Science fiction

Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology upon society and persons as individuals. In common with most fiction, science fiction is written mainly to entertain people. The borders of this genre are not well defined, and the dividing lines between its sub-genres are often fluid. (In Strong Opinions, Vladimir Nabokov half-seriously argues that, if we were truly rigorous with our definitions, Shakespeare's play The Tempest would have to be termed science fiction.)

Scope

In defining the scope of the science fiction genre, we speak of the effect of science or technology, or both, upon society or persons; within the context of imaginative fiction there are a few variables.

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It is possible to apply the creative imagination to different areas of this idea, for example:

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• the effect of imagined science
• the imagined effect of actual science
• imagined technology based upon actual science
• imagined technology based upon imagined science
• the effect of science and technology, or both, upon imagined societies
• the effect of science and technology, or both, upon imagined individuals, etc., etc.

Therefore, a story could describe an extremely unusual society (for example, an extraterrestrial civilization, or a parallel or alternate dimension of spacetime) and their unusual reactions to a scientific discovery, which (to the reader) is straightforward knowledge, for example, the story "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov.

Related Topics:
Extraterrestrial - Parallel or alternate - Dimension - Spacetime - Nightfall - Isaac Asimov

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Alternatively, the society might be ordinary and human, but the individual man or woman might be an unusual person (for example, a mutant or a telepath) who responds exceptionally to otherwise ordinary events. The "individual" might be an artificial intelligence, and the story may partly be concerned with the Turing test. The society and persons in the story may be ordinary, but faced with bizarre circumstances such as the invention of teleportation, or the discovery of a new chemical element with unusual properties (such as "Cavorite" in The First Men In The Moon).

Related Topics:
Mutant - Telepath - Artificial intelligence - Turing test - Teleportation - Cavorite - The First Men In The Moon

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If the society, the person, the technology, and the scientific knowledge base in the story are all standard and realistic (drawn from observed reality), without much extrapolation of any of these literary components, the story would be classed as mainstream, contemporary fiction rather than as science fiction, but if the characters' psychology (thoughts and feelings) about the laws of the universe, time, reality, and human invention are unusual and tend toward existential re-interpretation of life's meaning in relation to the technological world, then it would be classed a modernist work of literature which overlaps with the themes of science fiction.

Related Topics:
Fiction - Existential - Modernist - Literature

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Some fiction sits on the borderline between science fiction and other genres; some writing defies categorisation. The term "science fiction" generally refers to any fiction that the average reader would consider theoretically possible, but which is not set in the past or present as we generally conceive it to be. Even clearly impossible fiction set in the future or in outer space is usually considered science fiction, if it has the trappings of science rather than magic. Thus stories of faster-than-light travel are generally counted as science fiction. The phrase "science fiction" is sometimes applied even more broadly, to include fantasy. Many bookstores shelve science fiction and fantasy together. Finally, there are slipstream stories, that are only science fiction because their readers will have it so. A good example is the Hugo nominated novel Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. The phrase speculative fiction has been suggested as more inclusive than "science fiction".

Related Topics:
Slipstream - Hugo - Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson - Speculative fiction

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It can also be argued that science fiction is simply a modern form of fantasy, which developed alongside of the rise of science and technology as driving factors in modern society. In this view, the elements that would previously have been presented as fantasy: magic, transformations, divination, mind-reading, fabulous beasts, new civilizations, and higher beings, are rationalized or supported through scientific or quasiscientific rationales: marvelous devices, mutation, psychic abilities, aliens and their civilizations. This definition also has the benefit of avoiding semantic traps over science fiction stories that are overtaken by events. There are many classic science fiction stories which include science since disproven or predictions that did not happen. There is a substantial overlap between the audiences of science fiction and fantasy literature, and many, if not most, science fiction authors have also written works of fantasy. Many fantasy novels have won Hugo awards and Nebula awards.

Related Topics:
Magic - Transformation - Divination - Hugo award - Nebula award

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Precursors of the genre, such as Mary Shelley's Gothic novel Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus (1818) and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) plainly are science fiction, whereas Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), based on the supernatural, is not. A borderline case is Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, where the time travel is unexplained but subsequent events make realistic use of science. Shelley's novel and Stevenson's novella are early examples of a standard science fiction theme: The obsessed scientist whose discoveries worsen a bad circumstance. Science fiction has often been concerned with the great hopes people place in science and also with their fears concerning the negative side of technological development.

Related Topics:
Mary Shelley - Frankenstein - 1818 - Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - 1886 - Bram Stoker - Dracula - 1897 - Supernatural - Mark Twain - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

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The broader category of speculative fiction includes science fiction, fantasy, alternative histories (which often have no particular scientific or futuristic component), and even literary stories where the only fantastic element is the strangeness of their style. Olaf Stapledon's Darkness and the Light which presents two possible futures for mankind defined by developments in ethics and philosophy, is a good example of speculative fiction. Another branch of speculative fiction is the utopian or dystopian story. These are sometimes claimed by science fiction on the grounds that sociology is a science. Many satirical novels with fantastic settings qualify as speculative fiction. Gulliver's Travels is one example.

Related Topics:
Speculative fiction - Olaf Stapledon - Darkness and the Light - Utopian - Dystopian - Gulliver's Travels

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A popular idea of science fiction is that it is, in general, attempting to predict the future. Some commentators go so far as to attempt to judge the "success" of a work of science fiction on the accuracy of its predictions. While most science fiction is set in the future, most authors are not attempting to predict; instead, they use the future as an open framework for their themes. A science fiction writer is generally not trying to write a history of the future that they believe will happen, any more than a writer of westerns is trying to create a historically accurate depiction of the old West. There are exceptions, especially in early science fiction. Writers are as likely to write of a future that they hope will not happen as they are to write about a future they think will happen.

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