Science fiction
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Science fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature (though some elements in a story might still be pure imaginative speculation). Exploring the consequences of such differences is the traditional purpose of science fiction, making it a "literature of ideas".[1] Science fiction is largely based on writing entertainingly and rationally about alternate possibilities[2] in settings that are contrary to known reality.
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- We hope it will not be long before we may have other works of Science-Fiction [like Richard Henry Horne’s ‘‘The Poor Artist’’], as we believe such books likely to fulfil a good purpose, and create an interest, where, unhappily, science alone might fail. [Thomas] Campbell says, that ‘‘Fiction in Poetry is not the reverse of truth, but her soft and enchanting resemblance.’’ Now this applies especially to Science-Fiction, in which the revealed truths of Science may be given, interwoven with a pleasing story which may itself be poetical and true—thus circulating a knowledge of the Poetry of Science, clothed in a garb of the Poetry of life.
- A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject by William Wilson, 1851.
- This is the first recorded use of the term science fiction in history.[3]
- I hate the whole ubermensch, superman temptation that pervades science fiction. I believe no protagonist should be so competent, so awe-inspiring, that a committee of 20 really hard-working, intelligent people couldn't do the same thing.
- David Brin, interview[1] in Locus, March 1997
- Remember that Jules Verne was a sort of Shakespeare of science fiction, and we would feel derelict if we did not give his stories in our columns.
- T. O’Conor Sloane in the "Discussions" column, Amazing Stories, January 1927.
- This quote is notable for being the first "modern use" of the term science fiction.[3]
- Nothing is deader than yesterday's science-fiction.
- The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke, 1951.
- Sci-fi can be succinctly defined as speculation, whether based on established scientific facts or on logical pseudo-facts consistent with the framework of the fiction in question, involving smelly green pimply aliens furiously raping or eating, or both, beautiful naked bare-breasted chicks, covering them in slime, red, oozing, living slime, dribbling from every horrific orifice, squeezing out between bulbous pulpy lips onto the sensuous velvety skin of the writhing sweating slave-girls, their bodies cut and bruised by knotted whips brandished by giant blond vast-biceped androids called Simon, and written in the Gothic mode.
- True Rat 7 by Peter Nicholls, 1976.
- Science fiction rarely is about scientists doing real science, in its slowness, its vagueness, the sort of tedious quality of getting out there and digging amongst rocks and then trying to convince people that what you're seeing justifies the conclusions you're making. The whole process of science is wildly under-represented in science fiction because it's not easy to write about. There are many facets of science that are almost exactly opposite of dramatic narrative. It's slow, tedious, inconclusive, it's hard to tell good guys from bad guys — it's everything that a normal hour of Star Trek is not.
- Kim Stanley Robinson, interview[2] in Locus, September 1997
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[edit] Notes
- ↑ Marg Gilks, Paula Fleming, and Moira Allen (2003). Science Fiction: The Literature of Ideas. WritingWorld.com.
- ↑ Del Rey, Lester (1979). The World of Science Fiction: 1926–1976. Ballantine Books. p. 5. ISBN 0-345-25452-x.
- ↑ a b Westfahl, Gary. Science Fiction Quotations. Yale University Press. 2005.
