The Secret History of Science FictionHow did science fiction emerge as a genre? What ideas—obsessions—drove its writers? And their readers? How and why has science fiction changed over time—and how has it not changed at all? And what does science fiction mean to people today? This collection by Cyberpunk, Steampunk and Wizardry and The End of Science Fiction? author Nader Elhefnawy takes up these questions and, focusing on those aspects of the field few care (or dare) to acknowledge looks past the clichès of the genre's history to offer some surprising answers about what science fiction has really been all about—and just where science fiction may be going in the years ahead. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Reconsidering PhiloFiction | 16 |
InfoDumping and Incluing | 34 |
The Whole Human Race as the Hero and the Hero Leaving | 52 |
Counterfactuals as WishFulfillment | 66 |
The Generally Unremarked Politics of Dystopianismand | 81 |
Science Fictions Sense of Mission | 100 |
How Science Fiction Books Got to Be So Long | 114 |
The Triumph of Media Science Fiction | 131 |
An Anoraks Thoughts On Ready Player One Film Adaptation | 150 |
Picard Et Tu Next Generation? | 164 |
Toward a History of Science Fiction From Below? | 181 |
Our Changing Images of | 204 |
Common terms and phrases
action-adventure actually adventure audience Batman bestsellers blockbusters box office certainly character classic Cline commercial computers counterfactuals course critics Cult cyberpunk Darko Suvin decades dystopia E.E. Smith Edisonade editors Edward Castronova especially example extrapolation fantasy field film franchise Frederik Pohl genre genre's Gernsback Gibson happen hard science fiction Heinlein hero history of science Horace Gold Hugo Hugo Gernsback human ideas imagine increasingly info-dumping intellectual intelligence interest Internet Isaac Asimov John Campbell least Leinster's Lensman less literary literature living look magazine mainstream matter movie Nader Elhefnawy neoliberal never novel perhaps philo-fiction playing political pop cultural popular postmodernist publishing readers Ready Player reality recent regard remarked Robert Robot saga scientific scientists seems shows social space opera Star Trek Star Wars steampunk story stuff success superhero things thought utopian vision Wave young adult