Fantasy and Science Fiction
The Fantasy and Science Fiction genres are about examining what is possible. The genres do not necessarily explore what is actually possible, sometimes they probe forward improbably and impossibly. All fantasy and science fiction stories are rooted and grounded in the factual and accepted past and present. While these stories explore what is possible, an insidious commentary can be delivered. The strange technology and the magical justifications of the universe lure readers into a suspension of disbelief. A position that allows even the most resistant minds to receive the author's perceived truths. No matter how outlandish or alien the stories get, human stories are about humans and are reaching out to the readers in the year the stories are published.
The fantastic world and the future world storylines are just another strategy of persuasion for those who would otherwise resist the message of an essay or a documentary.
Introductory Video
Fantasy Short Stories
Short Story: We Can Get Them For You Wholesale (1989) by Neil Gaiman
Science Fiction Short Stories
Short Story: That Only A Mother (1948) by Judith Merril
Short Story: There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) by Ray Bradbury
Short Story: A Sound of Thunder (1952) by Ray Bradbury
Short Story: Beyond Lies The Wub (1952) by Philip K. Dick
Short Story: The Nine Billion Names of God (1953) by Arthur C. Clarke
Short Story: The Last Question (1956) by Isaac Asimov
Short Story: The Feeling of Power (1958) by Isaac Asimov
Video: —All You Zombies— - Paraphrased by Michio Kaku (2008) based on a short story (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein - (Full Text)
Short Story: Harrison Bergeron (1961) by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Short Story: The Tunnel Ahead (1961) by Alice Glaser
Video: Tunnelen (2016) Directed by André Øvredal based on a short story (1961) by Alice Glaser
Short Story: He-y, Come on Ou-t (1989) by Shinichi Hoshi
Video: They're Made Out of Meat - Directed by Stephen O'Regan (2005) based on a short story (1990) by Terry Bisson - (Full Text) (Site)
Short Story: Reality Check (2000) by David Brin (Site)
Short Story: Evil Robot Monkey (2008) by Mary Robinette Kowal (Site)
Influential Pre-Radium and Radium Age Science Fiction (1904-1933) and Old School Fantasy Novels
J. M. Barrie - Peter Pan (1911)
L. Frank Baum - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900)
Edgar Rice Burroughs - A Princess of Mars (1912), Tarzan of the Apes (1912), At the Earth's Core (1914)
Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking Glass (1871)
Arthur Conan Doyle - The Lost World (1912)
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World (1932)
Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book (1894)
Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
Jules Verne - Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), From the Earth to the Moon (1865), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1869)
H. G. Wells - The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Doctor Moreau (1896), The Invisible Man (1897), The War of the Worlds (1898)
This site kills it: http://hilobrow.com/radium-age-100/
Make Your Own Pulp Magazine Covers
Interactive: Pulp-O-Mizer from Cornelius Zeppencackler's Derange-O-Lab
Influential Golden Age Science Fiction (1934-1963) and Fantasy Novels of that Time
Isaac Asimov - Foundation (1942)
Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles (1946), Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange (1962)
Arthur C. Clarke - Childhood's End (1953), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Rendezvous with Rama (1973)
Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle (1962), The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch (1965), Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), Ubik (1969)
Robert Heinlein - The Puppet Masters (1951), Starship Troopers (1959), Stranger in a Strange Land (1961), The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)
Madeleine L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time (1963)
Daniel Keyes - Flowers for Algernon (1966)
Richard Matheson - I Am Legend (1954)
George Orwell - Animal Farm (1945), Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
J. R. R. Tolkien - The Hobbit (1937), The Lord of the Rings (1954)
Kurt Vonnegut - Player Piano (1952), The Sirens of Titan (1959), Cat's Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
This site kills it: http://hilobrow.com/golden-age-sci-fi/
Influential Science Fiction and Fantasy Novels of the Last 50some Years
Douglas Adams - The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game (1985)
Neil Gaiman - The Sandman (1989), American Gods (2001)
William Gibson - Neuromancer (1984)
Frank Herbert - Dune (1965)
Stephen King - The Stand (1978), The Gunslinger (1982)
Ursula K. Le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea (1968), The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), The Lathe of Heaven (1971), The Dispossessed (1974)
George R. R. Martin - A Game of Thrones (1996)
Larry Niven - Ringworld (1970)
Patrick Rothfuss - The Name of the Wind (2007)
J. K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997)
New Wave?: http://hilobrow.com/new-wave-sci-fi/
Where Did That Come From?
Note: Every definition here is linked to a search on Google Ngrams so that you can see the spike in that word's use over time in published books.
Ansible - A contraction of the word "answerable", this word refers to a communications device that allows instantaneous communication despite great distances. Distances even beyond light speed transmission. This word first appeared in Ursula K. LeGuin's Rocannon's World in 1962.
Blast Off - This term refers to the take off or launch of a missile or rocket-propelled vehicle. This phrase first appeared in the 1937 story Galactic Patrol by E.E. "Doc" Smith with the question "How long do you figure it’ll be before it’s safe for us to blast off?”
Cyberspace - This word came from William Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer and was used to describe an interactive virtual reality dataspace. We now use the word and the root cyber- to describe anything on the Internet.
Robot - The term was first used in a 1920 play written by Czech writer Karel Čapek. The play was titled R.U.R. and the initials mean Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti which translates to Rossum's Universal Robots.
Taser - In 1974 a man named Jack Cover invented the taser. He named it after a favorite book of his: 1911's Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle was written by Stratemeyer Syndicate under the pen name Victor Appleton. The word comes from an acronym created from Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle.
Uncanny Valley - In 1970 a Japanese robotics professor wrote an article talking about empathy and emotional reaction to robots related to how lifelike they are. We love our non-lifelike toy robots, we have eerie discomfort and revulsion toward not-quite-lifelike robots such as artificial limbs and robotic dolls, and we have love and empathy again for when we truly reach lifelike robots that could pass for people. That curve represents the uncanny valley. Here is a translation of the original article: https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/the-uncanny-valley
Virus - The word virus was used far before 1970, but after the publication of Gregory Benford's short story "The Scarred Man", people and authors started using the word virus to describe hostile software in the computing world. The malevolent computer program in the story was named VIRUS.
Waldo - Robert A. Heinlein, under the pseudonym Anson MacDonald, published the short story "Waldo" in 1942. In the story, the main character invents the Waldo F. Jones Synchronous Reduplicating Pantograph. Through this device, Waldo who is extraordinarily weak, can operate much stronger and useful robotic hands by moving his own. Today any gadget that can manipulate objects by remote control is called a waldo. This story later inspired modern telepresence technology development.
Found a trove: http://io9.gizmodo.com/31-essential-science-fiction-terms-and-where-they-came-1594794250
Cinematic Chiasmus by Robert Lockard
"Chiasmus is a literary term that means a series of ideas that are listed in one order and then repeated in the opposite order, creating one giant symmetrical thought. It’s most common in written form, but did you know that some movies follow this same pattern, too? Prepare to be amazed as we discover examples of Cinematic Chiasmus!"--Robert Lockard - Cinematic Chiasmus @ Dejareviewer.com
Back To The Future - https://dejareviewer.com/2014/08/05/great-scott-the-entire-back-to-the-future-trilogy-is-one-big-chiasmus/
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure - https://dejareviewer.com/2014/09/02/cinematic-chiasmus-bill-and-teds-symmetrical-adventure/
Robocop - https://dejareviewer.com/2014/04/29/cinematic-chiasmus-robocop-is-almost-perfectly-symmetrical-film/
Superman: The Movie - https://dejareviewer.com/2014/06/24/cinematic-chiasmus-remarkable-symmetry-of-the-original-superman-the-movie/
The Empire Strikes Back - https://dejareviewer.com/2014/05/20/cinematic-chiasmus-the-empire-strikes-back-is-a-perfectly-symmetrical-film/
The Last Starfighter - https://dejareviewer.com/2014/12/09/cinematic-chiasmus-something-new-to-admire-about-the-last-starfighter-besides-its-special-effects/
The Matrix - https://dejareviewer.com/2015/03/03/cinematic-chiasmus-whoa-the-matrix-is-a-symmetrical-film/
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - https://dejareviewer.com/2014/10/21/ill-be-back-takes-on-new-meaning-terminator-2-judgment-days-first-half-mirrors-its-second-half/
Wargames - https://dejareviewer.com/2015/08/12/shall-we-play-a-game-lets-see-how-symmetrical-wargames-is/
Movies That Changed Things
So Many Movies Based on Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) Stories
Blade Runner (1982) based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
Total Recall (1990) based on the short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" (1966)
Screamers (1995) based on the short story "Second Variety" (1953)
Impostor (2001) based on the short story "Impostor" (1953)
Minority Report (2002) based on the short story "The Minority Report" (1956)
Paycheck (2003) based on the short story "Paycheck" (1952)
A Scanner Darkly (2006) based on the novel A Scanner Darkly (1977)
Next (2007) based on the novella "The Golden Man" (1954)
The Adjustment Bureau (2011) based on the short story "Adjustment Team" (1954)
So Many Movies Based on Michael Crichton (1942-2008) Stories
The Andromeda Strain (1971) based on the novel The Andromeda Strain (1969)
The Terminal Man (1974) based on the novel The Terminal Man (1972)
Jurassic Park (1993) based on the novel Jurassic Park (1990)
Congo (1995) based on the novel Congo (1980)
The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) based on the novel The Lost World (1995)
Sphere (1998) based on the novel Sphere (1997)
Timeline (2003) based on the novel Timeline (1999)
So Many Movies Based on Richard Matheson (1926-2013) Stories
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) based on the short story "The Shrinking Man" (1957)
The Last Man on Earth (1964) based on the novel I Am Legend (1954)
The Omega Man (1971) based on the novel I Am Legend (1954)
Somewhere In Time (1980) based on the novel Bid Time Return (1975)
What Dreams May Come (1998) based on the novel What Dreams May Come (1978)
Stir of Echoes (1999) based on the novel A Stir of Echoes (1958)
I Am Legend (2007) based on the novel I Am Legend (1954)
The Box (2009) based on the short story "Button, Button" (1970)
Real Steel (2011) based on the short story "Steel" (1956)
Short Films
Hyper-Reality (2016) by Keiichi Matsuda
Spin (2006) by Jamin Winans
Strange Beasts (2017) by Magali Barbé
The Black Hole ( 2017) by Phil & Olly
Uncanny Valley (2015) by Federico Heller
Galaxy Science Fiction Made Public - 355 Issues Worth!
https://archive.org/details/galaxymagazine
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester - Part 1 in October 1956, Part 2 in November 1956, Part 3 in December 1956, Part 4 in January 1957
The Fireman by Ray Bradbury (short story that led to Fahrenheit 451) - February 1951
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov - Part 1 in October 1953, Part 2 in November 1953, Part 3 in December 1953.
Worlds of If Made Public - 176 Issues Worth!
https://archive.org/details/ifmagazine
Find these?
If published many award-winning stories over its 22 years, including Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Harlan Ellison's short story "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream". The most prominent writer to make his first sale to If was Larry Niven, whose story "The Coldest Place" appeared in the December 1964 issue.
Astounding Science Fiction
Concepts
Video: When Did Time Travel Come From? - Nerdwriter - November 5, 2017
Fermi Paradox/Drake Equation
Clarke's Three Laws
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
Niven's Laws
Never fire a laser at a mirror.
Giving up freedom for security is beginning to look naïve.
It is easier to destroy than to create.
Ethics change with technology.
The only universal message in science fiction: There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently.
Note Dump and Playground
http://hilobrow.com/2010/05/26/sfs-best-year-ever-1912/
Ok so an argument about what is the best year for sci fi. I have to read these.
http://gizmodo.com/tag/the-best-year-in-scifi
AT IO9: Marc Bernardin argues for 1999 and 1954. No on 54. Kaiju isn't enough to play.
Charlie Jane Anders argues for 1977. Star Wars, Close Encounters, Enders Game.
Cyriaque Lamar argues for 1968. Night of the Living Dead.
Annalee Newitz argues for 1931. - Monster movie films argument.
Meredith Woerner argues for 1982. Blade Runner, Star Trek II, Tron, The Thing. Movie Centric.
All of them failed to really develop an argument. No winner declared.
Not for class but I think I'll have to track down the novella https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lifecycle_of_Software_Objects