The Body Eclectic: Recent Science-Fiction Studies

Abstract

Thomas D. Clareson, comp. Science Fiction in America, 1870s-1930s: An Annotated Bibliography of Primary Sources. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984.305 + xiv pp. Richard D. Erlich and Thomas P. Dunn, eds. Clockwork Worlds: Mechanized Environments in Science Fiction. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. 369 + xiii pp. Richard D. Erlich and Thomas P. Dunn, eds. The Mechanical God: Machines in Science Fiction. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1982. 284 + xiv pp. David Ketterer, ed. The Science Fiction of Mark Twain. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1984.385 + xxxiii pp. Seth McEvoy. Samuel R. Delany. New York: Ungar, 1984.142 + x pp. Only an academic Rip Van Winkle could be surprised by the degree to which, in the past twenty-five years, science fiction has shoehorned its way into the offerings of most English departments and, simultaneously, into a position of academic respectability. If there are dissenting voices, they are quieter than they used to be, and one may hope that in this more relaxed atmosphere teachers and scholars will continue to ignore the supposed utility of science fiction and to assert its artistic strengths— in other words, to treat it more like "mainstream" fiction. Certainly the flood of bibliographies, indexes, reader's guides and even concordances in recent years suggests that this transformative process is well under way. The five books under review represent something of the range of scholarship and criticism which has changed science fiction from one of the cottage industries of the academic world into a major literary corporation. One of these books is a guide to materials in one section of the field, two are thematically-arranged collections of critical essays, one is a compendium of primary material, and one is a critique.