British science fiction
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| *[[Doctor Who]] | *[[Doctor Who]] | ||
| *[[SF]] | *[[SF]] | ||
| - | + | ==History== | |
| *[[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' was one of the first true science fantasy works | *[[Jonathan Swift]]'s ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' was one of the first true science fantasy works | ||
| *[[Brian Aldiss]] has argued that Mary Shelley's ''[[Frankenstein]]'' (1818) was the first work of science fiction. | *[[Brian Aldiss]] has argued that Mary Shelley's ''[[Frankenstein]]'' (1818) was the first work of science fiction. | ||
| *[[H. G. Wells]] created a body of work that became popular across broad cross-sections of society. Wells' ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898) describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry. It is a seminal depiction of an [[alien invasion]] of Earth. | *[[H. G. Wells]] created a body of work that became popular across broad cross-sections of society. Wells' ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' (1898) describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry. It is a seminal depiction of an [[alien invasion]] of Earth. | ||
| *In the late 19th century, the term "[[scientific romance]]" was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella ''[[Flatland]]: A Romance of Many Dimensions'' by [[Edwin Abbott Abbott]]. | *In the late 19th century, the term "[[scientific romance]]" was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella ''[[Flatland]]: A Romance of Many Dimensions'' by [[Edwin Abbott Abbott]]. | ||
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| - | In the early 20th century, [[pulp magazine]]s helped develop a new generation of mainly American SF writers, influenced by [[Hugo Gernsback]], the founder of ''[[Amazing Stories]]'' magazine. In 1912 [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]] published ''[[A Princess of Mars]]'', the first of his three-decade-long series of [[Barsoom]] novels, situated on Mars and featuring [[John Carter of Mars|John Carter]] as the hero. The 1928 publication of Philip Nolan's original [[Buck Rogers]] story, ''Armageddon 2419'', in ''Amazing Stories'' was a landmark event. This story led to comic strips featuring Buck Rogers (1929), [[Brick Bradford]] (1933), and [[Flash Gordon]] (1934). The comic strips and derivative movie serials greatly popularized science fiction. In the late 1930s, [[John W. Campbell]] became editor of ''[[Astounding Science Fiction]]'', and a critical mass of new writers emerged in New York City in a group called the [[Futurians]], including [[Isaac Asimov]], [[Damon Knight]], [[Donald A. Wollheim]], [[Frederik Pohl]], [[James Blish]], [[Judith Merril]], and others. Other important writers during this period and later, include [[E.E. Smith|E.E. (Doc) Smith]], [[Robert A. Heinlein]], [[Arthur C. Clarke]], [[Olaf Stapledon]], [[A. E. van Vogt]], [[Ray Bradbury]] and [[Stanisław Lem]]. Campbell's tenure at ''Astounding'' is considered to be the beginning of the [[Golden Age of science fiction]], characterized by hard SF stories celebrating scientific achievement and progress. This lasted until postwar technological advances, new magazines such as ''[[Galaxy (magazine)|Galaxy]]'' under Pohl as editor, and a new generation of writers began writing stories outside the Campbell mode. | ||
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| - | In the 1950s, the [[Beat generation]] included speculative writers such as [[William S. Burroughs]]. In the 1960s and early 1970s, writers like [[Frank Herbert]], [[Samuel R. Delany]], [[Roger Zelazny]], and [[Harlan Ellison]] explored new trends, ideas, and writing styles, while a group of writers, mainly in Britain, became known as the [[New Wave (science fiction)|New Wave]] for their embrace of a high degree of experimentation, both in form and in content, and a highbrow and self-consciously "literary" or artistic sensibility. In the 1970s, writers like [[Larry Niven]] and [[Poul Anderson]] began to redefine hard SF. [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] and others pioneered soft science fiction. | ||
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| - | In the 1980s, [[cyberpunk]] authors like [[William Gibson]] turned away from the [[optimism]] and support for progress of traditional science fiction. This dystopian vision of the near future is described in the work of [[Philip K. Dick]], such as [[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]] and [[We Can Remember It for You Wholesale]], which resulted in the films [[Blade Runner]] and [[Total Recall (1990 film)|Total Recall]]. ''The [[Star Wars franchise]]'' helped spark a new interest in [[space opera]], focusing more on story and character than on scientific accuracy. [[C. J. Cherryh]]'s detailed explorations of [[Extraterrestrial life|alien]] life and complex scientific challenges influenced a generation of writers. Emerging themes in the 1990s included [[List of environmental issues|environmental issues]], the implications of the global Internet and the expanding information universe, questions about [[biotechnology]] and [[nanotechnology]], as well as a post-[[Cold War]] interest in [[post-scarcity]] societies; [[Neal Stephenson]]'s ''[[The Diamond Age]]'' comprehensively explores these themes. [[Lois McMaster Bujold]]'s ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|Vorkosigan]]'' novels brought the character-driven story back into prominence. The television series ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' (1987) began a torrent of new SF shows, including three further ''[[Star Trek]]'' spin-off shows and ''[[Babylon 5]]''. Concern about the rapid pace of technological change crystallized around the concept of the [[technological singularity]], popularized by [[Vernor Vinge]]'s novel ''[[Marooned in Realtime]]'' and then taken up by other authors. | ||
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| - | === The term "sci-fi" === | ||
| - | [[Forrest J Ackerman]] used the term '''''sci-fi''''' (analogous to the then-trendy "[[hi-fi]]") at UCLA in 1954. As science fiction entered [[popular culture]], writers and fans active in the field came to associate the term with low-budget, low-tech "[[B movie|B-movies]]" and with low-quality [[Pulp magazine|pulp science fiction]]. By the 1970s, critics within the field such as [[Terry Carr]] and [[Damon Knight]] were using ''sci-fi'' to distinguish hack-work from serious science fiction, and around 1978, [[Susan Wood (science fiction)|Susan Wood]] and others introduced the pronunciation "[[skiffy]]". Peter Nicholls writes that "SF" (or "sf") is "the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers". [[David Langford]]'s monthly fanzine ''[[David Langford#Non-fiction and editorial work|Ansible]]'' includes a regular section "As Others See Us" which offers numerous examples of "sci-fi" being used in a [[pejorative]] sense by people outside the genre. | ||
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| - | ===Innovation=== | ||
| - | Science fiction has criticised developing and future technologies, but also initiates [[innovation]] and new technology. This topic has been more often discussed in literary and sociological than in scientific forums. Cinema and media theorist [[Vivian Sobchack]] examines the dialogue between science fiction films and the technological imagination. Technology impacts artists and how they portray their fictionalized subjects, but the fictional world gives back to science by broadening imagination. | ||
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| ==See also== | ==See also== | ||
| + | * [[British literature]] | ||
| + | * [[British film]] | ||
| * [[Proto-science fiction]] | * [[Proto-science fiction]] | ||
| - | * [[List of science fiction themes]] | ||
| - | * [[List of science fiction authors]] | ||
| - | * [[List of science fiction novels]] | ||
| - | * [[History of science fiction]] | ||
| - | * [[Skiffy]] | ||
| - | * [[Transhumanism]] (a [[school of thought]] profoundly inspired by SF) | ||
| - | {{GFDL}} | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Revision as of 08:23, 23 November 2013
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History
- Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels was one of the first true science fantasy works
- Brian Aldiss has argued that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) was the first work of science fiction.
- H. G. Wells created a body of work that became popular across broad cross-sections of society. Wells' The War of the Worlds (1898) describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians using tripod fighting machines equipped with advanced weaponry. It is a seminal depiction of an alien invasion of Earth.
- In the late 19th century, the term "scientific romance" was used in Britain to describe much of this fiction. This produced additional offshoots, such as the 1884 novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott.
See also
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "British science fiction" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
