Science fiction

Science fiction is a literary genre characterized by its inclusion of real or imaginary science and technology and its impact on people and societies. Science fiction plots usually take place in a futuristic or alternate world. Many narratives are set in space or in fictional universes. Characters can be human, extraterrestrial, or other imagined beings. Science fiction contains a number of subgenres such as cyberpunk, time travel, space opera, and apocalyptic. Science fiction writings date back to ancient Greece, but the roots of modern science fiction lie in the early nineteenth century with writers such as Mary Shelley and Jules Verne.

Early History

The first recorded use of the term science fiction was in author William Wilson's A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject(1851). Wilson praised science fiction as a genre that reveals the truth of science poetically. Science fiction writings existed long before Wilson's coinage, however. One of the earliest works of science fiction was True History by Greek satirist Lucian. Written as a work of political satire sometime during the second century A.D., Lucian describes a fantastic journey of sailing to the moon. Seventeenth-century French dramatist Cyrano de Bergerac perpetuated the use of the fantastical as satire in his Comical History of the States and Empires of the Moon (1657), another work about a voyage to the moon that parodies contemporary society. De Bergerac's work influenced writers such as Jonathan Swift and Voltaire. Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) and Voltaire's Micromégas (1752) are considered two of the first popular works of science fiction.

Science fiction further evolved with the publication of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). Some scholars hail Shelley as the mother of science fiction due to the influence Frankenstein had on the future of the genre. Though many consider the work a horror novel, science plays a major role in Shelley's narrative. The book features two of the nineteenth century's most advanced technologies: electricity and vivisection, or performing experiments on live animals. Shelley puts these technologies to strange yet plausible use. The monster in Frankenstein remains one of the most powerful metaphors for the abuse of knowledge and science in all of literature.

Shelley's work played an important role in the future of science fiction. However, most modern science fiction can be traced back to the works of Jules Verne. Verne's novels set the groundwork for the core themes found in modern science fiction. His stories often involved the use of science and technology to undertake fantastic adventures, such as those in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864) and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (1870). The next few decades produced a bevy of classic science fiction literature, including Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) and H. G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895) and The War of the Worlds (1898). Common themes included space and time travel, alien encounters, and utopic or dystopic societies.

Modern Works

Twentieth-century authors continued to use the familiar tropes of classic science fiction. Edgar Rice Burroughs's A Princess of Mars (1917) became a major success. Subgenres of science fiction found their form around this time. E. E. Smith's The Skylark of Space (1928) established the subgenre of space opera, which became a popular science fiction format over the years. Space operas often involved battles against interstellar supervillains. From the early 1930s through the end of the 1940s, science fiction experienced a golden age. The period comprised works by some of science fiction's most renowned names to date, including Aldous Huxley, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, and A. E. van Vogt. The genre found new voices in the 1950s and 1960s with Kurt Vonnegut and Ray Bradbury and later with Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin.

A variety of science fiction subgenres emerged over the next few decades. The 1980s saw the rise of cyberpunk fiction, which involved rebellious usage of advanced technology, as well as a resurgence of the space opera. By the early twenty-first century, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic narratives became popular. Most of these subgenres incorporated science fiction's basic trends, such as aliens, space, scientists, and time travel. Other genres such as fantasy, horror, and young adult fiction often interwove science fiction themes into their plotlines, giving rise to many more subgenres. Popular science fiction writers in the early twenty-first century include Neil Gaiman, Brandon Sanderson, Liu Cixin, Kameron Hurley, and Ann Leckie.

Trends and Themes

Science fiction writings often tell simple stories in extraordinary ways. Though most plots involve advanced science, space travel, extraterrestrials, time travel, and other seemingly impossible experiences, many of these narratives also harbor universal themes such as love, loss, and redemption. Scholars place science fiction narratives into two categories: hard science fiction and soft science fiction. Hard science fiction focuses on scientific accuracy, and technology is normally a crucial part of the plot. Soft science fiction is more concerned with character emotions, and technology usually plays a background role. The presence of advanced or imagined technology can serve to either promote scientific progress or caution readers against machine dependency. Utopian and dystopian science fiction narratives, which portray idealized or oppressed versions of the future, respectively, often cite technological change as the reason for their state of affairs. Science fiction also uses alternate histories, societies, and universes to illustrate the potential of humanity to do both good and evil.

Modern science fiction has amassed a large following over the years. The genre has also seen broader critique throughout the decades, giving birth to a number of prestigious honors for noteworthy science fiction authors. The Hugo Awards and the Nebula Awards are two examples of prominent science fiction writing prizes. Authors honored with these awards include Robert A. Heinlein, Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Ursula K. Le Guin, William Gibson, and Neil Gaiman.

Bibliography

Blackford, Russell. “Science Fiction.” Books and Beyond: The Greenwood Encyclopedia of New American Reading, vol. 3, edited by Kenneth Womack, Greenwood Press, 2008, pp. 805–833.

Franklin, H. Bruce. “Science Fiction: The Early History.” Rutgers University, 2011. H. Bruce Franklin, www.hbrucefranklin.com/articles/history-of-science-fiction/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.

"Powell’s Essential List: 25 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the 21st Century (So Far)." Powell's, www.powells.com/featured/25-essential-science-fiction-and-fantasy-books?srsltid=AfmBOor2QaqdQU3UVIy36RW6T‗jm9G9LxO6FVjv-PA8C5WRfTpzD2HbZ. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.

Rossen, Jake. "24 Novels That Won Both the Hugo and Nebula Awards." Mental Floss, 8 Nov. 2022, www.mentalfloss.com/posts/books-won-hugo-and-nebula-awards. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.

Kulper, Kathleen, editor. “Science Fiction.” Prose: Literary Terms and Concepts, Britannica Educational Publishing, 2012.

Wurdeman, Abi. "Science Fiction Themes That'll Hit Like and Asteroid." Dabble, 1 Mar. 2024, www.dabblewriter.com/articles/science-fiction-themes. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.