Re: I think part of the "spark" of sci-fi was because of the craziness of the 20th century
DomA Send a noteboard - 19/05/2011 03:52:52 AM
That's not to say that there weren't tons of inventions pre 19th century.
But... if you compare the start of the 20th century to its end, I think you'll find the most radical difference in all human history.
And a big part of the spirit of sci-fi is change- what's going to happen next, what will it change, and what will stay the same? I think the reason sci-fi became the zeitgeist it did is because all of society was saturated in change for so many decades.
(I'd also be very interested in reading a, say, medieval sci-fi novel. I'm just saying why I think they're so rare).
But... if you compare the start of the 20th century to its end, I think you'll find the most radical difference in all human history.
And a big part of the spirit of sci-fi is change- what's going to happen next, what will it change, and what will stay the same? I think the reason sci-fi became the zeitgeist it did is because all of society was saturated in change for so many decades.
(I'd also be very interested in reading a, say, medieval sci-fi novel. I'm just saying why I think they're so rare).
That's all true, except the "first spark" of passion for speculating about the future was rather in the second half of the 19th century. Jules Verne and Wells epitomize that, but they were far from the only ones surfing that wave, just the two best and two most well-known today. From their perspective, things were changing as fast as happened through the 20th century (and perhaps for them more surprisingly - in the 20th century we kind of started to take constant technological progress for granted). Verne speculated a fax machine almost as early as the telephone got invented.
As for medieval/renaissance "sci-fi", that which exists is more socio-political than technical in nature, e.g: Utopia.
Fiction set in the "future" - from the perspective of 200+ year old literature.
- 19/05/2011 02:47:15 AM
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I think part of the "spark" of sci-fi was because of the craziness of the 20th century
- 19/05/2011 03:17:07 AM
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Re: I think part of the "spark" of sci-fi was because of the craziness of the 20th century
- 19/05/2011 03:52:52 AM
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