In my point of view, science fiction is not only the story of the future but also is the present. It is a great imagination about the future world. In most science fiction novels, the fear of unknown present many times. Such as Alien invasion, disasters because of too advanced technology, the nuclear war and so on. [...]
"Tis' true without lying, certain and most true. That which is below is like that which is above and that which is above is like that which is below to do the miracles of only one thing." - from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes the Thrice-Greatest If what we now call mythology was the effort of [...]
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” -Arthur C. Clarke. Attempting to define any genre within firm, elegant parameters is a notoriously difficult task because the concept of ‘genre’ is an artificial construct better designed to serve consumers than accurately describe the work of creators; Nowhere is that more clear than in [...]
In 1982, the British science fiction writer J.G. Ballard wrote a story called “Report on an Unidentified Space Station.” The title is a straightforward description of the plot: A crew of explorers navigates, and reports back on, an alien space station. The station is unusual for two reasons: First, it resembles a large airport waiting [...]
What is science fiction? A student of fantastic literature would often find one’s object of study scrutinized, as its definitional boundaries do not always cohere with traditional literary standards. Fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction, dystopias and utopias, and to some extent magic realism, among many others, share blurred boundaries as we might often find texts [...]
“What is Science Fiction?” is a question I find myself answering rather often when I tell friends and acquaintances what I read in my free time. And, each time I answer this question, I don't respond in quite the same way. Each one of my responses force me to try and encapsulate the most recent [...]
What is Science Fiction? Science Fiction literature centres on the speculative applications of the human intellect in the natural world for highly imaginative. Regardless of time, epoch, place or main species, what makes a story Science Fiction is a focus on fantastic fictional settings, events and technologies in which the laws of the natural world [...]
We might best define science fiction by discussing it within the broader category of literary fiction. Fiction is unique in that it allows the reader to be temporarily transported into another place and time, escaping the “real world”. The reader might even have a paradigm shift by experiencing life through another person’s eyes, having access [...]
This short essay is based more on our discussions from class and less on the readings for the week. My stake on the whole debate of class, which seemed to quickly devolve into a conversation about genres and transcendence, is based solely on one question. The need to ask it probably comes from my anthropological [...]
Even though it intends to be constrained and succinct –and actually accomplishes it–, the entry on “Definitions of Science Fiction” in Clute and Langford’s Enciclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE) consists of nearly three thousand words. Defining Science Fiction is clearly not an easy task. Sci-Fi is a slippery genre and there are as many definitions [...]
