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Xerox University Microfilms 300 North ZM b Rood Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 77-2356 BROCK, Eleanor Evelyn Huebner, 1930- PROJECTED SOCIETIES IN AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION, 1945-1970. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1976 Sociology, general Xerox University MicrofilmsAnn , Arbor, Michigan 48106 @ 1976 ELEANOR EVELYN HUEBNER BROCK ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PROJECTED SOCIETIES IN AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION 1945-1970 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Eleanor Evelyn Huebner Brock The Ohio State University 1976 Reading Committee: Approved By Alfred C. Clarke Simon Dinitz Russell R. Dynes VITA September 15, 1930 , . Born - Chicago, Illinois 1951 ..................... A.B., DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana 1962 ..................... M.Sc., Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 196 5-1966 .............. PHS/NIMH Fellow, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Sociology Studies in Sociology of the Family. Professor Alfred Clarke Studies in Methods of Social Research. Professors Robert Bullock, Patrick Cleaver, Raymond Sletto Studies in Minority Relations. Professors James W. VanderZanden, Donald Noel Minor Field: English Literature TABLE OF CONTENTS Page VITA ................................................... ii Chapter I. NATURE OF THE RESEARCH .................. 1 Purpose ...................................... 1 Description of the study .................. 3 Related research ........................... 7 H y p o t h e s e s ............................. 20 Organization of the remainder of the t h e s i s ............................... 29 II. DEFINITIONS AND METHODOLOGY ........... 31 Definition of science fiction....... 31 Universe and sample .................... 34 Comparative d a t a ...................... 38 Coding categories ........................... 39 Nature and results of reliability check . 39 III. ANALYSIS OF P R O T A G O N I S T S ............ 43 S e x ........................................ 44 R a c e .................................... 46 E t h n i c i t y ............................... 47 O c c u p a t i o n ............................. 47 Motivations of major human characters .. 55 Conception of human nature ............... 58 Physical nature of non-human protagonists ............................. 59 Motivations of non-human protagonists .. 61 S u m m a r y .................................. 61 Chapter Page XV. DESCRIPTION OF INSTITUTIONS IN PROJECTED SOCIETIES .................................... 64 Economic systems ........................... 66 Political systems ........................... 71 Nature of e l i t e s ........................... 75 Class structure ............................. 78 Family structure ........................... 80 Formal education ........................... 84 R e l i g i o n .................................... 85 S u m m a r y ................... 90 V. SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN PROJECTED SOCIETIES . 92 The deadly i s s u e ........................... 95 Conflict within societies .................. 98 Economic problems ........................... 102 Health problems ............................. 106 Overpopulation .............. 108 M o r a l i t y .................................... 108 Effects of technology ...................... 108 Technological problems .................... Ill Cultural level ............................. Ill General nature of problems ................ 112 Basic causes of problems .................. 112 Solutions to problems ...................... 113 VI. MAN'S RELATION TO NATURE AND THE UNIVERSE . 120 VII. SCIENCE AND SOCIAL CHANGE: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS ................................. 127 Critique of the study ...................... 127 Summary of d a t a ............................. 12 9 Formal hypotheses ........................... 131 Can science be controlled? ................ 134 Political control of science ............. 134 Control of science by charismatic elites . 136 Scientific control of social problems arising from the uge jaf science and t e c h n o l o g y ............................... 137 Attitudes toward science .................. 137 iv Page Suggestions for future research ........... 13 9 Predictive value of science fiction .... 140 APPENDIX I. SCIENCE FICTION CODE B O O K .................... 143 II. S A M P L E ........................................ 154 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................... 160 v CHAPTER I NATURE OF THE RESEARCH Purpose. The purpose of this study is to contribute to greater understanding of the ways in which science and technology may be related to changes in human social struc ture. "Science11 is defined as "that classified, codified information gained by a method of approach to the acquisi tion of knowledge about the material world which entails a logical structure and a material analog for every element in that structure." Such a definition emphasizes not the content of the information, but rather the way in which it is obtained. The application of science is defined as technology.^- Understanding was sought through analysis of ^For a more comprehensive definition of the scientific method and the relationship of science to technology, the reader is referred to Carlo L. Lastrucci, The Scientific Approach: Basic Principles of the Scientific Method (Cambridge, Mass.: Schenkman Publishing Company, Inc., 1967), pp. 4-51 and 75-102. 1 2 2 the ways m which science fiction literature depicts such changes. That science and technology exert a profound influence has been argued by many sociologists. William F. Ogburn proposed that "material culture," or technology, was the major feature in social change. While disagreeing, per haps, on the way in which science affects social change, Hannah Arendt more recently acknowledged the strategic position of applied science in modern society.^ She wrote: . men everywhere are by no means slow to catch and adjust to scientific discoveries and technical developments . on the con trary, they have outsped them by decades. science has realized and affirmed what men anticipated . what had been buried in the highly non-respectable literature of science fiction (to which, unfortunately, nobody yet has paid the attention it deserves as a ve hicle of mass sentiments and desires).5 detailed description of the term "science fiction" is presented on page 31 of this study. ^Bernard Barber, "The Sociology of Science," Sociology Today, Robert K, Merton, Leonard Broom and Leonard S. Cottrell, Jr., editors (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1959), p. 220. Barber refers to Ogburn's Social Change (Huebsch, 1922). 4Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: Uni versity of Chicago Press, 1958), pp. 248-260. 5Ibid., pp. 2-3. See also related research described on page 7 of this research. 3 Description of the study. For maps to the future, this writer utilized science fiction because by definition such fiction contains a great deal of speculation about the effects of science. The study is an analysis of imaginary future societies which appear in American science fiction novels first published during the period 1945 to 1970 and issued during this period in paperbound editions. The choice of fiction as a source of data was based on two assumptions: first, that "what men believe to be true is true in its consequences;" second, that science fiction, as a vehicle of mass sentiments and desires, is reflective of commonly held values and may be predictive of future behavior. The former assumption was first proposed by W. I. Thomas and is commonly known