The History of Science Fiction

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The History of Science Fiction

• By Philip Weiser

2
Main points

• Why did science fiction come to be?
• What are very strong influences on science
  fiction?
  
• When was science fiction the most popular?

3
Early Science Fiction writers and their novels
and stories

• Mary Shelly's Frankenstein included scientific
  elements to reincarnate the dead.
  
• Edgar Allen Poe included semi-scientific details
  in The Facts in the Case of M.Vlademar.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote Rappaccini's
  Daughter, which included bizarre experiments
  with plants by Rappaccini.
  
• Looking Backward is a book by Edward Bellamy that
  extrapolates ahead over 100 years and describes
  the future.

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• Science fiction is used by authors to express
  their ideas about the future. Some fear the
  future of science, like Mary Shelly, and others
  describe new inventions that make life wonderful.
  Science fiction is a branch of regular fiction
  that has an extra scientific edge that makes it
  much more interesting, and much less possible.

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Strong Influences on Science Fiction

• World War II and the atomic arms race strongly
  influenced sci-fi between the years 1945-1965.
  
• Many writers, including Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph
  Heller, wrote about the war and its aftershocks.
  
• The dropping of the atomic bomb led many authors
  to write books with grim descriptions of the
  future.
  
• This influence is shown in the movie Terminator,
  as the world is in chaos as it fights a giant war.

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• Science fiction novels were much less common than
  regular fantasy books.
  
• Many early sci-fi was written for small magazines
  called pulp magazines.
  
• Pulp magazines were very popular, as they were
  cheap, and many of them were published, so many
  authors were able to publish their work.
  
• The popularity of pulp magazines peaked in the
  1930's and declined due to readers listening to
  the radio instead of buying magazines.

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Pulp Magazine's influence

• Helped many writers publish their work
• Helped find amazing science fiction writers such
  as Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein
  
• Created a reader base for sci-fi books and short
  stories
  
• Helped foster the sci-fi genre as a whole

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Works Cited

• Shelly, Mary. Frankenstein. New York Bantam
  Books, 1991.
  
• Taormina, Agatha. Science Fiction History.
  November 5, 2003. North Virginia Community
  College. November 3, 2005 me/ataormina/scifi/history/default.htm.
• Unknown. A brief History of Science Fiction
  Pulp Magazines. Stationlink.com. November 3, 2005
  
  .