The Burroughsian Period (1901 to 1926)
Science Fiction: Almost exclusively soft, social commentary (e.g. A Trip to the Moon by H. G. Wells, 1901) and adventure (e.g. Under the Moons of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1912).
Central Publication: The All-Story Magazine, published by the Frank A. Munsey Corporation.
The pages of All-Story were peppered with fantastic tales.
Science Fiction: Science was now the servant of the people, producing electric razors, penicillin, and nylon. It was embraced by the public. James Hilton parried the Great Depression with Lost Horizon (1932)
Central Publication: Amazing Stories, the first all science fiction magazine.
Science had to become practical in a world that could no longer afford luxuries. Hitler's ranting made racism unpopular. Science fiction reflected this with more mature stories about searching for understanding between vastly different intelligences. The classics "Old Faithful" by Raymond Z. Gallun and "A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley G. Weinbaum (both 1934) are sympathetic portraits of fundamentally alien minds.
Science Fiction: Stories rigidly extrapolating the effects of technological progress on society.
Central Publication: Astounding Stories (still published as Analog).
Science and morality were divorced during World War. The hard sciences — physics and chemistry faded from public view.
Science fiction gained popularity because of its successful prognostication of the A-bomb. Jack Williamson's classic Humanoids were a direct response to the atomic bomb: machines with built-in morality. Isaac Asimov's robot stories were an in-depth investigation of the implications of three simple postulates.
Science Fiction: Soft, sociological, shying away from technology. Unpopular. Practical technology for the space effort was the order of the day. It was a grand adventure and science was popular once again.
Central Publication: The anthology Dangerous Visions edited by Harlan Ellison (1967).
John F. Kennedy pledged his nation to putting a man on the moon before 1970. The genre suffered greatly in popularity, but obtained its first real mainstream critical praise.
Judith Merril brought the British New Wave — a movement toward soft, socio-psychological SF with an emphasis on literary values. Moulded by the Sixties' counter-culture movement, the alien in science fiction was replaced by human beings perceived as aliens, as in Robert A. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land (1961) and Frank Herbert's Dune (1965).
Science Fiction: Hard, though with a heavy Fantasy influence. Extremely popular.
Typical Literary Figure: Barry B. Longyear, the first person ever to win a Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell award in the same year.
The soft sciences were again in fashion. Having an analyst became the new status symbol. Alvin Toffler warned against Future Shock.
The popularity of science fiction in the visual media had a profound effect on the genre. The literary excellence of the 1960s was replaced by a return to the simpler storytelling of the 1940s. Aliens were truly alien: totally dissimilar to humans.
1985 - H.G.Wells major of science fiction novel, The Time Machine.
1900s - The first science fiction film produced at 1902, A Trip to the Moon. “Trick effects” founded by George Melies at 1907.
1930s - The amazing years for science fiction. Science was now the servant of the people, producing electric razors, penicillin, and nylon. It was embraced by the public. James Hilton parried the Great Depression with Lost Horizon (1932).
1940s - The golden age period of science fiction film. Stories of science fiction film rigidly extrapolating the effects of technological progress on society.
1950s - Science fiction recognize by Hollywood as a commercial film genre. Science fiction gained popularity because of its successful prognostication of the A-bomb.
1960s - Declining of science fiction genre in Hollywood. Kingsley Amis defined science fiction as a situation that could not arise in the world we know, but which is hypothesized in the basis of some innovations in science or technology, or pseudo-science or pseudo-technology, whether human or extraterrestrial in origin. (Amis, 18, quoted in Sobhack, 19).
1970s - Science fiction been dominant genre for Hollywood film since the release of both Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977.
1980s - 1982 is a key year for science fiction, Blade Runner which produced at this year was an influential film. The potency of its imagery helped inaugurate the “tech noir” cycle. Films that married science fiction with the ambiance of a post war crime drama.
1990s - Tech noir came to dominate filmed science fiction in a stream of varyingly successful film. For example, Dark City, The 13th Floor.
2000s - Douglas Trumbull’s effects at 2001. For example A Space Odyssey, Star Wars and Blade Runner.
Bibliography:
Rickman,G (2004), ‘Introduction’, in The Science Fiction Film Reader. New York, United States. Pp. xiii-xxiii.
Sawyer,R. (n.d.) The Evolution of Science Fiction. Retrieved from http://www.sfwriter.com/owomout.htm
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