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Aspects of Science Fiction As Presented in the Novel Foundation by Isaac Asimov Leistungsfach: Englisch ~ 1 ~

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Aspects of Science Fiction As Presented in the Novel Foundation by Isaac Asimov Leistungsfach: Englisch ~ 1 ~ Name: Powen Alexander Shiah Thema: Aspects of Science Fiction as Presented in the Novel Foundation by Isaac Asimov Leistungsfach: Englisch ~ 1 ~ Schule: Gymnasium Papenburg Schuljahr: 2001-2002 FACHARBEIT Thema: Aspects of Science Fiction as Presented in the Novel Foundation by Isaac Asimov Name:.......................................................Powen Alexander Shiah Unterrichtsfach:......................................Englisch Kurs:.........................................................12En1 Kursleiter(in):..........................................Frau Reimers Ausgabetermin:.......................................4. Februar, 2002 Abgabetermin: ........................................22. März, 2002 Erzielte Note:.......................................... Unterschrift Kursleiterin Unterschrift Schülers ~ 2 ~ Aspects of Science Fiction as Presented in the Novel Foundation by Isaac Asimov 1. What is Science Fiction?........................................................................................ 3 1.1 A “Brief” History of Speculative Fiction ................................................. 3 1.2 A Suitable Definition................................................................................... 5 2. Subthemes in Speculative Fiction........................................................................ 7 2.1 Analysing our World.................................................................................... 8 2.2 Faster Than a Speeding Train .................................................................... 8 2.3 Robots, Robots Everywhere ...................................................................... 8 3. The Author: Isaac Asimov................................................................................... 9 3.1 His Life.......................................................................................................... 9 3.2 His Work...................................................................................................... 10 3.3 Quotations................................................................................................... 10 4. The Novel: Foundation.......................................................................................... 11 4.1 What Happens?........................................................................................... 11 4.2 Where Have We Seen This Before?......................................................... 13 4.3 And Now, a Word from our Readers….................................................. 14 5. Speculative Fiction Today.................................................................................... 15 Works Cited.................................................................................................................. 16 Works Consulted.......................................................................................................... 17 Appendices Einverständniserklärung zur Veröffentlichung.................................................19 Schriftliche Versicherung der selbständigen Anfertigung............................... 20 Speculative Fiction Genre Chart......................................................................... 21 Internet Sources ...............................................................................................Diskette ~ 3 ~ 1. What is Science Fiction? 1.1 A “Brief” History of Speculative Fiction Science fiction, sometimes referred to with the broader term of speculative fiction, finds its roots in the mists of antiquity, claiming the Epic of Gilgamesh, the rapture of Elijah, and Greek and Egyptian mythology as its predecessors. Though these works of literature contain themes often associated with the genre, they cannot be considered genuine science fiction, or even speculative fiction, because they fail to fall under any of science fiction’s commonly accepted definitions, lacking, above all, earnest speculation. None of these stories attempt to create scenarios, to speculate about possible situations, that really might take place, and it is not until shortly before the Industrial Revolution that the beginnings of true science fiction can be found in works like Sir Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), Louis-Sébastian Mercier’s The Year 2440 (1770), and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly’s Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus (1818). Sir Thomas More’s Utopia arrives as one of the first examples of futuristic, fictional situations used to comment on social conditions of the day. Through the example of an ideal society on the island Utopia, this book, whose title plays on the Greek words eutopia, meaning “the good place,” and outopia, “no place,” demonstrates positive societal changes caused by altered economic circumstances. More comments thereby indirectly on the negative effect of the cloth industry’s growing demand for English wool on the English peasantry during his time.1 2 His work illustrates that science fiction arises when the rate of technological progress accelerates to the degree that consciousness of the changes within one’s lifetime develops, and flourishes only when industrialisation brings the knowledge that the future will not be like the present to the common awareness.3 Through science fiction, people reconcile themselves with the rapid change in society, it allows them to experiment with worlds and situations simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. In keeping with these auspicious beginnings, science fiction provides a forum to discuss the present and future implications of scientific trends, making social commentary integral in speculative fiction. Mary Shelly, noting thrilling, yet often disquieting scientific advances, uses her novel, Frankenstein, to express the fear of scientific development unrestrained by moral and ethical limits. Her story about a 1 Feige, Marcel: Science Fiction. Hamburg 2001, 6. 2 ibid. 3 Franklin, H. Bruce: Science Fiction: The Early History. <http://newark.rutgers.edu/~hbf/sfhist.html>(11.3.2002) ~ 4 ~ being created by the driven scientist Victor Frankenstein calls his good intentions of curing disease and death into question. Dr Frankenstein, who seeks to produce life at all costs, ends up constructing a creature that plagues him to the ends of the earth because of his creator’s refusal to take responsibility for his creation. In 1895, H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine: an Invention describes the possibility of inequality and conflict produced by continued evolution of the human race, while his famous The War of the Worlds (1898) speculates on the subject of aliens, their designs on the human race, and humans’ reactions to them. Jules Verne, author of From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864), also greatly influences the development of this new and yet unnamed genre.4 For a short time, when speculative fiction appears on the literary scene as a cohesive genre in the early 1920s, this tendency towards social analysis disappears. In the magazine Amazing Stories, first published in 1926, editor, journalist, and publisher Hugo Gernsback calls this budding form of literature “scientification, ” setting the focus on the technological aspects rather than the critical. At the beginning of 1930s, Gernsback renames the genre to “science fiction” in Science Wonder Stories, one of the several successors to Amazing Stories that he edits. At this time, science fiction receives very little (and perhaps does not deserve) attention as a serious genre because of inferior writing quality and poor appearance of the magazines. This superficial phase in science fiction does not continue for long, as the genre improves in quality and in popularity when editor John W. Campbell, Jr., begins to demand better quality for the stories he publishes in his magazine, Astounding Stories of Super- Science (he renames it to Astounding Science Fiction in 1938).5 6 With the driving force of Campbell behind it, science fiction eventually makes its debut as “serious fiction” through the work of authors like Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert A. Heinlein. The move away from “pulp” and Space Opera and the growing use of science fiction as a venue for social criticism also contribute to this increasing legitimacy, before, but especially after World War II. In the 1940s and early 1950s, science fiction moves somewhat into mainstream literature, developing an appeal for the general public. This popularisation ushers in 4 Åsman, Calle: Science Fiction, the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20th century. (3.12.2001) <http://hem.fyristorg.com/gumby/sf/eng/september/sf2.html>(3.3.2002) 5 Åsman, Calle: Science Fiction, magazines in the beginning of the 20th century. (3.12.2001)<http://hem.fyristorg.com/gumby/sf/eng/september/sf3.html>(3.3.2002) 6 Åsman, Calle: Science Fiction, magazines continued. (3.12.2001)<http://hem.fyristorg.com/gumby/sf/eng/september/sf4.html>(3.3.2002) ~ 5 ~ the Golden Age (or Classic Age) of science fiction. Authors like Brian W. Aldiss, A.E. Van Vogt, and Theodore Sturgeon as well as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and Robert A. Heinlein, who grew up reading the early science fiction magazines, publish books and stories during this era of science fiction “classics.”7 These authors write grandiose stories of space adventures and explorations, colonisation of faraway planets, and galaxy-spanning empires. At this time, science fiction films like Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde are produced as well.8 The latter half of the 1950s conventionally receives the eponym, “the Silver Age.”
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