| Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction
principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and
persons as individuals. There are exceptions (or, at least, some unusual
examples) to this general definition.
Scope
In defining the scope of the science fiction genre, we speak of the impact of science and technology, or both, upon society or
persons; within the context of imaginative fiction there are a few variables.
It is possible to apply the creative imagination to different areas of this idea, for example:
- the impact of imagined science
- the imagined impact of actual science
- imagined technology based upon actual science
- imagined technology based upon imagined science
- the impact of science and technology, or both, upon imagined societies
- the impact of science and technology, or both, upon imagined individuals, etc., etc.
Therefore, a story could describe an extremely unusual society (i.e. an extraterrestrial civilization, or a parallel
or alternate dimension of spacetime) and their unusual reactions to a scientific discovery, which (to the reader) is straightforward
knowledge, e.g. the story "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov.
Alternatively, the society might be ordinary and human, but the individual man or woman might be an unusual person
(e.g. a mutant or a telepath) who responds exceptionally to otherwise ordinary events. The "individual" might be an artificial intelligence, and the story may partly be
concerned with the Turing test. The society and persons in the story may be
ordinary, but faced with bizarre circumstances such as the invention of teleportation, or the discovery of a new chemical element with unusual properties (such as Cavorite in The
First Men In The Moon).
If the society, the person, the technology, and the scientific knowledge base in the story are all standard and realistic
(drawn from observed reality), without much extrapolation of any of these literary components, the story would be classed as
mainstream, contemporary fiction rather than as science fiction, but if the
characters' psychology (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 would be classed a modernist work of literature which overlaps with the themes of science fiction.
Some fiction sits fairly and squarely on the borderline, between science fiction and other genres; some writing defies
categorisation. In some cases, the term "science fiction" generally refers to any literary fantasy including a scientific factor as an essential, story-orienting component. It is sometimes applied, more
generally, to any fantasy at all (generally so in US bookstores), but, in that case,
the larger category of speculative fiction is more inclusive.
Such literature may consist of a careful and informed extrapolation of scientific facts and principles, or it may range to
far-fetched areas flatly contradicting such facts and principles. In the former case, scientifically-based plausibility is
requisite, while in the latter, plausibility is the lesser requirement and love of scientific ideas the greater.
Precursors of the genre, such as Mary Shelley's Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) and Robert Louis Stevenson's
The Strange
Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) plainly are science fiction, whereas
Bram Stoker's Dracula
(1897), based on the supernatural, is
not. In fact, Mary Shelley's novel, and R. L. Stevenson's novella are early examples of a standard science fiction theme: The
obsessed scientist whose discoveries worsen a bad circumstance. Science fiction always has been concerned with the great hopes
people place in science, but also with their fears concerning the negative side of technological development.
One type of science fiction, which developed into a large subgenre, is the alternative history tale, wherein change is imagined at a crucial point in history,
causing events turn out differently, resulting in a different world. Ward
Moore's Bring the
Jubilee has the Confederacy winning the American Civil War, and then extrapolates what kind of 20th century resulted. Phillip K. Dick's The Man
in the High Castle posits the allies losing World War II. Kingsley
Amis's The
Alteration has the Roman Catholic Church retaining control of Europe (no Protestantism). The broader category of speculative fiction includes both science fiction and alternative
histories (which often have no particular scientific or futuristic component). An example is Olaf Stapledon's Darkness and the Light which presents two possible futures for mankind defined by
developments in ethics and philosophy. Sometimes, utopic and dystopic literature is regarded as science fiction (accurate insofar as sociology is science). In this
sense, many satirical novels qualify when its speculation distinguishes the "scene" from the present or the past.
Repeatedly, fiction dealing with science has been diluted, dumbed down,
for the mass audience of radio and television. Ironically, the dumbing-down has been so effective that the television version of
science fiction has become the format for dumbing-down scripts which would have been rejected for production as "too cerebral",
as happened with Sinclair Lewis's satirical, dystopian novel about American Fascism, It Can't Happen Here, becoming the television science fiction series "V"—over-simplified to the level a commercial television network
considered appropriate for its television-viewing audience of short attention span.
A popular idea of science fiction is that it is, in general, attempting to predict the future. Some commentators go so far as
to attempt to judge the "success" of a work of science fiction on its accuracy as a prediction. While most science fiction is set
in the future, most authors are not attempting to predict; rather to use the future as an open framework for their themes. A
science fiction writer is generally not trying to write a history of the future that they believe will happen, any more than a
writer of westerns is trying to create a historically accurate depiction of the old
West. There are exceptions, especially in early science fiction. Writers are actually as likely to write of a future that they
hope will not happen (e.g. in dystopias).
The Term
The earliest known usage of the term "science fiction" is in Chapter 10, of William Wilson's A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject (1851) in which he writes: "Science-Fiction, in which the revealed truths of Science may be given interwoven with a
pleasing story which may itself be poetical and true." This, however, appears to be an isolated usage, and the term then appears
to have been re-coined in the 1920s where it appeared in Amazing Stories magazine.
The term "science fiction" often is abbreviated as "SF" or "sci-fi" (often pronounced "skiffy" in derogation of the term);
however, SF is ambigous (c.f. Other types, below), and sci-fi is seen as
derogatory (though said attitude appears to lack a logical foundation, and is a limited social phenomenon). Another, short-lived,
synonym was scientifiction, attributed to Hugo Gernsback,
creator of Amazing Stories magazine in 1926.
Types of science fiction
Hard science fiction
Main article: Hard science fiction
"Hard" SF is concerned with the "hard sciences" and speculation on future technological developments; it tends to remain
strictly within the bounds of the theoretically possible at the time of writing. Technologies assumed to exist in other SF, but
as yet without a theoretical basis in real science—anti-gravity,
faster-than-light travel, and the
like—are often not used.
Character development is almost always secondary to explorations of astronomical or physical phenomena. Authors sometimes place the
"human condition" as a whole at the forefront of the story, but hard SF plots tend to be resolved by technological points.
Hard SF writers usually attempt to make their stories consistent with known science at the time of publication. This means
that their stories can become inconsistent with known science. On the other hand, if the fictional science developed in the story
is well-founded according to science at publication time, and if it is well-integrated with plot and character development, the
story can retain considerable interest long after science has passed it by. For example, Isaac Asimov's The Gods Themselves
revolves around the strong nuclear force but does not
include descriptions of gluons or quarks,
essential components of the modern understanding of nuclear physics. However, reader interest continues, even though Asimov's
fictional scientists use a "Pionizer" machine instead of a "Gluonizer". Another similar case is the series the starchild trilogy
which has a major plot point the theory of the Steady state
model. With the primary background dealing with the outcomes and theories which would arise from this theory. This
cosmological model was largely superceeded by the big bang theory by the late 60's.
However during the period of the series writing, this was a commonly accepted theory for the universe's creation.
Soft science fiction
Main article: Soft science fiction
"Soft" SF, in contrast to "hard," concerns itself with the "soft sciences," the humanities: psychology, politics, sociology, anthropology, and the like. Emphasis on "technological realism" is far less pronounced, and characterization
and plot are often much stronger, than in hard SF. One of the outstanding examples of soft SF, although time has not been
particularly merciful to it, is Isaac Asimov's 1951-3 Foundation Trilogy.
Frank Herbert's Dune, mentioned here in earlier revisions of the article, falls into the third category. See below...
Other types of science fiction
There are, additionally, numerous works falling into neither of the above categories, but instead telling more conventional
stories in a futuristic or technologically advanced setting; this category, Space
opera, which includes Star Wars, arguably Star Trek, and most other works that come to mind when one refers to "science fiction," is considered
to be a variety of fantasy by some science-fiction diehards. The general public, of
course, doesn't make such a distinction, and places Star Wars and the like
in the category of SF; "fantasy" implies a Lord of the
Rings rip-off, and Star Wars is, at least in its visual style, not even
remotely similar.
Some of those annoyed by this have suggested adopting the solution often used by bookstores, and revising "SF" to stand for
speculative fiction and thus encompass fantasy and horror fiction as well
as science fiction proper.
Another sub-genre of SF is cyberpunk, first written by William Gibson in the 1980s; its classical example is his novel Neuromancer. The
recent Matrix movies fell, mostly, into this genre.
Exceptions and unique examples
One novel, which defines its own, unique form of science fiction is Flatland: A
Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), by A. Square (Edwin
Abbott Abbott). Flatland is the world seen from the point of view of a two-dimensional being.
Then there's Cosmicomics, by Italo Calvino, a series of short stories, each taking a scientific fact and spinning a fantastic tale around
it.
Another unique style is in We Can Build You (1972), by Philip K. Dick, wherein imitation human beings, called simulacra, are supposedly almost
indistinguishable from genuine people, however, when a character looks inside one of them he sees crude cogwheels and mechanical
parts. Given the ease with which the character unquestioningly accepts that reality, the reader can tell that We Can Build
You is not the usual naturalistic story, but must have a foot in Magic
realism.
The Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake is Fantasy for the first two of its three volumes,
suddenly changing, in the third volume, when the readers see the wider world outside the Gormenghast environment. That wider
world is more technologically advanced than our (the readers') own world was at the time of the book's writing. The BBC produced
two adaptations of the Gormenghast books, the first as a radio play, and the
second as television drama. Significantly, in both adaptations, the BBC spurned the third volume, and, in dramatising only the
first and second volumes, thus disguised the trilogy's true direction and meaning.
Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco, the technique of which plays mind games upon the reader, suggesting a
conspiracy theory and an unusual technology, but then raises
doubts allowing the reader to figure out what is reality and what is madness. This story type is unusual, but not unique, having
been preceded by Confessions of a Crap
Artist, by Phillip K. Dick.
Fandom
A unique feature of the science fiction genre is its strong fan community of readers and viewers, of which many authors are a
firm 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 (or 'fen', in the argot of the topic) originated science fiction conventions, a way of meeting to
discuss their mutual interest; the original and largest convention is the Worldcon.
Many fanzines ("fan magazines") and a few professional ones exist, dedicated
solely to informing the science fiction fan 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, etc. and to television shows such as Star Trek and its derivatives.
References
External links
- Science
Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (website (http://www.sfwa.org))
- Internet Speculative
Fiction Database (website (http://isfdb.org))
- Science Fiction Guide (http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/scifi/default.htm)
- 'Free Sci-Fi
Classics' A website providing archives of full text, non-copyright science fiction by Voltaire, Mary Shelley, Mark Twain, Jules
Verne, H.G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling and others (http://wondersmith.com/scifi/index.htm)
- Online Sci-Fi at Litrix
reading room, Authors: Richard Jefferies, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. G. Wells, George Allan England, Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin)
Shelley, Philip José Farmer, A. Merritt, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, Mallory Clontz, David Lindsay (http://www.litrix.com/sec8.htm)
- Infinity
Plus: Online new works in science fiction, fantasy and horror (http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/index.htm)
- Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy
Works (http://greatsfandf.com/): an attempt at extracting from the
undifferentiated morass the literate authors and works.
- Science Fiction and Fantasy
Portal (http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/) - Sci-Fi news and article portal.
- Science Fiction
literature (http://www.chronicles-network.com/)
- Science Fiction and Fantasy
Wiki (http://www.infoshop.org/sf/) - A new, open encyclopedia of science
fiction and fantasy; includes reviews and political analysis.
- Russian Science Fiction &
Fantasy (http://www.rusf.ru/english/) website.
- Cool SciFi (http://www.coolscifi.com/) - An online sci-fi community
- Bookshelved wiki (http://bookshelved.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?VisionsOfWonder) - SF category of book readers'
wiki
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