Re: [microsound] OT - good essays on science fiction?

["The pHarmanaut" <pharmanaut@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a huge area to dig into. I used to teach Science Fiction at U of
Colorado at Boulder. A good fiction anthology is Eric Rabkin's _Science
Fiction: A Historical Anthology_. He points to early works by Cyrano de
Bergerac (1657), Swift's _Gulliver's Travels_ (1726), and Voltaire, before
the field takes off in the 19th century. A couple of critical books to look
for are Brian Aldiss's _Billion Year Spree: The True History of Science
Fiction_ and _Age of Wonders_ by David Hartwell. Otherwise, most of the
books I'm aware of are going to concentrate on modern and postmodern era SF.

-=trace

> >i'm particularly interested in the ways in
> >which people began to think of the Future as something quite different
> >and distinct than their own present, the compression of time, the
> >acceleration of history, that sort of thing, depending on how one look's
> >at it. there's a lot of stuff dealing with specific works, but nothing
> >in general, about how and why sci-fi came into being... any help or
> >suggestions here would really appreciated!

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