Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction - Softcover

Hartwell, David G.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076539331X ISBN 13: 9780765393319

Verlag: Tor Trade, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

Age of Wonders: Exploring the World of Science Fiction gives an insider's view of the strange and wonderful world of science fiction, by one of the most respected editors in the field, David G. Hartwell (1941-2016).

David G. Hartwell edited science fiction and fantasy for over twenty years. In that time, he worked with acclaimed and popular writers such as Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Frank Herbert, Roger Zelazny, Robert Silverberg, Gene Wolfe, Nancy Kress, L.E. Modesitt, Terry Bisson, Lisa Goldstein, and Philip Jose Farmer, and discovered hot new talents like Kathleen Ann Goonan and Patrick O'Leary. Now in Age of Wonder, Hartwell describes the field he loved, worked in, and shaped as editor, critic, and anthologist.

Like those other American art forms, jazz, comics, and rock 'n' roll, science fiction is the product of a rich and fascinating subculture. Age of Wonder is a fascinating tour of the origins, history, and culture of the science fiction world, written with insight and genuine affection for this wonder-filled literature, and addressed to newcomers and longtime SF readers alike.

Age of Wonder remains "the landmark work" Roger Zelazny called the first edition. The book contains sections that offer advice on teaching courses in science fiction, disquisitions on the controversial subgenre of hard SF, and practical explanations of the economics of publishing science fiction and fantasy. Age of Wonder still lives up to Hugo and Nebula Award winner Vonda McIntyre's description: "An entertaining and provocative book that will inspire discussion and argument for years to come."

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

David G. Hartwell, called "an editor extraordinaire" by Publishers Weekly, is one of science fiction's most experienced and influential editors. As an editor with Berkley Books, Pocket Books, William Morrow, and Tor Books, he has worked with many of the field's best authors and edited many award-winning works. He is the author of Age of Wonders, a nonfiction study of the science fiction field. Among his many anthologies are the bestselling World Treasury of Science Fiction and the World Fantasy Award winner The Dark Descent. He is the holder of a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia University, a winner of the Eaton Award, and has won three Hugo Awards for his editorial work.

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Age of Wonders

Exploring the World of Science Fiction

By David G. Hartwell

Tom Doherty Associates

Copyright © 1984 David G. Hartwell
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7653-9331-9

Contents

Title Page, 
Copyright Notice, 
Dedication, 
Acknowledgments, 
I: The Source and Power of SF's Appeal, 
1. "The Golden Age of Science Fiction is Twelve", 
2. "I Have a Cosmic Mind. Now What Do I Do?", 
3. Worshipping at the Church of Wonder, 
II: Exploring the Worlds of Science Fiction, 
4. Running Away from the Real World, 
5. When It Comes True, It's No Fun Anymore, 
6. Where Do You Get Those Crazy Ideas?, 
III: Writers, Fans, Critics, 
7. Why "Science Fiction" Is the Wrong and Only Name for It, 
8. Science Fiction Writers Can't Write for Sour Apples, 
9. New Wave: The Great War of the 1960s, 
10. Fandom, 
IV: The Future of SF, 
11. "Let's Get SF Back in the Gutter Where it Belongs", 
12. Crawling Home from the Future, 
Select Bibliography, 
Select Glossary of Fan Language, 
Appendices, 
I. Sixty Books Important to the Development of SF, Published Before the Name Was Invented, 
II. The Best 105 SF Books Since the Invention of the Field in the Twenties, 
III. Teaching SF, 
IV. Understanding Hard SF, 
V. Dollars and Dragons: The Truth About Fantasy, 
VI. Editing the Science Fiction Novel, 
Tor Books by David G. Hartwell, 
About the Author, 
Copyright, 

CHAPTER 1

"THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION IS TWELVE"

— Peter Graham

Immersed in science fiction. Bathing in it, drowning in it; for the adolescent who leans this way it can be better than sex. More accessible, more compelling. And the outsider can only wonder, What's the matter with him? What is he into, what's the attraction, why is it so intense?

Grown men and women, sixty years old, twenty-five years old, sit around and talk about "the golden age of science fiction," remembering when every story in every magazine was a masterwork of daring, original thought. Some say the golden age was circa 1928; some say 1939; some favor 1953, or 1970, or 1984. The arguments rage till the small of the morning, and nothing is ever resolved.

Because the real golden age of science fiction is twelve.

This is a book about the science fiction field and that body of contemporary writing known as science fiction, or SF. Over the years there have been a number of books on the writing the field has produced, its artwork and illustration, histories, memoirs, even books devoted to the amateur publications of the fans. But no general attempt to describe both the literature and the specific subculture out of which the literature flows has ever been presented to the world at large. Donald A. Wollheim, in The Universe Makers, and Lester del Rey, in The World of Science Fiction 1926–1976, come closer than any others and you might try them, though both are dated. Damon Knight's The Futurians gives some perspective on the SF world as it grew up and on one particularly influential circle (and is full of great gossip). Theodore Cogswell's P.I.T.F.C .S. captures another moment. Various autobiographies such as Samuel R. Delany's The Motion of Light in Water, Frederik Pohl's The Way the Future Was, and Jack Williamson's Wonder's Child present other pieces of the puzzle. But never one book for the whole.

For one thing, the world at large, especially all who do not read and do not wish to read SF, couldn't have cared less. "Everyone" knows that science fiction is not serious literature and that since the word "science" occurs in the name you wouldn't be interested or able to understand if you did try to read it — so why try?

Despite the fact that twelve-year-olds who read it understand it perfectly, and that millions of readers over the years have found it great fun (it is supposed to be fun), the majority of educated readers in the English-speaking world spurn SF without reading it or knowing any more about it than what "everyone" knows. Well, this book is not an attempt to convert anyone (although later on I do recommend some SF for people who have not read in the field before). What I do intend is to offer a book that informs you about an amusing and significant phenomenon that reaches into every home and family in the country and influences the way we all see the world around us.

This is an outsider's guidebook and road map through the world of science fiction, pointing out the historical monuments, backyard follies, highways, and back streets of the SF community — a tour of main events and sideshows, and a running commentary on why the SF world is the way it is. I hope it will be particularly useful for the casually curious, the neophyte reader, and of course the person who knows people in SF and wonders why they are that way. Is your child threatened by this strange stuff, or by the companionship of lovers of science fiction? Does SF rot the mind and ruin the character? Just how wild and crazy are those SF people, and what do they really do, where do they come from, why do they stay in the SF world? This tour, if successful, should take you not only through the nooks and crannies of the SF world, but into some unsuspected aspects of the everyday world as well.

* * *

Written science fiction, like cooking, mathematics, or rock'n'roll, is a whole bunch of things that some people can understand or do and some not. We all know people who love cooking, math, or rock (perhaps all three), and others who can hardly boil water, add two plus two, or distinguish music from noise. Your present tour guide stopped trying to convert people to instant appreciation of science fiction years ago when he finally understood that most new readers have to go through a process of SF education and familiarization before they can love it. Just because someone can read does not mean that he necessarily can read SF, just as the ability to write Arabic numerals and add and subtract doesn't mean you necessarily can or want to perform long division.

So I have set out to describe science fiction without assuming that you have read any or would even know what to do if you were faced with the text of an SF story. I will discuss as clearly as possible all the barriers you might have against understanding SF and all the barriers that SF has erected to keep from being understood by outsiders — for like the world of the circus and the carny, the SF world only wants insiders behind the scenes. And more, the SF world does not want an audience (such as the "mass audience") who won't take the time to learn the rules and conventions of the game. SF is special within its community, which has built complex fortifications and groundworks surrounding its treasures; and for most people, the rewards of reading SF or being an SF-type person are worthless or pernicious or even a bit scary. To one who is comfortable and has adjusted to the compromises of our culture, being or becoming something of an outsider has no advantages.

Wait for a moment though, before you make up your mind that you don't really have to become acquainted with what is going on in this other reality. The underground world of SF interpenetrates with your daily world so thoroughly in so many ways that finding out what those relatively few people who live in the SF world are like may let you understand a lot more about how your own world operates. Besides, as Thomas Pynchon so amusingly posited in...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Tor Trade
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 076539331X
• ISBN 13: 9780765393319
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 320
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: PILOT CORPORATION OF EUROPE; https://www.pilotpen.de/; ; PAE DE LA CAILLE; ALLONZIER LA CAILLE; Frankreich