"gregjohn" <pte### [at] yahoocom> wrote in message 
news:web.4ad70d5f48067d0f34d207310@news.povray.org...
> Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
>>
>> Indeed. And I think most people would rate both the Illiad and the Island 
>> of
>> Dr Moureau as speculative fiction if not sci fi in the latter case. :-)
>>
>
>
> I've been reading some of those 19th century tales.  It is interesting 
> that
> there is a very different feel to "20,000 Leagues" than a typical 60's 
> scifi
> novel.  In the older works, the authors are all about amazement at the 
> grandeur
> before them. In the latter ones, everyone is jaded about how society's 
> worst
> problems came along with them to Mars or the moon.
>
> I am preparing a DVD compilation of public domain books.  I chose to make 
> the
> access on the virtue of "genre", and I put Verne and Wells in with the old 
> sea
> tales, not with the 1930's scifi.
>
>
> gregjohn wrote:
>> In the older works, the authors are all about amazement at the grandeur
>> before them. In the latter ones, everyone is jaded about how society's
>> worst
>> problems came along with them to Mars or the moon.
>
> Another excellent point. And some of the stuff from the 40's and 50's,
> there's a bit of "oh *that's* how it works" kind of moments, without the
> "awe" as such.

Prior to, oh, about the 1930's most people's idea of "science" was medicine
(to a small extent) and electricity (to a large extent). Most popular
stories were written around that idea. By the time of the war in 1939, most
people could only name one scientist, if that (well, that's mostly still
true... <g>). After the war, people began to think of "science" in terms of
"physicists" which were in demand and somewhat feared (they made bombs,
don't ya know).

People *were* in awe of being able to flip a switch and light a room without
burning anything, and the possibilities seemd to go on forever. But after
the Big War, people started getting scared of what "science" could do, and
popular stories began to reflect that.

Also, SF got a bad rap up to that point because there were so many
bug-eyed-monsters-chase-the-screaming-daughter-of-the-mad-scientist-
who-are-then-saved-by-the-big-square-jawed-galoot stories that were
*called* SF. (Yes, there were some exceptions, but not many). Then in
the 1940's, along came some authors who assumed their audience could
think, and enjoyed doing so (I'm thinking of Heinlein and Asimov in
particular, but it was a fashion that caught on for a while).

Starting slowly, then picking up steam after 1977, cinema began to reflect
the idea that SF stories had to blow things up (blowing things up, after
all, is totally cool... in a movie). An awful lot of what passess for SF in
books these days will have space travel in it, and something, somewhere will
explode.

I'm not sure it matters, really, whether Fiction is Science or Speculative
or anything in between. I just wish there were more authors who paid
*attention* to actual science, and don't just make up miracles in tech
disguises that grate on the nerves. :D

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