Science fiction has been a really interesting
topic for me to sink my proverbial teeth into.
You'd think a robot would have an easier time
grasping a genre so full of robots, but sci-fi
is far from simple, even for me.
There are so many unique definitions from
so many different voices.
The only way we were able to get a true handle
on its shape and size... was to look backward.
To study how it evolved over time.
From conception to birth, birth to adolescence,
adolescence to transcendence, let's look at
the 5 historical eras that define science
fiction.
In the strictest sense, science fiction is
a lot older than you might expect.
Poets and philosopher have been dreaming about
the boundaries of possibility for centuries,
imagining what could be.
Look to the ancient Ramayana and you'll find
"Vimana flying machines".
In his 2nd-century work True History, Lucian
takes us on a voyage into outer space to commune
with extraterrestrials.
The 8th-century 1,001 Nights is host to flying
mechanical horses, interplanetary travel,
utopian societies-a veritable wonderland of
pseudo-scientific marvels.
But these were mostly epics and fantasies
with the barest sprinkling of novum.
Science fiction as a genre wasn't conceived
until much later.
And it was a period of literary change in
the 19th-century west that started it.
As romantic visions met with realist sensibilities,
the work of some authors began to reflect
this confluence.
In her seminal novel Frankenstein, Mary Wollstonecraft
Shelley combined emerging concepts of galvanic
electricity and chemistry with gothic horror.
H.G. Wells and Jules Verne made adventure
stories of their speculations, both to great
acclaim.
And so it was that through a smattering of
disparate works published over the course
of nearly 100 years that a new literary form
was born: the simple merging of science and
fiction.
During its shift from romanticism to realism,
the western world was also undergoing a bit
of a "sensationalist" period.
Exploitative and enticing tales were being
published en masse in dime novels, penny dreadfuls,
and before long, flimsy magazines processed
from wood pulp.
Cheap stories, cheap production, cheap paper.
At the height of their popularity issues of
"the big four" publications-Argosy, Blue Book,
Short Stories, and Adventure-were selling
millions of copies each.
Enter Hugo Gernsback.
With a history in writing and editing, Gernsback
had seen first-hand the demand for what he
called "scientifiction" stories, and in 1926
he devised a way to capitalize on it.
He would call his magazine Amazing Stories,
and it would become the first real aggregate
for science fiction.
Sure, it have been the same, cheap stuff-pulp
stories about scantily-clad space-vixens captured
by mars mutanoids, printed side-by-side with
classics like Verne, Wells, and Lovecraft-but
at least it was something.
What's more, it worked.
The "letters to the editor" column opened
a forum for fans, and the very next year pulp
SF hit it big with the release of the first
ever feature-length sci-fi film Metropolis.
The genre was finding its legs, and pulp was
its crutch.
Pulp sci-fi never really went away.
Even today, a lot of sci-fi films and stories
rely on spectacle-action, thrills, dazzling
effects.
But not all science fiction spectacles are
so much about their entertainment value.
Some ask us instead to wonder at their speculations,
marvel at shared glimpses of a possible future.
By making a spectacle of real science and
technology in a way that pulp never had, hard
science fiction asserts itself as the truest
"fiction of science".
The famous editor John W. Campbell saw this
back in the 1930's, and after joining the
pulp publication Astounding Stories, proved
a champion for this particular type of story.
He began his "regime" almost immediately.
By 1938 he'd changed the title of the magazine
from Astounding "Stories" to Astounding "Science
Fiction".
Beyond that, he cultivated a stable of regular
writers which included some of the most famous
minds of the genre-Isaac Asimov, Arthur C.
Clarke, Robert A. Heinlein and others.
And with these authors, he was meticulous.
Asimov once said that to Campbell, they were
"extensions of himself; his literary clones."
Thus Campbell almost single-handedly catalyzed
the first major surge in hard SF.
These were the years of ingenious works like
Asimov's Foundation series and Bradbury's
Martian Chronicles; a period we know now as
"The Golden Age of Science Fiction".
At the end of the 50's, an epidemic struck
the sci-fi racks in book stores.
There were roughly 23 major titles circulating
in the U.S. by 1957; by the end of 1960, only
6 remained.
The cause of this bottlenecking?
One word: sputnik.
When the rockets went up, all eyes shifted
from the intrigue of science fiction to the
promise of scientific reality.
Fortunately, a number of authors were already
developing a breed of sci-fi immune to this
die-off.
The pieces they were writing stepped outside
the bounds of established science fiction,
experimenting more with form than with subject
matter.
They called it the "New Wave", and in 1964
English writer Michael Moorcock solidified
the movement by doing as Campbell had done
for Hard SF and Gernsback for pulp before
him: he created a home for it by turning "New
Worlds" magazine into the first ever dedicated
New Wave publication.
A bare three years later, Harlan Ellison brought
the movement to America with his 1967 anthology
Dangerous Visions, turning New Wave into an
international phenomenon.
And finally, with the stylistically inventive
nature of these works, science was beginning
to gain recognition as a genre that could
be literary.
Titles like A Clockwork Orange and Slaughterhouse-Five,
Giles Goat-Boy and Do Androids Dream of Electric
Sheep? both refined the genre from its humble
roots... and divided it.
With the reality of actual space travel, it's
understandable that people were growing tired
of grand space operas and realistic-though-outmoded
speculation.
But with new advancements come new curiosities.
The digital revolution was just around the
corner, and after the 60's it began to creep
its way into the minds of sci-fi writers.
One of the earliest results of this comes
from the proximity of this technological change
to the New Wave movement: a sub-genre called
"cyberpunk".
"Cyber" for the spectacle of digital technology,
and "Punk" for the literary subversiveness
of New Wave fiction.
The Bladerunner or Akira and you're on the
right track.
And that's only the literary side of things.
With the thorough integration and accessibility
of digital technologies moving forward, the
modern equivalent of pulp is showing at force
on the silver screen, and sci-fi is becoming
an ever more profound lens for self-reflection.
If you need proof of this, look no further
than the phenomenal show Black Mirror.
Just don't blame us for the existential nightmares
it throws you into...
Outro
So, sci-fi: one of the most divided and difficult-to-define
genres out there, but we hope this background
helps clarify why we chose the definition
from this month's first video.
Or, maybe it'll help you reach your own understanding!
Either way, there's really no substitute for
first- hand experience, so if you want to
explore any of the titles we mentioned in
this video, you can actually do it for free
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Start a free one-month trial and you get access
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We try to stay away from ads on sponsorships
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It's a great service for anyone who loves
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And if nothing else, starting a free trial
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Links in the description.
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For instance, until now, no one but our patrons
knew that our next series is going to be about...
H.P.
Lovecraft.
Yes.
The time has finally come.
For now, though, we've got a short story to
write.
Thanks for watching, and keep making stuff
up!
We'll see you...
next week!
Bye!
