Science fiction

Science fiction is a form of fiction which deals principally with the impact
of actual or imagined science upon society or individuals.

Scope

Sometimes the characters involved are not even human, but are imagined
aliens or other products of Earth evolution. The term is more generally used
to refer to any literary fantasy that includes a scientific factor as an
essential orienting component, and even more generally used to refer to any
fantasy at all. Such literature may consist of a careful and informed
extrapolation of scientific facts and principles, or it may range into
far-fetched areas flatly contradictory of such facts and principles. In
either case, plausibility based on science is a requisite, so that such
precursors of the genre as Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's Gothic novel
Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) and Robert Louis Stevenson's
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) are plainly science fiction,
whereas Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), based purely on the Supernatural, is not.

Types of science fiction

Hard science fiction

Hard science fiction, or hard sf, is a subgenre of science fiction
characterized by an interest in scientific detail or accuracy. Hard sf
stories focus on the natural sciences and technological developments. Some
authors scrupulously eschew such implausibilities as faster-than-light
travel, while others accept such plot devices but nonetheless show a concern
with a realistic depiction of the worlds that such a technology might make
accessible. Character development is sometimes secondary to explorations of
astronomical or physical phenomena, but other times authors make the human
condition forefront in the story. However a common theme of hard sf has the
resolution of the plot often hinging upon a technological point. Writers
attempt to have their stories consistent with known science at the time of
publication.

Soft science fiction

Soft science fiction is science fiction whose plots and themes tend to focus
on philosophy, psychology, politics and sociology while de-emphasizing the
details of technological hardware and physical laws. It is so-called 'soft'
science fiction, because these subjects are grouped together as the soft
sciences or humanities. For instance, in Dune, Frank Herbert uses the plot
device of a universe which has rejected conscious machines and has reverted
to a Feudal organisation. Consequently Herbert uses the Dune saga to comment
about the the human condition and make direct parallels to current
socio-political realities. Soft science fiction may explore the reactions of
societies or individuals to problems posed by natural phenomena or
technological developments, but the technology will be a means to an end,
not an end itself.

Other types

There are, of course, many borderline cases of works using outer-space
settings and futuristic-looking technology as little more than
window-dressing for tales of adventure, romance, and other typical dramatic
themes; examples include Star Wars (which is considered by some diehards to
be not science fiction but fantasy) and many Hollywood space operas. Some
fans of hard science fiction would regard such films as fantasy, whereas the
general public would probably place them squarely in the science fiction
category. It has been suggested as a method of resolving this confusion that
sf come to stand for Speculative fiction and thus encompass fantasy, horror,
and sci-fi genres.

History of science fiction

Forerunners of science fiction

Science fiction was made possible only by the rise of modern science itself,
notably the revolutions in astronomy and physics. Aside from the age-old
genre of fantasy literature, which does not qualify, there were notable
precursors: imaginary voyages to the moon in the 17th century in Cyrano de
Bergerac's Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1656),
space travel in Voltaire's Micromˇgas (1752), alien cultures in Jonathan
Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726), and science fiction elements in the
19th-century stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Fitz-James
O'Brien.

Early science fiction

The European brand of science fiction proper began, however, toward the end
of the 19th century with the scientific romances of Jules Verne, whose
science was rather on the level of invention, as well as the
science-oriented novels of social criticism by H.G. Wells.

The development of American science fiction as a self-conscious genre dates
(in part) from 1926, when Hugo Gernsback founded Amazing Stories magazine,
which was devoted exclusively to science fiction stories. Since he is
notable for having chosen the variant term scientifiction to describe this
incipient genre, the stage in the genre's development, his name and the term
"scientifiction" are often thought to be inextricably linked. Published in
this and other pulp magazines with great and growing success, such
scientifiction stories were not viewed as serious literature but as
sensationalism.

The Golden Age

Main Article : Astounding Magazine

With the advent in 1937 of a demanding editor, John W. Campbell, Jr., of
Astounding Science Fiction (founded in 1930), and with the publication of
stories and novels by such writers as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and
Robert Heinlein, science fiction emerged as a mode of serious fiction.
Ventures into the genre by writers who were not devoted exclusively to
science fiction, such as Karel Capek, Aldous Huxley, C. S. Lewis and, later,
Kurt Vonnegut, also added respectability. Magazine covers of bug-eyed
monsters and scantily-clad women preserved the sensational image for many,
however.

The post-war era

A great boom in the popularity of science fiction followed World War II.
Some science fiction works became paperback best-sellers.

The modern era

The modern era began in the mid 1960's, and the arrival of the genre of soft
science fiction. In literary terms it dates roughly from the publication of
Frank Herbert's Dune in 1965. This dense, complex, and detailed work of
fiction features political intrigue in a future galaxy, strange and mystical
religious beliefs, and the eco-system of the desert planet Arrakis. In 1966
Gene Rodenberry's Star Trek brought such science fiction to a mass audience.
The original Star Trek seems out of date now, but at the time it was at the
forefront of liberalism. It preached the universality and equality of
humanity. It had a attractive, black officer, and the first black-white
kiss; a Russian officer at the height of the Cold War; an Asian officer, and
even an alien officer.

The field saw an increase in:

   * the number of writers and readers
   * the breadth of subject matter
   * the depth of treatment
   * the sophistication of language and technique
   * the political and literary consciousness of the writing.

Also, technological fixes to a problem became a far rarer plot device.

Original science fiction films begin to appear:

   * 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
   * THX 1138 (1969)
   * Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

The influence of fantasy on the genre resulted in what is now called science
fantasy. Contributions of these works to the literature of the fantastic
include an awareness of irrationality and the inexplicable, the
transformative force of language, and the power of myth to organize
experience. Star Wars (1977) is the most powerful example of this trend.

The increasing intellectual sophistication of the genre and the emphasis on
wider societal and psychological issues significantly broadened the appeal
of science fiction to the reading public. Science fiction became
international, extending into the Soviet Union and other eastern European
nations, where it was frequently used as a vehicle for political commentary
that could not be safely published in other forms. The Polish author
Stanislaw Lem is one of the non-English science fiction writers who has
become widely known outside his native country. Serious criticism of the
genre is now common, and science fiction is studied in colleges and
universities, both as literature and in how it relates to science and
society.

The principal science fiction awards are the Hugo and Nebula.

Science fiction has also been popular in radio, comic books, television, and
movies; it is notable that about three-quarters of the top twenty highest
grossing films (source: IMDb June 2002) are based around science-fiction or
fantasy themes.

Fandom

One of the unique features of the science fiction genre is its strong fan
community, of which many authors are a firm part. Many people interested in
science-fiction wish to interact with others who share the same interests;
over time an entire culture of science fiction fandom has evolved. Local fan
groups exist in most of the English-speaking world, as well as in Japan,
Europe, and elsewhere; these groups often publish their own works.

Many fanzines ("fan magazines") (and a few professional ones) exist that are
dedicated solely to informing the science fiction fan on all aspects of the
genre. The premiere awards of science fiction, the Hugo Awards, are awarded
by members of the annual Worldcon, which is almost entirely volunteer-run by
fans.

Science fiction fandom often overlaps with other similar interests, such as
fantasy, role playing games and the Society for Creative Anachronism.

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