Encyclopedia
Science fiction is a popular genre of fiction in which the narrative world differs from our own present or historical reality in least one significant way. This difference may be technological, physical, historical, sociological, philosophical, metaphysical, etc, but not magical or supernatural . Exploring the consequences of such differences is the traditional purpose of science fiction, but there are also many SF works in which an exotically alien setting is superimposed upon what would otherwise be an non-SF tale.
Prominent authors speaking about science fiction
- According to renowned science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein, "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." Heinlein immediately adds that if you "strike out the word 'future' it can apply to all and not just almost all SF."
- Science-fiction author Theodore Sturgeon wrote "a good science-fiction story is a story about human beings, with a human problem, and a human solution, that would not have happened at all without its science content." .
- Frank Herbert:"I think science fiction does help, and it points in very interesting directions. It points in relativistic directions. It says that we have the imagination for these other opportunities, these other choices. We tend to tie ourselves down to limited choices. We say, "Well, the only answer is...." or, "If you would just. . . ." Whatever follows these two statements narrows the choices right there. It gets the vision right down close to the ground so that you don't see anything happening outside. Humans tend not to see over a long range. Now we are required, in these generations, to have a longer range view of what we inflict on the world around us. This is where, I think, science fiction is helping. I don't think that the mere writing of such a book as Brave New World or 1984 prevents those things which are portrayed in those books from happening. But I do think they alert us to that possibility and make that possibility less likely. They make us aware that we may be going in that direction."
- In his book of essays, Strong Opinions, Vladimir Nabokov half-seriously argues that if we were rigorous with our definitions, Shakespeare's play The Tempest is traditionally considered to be William Shakespeare's [i] last pla ...
would have to be termed science fiction.
Science fiction and other genres
Science fiction and fantasy
A science-fiction story may be firmly rooted in real scientific possibilities as they are understood at the time of writing, as in
Arthur C. Clarke's novel
A Fall of Moondust is a science fiction [i] novel by Arthur C. Clarke [i], first published in 1961 [i] ...
, or highly imaginative, set in an
extraterrestrial civilization or a parallel universe, as in
Isaac Asimov's novel
The Gods Themselves.
Some science fiction portrays events that fall outside of science as currently understood, as in
Ray Bradbury's
The Martian Chronicles is a 1950 science fiction [i] book by Ray Bradbury [i] that chronicles the co ...
. But one alternate viewpoint on such tales is to view them not from the current era's understanding of science, but to view the tale in the context of the known science during the time the tale was written. Another example of that would be
Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold the Moon", which postulated a private enterprise exploration of the earth's moon decades in advance of the real events in 1969 — thus a contemporary reader might instead take the work as a member of the subgenre Alternate history, rather than the Hard science fiction work it was at the time of its publication.
Also, different readers have different ideas about what counts as scientifically "realistic"; an uneducated person will have different expectations about what science can do than a professional physicist. As Clarke himself stated, "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" . Thus, even fiction that depicts innovations ruled out by current scientific theory, such as stories about faster-than-light travel, may still be classified as science fiction, as they are in the popular
Honorverse novels and stories by
David Weber.
The Dying Earth subgenre of SF gives particularly strong examples of the genre-boundaries being blurred;
Jack Vance's
Dying Earth works, first published in 1950, depict an Earth so old and desolate that it has receded into a sort of dark age, where the line between magic and technology is blurred. This technique is later used in M. John Harrison's
Viriconium sequence and particularly
Gene Wolfe's
The Book of the New Sun is a novel written by fantasy [i] and science fiction [i] author Gene Wolfe [i] ...
, which depicts objects like aliens, androids, and ancient crashed spacships while retaining a very medieval setting, described by a narrator who does himself not comprehend any of these technological relics.
Accordingly, the borderline between fantasy and science fiction is blurred, and many bookstores shelve science fiction and fantasy together. There is a substantial overlap between the audiences of science fiction and fantasy literature, and many science-fiction authors have also written works of fantasy. Fans often nominate works of fantasy for SF awards such as the
Hugo and Nebula, clearly indicating a substantial overlap among readers.
Indeed, it can be argued that science fiction is simply a modern form of fantasy. According to this view, the elements that would previously have been presented as fantasy are rationalized or supported through scientific or quasiscientific explanations such as marvelous devices, mutation, psychic abilities, aliens, etc. An example is The Force and the conflict between the
Sith and
Jedi in
Star Wars. Star Wars could be considered both science fantasy and standard science fiction due to the massive technological warfare in its story.
This definition is resisted by some scholars and writers who attempt to define the genre's aspects more sharply, and advocate an aspiration to present a world without mystical or supernatural forces. For example, in such works as
Metamorphoses of Science Fiction, Darko Suvin emphasises a
cognitive element in SF. According to Suvin, the purpose of science fiction is to introduce scientific or technological novelties in order to create narratives that enable us to perceive everyday reality at a reflective distance. He uses the term
cognitive estrangement to label this effect.
Some SF clearly exhibits this aspiration, but not all. As a result, some theorists are able to emphasise the difference between SF and fantasy, while others emphasise continuity. It is also common to see narratives described as being essentially SF but "with fantasy elements." More recently, the term "science fantasy" has been increasingly used to describe such material.
Science fiction and mainstream literature
Science fiction can overlap with more mainstream fiction.
If the society, the person, the technology, and the scientific knowledge base in the story are all drawn from observed reality, without much detail about the scientific aspects, the story may be classed as mainstream, contemporary
fiction rather than as
science fiction, like
Marooned by Martin Caidin, or virtually all the novels by
Tom Clancy. If the characters' thoughts and feelings about the laws of the universe, time, reality, and human invention are unusual and tend toward existential re-interpretation of life's meaning in relation to the technological world, then it may be classed a
modernist work of
literature that overlaps with the themes of science fiction. Examples include
Thomas Pynchon's
Gravity's Rainbow is a novel written by Thomas Pynchon [i] and first published in 1973.
...
,
William Burroughs's
Nova Express is a 1964 novel by William Burroughs [i], whose plot cannot easily be described. ...
,
Kazuo Ishiguro's
Never Let Me Go is a 2005 novel [i] by Kazuo Ishiguro [i]. ...
, and much of the work of
Kurt Vonnegut,
Philip K. Dick, and
Stanislaw Lem.
Speculative fiction
The broader category of
speculative fiction — derived from the initials 'SF' of Science Fiction — includes science fiction, fantasy, alternate histories , and even literary stories in which the only fantastic element is the strangeness of their style.
Jorge Luis Borges's short stories are particularly known for their speculative style, and
Olaf Stapledon's
Darkness and the Light, which presents two possible futures for mankind defined by developments in ethics and philosophy, is a good example of speculative fiction. Another branch of speculative fiction is the
utopian or dystopian story. These are sometimes claimed by science fiction on the grounds that sociology is a science. Many satirical novels with fantastic settings qualify as speculative fiction. For example,
Gulliver's Travels , officially
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, is a novel by...
,
The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel [i] by Canadian [i] author [i] ...
,
Nineteen Eighty-four is a dystopian [i] novel [i] written by the English [i] ...
, and
Brave New World, published in 1932 [i], was first intended as a dystopian novel [i]...
are examples. "Magic realism" could be regarded as a form of speculative fiction.
Slipstream fiction
Slipstream is a term coined for fiction that does not fit comfortably either inside or outside the science-fiction genre. A good example is the
Hugo-nominated novel
Cryptonomicon is a 1999 [i] English language novel by Neal Stephenson [i]. ...
by
Neal Stephenson.
Precursors of science fiction
Lucian around 160 A.D. wrote
Vera Historia a title as punning in Latin as English, as it can be interpreted as meaning "a true story" or "this is truly a story" . A whirlwind transports a ship sailing beyond the
Pillars of Hercules to the
Moon, where the voyagers find the King is about to go to war with the Emperor of the
Sun over rights to colonize
Venus. Fabulous beasts such as flea archers the size of elephants are employed. The battle outcome was decided when long-waited reinforcements from
Sirius arrived to support the Emperor at the end. Following this the Emperor's forces surrounded the Moon with fog clouds, leaving it without solar power. The inhabitants of the Moon were forced to surrender and the decision was made to colonize Venus with joint efforts. Given the scientific knowledge of the day, this could fit the definition of science fiction, while
Johannes Kepler's
Somnium is more marginal, as his explorer reaches the Moon by witchcraft, even though the Moon itself is described as accurately as contemporary astronomy permitted.
Voltaire's "Micromégas" is a significant development in the
history of literature because it originates ideas which helped create the genre of science fiction itself. It's a tale of the visit to
Earth of a being from a planet orbiting
Sirius and his friend from
Saturn, and is regarded as the first example of science-fiction philosophical irony.
Precursors of the contemporary genre, such as
Mary Shelley's
Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus is a novel [i] by Mary Shelley [i]. ...
and her post-apocalyptic
The Last Man , and
Robert Louis Stevenson's
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a novella [i] written by the Scottish [i] auth ...
are frequently regarded as science fiction, whereas
Bram Stoker's
Dracula is an 1897 [i] novel [i] by Irish [i] author Bram Stoker [i], and the name of its ti ...
, based on the
supernatural, is not. A borderline case is
Mark Twain's
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an 1889 [i] novel [i] by American ...
, where the time travel is unexplained, but subsequent events make realistic use of science. Shelley's novel and Stevenson's novella are early examples of a standard science-fiction theme: The obsessed scientist whose discoveries worsen a bad circumstance.
According to J.O. Bailey:
- "The touchstone for scientific fiction, then, is that it describes an imaginary invention or discovery in the natural sciences. The most serious pieces of this fiction arise from speculation about what may happen if science makes an extraordinary discovery. The romance is an attempt to anticipate this discovery and its impact upon society, and to foresee how mankind may adjust to the new condition."
Subject matter
Science fiction covers . Many of these were originally treated by early pioneers such as
H. G. Wells and
Jules Verne.
The following subjects from works by Verne are found in much later science fiction:
- Space travel , 1865
- The future , 1863
- Technology not yet invented , 1870
- Mental changes in humans , 1882
- Terraforming , 1904
H.G. Wells pioneered the following subjects:
- Biological changes in humans or animals , 1896
- Time travel , 1895
- Humans with extraordinary powers , 1897
- Contact with aliens from other worlds , 1898
- Space travel , 1901
- The future , 1899
- The evolution of the human race , 1923
- Nuclear warfare , 1914
Media
Early science fiction was published in
books and in general circulation
magazines.
Film
Beginning early in the history of
silent film, the
science-fiction film established a tradition of its own, generally more sensational and less scientific than written science fiction. Some examples of early silent science-fiction
films include
Georges Méliès's
A Trip to the Moon is a 1902 [i] French [i] science fiction [i] black and white [i] ...
and
Fritz Lang's
Metropolis . Many of the movie
serials of the 1940s and 1950s were science fiction, and led into early science-fiction television programming .
It has often been said that science-fiction film lags about fifty years behind written science fiction. For example,
George Lucas' landmark 1977 film
has been compared to the
pulp science fiction in
Planet Stories, first published in 1939. Following the success of
Star Wars there was an explosion of science-fiction films. Films in the genre now regularly achieve blockbuster status, for example,
Alien,
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is an Academy Award [i]-winning 1982 [i] science fiction [i] ...
,
The Matrix is a science fiction [i]/action [i] film [i] written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski [i] ...
, and many others.
Science-fiction films also explore more serious topics and some aim for high artistic standards, especially following
Stanley Kubrick's influential
in 1968. Contemporary filmmakers have found science fiction to be a useful genre for exploring political, moral and philosophical issues, such as 1997's
Gattaca is a 1997 [i] science fiction [i] drama [i] film [i] written and dir...
, 2001's Kubrick/Spielberg brainchild
A.I. Artificial Intelligence , 2002's
Minority Report is a science fiction [i] short story [i] by Philip K. Dick [i] first published in 1956 [i] ...
, and 2005's
Serenity .
Television
Science-fiction television dates from at least as early as 1938, when the BBC staged a live performance of the science-fiction play
R.U.R.. The first regularly scheduled science-fiction series to achieve a degree of popularity was
Captain Video was an American [i] science fiction television [i] ...
and his Video Rangers, which ran from 1949 to 1955 on the American
DuMont Network.
The Twilight Zone was a television [i] anthology series [i] created by its narrator and host Rod Serling [i] ...
, originally broadcast in the United States from 1959-1964, was the first successful science-fiction series intended primarily for adults, although it often blurred the distinctions between science fiction, science fantasy and fantasy. The TV serial
Doctor Who is a long-running British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
first aired on BBC in 1963 and continues through to the present , introducing generations of UK viewers to the science fiction genre.
Star Trek aired on NBC from 1966 to 1969, introducing a wider U.S. audience to the tropes of real science fiction.
Stargate SG-1 is currently in its 10th season with more than 200 episodes and a spinoff series,
Stargate Atlantis.
Several once-popular science-fiction shows have recently experienced a resurgence as the genre's popularity has increased.
The Twilight Zone, for example, has seen two major revivals, from 1985-1989 and from 2002-2003. The most successful of the revivals in the late 20th century was undoubtedly the
Star Trek franchise, which generated one spin off in 1973 and four spin off series between 1987 and 2005.
Doctor Who is a long-running British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
has also been revived recently by BBC Wales and is now one of the most highly rated shows on British television. The recent re-make of
Battlestar Galactica is a franchise of American science fiction [i] film [i]s and television series [i] ...
has won both critical praise and increased viewership on the Sci Fi Channel.
Comics
Science fiction entered the
comic strip medium in 1929 with
Buck Rogers, followed in 1934 by
Flash Gordon is a science fiction [i] comic strip [i] originally drawn by Alex Raymond [i], first pu ...
. The majority of Americans before the 1950s never encountered any science fiction other than in the "funny papers," and assumed all SF was like this comic strip material; the phrase "that crazy Buck Rogers stuff" was often used to describe it, originally as an insult but later fondly by some fans.
The comic book began by reprinting comic strips, and Buck and Flash both had their own comic book reprints. As soon as original comic books began to appear, science fiction was a major genre.
Planet Stories had a comic book companion. Hugo Gernsback published
Wonderworld with art by pulp artist
Frank R. Paul. Later
EC Comics published the much beloved
Weird Science and
Weird Fantasy which first stole and later actually paid to adapt stories by
Ray Bradbury.
DC Comics published
Strange Adventures and
Mystery in Space was a science fiction [i] comic book [i] published by DC Comics [i] from 1951 to 19 ...
, edited by
Julius Schwartz.
Whether
superheroes themselves are science fiction or fantasy is a matter of opinion — they routinely break the laws of physics — but superhero comic books often use science fiction tropes such as alien invasion, time travel, space travel, and giant robots. Many writers have worked in both prose science fiction and comic books. Examples include
Alfred Bester, Gardner Fox, Edmond Hamilton, and
J. Michael Straczynski.
Radio
Early radio science fiction began by adapting
Buck Rogers and
Flash Gordon stories for radio, but later brought some of the best magazine science fiction to a larger audience with
Dimension X and
X Minus One was a half-hour radio [i] program broadcast in America from April 1955 ...
, which adapted stories by
Asimov,
Heinlein,
Leiber, and other major writers for radio.
The most famous example of radio science fiction was
Orson Welles' 1938 adaptation of
The War of the Worlds is a science fiction [i] novel [i] written by H. G. Wells [i] and published in ...
on
CBS Radio. Structured as a series of "news" bulletins, the program caused people across the U.S. to panic when some listeners believed it was real .
Contemporary SF radio continues the tradition of adapting sources originally produced for other media. For example, the BBC has broadcast a number of audio plays based on the Doctor Who television series. Less frequently in the modern era, science-fiction programs initially developed for radio have spread outwards to other formats.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a science fiction [i] comedy series that debuted as a radio comedy [i] ...
is perhaps the best known property of this type, beginning on BBC radio in 1978 and subsequently spawning a series of best-selling novels, a computer game, comic books, audio recordings of the radio program and other products.
Other media
There have been a few science-fiction stage plays, notably Los Angeles theater adaptations of Bradbury stories. There have been science-fiction
View-Master reels, notably "Sam Sawyer's Trip to the Moon." There have been original science-fiction albums, such as
Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds was a 1978 concept album [i] by Jeff Wayne [i] ...
and
The Firesign Theatre's
Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers. There is also a small but growing number of science-fiction operas.
Terminology
The term "science fiction" first came into popular usage in the
1930s with the publication of
Science Wonder Stories magazine by Hugo Gernsback. Gernsback had previously coined the portmanteau word "scientifiction" for the genre, but the term did not gain acceptance. Before then, stories in this genre were often referred to as "scientific romances."
Two competing abbreviations for "science fiction" are in common usage. "
SF" is the term most commonly used by science-fiction writers and serious fans. In fannish circles in the forties and fifties the abbreviation stf , from Hugo Gernsback's coinage "scientifiction". The use of SF is not unambiguous, however. It is also used as an abbreviation for
speculative fiction, usually defined as a broader genre including, but not limited to, science fiction.
The euphonic "sci-fi," popularized by
Forrest J Ackerman in 1954, but used five years earlier by
Robert A. Heinlein, has grown in popularity and is today by far the most common term used in the popular press, although many hardcore fans and authors continue to wince at its usage or even consider it offensive.
Brian Aldiss, defending the abbreviation "SF," notes that it is flexible enough to stand for science fantasy or
speculative fiction, as well as science fiction. Some detractors of the term "sci-fi" have corrupted its pronunciation to "skiffy," which itself has become a sub-genre term for poorly made science fiction.
Harlan Ellison has derided the term "sci-fi" as a "hideous neologism" that "sounds like crickets fucking," a comment to which Ackerman responded by producing buttons bearing the slogan, "I love the sound of crickets making love."
Some commentators make a distinction between "sf" which they use to describe fiction in which science or speculation are integral to the plot or theme of the work, with "sci-fi" which they use for entertainment, typically in another genre such as action/adventure or horror which merely uses the trappings of traditional science-fiction stories, such a space ships, futuristic technology, bug-eyed monsters.
Another source of dislike for the term
sci-fi term is the tendency for the mainstream to use it as a collective term that lumps together not only true science fiction but fantasy, horror, comic books,
cult films, special effects action films, only marginally related genres such as
anime and gaming, and completely unrelated fields such as UFOlogy.
Despite this controversy, two high-profile science-fiction based cable networks in the
United States and the
United Kingdom take their name from this term, although both networks air programming which may not fit into everyone's definition of "science fiction." The channel name may be particularly suitable for those who dislike the term sci-fi since, according to
Dave Langford:
SF people [pronounce sci-fi] in tones of heavy irony to describe bad TV or movie sf.
—
A variation of the term is "sci-fantasy."
Fandom
The science-fiction genre has a strong fan community of readers and viewers, of which many authors are a part. Many people interested in science fiction wish to interact with like others who share the same interests; in time, an entire culture of science-fiction fandom evolved. Local fan groups exist in most of the English-speaking world, as well as in Japan, Europe, and elsewhere; often, these groups publish their own works. Also, fans have created science-fiction conventions as a way of meeting to discuss their mutual interests. Although some fan conventions are larger, the longest-running convention is the Worldcon.
Many amateur and professional fanzines exist, dedicated solely to keeping the science fiction fan informed on all aspects of the genre. The premiere literary awards of science fiction, the
Hugo Awards, are awarded by members of the annual Worldcon, which is almost entirely run by fan volunteers; the other major science-fiction literary award is the Nebula. Science-fiction fandom often overlaps with other, similar interests, such as fantasy, role-playing games, and the
Society for Creative Anachronism. The largest, annual, multi-genre science fiction convention is
Dragon Con, held in
Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Of course, the fans of science fiction have whole-heartedly embraced the Internet. There are fan fiction sites which include additional, fan-created stories featuring characters from the genre's books, movies, and television programs. Although these may be technically illegal under
copyright law, they often are permitted when no profit is made from them, and there is clear understanding that the copyright remains property of the characters' original creators. There are fan sites devoted to
Frank Herbert's
Dune,
Michael Moorcock's
Multiverse,
Joss Whedon's
Firefly and
Serenity, etc. and to television shows such as
Doctor Who is a long-running British [i] science fiction television [i] ...
, and
Star Trek and its derivatives.
SF fandom has frequently served as an incubator for special-interest groups which originally coalesced within it and then hived off to form organizations or entire subcultures of their own. Examples include the
Society for Creative Anachronism, the
L-5 Society,
LARP gaming,
Furry fandom, and
anime. SF fandom also has close historical links and a large population overlap with the hacker culture, and has been a significant vector in the spread of both neopaganism and
libertarianism.
See also
- Clarke's three laws
- Cooper's Law
- Famous predictions
- French science fiction
...
References
Science fiction portals
- - Asimov's science fiction magazine
- - Official website for the American Sci Fi Channel.
- - Science Fiction Writers of America.
- - Website for the biggest international science fiction convention.
- - Many freely downloadable science-fiction books with an extensive bibliography of public domain science fiction.
