This JSTOR post is a brief description of Paul K Alkon's book Science Fiction Before 1900: Imagination Discovers Technology. This summary describes the beginning of the genre as a "meeting of science and imagination as applied technology." Alkon introduces his discussion on early science fiction by detailing the importantce of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein to the genre. He argues that with the rise of technology these tales gained more credibility as possible events, as opposed to early ideas which were simply chalked up to "magic." He aruges that contrary to fiction, which builds on historical events to create a reality, science fiction depends on the reader's readiness to accept the events as plausible. Like we discussed in class, other authors covered include Jules Verne and Mark Twain.
No comments:
Post a Comment