I was just wondering how did science fiction come to be as a literary genre,what caused the emergence of scifi?
how did it become so popular and what were the causes of it in general like historical causes
- vishaal_lalchand
Tags: Emergence, Literary Genre, Science Fiction, Scifi
April 6th, 2009 at 1:07 am
It must have had something to do with the huge scientific and technical advances that were made, especially in the 20th century. People saw what could be done, and used their imagination to create stories about things that seemed possible.
April 8th, 2009 at 1:16 am
As people made scientific advances, writers imagined alternative uses and advances.. one of the first to write in this field was Jules Verne.
Jules Gabriel Verne (February 8, 1828 – March 24, 1905) was a French author who pioneered the science-fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Journey to the Center of the Earth (written in 1864), From the Earth to the Moon (written in 1865), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (written in 1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (written in 1873). Verne wrote about space, air, and underwater travel before navigable aircraft and practical submarines were invented, and before any means of space travel had been devised.
H. G. Wells (1866-1946), English author, futurist, essayist, historian, socialist, and teacher wrote The War of the Worlds (1898);
the invasion of earth by aliens from Mars, tripods attacking with Heat Rays and Black Smoke and the evacuation of London while people were terrorised in the surrounding countryside became one of the first internationally read modern science fiction stories. Wells is credited, along with Hugo Gernsback (1884-1967) and Jules Verne (1828-1905) as being the fathers of science fiction. Forty years after its publication, on the night of Halloween 1938, Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre on-air radio broadcast of the novel caused widespread panic in New York City. Wells’ masterpiece spawned more invasion literature and inspired numerous movie adaptations and print sequels.
SciFi became the pulp fiction favorite along with westerns in the 1930’s and its popularity grew as our scientific knowledge grew. The field burgeoned further when the US actually started sending out space vehicles which inflamed the imaginations of people everywhere.