From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Revision as of 09:05, 12 August 2021 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff		Current revision Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) (New Wave science fiction moved to New Wave (science fiction))
Line 1:		Line 1:
-	{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"	+	#REDIRECT [[New Wave (science fiction)]]
-	| style="text-align: left;" |	+
-	"In "[[Sortir du XXe siècle]]" (2000) Michel Houellebecq praises [[Ballard]], [[Disch]], [[Cyril M. Kornbluth]], [[Norman Spinrad]], [[Sturgeon]] and [[Vonnegut]], but most of all, [[R. A. Lafferty]]."--Sholem Stein	+
-		+
-	<hr>	+
-	"The phrase "[[New Wave]]" was used generally for new artistic movements in the [[1960s]], following the ''[[nouvelle vague]]'' of French cinema. The regular book reviewer of ''[[Analog Science Fiction and Fact]]'', [[P. Schuyler Miller]], first used it in the November 1961 issue to describe a new generation of British authors: "It's a moot question whether [[John Carnell|Carnell]] discovered the ‘big names’ of [[British science fiction]]—[[John Wyndham|Wyndham]], [[Arthur C. Clarke|Clarke]], [[Eric Frank Russell|Russell]], [[John Christopher|Christopher]]—or whether they discovered him. Whatever the answer, there is no question at all about the ‘new wave’: [[Edwin Charles Tubb|Tubb]], [[Brian Aldiss|Aldiss]], and to get to my point, [[Kenneth Bulmer]] and [[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner]]".--Sholem Stein	+
-	|}	+
-	{{Template}}	+
-	The '''New Wave''' is a movement in [[science fiction]] produced in the 1960s and 1970s and characterized by a high degree of experimentation in both form and content, a "literary" or artistic sensibility, and a focus on "[[Soft science fiction|soft]]" as opposed to hard science. New Wave writers often saw themselves as part of the [[Literary modernism|modernist]] tradition in fiction, and the New Wave was conceived as a deliberate break from the traditions of [[pulp magazine|pulp]] science fiction (SF), which many of the New Wave writers involved considered irrelevant and unambitious. The New Wave science fiction writers of the 1960s thus emphasized stylistic experimentation and literary merit over the scientific accuracy or prediction of [[hard science fiction]] writers.	+
-		+
-	The most prominent source of New Wave science fiction was the magazine ''[[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]]'' under the editorship of [[Michael Moorcock]], who assumed the position in 1964. In the United States, [[Harlan Ellison]]'s 1967 anthology ''[[Dangerous Visions]]'' is viewed as the best representation of the genre; [[J. G. Ballard]] and [[Brian Aldiss]] were also principal writers within the movement. The New Wave was a period marked by the emergence of a greater diversity of voices in science fiction, most notably the rise in the number of female writers, including [[Joanna Russ]], [[Ursula K. Le Guin]] and [[James Tiptree Jr.|Alice Bradley Sheldon]] (using the pseudonym [[James Tiptree, Jr.]]).	+
-		+
-	The New Wave engaged on complex levels with concepts such as [[entropy]], postmodernism, surrealism, and utopia, and in this it was influenced by the political turmoil of the 1960s, such as the controversy over the [[Vietnam War]], and by social trends such as the [[drug subculture]], [[Sexual revolution|sexual liberation]], and the [[environmental movement]]. The New Wave was critiqued for the self-absorption of some of its writers and was influential in shaping the development of subsequent genres, primarily [[cyberpunk]] and [[Slipstream genre|slipstream]].	+
-		+
-	==History==	+
-	===Influences and predecessors===	+
-	[[Ray Bradbury]], [[Theodore Sturgeon]], [[Fritz Leiber]], [[Algis Budrys]] (especially for his novel ''[[Rogue Moon]]'' with its use of [[Freudianism]]), and [[Alfred Bester (author)|Alfred Bester]] can be considered as important precursors of the movement.	+
-		+
-	[[Naomi Mitchison]]'s ''[[Memoirs of a Spacewoman]]'' (1962) has elements that resemble New Wave, though it's not clear if there was any direct influence.	+
-		+
-	In his introduction to a reprint of [[Leigh Brackett]]'s ''Martian Quest'', [[Michael Moorcock]], the editor of ''[[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]]'' (and thus the New Wave's prime instigator), wrote "With [[C. L. Moore|Catherine Moore]], [[Judith Merril]] and [[Cele Goldsmith Lalli|Cele Goldsmith]], Leigh Brackett is one of the true godmothers of the New Wave. Anyone who thinks they're pinching one of my ideas is probably pinching one of hers."	+
-		+
-	[[Beat generation|Beat]] writer [[William S. Burroughs]] would prove very inspirational, so much so that [[Philip José Farmer]] in "The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod" and [[Barrington J. Bayley]]'s "The Four Colour Problem" (Bayley's most acclaimed work of fiction, which appeared in ''New Worlds'') wrote [[pastiche]]s of the elder writer's work and [[J. G. Ballard]] published an admiring essay in ''New Worlds''. (Burroughs had earlier expressed admiration for Bayley's short novel ''Star Virus''.) Burroughs' use of experimentatation such as the [[cut-up technique]] and his appropriation of science fiction tropes in radical ways proved the extent to which prose fiction could prove revolutionary. In this, the more extreme New Wave writers sought to emulate his example.	+
-		+
-	===The movement===	+
-	Growing as a trickle more than a flood, New Wave began in [[1964]], when Michael Moorcock took over as editor for the [[British science fiction]] magazine ''[[New Worlds]]''. While the American magazines ''[[Amazing Stories]]'', with Cele Goldsmith as editor, and the respected ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction]]'' had from the very start had a leaning towards unusually literary stories, Moorcock turned that into a concerted policy. No other science fiction magazine sought as consistently to distance itself from traditional science fiction as much as ''New Worlds''. By the time it ceased regular publication it had more or less transcended the science fiction genre, styling itself as an [[experimental fiction|experimental ]] [[literary journal]].	+
-		+
-	The content of New Wave rejected the core concerns of traditional science fiction ("outer space"), in favour of a focus on taboo breaking and a more people focused approach ("innerspace"). Central concerns of the New Wave (and of William S. Burroughs, before it) were a fascination both with [[mass media]] and with [[entropy]], the idea that the universe (and human societies) will irrevocably run down.	+
-		+
-	The New Wave also had a political subtext. [[Brian Aldiss]], [[Thomas Disch]], Michael Moorcock and other key figures in the British New Wave came from various [[Marxist]] and [[socialist]] political traditions; their disdain for genre SF was partly a maneuver against American [[cultural hegemony]] and what the New Wavers considered "conservatism" in [[John W. Campbell|"Campbellian"]] SF with its faith in, and obsession with, technoscience. In the U.S., the New Wave would be closely associated with opposition to the [[Vietnam War]] and leftwing political activism.	+
-		+
-	The New Wave peaked around [[1971]]. It must be noted that [[Ursula K. Le Guin]], [[Harlan Ellison]], and [[Michael Moorcock]] continued to be exceedingly popular in the science fiction community.	+
-		+
-	The New Wave movement started to explore many subjects, including [[sex in science fiction]], in ways that were previously unthinkable. Harlan Ellison's anthology ''[[Dangerous Visions]]'' was an important milestone. With its publication in [[1967]], the New Wave broke &mdash; it smashed taboos relentlessly, holding no regard for any sort of boundaries. The styles of the authors varied, but one thing held common for everyone: They had something to say, and they said it. What was more, ''Dangerous Visions'' also collected three [[Hugo Award]]s, one for [[Gonna Roll the Bones|Best Novelette]], one for [[Riders of the Purple Wage|Best Novella]] and one special award.	+
-		+
-	Anthologies were particularly important because most of the best work of the New Wave was produced in short-story length. This is partly because magazines buying primarily short fiction were to remain the most important SF market until the post-''[[Star Wars]]'' publishing boom around 1980, but there were artistic reasons as well. The stylistic daring and experimentalism the movement valued were more difficult to sustain at novel length, and all too many of the attempts became ambitious flops.	+
-		+
-	Among works frequently cited as particularly important to the New Wave are [[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner]]'s ''[[Stand on Zanzibar]]'', Philip Jose Farmer's ''[[Riders of the Purple Wage]]'', Thomas M. Disch's ''[[334 (novel)|334]]'', [[Samuel R. Delany]]'s ''[[Babel-17]]'' and ''[[Dhalgren]]'', Langdon Jones's ''The Great Clock'', [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''[[Lord of Light]]'', Harlan Ellison's ''[[I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream]]'', J.G. Ballard's ''[[The Voices of Time (short story)|The Voices of Time]]'', Brian Aldiss's ''[[The Dark Light Years]]'' and "anti-novel" ''[[Report on Probability A]]'', Fritz Leiber's ''One Station of the Way'', and [[Frank Herbert]]'s ''[[Dune (novel)|Dune]]''. The ''[[Dangerous Visions]]'' anthology (and its sequel, ''[[Again, Dangerous Visions]]'') remain especially noteworthy.	+
-		+
-	===The decline===	+
-	Several factors may have contributed to the "death" of New Wave science fiction. One factor was its assimilation into the larger science fiction mainstream. A second factor was the passing of the radicalism of the [[1960s]] in art as well as life.	+
-		+
-	The New Wave's demise may have been hastened by conscious reaction against it in the SF mainstream. [[Lester del Rey]], an influential editor (who had in fact been published in Ellison's first ''Dangerous Visions'' anthology), led a conscious effort to re-assert genre traditions in the 1970s and early 1980s. By then a neo-Campbellian revival of [[hard science fiction]] after [[1982]] at the hands of [[David Brin]], [[Gregory Benford]], [[Greg Bear]] and others had emerged. On the other hand, [[cyberpunk]], a movement popularized by [[Gardner Dozois]] and editor [[Ellen Datlow]], had made it clear that "the rebellion" had taken on a radical new form.	+
-		+
-	===Successors===	+
-	Some have seen the emergence of [[cyberpunk]] literature as a sequel of sorts to the aims of the New Wave movement. Cyberpunk incorporated several of New Wave's "ancestors," namely Burroughs and Alfred Bester and partially embraced New Wave proponents Harlan Ellison and Samuel R. Delany.	+
-		+
-	The current [[New Weird]] movement and the genre of [[Slipstream (literature)|slipstream]] fiction occupies a space similar to that of the New Wave movement, in relationship to the mainstream of science fiction and fantasy. However, they have a far less adversial relationship to their "parent" genres.	+
-		+
-	===Effects===	+
-	A more important effect of the movement was to broaden the range of acceptable themes and styles in genre SF. While the New Wavers never achieved the thorough disruption of genre conventions they were aiming for, they helped make it possible for post-New-Wave SF writers to tackle previously taboo subjects and to more often use techniques such as [[Stream of consciousness writing|stream-of-consciousness]] narration and [[unreliable narrator]]s. Even the neo-Campbellian revivalists who had set themselves most directly against the New Wave's political and aesthetic program eventually benefitted from the new freedom.	+
-		+
-		+
-		+
-	== Significant New Wave authors ==	+
-	*[[Brian Aldiss]]	+
-	*[[J. G. Ballard]]	+
-	*[[John Brunner (novelist)|John Brunner]]	+
-	*[[Samuel R. Delany]]	+
-	*[[Philip K. Dick]]	+
-	*[[Thomas M. Disch]]	+
-	*[[Harlan Ellison]]	+
-	*[[Philip José Farmer]]	+
-	*[[Harry Harrison]]	+
-	*[[M. John Harrison]]	+
-	*[[R. A. Lafferty]]	+
-	*[[Ursula K. Le Guin]]	+
-	*[[Keith Roberts]]	+
-	*[[Joanna Russ]]	+
-	*[[Robert Silverberg]]	+
-	*[[Norman Spinrad]]	+
-	*[[Roger Zelazny]]	+
-	{{GFDL}}	+

---

Current revision

1. REDIRECT New Wave (science fiction)