Science Fiction Author Research Articles

The Strange Career of a Black Utopia Ethiopia, The Land of Promise. A Book with a Purpose, by Charles Henry Holmes (aka Clayton Adams)

This essay presents archival information about Charles H. Holmes and argues that his understudied novel, Ethiopia, The Land of Promise (1917), represents an important chapter in the history of Afrofuturism and American speculative fiction. The literary critical relevance of Ethiopia emerges forcefully from Holmes’s intertextual dialogue with other utopian and science fiction authors, such as Martin R. Delany, Sutton E. Griggs, Pauline E. Hopkins, Frances E.W. Harper, Edward Bellamy, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Holmes’s critique of Jim Crow segregation enables the articulation of a “distinctly revolutionary” project for African American futurity.

Understanding a Future Yet to Take Shape

An issue on narrating shared futures (‘How will we live together?’) implies being able to conceive of a mutual and shared experience. The history of shared heritages often contains other figures in the margins: those who were not seen as part of the dominant cultural narrative, or whose contribution to its heritage went unacknowledged. The holistic view of the 2018 Davos declaration on Baukultur embraces a more integral view of the built environment and society. In order to explore some of the cultural narratives that shape our past and envision a shared future, this article takes a closer look at three science fiction authors and how their stories draw lessons from the past into a narration of possible futures. Ursula K. Le Guin, Octavia Butler and Margaret Atwood have each envisioned futures that draw from contemporary developments and expand them to an overarching logic as the setting of their tales. Rather than directly examining (un)built heritages, this article examines the underlying cultural logic of building on the past. If architecture provides a foundation for a shared (and inclusive) future, the stories constructed by these authors show how the built environment resonates with societal principles, aiding or hindering particular collective values.

Phillip K. Dick: A Psychotic Prophet?

The clinical potential of creativity research remains largely unexplored. Philip K. Dick’s deeply personal writings, particularly his journal following a psychotic episode, provide a rare insight into the neuropsychological processes that drive creativity. His unique blend of psychological depth and philosophical science fiction has profoundly impacted literature and popular culture, securing his place as one of the leading science fiction authors of the 20th century. Drawing on his own experiences with mental illness, Dick delved into themes like ontological insecurity, psychosis, dissociation, and drug addiction. Considerable research has explored the connection between madness and creativity. Building on this, the essay will apply clinical nosology to diagnose Dick as a case study, aiming to uncover how his psychopathology influenced his life and creative output. The second part will review recent research on creativity, focusing on factors that enhance our understanding of the roots of his genius. Progressing the neuropsychology of creativity holds significant clinical, social, and economic promise

Cinematic Science Fiction, Indigenous Mythology, and Multispecies Entanglement: An Ecological Reading of The Mermaid (2016)

Abstract In a time of anxiety about environmental annihilation and human extinction, many literary science fiction (sf) authors from the Sinophone area have explored and expressed their ecological concerns through depicting a devastated environment populated by supernatural beings. This article traces a similar trend in cinematic sf by analyzing the 2016 film The Mermaid (Meirenyu 美人鱼), a science-fictional fairy tale written and co-produced by Stephen Chow 周星驰. The choice of merfolk, half-human half-fish creatures employed in the movie, differs, but not completely, from Han Song’s 韩松 portrayal of “aquatic humans” (shuiqiren 水栖人) in his 2004 novel Red Ocean (Hongse haiyang 红色海洋). I believe that the marine humans present in both works, reminiscent of supernatural figures belonging to Chinese and global mythology that embody a harmonious relationship between humans and nature, can be read as an attempt to decolonize science fiction, via a symbolic display of multispecies entanglement.

From the United States (via the Soviet Union) to Hungary

Isaac Asimov was the favourite American science-fiction author in the Kádár era due to extraliterary reasons, many of his works were therefore translated when science fiction, a previously prohibited popular genre was introduced to the Hungarian public. This paper analyses the first two Hungarian translations, that of a short story entitled ‘Victory Unintentional’ and that of a collection of short stories entitled I Robot. Both indirect and direct translations exhibit multiple traces of censorship and revision, significantly changing the structure, atmosphere and message of the original works. The paper also calls attention to the need to gather information about the literary translators of the Kádár era as long as some of them are still alive, make use of oral history.

Revisiting Predictions about the Future of Human Life in 20th Century American Sci-Fis

Predictions and illustrations of life in the future are often integrated in works of science fiction, which could not be immediately proven yet possibly fascinating when looked back on several decades later or at the times predicted in the works. Science fiction authors foretell such events by borrowing theories, concepts, or simply terms used by scientists. Those theories, concepts, and terms can be written in scientific journals or in more popular media. American science fiction works, for instance, illustrate the future by their adaptation in the forms of more popular media such as movies, video games, and the works categorized as the subgenres of cyber literature. All of them are discussed in this paper from the lens of New Historicism, which believes in equality between literary and non-literary texts in viewing phenomena that exist in society, one of which is the relationship between science fiction works, their writers, their readers, and society. Technology is seen as a product of society, so it becomes broadly part of culture. Meanwhile, emerging technology is sometimes coincidental and random, so it can also be seen that technology determines people’s movements and lifestyles. This study contributes to ongoing discussions on the ethical and societal implications of speculative narratives by highlighting the interconnectedness between literature, science, technology, and society.

Nowy człowiek, wersja 2.0 (na podstawie wybranych utworów prozy rosyjskiej i ukraińskiej)

The aim of this article is to explore the future human’s place, role, and status. The analysis draws on selected works of prominent modern Russian and Ukrainian writers, including science fiction authors such as Anna Starobinets, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Vladimir Sorokin, Viktor Pelevin, Boris Akunin, and Max Kidruk. The analysis concludes that amidst rapid scientific advancement, humanity may achieve potential immortality, but paradoxically, it could lose its dominant position in the world. In the post-anthropocentric era, challenges will emerge concerning human interactions with robots, androids, avatars, cyborgs, and bots, necessitating ‘negotiations’ with these entities, now perceived as full-fledged members of society.

The Patent Law Origins of Science Fiction

This Article reveals the surprising role of patent law in shaping the literary genre of science fiction. Drawing on previously unpublished sources, the Article shows that Hugo Gernsback— the so-called “father” of science fiction who started the first all-science-fiction magazine in 1926—believed that works of science fiction are analogous to patents. Like patents, science fiction stories can disclose useful information to the public about new inventions. Like patents, science fiction stories can influence future inventors and drive innovation. Gernsback went even further, positing that some of the inventions depicted in science fiction should themselves be patentable. In 1952, he urged Congress to reform the Patent Act to make so-called “Provisional Patents” available to science fiction authors who depicted major technological developments before their time. He argued that science fiction authors who filed for Provisional Patents should get an extra thirty years in which to show their invention worked. If they could do so, they would thereafter be able to obtain an ordinary patent, to last another twenty years. Many will find Gernsback’s proposal deeply problematic from the perspective of patent policy, and rightly so. Granting patent rights too early in an invention’s lifecycle creates new and unjustified opportunities to hold up innovation. A science fiction author who obtained a Provisional Patent for a theoretical invention could crawl out of the woodwork half a century later and sue the very people who figured out how to make the invention work. Gernsback’s ideas for patent reform were half-baked and, the Article shows, probably self-serving. Nonetheless, exploring the connection he cultivated between patents and science fiction yields many surprising insights for science fiction and for innovation policy. Science fiction has more in common with patents than it might seem. Although science fiction does not typically impart enough information to “enable” others to make and use the inventions it describes, science fiction can inspire readers and supply them with a motivation—in Gernsback’s words, a “stimulus”—to implement science fictional inventions in the real world. Science fiction, like patents, can play a role in promoting innovation.

Trauma care in the metaverse

Trauma care represents a complex interaction between humans and technology. Historically advancement in trauma care is linked to advancement in technology: it may be improvements in communication, transportation, imaging, etc. On the other hand, advancement in technologies leads to new challenges in trauma care. Using computers in health care is not a new phenomenon. Whatever the advancement in information and communication technology, one of the first applications of technology is in the field of health care. The fourth industrial revolution is changing the lives of people as never before. The Metaverse comprises of technologies of industry 4.0 such as artificial intelligence (AI), AR, VR, telepresence, digital twinning, and block chain, etc. According to broader definitions, the metaverse represents a futuristic virtual world in 3D. Virtual reality is a network of interconnected virtual worlds that can be managed independently. Metaverses, therefore, consist of a multitude of digital universes rather than a single virtual world (1). The science-fiction author Neal Stephenson coined the term metaverse in his novel Snow Crash (1992), in which characters enjoy themselves as digital avatars in the “Metaverse” as an escape from the grim realities of the real world.

Educational futures and social justice

This paper considers educational futures from the perspective of social justice. It takes as its framework futures studies, which looks at what is probable (what is likely to happen), what is possible (what could happen), and what is preferable (what we would like to see/make happen). It also makes the case for science fiction as a method of inquiry, arguing that science fiction is a useful method for determining what we think we might (or might not) want futures to look like, as well as where we think we are now. Science fiction, the paper argues, is as much about our anxieties about the present and where we might be headed as it is about any sort of futures we may ultimately arrive at. The paper draws from the works of well-known science fiction authors of color (WEB DuBois, Octavia Butler, NK Jemisin) as well as from lesser-known science fiction authors writing from American Indian, Latino/a/X, and LGBTQIA + communities. In so doing, the paper explores how science fiction has infiltrated the social imagination and how it leads to paths both dystopian (à la Elon Musk) and liberating (such as Afrofuturism). It concludes with examples of the probable, the possible, and the preferable in educational futures, drawing from contemporary science fiction stories centered on social justice.

Жанровые особенности антиутопического научно-фантастического романа Пьера Буля «Планета обезьян»: коммуникативный аспект

The enduring popularity of 20th century science fiction authors among readers of all age categories has been noted in numerous works of literary scholars. An extremely important aspect is the fact that the author and the reader must have a common language in order for communication to be effective. The relevance of the study is due to the growing interest in the problem of interpreting the genre of science fiction works. The aim of this study is to try to trace the synthesis of genre forms from the point of view of communicativism and the theories of C. Darwin and T. de Chardin in the novel "Planet of the Apes" by the famous French fiction writer Pierre Boulle. Darwin and T. de Chardin in the novel "Planet of the Apes" by the famous French fiction writer Pierre BoulleIn the course of the study, the methods of contextual literary analysis, cognitive-discourse analysis, as well as stylistic and genre analysis were applied. As a result of the study, the conclusions were obtained that the novel "Planet of the Apes" by P. Boulle combines elements of the genre of science fiction novel, philosophical parable, utopia and dystopia. The novel is a satirical work, touching upon the themes of scientific progress, communication, evolution and human society, which are topical at present. The author, when creating a work, follows literary conventions or deliberately goes against them, creating something innovative. The genre of science fiction has been and remains a synthetic genre, incorporating elements of various genres, which intricately intertwined, enter into communication with the reader, helping him to create fictional worlds. Scientific novelty of the research consists in the fact that for the first time in Russia the study of genre originality of P. Boulle's work in the aspect of communication with the reader is undertaken. The article may be useful for literary scholars, postgraduates, students and all those interested in the problems of genre synthesis in modern science fiction.

Science fiction for hire? Notes towards an emerging practice of creative futurism

This article introduces the term creative futurism to distinguish a type of speculative writing from traditional creative writing practices, specifically those of science fiction. Creative futurism is not a clearly defined field or method of practice but rather a loose array of approaches, examples and contexts, often involving collaborations between writers and stakeholders from other fields. We define it as work which is futures-oriented, uses elements of the traditional creative writing skillset, but is constrained by an additional set of parameters (their purpose, context and requirements). To support this definition, science fiction author Joanne Anderton discusses her experience writing creative, near-future scenarios about the deployment of drones for Trusted Autonomous Systems (a kind of creative futurism in practice). She outlines how she and her stakeholders conceptualised the writing and how she applied traditional creative writing skills within this context. Building upon this, author and critic Kathleen Jennings identifies aesthetic features of traditionally published examples of creative futurism: its heightened focus on technology, its realist-rationalist tone, and the resulting subordination of other aspects of craft such as characterisation. We conclude by discussing aspects of writing practice that might be applied in the future to energise this new form of writing.

Translation and architecturally odd invented languages in science fiction

ABSTRACT Almost all invented languages in science fiction have the same architecture as spoken human natural languages. The article discusses six exceptions: languages which appear to be unusable because of the way they handle figures of speech; speech or writing directly connected to thought; speech that is not linear; writing that is not linear and not a representation of speech; lexicon, syntax and writing but no speech; and impoverished languages. If these odd invented languages existed outside fiction, they would be untranslatable into a human natural language in much the same sense that pictures, or communications to us by non-human animals on Earth, are describable but interlingually untranslatable. The translations provided by science fiction authors to enable their plots to advance are better seen as intersemiotic renderings. The article concludes with some similarities between translation studies and science fiction studies and the benefits of considering architecturally odd languages.

Sad Puppies and SJWs: Symbolic Revolution and Challenges to Field Orthodoxy in the Struggle for Control of Science Fiction’s Hugo Awards

ABSTRACT In 2013 a group of science fiction authors launched a campaign to reform the Hugos, one of science fiction’s most prestigious awards. Dubbing themselves “Sad Puppies,” these activists sought to correct what they viewed as a political imbalance. Science fiction, they argued, had moved away from entertaining story telling in favor of heavy-handed message fiction meant to spread pernicious liberal values. This article draws on an analysis of internet posts by actors involved in the movement to examine the Puppies’ efforts to reform the science fiction field, reclaiming it as a space for conservative authors and fans. I argue that the leaders of the movement were able to build small fan communities into a larger social movement by framing the movement in such a way as to link their efforts to exogenous political and cultural debates occurring in proximate social fields. This analysis demonstrates the processes by which tournament rituals in popular culture can come to serve as contests of values, arenas within which larger political and cultural conflicts are waged.

BEYOND DICHOTOMY WITH TAOIST VISIONIN LE GUIN’S THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS

The research set out to shed light on balancing awareness, a key Taoist concept that forms the basis of American science fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin's creative works. The balance in Le Guin's work represented the peaceful coexistence of conflicting forces. Le Guin applied Taoist ideas, such as the interdependence of two opposites and non-interference, to convey her concept of balance. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, published in 1969, served as the primary text for this qualitative study. In The Left Hand of Darkness, the concept of balance was built on transcending the binary split and forging peaceful connections between I and the Other. To reflect her Taoist understanding of the relationship between I and the Other, Le Guin created an androgynous universe in The Left Hand of Darkness and employed the concept of a journey to the alien territory. The results demonstrated that in Le Guin's make-believe world, the protagonists from two different cultural backgrounds completed their trip by bridging the mental division and acquiring Taoist wisdom. The Yin-Yang emblem and the reading of the ancient poem served as metaphors for the peaceful coexistence of dualistic opposites. By transcending dualistic opposites and recognizing a connection between I and the other, Le Guin's worldview, which drew inspiration from Taoism, achieved holistic success.

Restarting Civilisation

With the recent popularity of shows such as The Walking Dead and The Last of Us, our resident science fiction author, Gareth L. Powell, asks what roles there will be for engineers in such a strange and dangerous new world.

Designing a Flying Saucer

With ‘UFOs’ grabbing the headlines in recent weeks, science fiction author Gareth L Powell speculates on the potential engineering challenges of safely visiting an inhabited alien wold

Alexander Kazantsev vs Alexander Zinovev: Two Intentions in the Views on Soviet Society

The analysis of the views and concepts of A. Zinoviev and A. Kazantsev reveals a number of similarities and common points in their opinions on the key issues of civilizational development. Both thinkers researched the problem of the optimal path of political and ideological development for humanity. The key issue they raised was the essence of the social opposition “collectivism – individualism”. A.A. Zinoviev introduced the sociological concepts of the simple communal individual and complex communal individuals, thus comparing the state with the cellular structure of an organism. A similar view of “social cytology” was demonstrated by the science fi ction author A. Kazantsev. Collectivism was the basis of social justice for both of them. One of the key ideas in the books of A. Zinoviev and A. Kazantsev was the clash between West and East. Both thinkers tried to describe a comprehensive project of the future civilization. The futuristic vision of A. Kazantsev was based on the combination of humanism,technology and communism, while A. Zinoviev denied technocracy as an element of an effi cient society, but recognized the role of maintaining communalism and social justice.

Journeys through the Past and to the Future: V. A. Obruchev and Popular Enlightenment in the Natural Sciences, 1886–1956

Abstract This essay examines the life and career of famed Russian geologist, geographer, and academician of the Soviet Academy of Sciences V. A. Obruchev. By emphasizing Obruchev’s commitment to popular enlightenment within and beyond his scientific disciplines, a clearer portrait of Obruchev’s lasting influence in Soviet science and literature emerges. Over the course of his career, Obruchev devised an original model of public science, one that renegotiated the traditional boundaries between science fiction, popular science, and academic discourse. As a result, Obruchev’s scientific research granted form and function to his popular fiction and his fiction, in turn, provided a space to explore the possibilities of scientific hypotheses and promote the active research of the scientific phenomena Obruchev considered significant. By the time of Obruchev’s death in 1956, other natural scientists, especially geoscientists, and science fiction authors had coopted Obruchev’s approach to popular enlightenment, cementing his legacy.

Game Forms of the Possible: A Personal Obituary of Leonardo Contributor and Co-Founder of Computer Art Herbert W. Franke, 1927–2022

Abstract Is it possible to be a puppeteer and a computer scientist, a speleologist and a science fiction author, in one person, and have all that interconnected somehow? There stood Herbert W. Franke, born in Vienna in 1927 and by now 95 years old, smiling at the exhibition of his computer-designed graphics, amused by the great response they generated. He died in July 2022, only a few weeks later. He was the young-at-heart dinosaur of computer art, born to a professor of electrical engineering, whom he followed faithfully with a dissertation on electron optics. The subtle difference that distinguished the young scientist from his colleagues was his aesthetic curiosity. He had access to the emerging first generation of computers in the laboratories of Siemens, and used it. While informal, gestural abstraction dominated artists’ studios in the 1950s, Franke was thinking of an art that could be scientifically grounded. In conversation he conveyed to me, “Aesthetic structures are those that optimize the processes of perception.”