stormsewer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stormsewer) wrote2013-10-14 02:29 am
stormsewer) wrote2013-10-14 02:29 am
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Golden Age Thinking OR Did Science Fiction Used to Be Optimistic?
Sometimes people whine about the good ol' days when science fiction was optimistic and why can't it be like that now? Here are some examples of many.
Well, you know what? I'm not sure it was ever that optimistic. I mean, what's often cited as the most famous short story of "golden age" science fiction? "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov. Seriously, have you read this? It will punch your soul in the face and then spit in its ear.
Okay, okay, that's just one example. Surely most science fiction from that halcyon era (the era of fascists liquidating people by the millions, of quivering fingers gently caressing the red buttons of the apocalypse) must have been Zoloft in print, right?
Well, let's do a little survey. In 1970 SFWA got together and decided on the best short SF stories from 1929 to 1964, and published it as The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Surely this "best of the best" collection should be a fair representation of the attitudes of the time, yes? Well, let's take a look at those stories, then, and make a judgment call as to whether or not they are optimistic.
"A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley Weinbaum. I'll grant this was optimistic for the time, but it sure does make a modern reader a bit queasy.
"Twilight" by John Campbell. Like a more boring, more depressing version of Wells's The Time Machine.
"Helen O'Loy" by Lester Del Rey. This one is kind of borderline, but we'll count it for the optimists just to avoid the appearance of bias, okay?
"The Roads Must Roll" by Robert Heinlein. Okay, fine, optimistic.
"Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon. You definitely don't get this one, optimists.
"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov. Yeah right; see above.
"The Weapon Shop" by A. E. van Vogt. I guess the author probably thought it was optimistic.
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett. No, I don't think so.
"Huddling Place" by Clifford Simak. Does that title suggest optimism to you?
"Arena" by Frederic Brown. Another that's debatable. There is a "triumph of the human spirit" aspect to it, but I think I'll have to call this one for the depressing side, given the "we are all at the mercy of powers we can't begin to comprehend" nature of the whole thing.
"First Contact" by Murray Leinster. Optimistic, though I'm not sure it deserves to be. "Hey, we just happened to have these universal translators lying around at first contact, how convenient."
"That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril. This is the kind of story that makes you hope the future never comes.
"Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith. Also borderline. What the heck, we'll call it optimistic.
"Mars is Heaven!" by Ray Bradbury. Hint: the title is ironic.
"The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth. Ha. No.
"Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson. I'm not sure what this one is all about, but what it isn't about is anything nice.
"Coming Attraction" by Fritz Leiber. This is punk before punk was a sparkle in Johnny Rotten's daddy's eye.
"The Quest for Saint Aquin" by Anthony Boucher. Also borderline. Here, let me flip a coin. Heads it's optimistic, tails it's pessimistic. (Well, really, I'm going type "import random; random.randint(0,1)" in Python and call it optimistic if it's 1 and pessimistic if it's 0.) Optimistic. Fine.
"Surface Tension" by James Blish. Okay, yay progress, yay knowledge. Optimistic.
"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. No sir.
"It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby. The Twilight Zone version of this, from the 1980s movie, gave me nightmares as a kid.
"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. Whoa. Brutal.
"Fondly Fahrenheit" by Alfred Bester. Ah yes, the one about the homicidal android.
"The Country of the Kind" by Damon Knight. What if we just let psychopaths do whatever they wanted? Doesn't that sound nice?
"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. This one sometimes gets mistaken for actual literature, so you know it's depressing as a Britney Spears comeback tour.
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" by Roger Zelazny. Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the Bible, because it is the most relentlessly bleak.
Okay then, let's count.
Optimistic stories: 8
Pessimistic stories: 18
So that's it, it's the pessimists by a landslide.
Sucks to be you, optimists!
Well, you know what? I'm not sure it was ever that optimistic. I mean, what's often cited as the most famous short story of "golden age" science fiction? "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov. Seriously, have you read this? It will punch your soul in the face and then spit in its ear.
Okay, okay, that's just one example. Surely most science fiction from that halcyon era (the era of fascists liquidating people by the millions, of quivering fingers gently caressing the red buttons of the apocalypse) must have been Zoloft in print, right?
Well, let's do a little survey. In 1970 SFWA got together and decided on the best short SF stories from 1929 to 1964, and published it as The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Surely this "best of the best" collection should be a fair representation of the attitudes of the time, yes? Well, let's take a look at those stories, then, and make a judgment call as to whether or not they are optimistic.
"A Martian Odyssey" by Stanley Weinbaum. I'll grant this was optimistic for the time, but it sure does make a modern reader a bit queasy.
"Twilight" by John Campbell. Like a more boring, more depressing version of Wells's The Time Machine.
"Helen O'Loy" by Lester Del Rey. This one is kind of borderline, but we'll count it for the optimists just to avoid the appearance of bias, okay?
"The Roads Must Roll" by Robert Heinlein. Okay, fine, optimistic.
"Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon. You definitely don't get this one, optimists.
"Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov. Yeah right; see above.
"The Weapon Shop" by A. E. van Vogt. I guess the author probably thought it was optimistic.
"Mimsy Were the Borogoves" by Lewis Padgett. No, I don't think so.
"Huddling Place" by Clifford Simak. Does that title suggest optimism to you?
"Arena" by Frederic Brown. Another that's debatable. There is a "triumph of the human spirit" aspect to it, but I think I'll have to call this one for the depressing side, given the "we are all at the mercy of powers we can't begin to comprehend" nature of the whole thing.
"First Contact" by Murray Leinster. Optimistic, though I'm not sure it deserves to be. "Hey, we just happened to have these universal translators lying around at first contact, how convenient."
"That Only a Mother" by Judith Merril. This is the kind of story that makes you hope the future never comes.
"Scanners Live in Vain" by Cordwainer Smith. Also borderline. What the heck, we'll call it optimistic.
"Mars is Heaven!" by Ray Bradbury. Hint: the title is ironic.
"The Little Black Bag" by C. M. Kornbluth. Ha. No.
"Born of Man and Woman" by Richard Matheson. I'm not sure what this one is all about, but what it isn't about is anything nice.
"Coming Attraction" by Fritz Leiber. This is punk before punk was a sparkle in Johnny Rotten's daddy's eye.
"The Quest for Saint Aquin" by Anthony Boucher. Also borderline. Here, let me flip a coin. Heads it's optimistic, tails it's pessimistic. (Well, really, I'm going type "import random; random.randint(0,1)" in Python and call it optimistic if it's 1 and pessimistic if it's 0.) Optimistic. Fine.
"Surface Tension" by James Blish. Okay, yay progress, yay knowledge. Optimistic.
"The Nine Billion Names of God" by Arthur C. Clarke. No sir.
"It's a Good Life" by Jerome Bixby. The Twilight Zone version of this, from the 1980s movie, gave me nightmares as a kid.
"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin. Whoa. Brutal.
"Fondly Fahrenheit" by Alfred Bester. Ah yes, the one about the homicidal android.
"The Country of the Kind" by Damon Knight. What if we just let psychopaths do whatever they wanted? Doesn't that sound nice?
"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. This one sometimes gets mistaken for actual literature, so you know it's depressing as a Britney Spears comeback tour.
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes" by Roger Zelazny. Ecclesiastes is my favorite book in the Bible, because it is the most relentlessly bleak.
Okay then, let's count.
Optimistic stories: 8
Pessimistic stories: 18
So that's it, it's the pessimists by a landslide.
Sucks to be you, optimists!