Ashlee and I are happy to bring you a new feature to our website - a blog where we can chat more about books, teas, and related things!
In this first blog post, we would love to share an article Ashlee wrote for her Creative Writing Class at college. Let her take you on a journey of The History of Sci-Fi...
Modern Science Fiction Literature
When thinking of Science Fiction we often think of daring space battles, dystopian societies full of corruption, or blasting off to explore the far reaches of our solar system. But where did all of this begin? When did modern science fiction really begin to develop into what we see it as today? To answer this question we must take a look back at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. When modern science fiction began it originally had utopian themes. Authors like Jules Verne and H. G. Wells contributed to the early works in the genre by writing books like Around the World in Eighty Days and Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, (respectively).
The Time Machine (1895), The Invisible Man (1897), and The War of the Worlds (1898), written by Wells, all looked toward the future through the lens of advancing technology and with optimism. Uptopias were the foreseen result of the advancement in technologies.
The 1920’s gave us "pulp fiction” from the dime magazines typically known for detective stories. This brought a new generation of readers to Sci-Fi stories. Also, notable influence was Edgar Rice Burroughs who wrote a serialized story Under the Moons of Mars (1912), novelized as A Princess of Mars (1917), and later adapted into film as John Carter (2012). The title character of the film added Western archetypes to Science Fiction and became the influence for the “Space Opera” sub-genre throughout the 1950's
Everything changed in the 1940’s when America entered into the Second World War. After witnessing the horrors of warfare the hopes for a utopian society had been dismantled for good, due to this the theme of utopia morphed into dystopia. With books like Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 (1953), 1984 (1949) by George Orwell, and Brave New World (1932) by Aldus Huxley (the grandson of famous biologist Thomas Henry Huxley, known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his firm support of the theory of evolution), the world began to become skeptical of the government as well as lose hope that man could ever attain utopia.
The '50’s saw a shift from works inspired wholly by a technological basis to taking on insights into anthropology and culture. The Cold War was on, which filled people with fear and paranoia, reflected in the works they produced. The advent of the atomic bomb (1945) and the first man to be launched into orbit (1957) also inspired brand new stories in this genre. The “big three” of Sci-fi Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlen, Isaac Asimov, and later Arthur C. Clarke were at their peak during this year. It is characterized by dystopian societies, the rise of robotics in fiction, and thoughts about different types of cultures and societies.
The 60’s and 70’s gave us a new wave of Science Fiction, with a lower moral standing and influences from “new-age” psychedelic drugs as well as Eastern religion and philosophies and new unorthodox literary styles, creating a genre almost unrecognizable. The leaders of this movement were Michael Moorcock (New Worlds Journal [1936-66]), and Harlan Ellison (Dangerous Visions [1967]). This resulted in the culmination of “soft” science fiction which deals with more anthropological and cultural issues instead of being soundly grounded in science and dealing with futuristic technologies.
The 1980’s brought us cyber-punk in the form of the short stories by Philip K. Dick, most notably Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) which became the film Blade Runner (1982). This new era of Sci-fi dealt with cybernetics, degraded societies, as well as moral issues of justice and alienated social consciousness. It was an adaptation of the same themes befitting of the digital age. Now newer issues such as cyber-security, hacking, and the unknown world of the internet were added into the mix. The world of Sci-fi in the 90s added even more to this with films like The Matrix (1999), and The Terminator (and sequels from 1984, ‘91, 2003, ‘09, 1’5).
Overall science fiction has undergone numerous changes and developments throughout its modern history, but the core themes of love for science and technology, and discussion of relevant social issues have stayed the same, placing Science Fiction in the hearts of generations around the world. The study of the genre also reflects trends in history as newer developments in technology and world events influenced the themes and motifs of the genre. People today continue to enjoy Science Fiction and look forward to the future with hope, regardless of the circumstances of the real world.
*currently A Brave New World and The H.G. Wells Collection are available in the Shop!