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David Seed examines how science fiction has emerged as a popular genre of literature in the 20th century, and discusses it in relation to themes such as science and technology, space, aliens, utopias and gender. Looking at some of the most influential writers of the genre, as well as SF film, he also considers the wider social and political issues it raises.
Synopsis
David Seed examines how science fiction has emerged as a popular genre of literature in the 20th century, and discusses it in relation to themes such as science and technology, space, aliens, utopias, and gender. Looking at some of the most influential writers of the genre he also considers the wider social and political issues it raises.
Book Details
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Publication Date:
23-Jun-2011
ISBN:
9780199557455
Guardian review
Science Fiction by David Seed review
the guardian Fri 01 July 2011
The tropes and themes of SF are increasingly mainstream, or as Seed puts it, there is a "realignment of novelistic genres so that it is no longer assumed that science fiction is marginal". Even fantasy is becoming trendy and, according to China Miéville, can be a "subversive, radical" genre. Uniquely, SF authors have occupied a liminal terrain between "the empirical and the extraordinary", a wonderfully liberating space in which they are free to let their minds wander through alternate histories, post-nuclear landscapes, feminist utopias and dystopian cities, to name but a few of the genre's many themes, including (but not solely, as some misguided souls believe) the impact of science and technology on society. SF is, in Seed's neat formulation, an "embodied thought experiment", writing in the "what if" mode; or, as Samuel Delany puts it, "subjunctivity". From space operas to cyberspace, this brief yet thorough introduction emphasises SF's rich diversity: more than a single genre, it is "a mode or field where different genres and subgenres intersect".