Science Fiction

Science fiction is the genre of stories and film in which a significant element of the plot depends on the laws of mathematics and the physical sciences, or on the use of technology as currently known or as developed in a credible way. Stories in which natural laws are suspended or violated fall into the realm of fantasy rather than science fiction. Most science fiction plots take place in the future, on a fictional planet, or posit the use of a new technology. They explore the best and worst case scenarios that could result from the application of technology or from a variation in the natural world, though remain based on scientific laws as we know them. Though it seems that science fiction is based on science and the material world, most modern works are character based; science fiction explores human life and action within the context of a fictional but possible world. This fictional world allows the author clearly to explore issues in a context that is contrived, thus without the myriad mitigating or confounding factors the real world might present.

The genre of science fiction can be traced back to nineteenth-century novels such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) and Jules Verne's novels of the 1860s and 1870s (Journey to the Center of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea ). However, the term science fiction was not widely used until the 1930s, when a group of pulp fiction magazines featuring stories based on the premises of modern science was established. Beginning with Hugo Gernsback's Amazing Stories (after whom the Hugo award in science fiction writing is named), the format was soon copied by several other American and British publications ( John Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction, Science Wonder Stories ). Among writers in Britain, a genre called scientific romance grew in the years following World War I with such writers as Olaf Stapledon, J. D. Beresford, H. G. Wells, and Aldous Huxley. In the United States, science fiction remained primarily magazine based until the rapid rise in the production of paperback books in the 1960s, which moved the genre from a predominance of short stories to novels. The science fiction novel emerged as a distinct literary genre in the second half of the century, exemplified in the works of writers such as Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein, and Kurt Vonnegut.

As the public became sensitized to the effects of science through the dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945, the development of the digital computer, and new advances in biotechnology, science fiction also became a staple for radio (Orson Welles's 1938 radio production of H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds ), television (The Jetsons, The Twighlight Zone, Star Trek, The X-Files ), and film plots (Fritz Lang's Metropolis [1927], Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove [1964] and 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968], Ridley Scott's Blade Runner [1982] and Alien [1979], Steven Spielberg's E.T. [1982], and George Lucas's Star Wars [1977]). Although science fiction novels continue to be popular and widely published, a larger contemporary audience is reached through film and television, mediums that make it easy for audiences to suspend disbelief and that appeal to our highly visual culture. The plots of science fiction films tend to be more adventure- and special-effects-based and less introspective than the written literature, though there are notable exceptions, such as Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Popular themes in today's science fiction, regardless of the medium, include intelligent computers or robots, alternative worlds, travel to other planets, encounters with other life forms, the future evolution of the human race, and the ravages of atomic destruction or biochemical warfare. Science fiction has also spawned several subgenres in the late twentieth century, including cyberpunk, stories that take place in a virtual world sustained by computers and dominated by multinational corporations (William Gibson's Neuromancer [1984] and Scott's film Blade Runner, based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? [1968]); ecoscience fiction, stories set in either an ecological utopia or distopia (Vonnegut's Galapagos [1985], Spielberg's Jurassic Park [1993], John Brunner's The Sheep Look Up [1972]); and feminist science fiction (Ursula K. LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness [1969], James Tiptree's "The Women Men Don't See" [1973] and "The Screwfly Solution" [1977]).

Themes related to religion

The early science fiction pulp magazines were devoted primarily to adventure stories in which the exploration of religious themes or any explicit reference to religion was taboo. However, as science fiction moved into the mediums of novel and film, these strictures fell away. Modern science fiction deals extensively with religion, at times explicitly, at other times through the exploration of metaphysical systems, the nature of humanity or of social structures, the question of mystical powers, or the nature of moral decision making.

A number of science fiction novels have dealt directly with the nature of God. In A Romance of Two Worlds (1886), Marie Corelli explores the idea of God as an electrical force. H. G. Wells explores the nature of a finite or an unknowable God in God the Invisible King (1917) and The Undying Fire (1919). Mary Shelley in Frankenstein (1818), one of the earliest books in the science fiction genre, takes as her premise the question of human usurpation of the prerogatives of God. Stories that examine what it feels like to be God or to have godlike powers of omniscience, omnipotence, or the ability to create life forms range from short stories such as Edmond Hamilton's "Fessenden's Worlds" (1937) and Frank Russell's "Hobbyist" (1947), to novels such as Frank Herbert's The God Makers (1972) and Stanislav Lem's Solaris (1961). The idea of humans who create a god or computers that develop godlike powers is raised in Frederic Brown's "Answer" (1954), Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question" (1956), and Martin Caidin's The God Machine (1989). Many stories raise the possibility that a more advanced civilization would seem godlike to human beings. Philip K. Dick explores the question of beings with godlike powers in Our Friends from Frolix 8 (1970) and the Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1964). Stories that posit an evil or incompetent god include Lester Del Ray's "Evensong" (1967), James Tiptree's Up the Walls of the World (1978), and Philip K. Dick's "Faith of Our Fathers" (1980). John Varley questions the basic requirements for being a god in his Titan series (1980).

The nature of humankind is so common a theme in science fiction that it has been used as a definition of the genre. Brian Aldiss writes in Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1986): "Science fiction is the search for definition of man and his status in the universe which will stand in our advanced but confused state of knowledge (science)" (p. 25). Almost all science fiction works deal implicitly, if not explicitly with the question of what it means to be human. Common plot vehicles include confrontation by an alien race or by intelligent computers, the challenges of disaster or of a dystopian world, and ethical decision making under limited conditions.

The question of not only what human beings are but what we might ultimately become is explicitly dealt with in Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men (1930) and Star Maker (1937). Human transformation into a mystical or spiritual form is also examined in Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and Philip Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1955). The evolutionary ideas of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin are explicitly foundational to George Zebrowski's The Omega Point (1972) and appear implicitly in Clarke's Childhood's End. Clarke also examines what it means to be human from the perspective of Buddhism in The Fountains of Paradise (1979).

A few novels and short stories deal with explicitly Christian themes. The star followed by the magi forms the basis for Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star" (1955). Richard Matheson's "The Traveler" (1952) and Michael Moorcock's Behold the Man! (1966) use time travel to examine the crucifixion of Jesus. While these are among the few stories that mention Jesus specifically, a figure whose advent and saving of a culture are messianic in nature is common and can be found in J. D. Beresford's What Dreams May Come (1941), L. Ron Hubbard's Final Blackout (1940), and Frank Herbert's Dune series (1965). The Apocalypse and the second coming of Christ have also formed a backdrop for much science fiction. C. S. Lewis wrote a trilogy in the form of science fiction that moves from a retelling of the story of the garden of Eden to the days before the second coming of Christ in which Merlin plays the role of messiah (Out of the Silent Planet [1938], Perelandra [1943], and That Hideous Strength [1946]). Walter Miller's, A Canticle for Leibowitz [1959] and Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle [1963] continue the apocalyptic theme, examining human behavior and the role of the church in worlds that have been or are being largely destroyed.

A number of science fiction novels posit a future theocracy, generally in a negative light. This is a particularly strong theme in feminist science fiction, and societies based on a version of Christian or Islamic fundamentalism are found in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale (1986), Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Shattered Chain (1983), Sylvia Engdahl's This Star Shall Abide (1972) and Sheri Tepper's Grass (1990), The Fresco (2000), and The Visitor (2002). Feminist science fiction has also explored societies that follow a goddess based religion, a theme in Elizabeth Hand's Walking the Moon (1996), Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing (1993), Marie Jakober's The Black Chalice (2000) and Suzette Elgin's The Judas Rose (1994). The effects of a theocracy are also explored outside of a feminist context, as in Lester Del Rey's The Eleventh Commandment (1962), John Brunner's The Stone that Never Came Down (1973), and Keith Robert's Kiteworld (1985).

With or without a theocracy, the priest or cleric is a fairly common protagonist. The strong religious grounding of such a character allows the author to examine human behavior in the light of challenges to one's religious or moral ground. Examples of clerical protagonists are found in James Blish's A Case of Conscience (1963), Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover Landfall (1972), Gordon Harris's Apostle From Space (1978), and Lester Del Ray's "For I am a Jealous God" (1973).

Science fiction is also an excellent vehicle for the consideration of moral questions. In Science Fiction: The Future (1971), Dick Allen describes the genre as "a form of literature that argues through its intuitive force that the individual can shape and change and influence and triumph; that [human beings] can eliminate both war and poverty; that miracles are possible; that love, if given a chance, can become the main driving force of human relationships" (p. 3). Ethical issues that are explored in science fiction include the appropriate use of technology, human relationships in the face of hardship, human responsibility in the face of new technologies, and the conflicts between disparate social groups or species. Many science fiction novels explore the conflicts that result when two societies with disparate ethical systems come in contact with one another. Examples include Isaac Asimov's The Caves of Steel (1954), Spider Robinson's Night of Power (1985), and Ken MacLeod's The Cassini Division (2000).

Bibliography

aldiss, brian w., with wingrove, david. trillion year spree: the history of science fiction. new york: atheneum, 1986. originally published as billion year spree. london: weidenfeld and nicolson, 1973.

allen, dick, ed. science fiction: the future. new york: harcourt, 1971.

cassutt, michael, and greeley, andrew m., eds. sacred visions. new york: st. martin's, 1991.

greenberg, martin h., and warrick, patricia s., eds. the new awareness: religion through science fiction. new york: delacorte, 1975.

reilly, robert, ed. the transcendent adventure: studies of religion in science fiction. westport, conn.: greenwood, 1985.

ryan, alan, ed. perpetual light. new york: warner, 1982.

noreen l. herzfeld

Science Fiction

Astronautics is unique among the sciences in that it has its roots in an art form. For nearly 400 years space travel existed only in the minds of those faithful writers who kept the torch burning until engineers and scientists developed the technological ability to realize their dreams.

Early Space Fiction

No fiction written about space travel was written until it was known that there were other worlds to go to. This did not happen until 1610, when Galileo Galilei turned a telescope toward the heavens and discovered that what hundreds of generations had assumed were five wandering stars were in fact worlds. This discovery was immediately followed by a spate of speculation about what those worlds might be like, what kind of life might exist there, and, most importantly, how human beings might be able to travel to them. Most of this speculation took the form of fiction, but until the end of the eighteenth century those flights were the stuff of outright fantasy: Neither science nor engineering knew of any method by which a human being could leave the surface of this world, let alone travel to another one.

The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

The invention of the balloon in 1783 by the Montgolfier brothers changed all that. It was clear that a balloon could never carry anyone to the Moon, but that invention was a watershed in perception. People now knew that science and technology had the potential to make spaceflight possible; surely it was just a matter of time and imagination. Scores of science fiction novels were written about travel to other worlds. Unlike previous stories, however, those written in the nineteenth century were much more inclined to take into account the actual conditions of outer space and the planets.

Paramount among all of these works were the two space novels of Jules Verne:From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Round the Moon (1870). For the first time the problem of space travel was expressed in terms of a problem in engineering and mathematics: Verne scrupulously worked only with the science, technology, and materials available at the time when he wrote. As a result, he achieved a sense of realism that is still convincing. This realism was instrumental in inspiring an entire generation of young readers who decided to do everything they could to make Verne's dream come true. These readers included future scientists such as Hermann Oberth, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and Robert H. Goddard, without whose seminal work modern astronautics would have developed decades later than it did. Oberth, for example, said that he had never thought about space travel until he read From the Earth to the Moon. Verne's influence continued well into the twentieth century. The astronomer Robert Richardson said, "There can be no doubt that Jules Verne's Trip to the Moon with all its faults has exerted a powerful effect on human thought in preparing our minds for this greatest of all adventures."

Verne set a high standard for accuracy and believability that influenced the writers who followed him, and space fiction became much more realistic. Dozens of ideas that are thought of as products of modern space science were first proposed in the pages of early science fiction. The space station and the navigational satellite were invented by Edward Everett Hale in The Brick Moon (1869), the solar sail by G. Le Faure and Henri de Graffigny in 1889, the space suit in 1900 by George Griffith, the nuclear-powered spaceship by Garrett P. Serviss in 1910 and Arthur Train and Robert Wood in 1915, and the electromagnetic mass driver in 1930 by R. H. Romans. Even the countdown was invented by science fiction, first used in the 1929 film Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon), by Fritz Lang.

The Modern Era

After World War II the influence of science fiction on the public perception of space travel shifted from the printed page to the silver screen. Although serious fans, including many scientists, preferred the written word, which was light-years ahead of Hollywood's version of science fiction, the image most Americans had of the future of space travel in that period was shaped by what they saw in movie theaters and on television screens. This was unfortunate because, with only a few exceptions, films and television lagged decades behind the literature.

While science fiction writers were working in the present day, Hollywood science fiction was more like what had been published in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s. Films such as Flight to Mars (1951) and The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) made space travel seem silly and trivial. However, a few films made a sincere effort to combine realistic drama with real science, such as Destination Moon (1950),Conquest of Space (1955),Forbidden Planet (1956), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). More recently, there have been films such as Apollo 13 (1995) and Red Planet (2000). On television the sole exception was Star Trek (1966-1969). Although taking place in the far future, that series made a genuine attempt not only to keep within the bounds of science but to convey a sense of wonder about space travel.

The link between science fiction and the history of astronautics is complex. Science fiction has served as an inspiration. It also acts as a mirror of the technology of the time in which it is written. Jules Verne, for instance, chose a giant cannon over rockets for the launch of his spacecraft, primarily because of the primitive state of rocket technology in his time (he did use rockets to maneuver his spacecraft). Similarly, in 1910 Garrett Serviss recognized that the recently discovered phenomenon of radioactivity could be a potential energy source for space travel. Science fiction also acts as a gauge of public interest in astronautics, since most authors want to tell stories that incorporate subjects of interest to their readers.

see also Clarke, Arthur C. (volume 1); Goddard, Robert Hutchings (volume 1); Literature (volume 1); Oberth, Hermann (volume 1); S tar T rek (volume 4); S tar W ars (volume 4); Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin (volume 3); Verne, Jules (volume 1).

Ron Miller

Bibliography

Aldiss, Brian. Billion Year Spree. London: Corgi Books, 1975.

Di Fate, Vincent. Infinite Worlds. New York: Penguin Group, 1997.

Gunn, James. Alternate Worlds. New York: Prentice-Hall, 1975.

——. The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: Viking Penguin, 1988.

Kyle, David A. A Pictorial History of Science Fiction. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1976.

——. The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Dreams. London: Hamlyn Publishing Group, 1977.

SCIENCE FICTION

Atomic Age Literature

Science fiction gained respectability after World War II. As the nation came to terms with the atomic age and began to speculate about the possibility of space travel, fictional accounts of alien creatures in stellar worlds became plausible enough to interest general readers. Before the war, science fiction was written according to standard genre formulas for plot and character, distinguished only by galactic settings. Nine science-fiction magazines published virtually all of the new work in the field, and, as a result, short stories dominated the genre. When science-fiction novels were published, they were either serialized in magazines or presented in paperback format and marketed to what was regarded as an undiscriminating audience.

Popular Demand

After the war, science fiction matured as it attracted the attention of big business. Holly-wood led the way with films that exploited Americans' fear of invasion. The Thing (1951), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), When Worlds Collide (1951), and War of the Worlds (1953) were successful movies with budgets exceeding one million dollars each. They exposed large audiences to plots based on speculative fiction. ABC spent twelve thousand dollars per episode to attract established actors and talented writers for the television series Tales of Tomorrow, prompting CBS to follow with Out There and NBC to search for an entry into the science-fiction market. With the debut of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone in 1959, science-fiction television drama captured the imagination of a huge and loyal audience. The number of science-fiction magazines increased from 9 in 1945 to 53 in 1953, led by Galaxy (begun in October 1950), which paid three to five cents a word for stories (as compared to the standard rate of one cent a word for pulp fiction). Business Week estimated the total science-fiction magazine readership to be about three hundred thousand. In addition there were some 250 fanzines, cheaply produced periodicals in which fans traded comments with one another on such topics as their favorite works, and 10 new science-fiction comic books introduced in 1950 and 1951.

Paperbacks

The success of science-fiction magazines prompted paperback houses, led by Ace and Ballantine, to develop aggressive science-fiction publishing programs. In the beginning, the paperback publishers concentrated on anthologies composed of magazine fiction, but as talented novelists with enthusiastic fans emerged, the paperback houses began to promote single-author works. New American Library reported that individual science-fiction novels sold over two hundred thousand each in 1951, and hardcover anthologies sold as many as thirty-five thousand copies.

Fans

Science-fiction fans were distinguished by their eccentricity and their devotion. They viewed being a fan as an active pursuit. Fans arranged half a dozen conferences a year, sometimes referred to as "fanferences," at which they dressed as their favorite science-fiction characters, traded memorabilia, shared ideas, and gave awards both to their favorite authors and to one another. The best known of the awards were the Hugos, named for Hugo Gernsback, who founded the first science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in 1926. Instituted in 1953 by the organizers of the Worldcon in Philadelphia, Hugos were awarded in several categories (that changed from year to year) upon the vote of registered attendees of the conference. In 1953 there were seven categories; Alfred Bester won the best-novel award for The Demolished Man, and Forrest J. Ackerman was named "Number 1 Fan Personality."

Literary Celebrities

Life reported in 1951 that there were twenty thousand or so hard-core American science-fiction fans, though participation at the conventions tended to be measured in hundreds rather than thousands. The objects of the fans' attention were such writers as Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Ray Bradbury, Lester del Rey, Robert A. Heinlein, Murray Leinster, Walter M. Miller, Frederik Pohl, Theodore Sturgeon, Clifford D. Simak, A. E. Van Vogt, and—despite his protestations that he was not a genre writer—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. By the end of the decade these names commanded the attention, and often the respect as well, of a still-growing readership and eager publishing, television, and moviemaking industries.

Sources:

David Cowart and Thomas L. Wymer, eds., Dictionary of Literary Biography, vol. 8: Twentieth-Century American Science Fiction Writers (Detroit: Gale, 1981);

Fletcher Pratt, "Time, Space & Literature," Saturday Review, 34 (28 July 1951): 16-17;

Winthrop Sargeant, "Through the Interstellar Looking Glass," Life, 30 (21 May 1951): 127-130;

"Science Fiction Rockets Into Big Time," Business Week (20 October 1951): 82-84, 89.

science fiction literary genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story. Although science fiction is a form of fantastic literature, many of the events recounted are within the realm of future possibility, e.g., robots, space travel, interplanetary war, invasions from outer space.

Science fiction is generally considered to have had its beginnings in the late 19th cent. with the romances of Jules Verne and the novels of H. G. Wells . In 1926, Hugo Gernsback founded the pulp magazine Amazing Stories, devoted exclusively to science fiction, particularly to serious explorations into the future. Good writing in the field was further encouraged when John W. Campbell, Jr., founded Astounding Science Fiction in 1937. In that magazine much attention was paid to literary and dramatic qualities, theme, and characterization; Campbell "discovered" and popularized many important science fiction writers, including Isaac Asimov , Frederic Brown, A. E. van Vogt, Lewis Padgett, Eric Frank Russell, Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Fritz Leiber, Murray Leinster, Robert Heinlein , Raymond F. Jones, and Robert Sheckley.

Science fiction has established itself as a legitimate branch of literature. C. S. Lewis 's Out of the Silent Planet (1938) used science fiction as a vehicle for theological speculation, and works such as Aldous Huxley 's Brave New World (1932), George Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-four (1949), Ray Bradbury 's Fahrenheit 451 (1953), and Kurt Vonnegut , Jr.'s Cat's Cradle (1963) demonstrate the particular effectiveness of the genre as an instrument of social criticism. Science-fiction literature anticipates and comments on political and social concerns, and a variety of science-fiction subgenres have emerged: feminist science fiction; disaster novels and novels treating the world emerging from a disaster's wake; stories postulating alternative worlds; fantastic voyages to "inner space" ; and "cyberpunk" novels set in "cyberspace," a realm where computerized information possesses three dimensions in a "virtual reality."

The rich variety of notable science-fiction writing to emerge since the "classic" work of Asimov, Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke , and Ray Bradbury includes Frank Herbert's Dune (1965) and its sequels, which conjured up a desert world where issues of ecology, ethics, and human destiny and evolution were played out; Philip K. Dick's satirical and philosophical vision of postnuclear war southern California in novels such as Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Valis (1981); the apocalyptic disaster fiction of J. G. Ballard, including The Crystal World (1966) and Vermilion Sands (1971); the rigorously science-based works of Poul Anderson, such as Tau Zero (1970) and The Boat of a Million Years (1989); Michael Crichton's best-selling science-fiction suspense novels, particularly The Andromeda Strain (1969) and Jurassic Park (1990); William Gibson's evocations of urban "cyberpunk" desolation in novels such as Count Zero (1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988); Doris Lessing 's Canopus in Argos: Archives, a series of four novels (1979–83) that explores the possibilities of a feminist utopia; and the writing of Ursula Le Guin , who has imagined ecological utopias in works such as Always Coming Home (1985) and The Word for World is Forest (1986).

Over recent decades, science fiction has become popular in the nonliterary media, including film, television, and electronic games. Star Wars (1977) and its sequels and prequel, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), and E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) were among the most financially successful motion pictures ever produced.

Bibliography: See H. Harrison and B. W. Aldiss, ed., Astounding-Analog Reader (1973); B. W. Aldiss, Billion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction (1973); B. Stableford, Masters of Science Fiction (1981); N. Barron, ed., Anatomy of Wonder (1981); E. Rabkin, ed., Science Fiction (1983); J. Gunn, ed., The New Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (1988); E. James and F. Mendelsohn, The Cambridge Companion to Science Fiction (2003).

SCIENCE FICTION

Science fiction is a literary genre that extrapolates from existing knowledge about the real world to speculate about alternative worlds. It always includes an element of the fantastic, since it aims to go beyond what is, to give a literary model of "what if?" Unlike pure fantasy or utopian literature, however, science fiction posits a rational exploration of as-yet inexplicable phenomena and unknown corners of the human psyche. In Russia the most important works of science fiction have usually been viewed as subversive to the regime in power because of their ability to model alternative realities, to evade censorship by displacing political allegories to the juvenile realm of cosmic adventure, and to tap into the Russian readership's persistent longings for a more just society.

The first, mid-nineteenth century works of Russian science fiction blend the rational utopianism of European models with the age-old Russian folk vision of communal justice and abundance for all. The idea that Western-oriented scientific and technological progress might be combined in Russia with egalitarian values, avoiding the evils of both autocracy and capitalism, is one of the strongest and most consistent strains in Russian science fiction. Nikolai Chernyshevsky's 1862 novel What Is to Be Done? created a fictional model of this idea that inspired generations of Russian revolutionaries, including Lenin. Alexander Bogdanov's The Red Star (1908) depicts a socially and scientifically progressive society on Mars that is superior to existing earthly alternatives. In the decade following the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, many stories extolled a cosmic revolution, anticipating the victorious spread of classless societies to other planets with the help of futuristic technology and radically evolved human consciousness. As late as the 1970s, the writers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky countered official literary depictions of Soviet society with science fiction imaginings of alternative societies where rationality, science, and human freedom are not at odds.

A second, and opposing strain, is the dystopian vision of society dehumanized by the relentless rationalization of work, health, social, and spiritual life. Yevgeny Zamyatin's novel We (1924, unpublished; 1989) is a brilliant philosophical satire depicting "mathematically happy" workers in the One State, where free will has been all but eliminated. Extrapolating tendencies from both bourgeois and socialist systems of conformity, We insists on the paramount value of individual free will. Zamyatin's novel, and later Western novels based on similar ideas (e.g., George Orwell's 1984 ) were banned in the Soviet Union. After 1957, the launch of Sputnik and the gradual relaxation of ideological restrictions inaugurated a new era of Soviet science fiction. In the immensely popular works of Ivan Yefremov and the brothers Strugatsky, Russian readers found a forum in which their authentic political and cultural aspirations were given a voice—along with an exciting plot. They offered richly imagined histories of the future to remind the reader of the outcome of ethical choices made in the present. Russian literature has often served as the conscience of the nation, and twenty-first century Russian science fiction continues the tradition of ideological engagement, by addressing such themes as contemporary social malaise and the search for a new, post-Soviet Russian cultural identity.

See also: chernyshevsky, nikolai gavrilovich

bibliography

Fetzer, Leland, ed. (1982). Pre-Revolutionary Russian Science Fiction: An Anthology. Ann Arbor: Ardis.

Gomel, Elana. (1999). "Science Fiction in Russia: From Utopia to New Age." Science Fiction Studies 26(3): 435–441.

Howell, Yvonne. (1994). Apocalyptic Realism: The Science Fiction of Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. New York: Peter Lang.

Suvin, Darko. (1979). "Russian SF and Its Utopian Tradition." In Metamorphoses of Science Fiction: On the Poetics and History of a Literary Genre. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Yvonne Helen Howell

Science Fiction, stories of fantasy dealing with the unknown in scientifically conceivable terms of reference. They use imaginary inventions and discoveries; settings that include the earth's interior, other planets, and the atom; and time in the remote future, the prehistoric past, and a new dimension. They sometimes resemble Utopian fiction, but their direct ancestors include Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and works by Poe, Verne, Fitz‐James O'Brien, and H.G. Wells. Although Utopias and satires occasionally use some of the materials or techniques of science fiction and although Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court used a favorite theme of traveling through time, the emphasis is not on pseudo‐science and the creation of a sense of wonder. The vogue for science fiction became particularly evident around the turn into the 20th century, perhaps because people felt they were moving into a new era and because they were much impressed by the many recent inventions. The genre was given further impetus by the founding of Amazing Stories (1926) by Hugo Gernsback (1884–1967), an émigré from Luxembourg, who is commemorated by annual (since 1953) Hugo awards, and by the founding (1937) of another magazine, Astounding, by John W. Campbell, the “discoverer” of Asimov and Heinlein. The awe‐inspiring scientific inventions of World War II and the subsequent era of manned travel into outer space made science fiction both more interesting and more acceptable to many readers. Postwar science fiction placed more emphasis on accuracy and less on weird adventures and also became more concerned with sociopolitical ideas; it also moved out of magazine publication to the greater solidity of books, both paperback and hardbound. Prominent science fiction writers of this century include Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Rice Burroughs, August Derleth, R.A. Heinlein, Frank Herbert, Stephen King, Ursula Le Guin, H.P. Lovecraft, Theodore Sturgeon, and A.E. van Vogt.

science fiction Literary genre in which reality is subject to certain transformations in order to explore man's potential and his relation to his environment; these transformations are usually technological and the stories set in the future or in imaginary worlds. The birth of the modern genre is generally dated to the US comic strip Amazing Stories (1926). Until the 1960s, most science fiction involved adventure stories set in space. Some writers, such as Isaac Asimov, explored the paradoxes contained in purely scientific ideas; others, including Ray Bradbury, stressed the moral implications of their stories.

sci·ence fic·tion (abbr.: SF or Sci Fi) • n. fiction based on imagined future scientific or technological advances and major social or environmental changes, frequently portraying space or time travel and life on other planets.

sci-fi / ˈsī ˈfī/ • n. inf. short for science fiction.

sci-fi •Delphi •deify, reify •preachify, speechify •edify • ladyfy •acidify, humidify, rigidify, solidify •commodify, modify •codify • amplify • jellify • exemplify •vilify • simplify •mollify, qualify •nullify • uglify • ramify •humify, tumefy •mummify • magnify • damnify •dignify, signify •personify • unify • typify • stupefy •yuppify •clarify, scarify •terrify, verify •petrify • electrify • gentrify • rarefy •vitrify • horrify • transmogrify •glorify • putrefy • purify •classify, pacify •calcify • Nazify • specify • intensify •ossify • detoxify • falsify • crucify •dulcify, emulsify •diversify, versify •beatify, gratify, ratify, stratify •sanctify • satisfy •objectify, rectify •identify, misidentify •testify • prettify • mystify • quantify •fortify, mortify •notify • beautify • fructify • stultify •justify • certify • liquefy •hi-fi, sci-fi

sci-fi (ˈsaɪˈfaɪ) Colloquial science fiction