Masood Ashraf, Jason W. Ellis and Swaralipi Nandi. eds., The Postnational Fantasy: Essays on Postcolonialism, Cosmopolitics and Science Fiction. McFarland 2011. ISBN978-0-7864-6141-7.
Reginald, Robert. Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature, 1975–1991. Detroit, MI/Washington, D.C./London: Gale Research, 1992. ISBN0-8103-1825-3.
Suvin, Darko. Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: on the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. New Haven : Yale University Press, 1979.
Weldes, Jutta, ed. To Seek Out New Worlds: Exploring Links between Science Fiction and World Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. ISBN0-312-29557-X.
Westfahl, Gary, ed. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders (three volumes). Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2005.
Wolfe, Gary K. Critical Terms for Science Fiction and Fantasy: A Glossary and Guide to Scholarship. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986. ISBN0-313-22981-3.