November 19 2007

One could argue that Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein was the first science fiction story. There were many wonder stories before Shelley's, such as Beowulf, The Odyssey and Gulliver's Travels, but none of those other tales had anything to do with science.  Events happened in them because of the activities of the gods, a muscular hero or just the blind forces of Nature.

Frankenstein was different because, if you took out the science, there was nothing left of the story. If Dr. Frankenstein had failed to animate the monster, none of the other events in the book would have happened.  Of course, the science in Frankenstein looks absurd today.  We know that you can't revive the dead just by zapping them with electricity, but the idea probably seemed much more plausible back in 1818 when Shelley wrote her novel.

There was no science fiction prior to the Industrial Revolution because technology changed so slowly that people hardly noticed the difference.  It took about three centuries for the first primitive matchlock muskets to evolve, first into flintlocks and then into repeating rifles that used cartridges.  By contrast, the first fifty years of the nineteenth century saw the coming of steamships, railroads, electric motors and the telegraph.  Each of these inventions transformed society in its own way.  People began to notice science and the changes that it brought.  They also began to feel uneasy about where the future was going.

Fifty years ago, science fiction writers got no respect because their stories were considered to be too wild, just childish daydreams.  Today, they face the opposite problem.  So many jaw dropping scientific advances get announced every year that it's tough for writers to invent stories that are strange enough.

As a result, some people are saying that science fiction has been overtaken by science fact.  Recently, Ridley Scott (the director of Blade Runner) said he thought science fiction was as dead as the western.  Do you agree or do you think there is still room for imaginative stories that will bring back that sense of wonder and excitement about the future?   I'd like to know what you think.

George