science fiction is a book predicting a special earlier period or forthcoming
Science fiction is tricky to characterize, as it encompasses a large range of subgenres and themes. Author D Knight summed up the impenetrability by stating that “science fiction is what we point to when we say it”, a meaning echoed by writer Mark C. Glassy, who argues with the intention of the designation of SF is like the definition of porn you don’t know what it is, but you understand it when you recognise it.Vladimir Nabokov put that if we were rigorous with our definitions, Shakespeare’s play The Tempest would have to be termed SciFi.
According to Sci-Fi writer Robert A. Heinlein, “a handy short definition of almost all science fiction could read: practical speculation in relation to potential future events, based mostly solidly on enough knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough consideration of the characteristics and weight of the scientific procedure.”Rod Serling’s definition is “fantasy is the impossible made probable. Science Fiction is the improbable made possible.” Lester del Rey wrote, “Even the devoted aficionado– or fan- has a hard time trying to explain what science fiction is”, and that the reason for there not being a “full satisfactory definition” is that “there are no easily delineated limits to science fiction.”
Peter Nicholls writes that “SF” or “sf” is “the preferred abbreviation within the community of sf writers and readers”. David Langford’s monthly fanzine Ansible includes a regular section “As Others See Us” which offers numerous examples of “sci-fi” being used in a pejorative sense by people outside the genre. sci-fi books
July 07 2010 02:47 am | Uncategorized